AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Nothing much.” Noelle cracked a smile. “Can you help me patch this up? I’d hate to get another scar,” she murmured.
Her body was already riddled with them and the torment she’d endured in those first few months.
“Good Lord,” Lucero muttered as she peeled Noelle’s shirt off to reveal the nasty wound she’d gotten. A straight slice across her abdomen that was still gushing out blood.
“I don’t think anyone could make thisnotscar,” Lucero added, her features tight with worry.
“At least I tried.” Noelle shrugged, leaning back and letting her friend work her magic.
She’d been right that the cut had been shallow, and the knife had only sliced through skin and fat—nothing life threatening.
Lucero disinfected the area and applied some healing ointment before bandaging Noelle’s torso. She did the same with her leg where Sergio had stabbed her with the fork.
“Did you at least manage to do what you wanted?”
Noelle nodded, her lids already heavy with sleep.
“We’re safe. For now,” she sighed. “But you’re right. I’ll need to take the attention off of Rafaelo. Tomorrow…” she trailed off as she went to sleep.
Lucero carefully tended to her, taking a cloth and washing the blood from her face and body. Despite Noelle’s answer, Lucero couldn’t help but be concerned about the future.
She’d lived at the hacienda long enough to know El Señor wasn’t someone who took well to humiliations, especially from a woman. Somehow, she knew he would retaliate. And she feared he would do it when they least expected it.
“Ay, Noelle. Espero que tengas razon. Si no…” she pursed her lips, her brows knit together in worry.
She trusted Noelle. But at the same time, she was afraid. She’d only begun living for the first time in her life. If El Señor decided to go against them, Lucero was sure neither would escape with their lives intact.
Solo quiero vivir,she thought to herself.
But having been hurt her entire life one way or another, Lucero knew just how hard it was to do such a basic thing.
“Vivir,” she whispered. “Por que tiene que ser tan difícil? Por que, Dios?”
Yet the hardship had just begun.
four
Rafaelo broughthis hand to his head, tracing the ridges of his injury and recalling the exact moment her expression had shifted from one of awe, to one of scorn. He replayed the events in his mind and he could not find an explanation for what had occurred, other than the fact that she must have felt offended by his direct stare and thus had decided to teach him a lesson—put him in his place, where he belonged.
How could someone so beautiful be so vile?
He was shocked by his own reaction to her.
He’d never in his life reacted to a woman so instantly, so potently. It was like her eyes had spoken to his very soul.
He’d seen beautiful women in his life. But he’d never felt drawn to another as he’d felt to her, his being oriented to her in such a foreign way as if her presence was a balm to his soul.
In one isolated moment, so fleeting yet so infinite, she’d provoked such contradicting emotions within him.
His essence had felt at peace, while his body had hummed with excitement.
As he laid in his bunk bed at night, exhausted and sore, he couldn’t help but wonder, why her?
Why had his interest awoken in someone who was clearly all wrong for him—not only due to their current circumstances, but also their inclinations?
She was the master’s wife. And if he were to believe the rumors he’d heard since, she was even worse than el señor, her mercurial moods infamous among the slaves and all the workers.
Yet for one moment, time had stood still.
