Try Begging Novel - Chapter 13

“Perhaps I should have let her shoot me?”

Leon put the revolver back in the drawer and closed it. He didn’t lock it.

Theft would be a slightly greater sin.

Moreover, disobeying the master’s words might be a grave offense within the walls of this mansion. Could it provide an excuse to drag her into the interrogation room, breaking his principles?

Leon twisted his lips, then narrowed his eyes sharply. The fading bloodstains held his gaze.

Perhaps it wasn’t her eyes. Perhaps it was just the smell of blood. Would his desire surge like this if it were another woman, as long as she exuded the scent of blood?

What a terrible taste.

He smiled bitterly and stood up. The carpet was a wreck, strewn with fragments and ashes from a shattered ashtray. Tomorrow morning, that maid would grumble her complaints about him as she cleaned up this mess.

Leon unfolded a ‘message’ for the maid, dropping it onto the carpet so it would be clearly visible.

Sunlight softly filtered through the woolly clouds. Her chestnut hair, fluttering in the breeze, shimmered with a bronze glow under the broken sunlight.

It was a perfect day for an outing. Though she couldn’t predict what whims April weather, as unpredictable as Winston, might have.

Hailwood, the closest village to Winston Manor, was a 10-minute bicycle ride away. Sally parked her bicycle in front of a three-story brick building, past a general store with a large discount sign.

Just then, the postmaster, who had been turning the ‘Closed’ sign in the window to ‘Open,’ caught her eye. The middle-aged man pushed up his glasses with an index finger, nodded at Sally, and immediately opened the door for her.

“Good afternoon, Miss Bristol.”

“Hello.”

Sally paused as she stepped inside. This small village post office had four employees, including the postmaster, but for some reason, there were only three today.

“Is Mr. Peter off today?”

“The mail train was late today, so he’s at the station.”

Peter, disguised as a mail carrier, spent all day roaming the village, but he always ate lunch here. So she had deliberately timed her visit, but of course, he wasn’t here today.

She had brought the money she got from Winston yesterday to send to headquarters as military funds. Peter would process the transfer so it couldn’t be traced. It was dangerous to tell other employees about the recipient, even if the information was disguised.

“He’ll be here soon, haha.”

As Sally clutched her old bag strap and sighed, the postmaster rubbed his long mustache with his fingertips and chuckled. The post office staff thought Sally harbored a romantic interest in Peter.

As if.

Though she dressed modestly for her mission, her taste in men was not modest.

Should I spend some time?

Madame Benoit’s cafe was just two buildings away. She was about to indulge in a small luxury for the first time in a while. Just then, a middle-aged woman entered the cramped post office, pulling three children behind her.

Soon, the voices of the woman and children filled the air. Sally, who had been about to leave, instead stepped into a corner phone booth.

She closed the door tightly and peeked outside through the small glass window in the door. Everyone was busy with their own affairs and didn’t even glance her way.

Sally perched on the chair in the corner and opened her bag to find her wallet. As she picked out one, two, three, and then four of the largest coins, a sigh escaped her. Long-distance calls were expensive, so she rarely made them, but this was important, so she had no choice.

She picked up the candlestick-shaped receiver, put it to her ear, and dropped the coins into the slot. She dialed a number, and then a young woman’s sharp voice rang in her ear.

[Long-distance call.]

“Hello. This is Blackburn from Hailwood.”

Sally leaned towards the phone’s mouthpiece. Blackburn, the name the operator would relay to the other party, meant a request for withdrawal.

“Please connect me to Crawford 1499 in Brayton.”

She then stated the region and the other party’s exchange company name.

[Please wait a moment.]

After the operator’s voice, only clicking mechanical sounds continued for a long time.

Sally nervously peered out of the booth. The woman with the children had finished mailing her package but showed no signs of leaving, starting to chat with the woman behind the counter. She hoped they would continue to be noisy for another ten minutes.

Yes, he deserves a kick in the backside.

She spent the idle time agreeing with the faint chatter filtering into the booth, but the other party’s voice didn’t come through. She was rubbing the faded, scratched buckle of her bag when someone flung open the post office door and entered.

She thought it was Peter and looked up, just as a familiar voice spoke.

[Blackburn from Hailwood?]

Sally’s fiancé didn’t even ask who it was, immediately reciting the withdrawal request code.

“That’s right.”

[…What? You?]

He sounded quite surprised, as if he had expected the voice of Peter or Fred from Hailwood.

[Is something wrong?]

He went straight to the point, without a proper greeting to his fiancée, whom he hadn’t heard from in a long time. The conversation continued, alluding vaguely to everything, without even mentioning a name, as the operator might still be listening.

“I want to go home.”

Jimmy would know. Her whining tone was just a disguise. Sally never acted like a child.

[Why? What about your mother’s hospital bills?]

‘Mother’s hospital bills’ had to be understood as ‘your mission.’

“My employer is strange.”

[Strange? What do you mean?]

“Did you forget what I told you before I came here?”

He couldn’t have forgotten, as she had warned him incessantly about her encounter with Winston at Abington Beach when she was young. A long sigh came from the other end of the receiver.

[But you haven’t been fired yet.]

He meant that she hadn’t been caught since she hadn’t been arrested yet.

“I might be fired soon.”

[Deny it. You’re good at it. There won’t be any evidence anyway, right?]

This time, Sally let out a long sigh into the mouthpiece.

[We need you.]

Jimmy knew well what his fiancée was most vulnerable to. They had grown up together since infancy, almost like siblings.

“But…”

Sally took a deep breath and paused. She didn’t want to tell anyone, especially not her fiancé, but she had to. Ending her momentary hesitation, she squeezed her eyes shut and confessed with an exhaled breath.

“Yesterday, he tried to attack me.”

Silence followed on the other end of the receiver. What thoughts were going through his mind, five hours away by train?

Concern for his lover who was almost raped? A determination to immediately pull her from Winston’s dirty clutches? Anger towards the filthy beast who tried to violate his fiancée?

Or perhaps, disappointment towards a comrade who had jeopardized the operation by attracting the target’s impure attention?

[Really?]

All wrong. Sally burst into frustrated anger.

“Do you think I’d lie about something like this?”

[No, you know I don’t mean that. It just doesn’t… fit with the man I know.]

Jimmy, the leader of the revolutionary army, would certainly know the characteristics of Winston, a Class A cautionary figure. The consistent information was that Winston, though his methods were utterly despicable, was clean below the belt. So he must have confidently deployed his fiancée to Winston’s stronghold.

But now, a statement contradicting all consistent information had come from Sally’s lips for the first time. Regardless of her hurt, she knew it was hard to believe at once.

Sally added words to heighten Jimmy’s sense of urgency.

“He took something I had hidden in my skirt.”

[…And you weren’t fired?]

“That’s why it’s even more dangerous.”

Winston was treating her differently. His next move was utterly unpredictable.

Sally waited silently for Jimmy’s reply, pondering.

Should she tell him about other things? That Winston had not only sucked her blood yesterday but had also left evidence of masturbating with the blood-stained handkerchief on the office floor for her to see.

No matter how much he was like family, such a story was too humiliating.

“I’m running out of time.”

The phone bill would soon run out. A heavy sigh came from the other end of the receiver, and then Jimmy, in a voice coaxing his lover, gave his directive.

[Go to a friend’s house. I’ll talk to the adults and call you back.]

He meant she should wait at the safe house in Winsford City, an hour away by tram, as he needed to discuss it with the cadres. Sally immediately hung up and stepped out of the booth.

Should she send the money later? Peter still hadn’t returned. Sally nodded at the postmaster and headed out of the post office.