Xinye's view

I decided after being idle a couple of days that I would clean that area as it truly was very pretty. I figured it was the least I could do since I knew what the "Ghost" was. The maids would often throw their hands up in the air and shriek before running away.

"Please give me cleaning tools," I requested of them, "I want to be able to enjoy the garden in a clean space."

They did not understand my language, but somehow, they understood my mime and gave me a broom, bucket and rag. It took forever, but I eventually managed to clean it. I fell asleep in the sun from exhaustion. 

Each meal time I would go and eat the meals provided to me, I would bend my head in thanks and eat the meal provided. I found the meals bitter and horrible to the taste, but I still smiled my thanks. 

I headed out to the garden area I loved to be in and sat down under the tree with the intention of weeding. Instead, I was feeling sleepy, so I leant back against the tree and fell asleep.

For once, I was not snoring. I must have looked dead as one of the maids came nearby and said loud enough for me to hear, "It looks like the poison has finally killed her. I have never met anyone with such a high tolerance for poison. With the amount she has ingested, she should be dead 50 times over."

I woke up and looked at the girl, "What do you mean I should be dead 50 times over?"

"AIYA!!!" she shrieked and ran away to the person who instructed her to give me the poison, "Is this person a Goddess perhaps? I am scared, she knows I have been giving her poison!"

No, I did not follow her, she was simply shrieking that loudly.

"What do you mean by that?" a voice replied.

"Perhaps we should be honoring her - I have given her so much nightshade and belladonna and she is still upright and sane," the voice sounded confused, "Aiya! I do not know what to do!"

"How much have you given her?" the voice said, "Perhaps you have given to little."

"I have done this before you know!" the girl said, "I have given her enough to kill her 50 times over."

"Well, then, perhaps you have given her the wrong herb," The voice continued.

"I take offense at that, but if you think you can kill her, be my guest," the maid said.

I sat surprised, "When was I given poison? I did not taste anything strange. Maybe it is like it says in the New Testament, in Mark 'They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover.' Maybe this is happening for a reason. Well, Lord, if that is the case, I will trust you."

I gave it no further thought, but I noticed over the next few days I started to get more and more odd and fearful looks. I found though my stomach could no longer handle the bitter food they gave me and so I bought a bucket with me to vomit into, rather than vomiting all over the food, which had been the feeling building in me ever since I had overheard the 2 maids talking. 

I was thankful for my forethought as soon as the bitterness touched my tongue I vomited. Thankfully they had done nothing to the rice, just the vegetables they had cooked. As no-one else ate them apart from me, no-one else was effected. So my diet became plain rice for a few days. About the third day, the rice tasted funny, and I managed only one mouthful before vomiting. The person who shared the rice with me excused themselves and I found out later passed away in their room from coughing up blood. The rice tasted normal after that. 

I was there a week when Xin returned with Maelgwyn and several beat up troops. They looked like gun wounds. 

"What happened Xin?" I asked as I hurried out to see the injured men.

"They had cannons Mum, well that is what Maelgwyn called them," Maelgwyn answered, "They wiped out most of our troops gathered there. Xin rescued these and brought them back for you to heal. Do you think you can?"

I looked at them all and doubted that I could do anything much except clean the wounds and pray for them. I shook my head, "I do not think so, these wounds look beyond what I can heal, but we can at least clean them and pray."

Maelgwyn nodded, "Ok Mum, do what you must." and he moved the men off the truck and into a room for me to do my thing. Xin helped move the men as it was a 2 person job moving one person.

As I was cleaning the men's wounds Xin's mother came in and looked at them, "Why are you bothering to do this?" she asked me, "It's not like they will live, now is it?"

"It is not for me to say," I replied, knowing she would not understand me, "It is up to their will and my God whether or not they live or die. I have no say in it, except to make them as comfortable as possible." and I continued on in my work.

Each person I cleaned and cried over to my God, "God, if you are willing, please heal them in Jesus name." and moved onto the next case. Little did I realise then, but God had answered my prayer, the people I had cleaned and prayed for  fell into a deep sleep and awoke fully healed.

When I finished dressing and cleaning everyone's wounds I headed to Xin and my room and collapsed on our bed, falling asleep almost instantly, "Thank you God for being with me and that you kept both Xin and Maelgwyn safe." was the last thing I uttered. I slept for 32 hours, nothing could wake me.

When I awoke I found Xin beside me holding my hand in a worried fashion. His eyes were closed and his face was resting on the platform next to mine. I rolled over and gently moved the hair off his face and shook him gently, "Xin. Xin."

He stirred then, and he must have recognised my voice as he sat bolt upright for a second before hugging me tightly, "Xinye! You're awake! Oh, I am so glad you are awake! I thought I had lost you, I never prayed so hard in my life."

"Why? I was just sleeping," I was confused as to why he was being like this, "Isn't it morning?"

"No, Xinye," he shook his head, "Its the next morning after you collapsed. I was not sure you would live as I overheard one of the servants saying 'about time she died, I was beginning to worry how we were going to get the poison in her when she kept vomiting up the dishes we had put them in.' I threw that person in jail for attempted murder." Xin looked furious.

"Do you know why they are trying to kill me?" I asked.

"No, the person can't read or write and they bit their own tongue before they could be asked," Xin explained. I looked at him in horror.

"How are they even still alive? Wouldn't they bleed to death doing that?" I asked him.

"Well normally, yes," Xin smiled grimly, "But I foiled their plan, I sealed the wound. They still might die though from the pain."

I teared up, I could only imagine the pain the person was going through, I felt sorry for them as they were only following someone's instructions or even if it was their own volition, I was sad that they were so hate filled that they could not even understand the happiness Xin and I had together. Class was all together too valued here. They thought of me as a commoner since we arrived here with nothing. It did not matter our skills or intelligence, we were seen as nothing.

"You know, I wish everyone would realise we are all people regardless of class. We all came from the same roots, its just somewhere along the way divisions occurred to separate us into classes. We aren't intrinsically above or below each other, we should all treat each other how we would like to be treated," it was clear this speech was a bit much for Xin as his brow had furrowed as if he wanted to argue something, "Sorry, Xin," I put my hand on his, "This is how I feel, it does not make it right nor wrong."

Xin smiled at me but did not say anything more on that subject, instead he asked, "Are you hungry?" as my stomach decided to announce to the world that I indeed was hungry.

I giggled, "Does that answer you?" 

He nodded, "Let's go eat then." And got up and offered his hand for me to get up as well.

I looked at myself and decided that I should change and promptly did so. Xin sighed and turned away, I think he was getting use to me doing this now, although can you ever really get use to anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. He was not brought up to believe it was ok for a husband and wife to expose themselves to each other, where as I had come to this point from my first marriage. I had been where he was, it only took me 20  years to get to where I was currently at.

We sat down to eat and I remembered I had left my bucket in the room, so I got up to go back and get it. Xin took my hand and insisted I sit, "Sit Xinye, it's been so long since we ate together, I have been looking forward to this the entire time we were gone." 

As my whole family and his were there, I nodded and stayed put. I still worried about the situation I often found myself in. 

I thought I better be safe and just stick with the rice again, I was getting sick of having just the plain rice, but there was little I could do about it. Xin saw me having just the rice and ladled some of the vegetables onto my rice, "Come on Xinye, you have to have more than rice - you should know just having rice is not good for you!"

I saw his mother give a satisfied smirk, before her look in horror as Xin put the same food on his plate. She did not say anything though, thinking perhaps that Xin was only putting the vegetables on his plate for show, she did not realise Xin had started liking and eating the vegetables for himself.

I pushed the vegetables off to the side that Xin had thoughtfully plated for me, knowing I would not be able to eat them, and I started eating my rice that had been unaffected by the vegetable mix. Xin suddenly knocked the chopsticks out of my hand, "Don't eat that Xinye! It's been poisoned!"

"What?" I asked, "But I thought you caught the culprit."

"Its a bigger problem than I thought. Look at the silver spoon, it's gone black," he explained in a horrified voice, "Someone is definitely trying to kill you."

"Are you sure? The spoon has been like that the entire time you were gone, I just thought it was the way the spoon was because no one ever said anything until now and they definitely saw me dishing out the food like that," I said to him puzzled by his reaction.

"Is this true Mother?" Xin asked his Mother, who adverted her eyes and said nothing, "How about you two?" he asked my son and his wife.

"I did not see," his sister looked shamefaced, she probably was telling the truth as she only ever looked at Bryce and fed him during the meals, I felt quite excluded from their tiny world.

My son, however, nodded, "It is true, I wondered why the spoon was like that when all the others were shiny. I was also told by my mother-in-law not to eat of the food on that half of the table for some etiquette reason. Is that true?"

Xin shook his head, "No, you can eat from whatever side of the table, so long as your sleeve does not fall in the food."

"I am hopeless with these sleeves," he indicated his sleeves, "My wife has been covering for me by putting food onto my plate for me to eat. But I thought this was the norm, as Mother-in-law did it to Father-in-law whenever he is home."

Xin then was extraordinarily angry, "Why mother? How could you do this to me? To us? Come on Xinye, we are leaving, and I will not be returning until my wife has left me. Whether or not my adopted children come to visit is up to them, but for now we are leaving."

"Xin! Xin! Don't leave me!" his mother begged and wailed on her knees in front of him, rubbing her hands together, "I am sorry, I was trying to do what is best for you, I did not think she was. I can see now I was mistaken. Please Xin, do not leave! Xin, I am sorry!"

"It is not me who you should be apologising to Mother," Xin said coldly to her, unmoved by her drama. 

"Who should I be apologising to?" she asked him, "Tell me and I will apologise."

"IF you can't figure that out Mother, for yourself, then I definitely  am leaving," and with that he left.

"Where will we go Xin?" I asked him.

"There is a small town nearby with a blacksmith, your son can get us there. My men will follow when they are able, I believe your son said he had enough petrol left to get there, but after that the ute will have to be dismantled and melted. We can use the metal to make cannons to retaliate back. Taiji will be with us soon."

So, we left and went to the small town to be welcomed by the local magistrates family who was related to the prime minister of Finance. 

🍀A/N If you enjoyed this chapter please take the time to vote by pressing the star. If you see any errors please let me know as this is unedited.🍀