The Sensory Animals of Ston Hill

No matter what happened the night before or how late she was in bed, Grace always woke up on time the next morning.

When he came out of His Majesty's room, the guards would not stop him, because the series of small movements he made when he got up would not wake His Majesty up.This was actually very unusual, and the guards regarded it as Grace's ability, and there was admiration in their gazes when they watched him leave.

He went to the kitchen first. The maid who was in charge of lighting the fire had just lit the fire. There was nothing to eat, but Grace knew where the leftover old bread was.He cut off the hard part of the outside of the bread, no, only two slices from the softest part in the middle.

The fire maid kept peeping at him, marveling at his extravagant eating.Grace glanced at her after she finished cutting the bread, and the maid hurriedly took out of the cupboard the high-quality bacon and cheese prepared for the master's breakfast, and put it in front of him.

Grace thanked her and sliced ​​herself a slice of cheese.When the knife cut it, he knew it was made by Sophie. It had been stored in the cellar for several months, and it was the best time to eat it.

He held the piece of cheese to his nose and smelled it gently. The rich aroma floated into his nasal cavity one by one, and then penetrated deep into his head, where it curled up soothingly inside, making his eyes tremble. Involuntarily widened slightly.

He was looking out of the window as William rode up from the backyard, no longer in uniform but wearing a black cap.Behind him followed a chaise, the very one in which Miss Kerrings had been traveling yesterday.

More than half of the kitchen windows are sunk in the ground, only a small section protruding from the ground.As they passed the house, Grace could only see through the window the slender legs of the horse and the round wheels.After they walked a little further, Grace could see William's figure again, but because the morning fog hadn't completely cleared, they soon sank into the white mist.

Grace lowered her head and cut two slices of bacon, sandwiched them with cheese and bread, and ate them one bite at a time. Then she took two apples from the basket, put one in her skirt pocket, and the other with the lotus on the skirt. Ye Bian rubbed against it and took a big bite.

He walked out of the kitchen while eating the apple.

This time was considered early for the servants of the villa, and he didn't meet too many people along the way.

This is very good, he thought, otherwise, when those ladies and gentlemen and their servants saw him walking and eating, his expression would be very exciting again.

He bit the apple with a "click", remembering that the Earl of Arundel had always hinted that he had never been out of the mountain, so he had little knowledge.But he felt that those wives and adults' carriages were so light, they must be able to go to many places and have a lot of knowledge.But it doesn't seem to work, they are still so easy to make a fuss.

He thought again of Miss Kerrings' carriage, plain black, unadorned, and a bit worn.He also thought of Miss Kerrings's attire, which was not fashionable at all.

But she had a carriage anyway, and servants, and her brother was a midshipman.Obviously, they are not as rich as William and Allen. If they can be officers, they must have noble blood.

But she is not pretty.

But Miss Kerrings had a peculiar air about her, and seemed well-bred.She also adored William, Grace could tell right away.

She must be in love with him... who could not love him?Grace was jealous of the way she looked at William, admiringly.

As he walked out of the gate, he threw the core of the apple that he had eaten, so that the porter jumped.The apple core flew high and fell in a huge parabola into the distant bushes.

Grace went to the cemetery.

The sun climbed higher and lightened the fog, and the church stood out from the white fog, and he was alone in the whole field.

Grace goes first to clear the weeds at the gravestones of her mother, Sophie and Orisa.These three tombs are next to each other. Mom and the others were not lucky during their lifetime, but they were accompanied by someone when they died, and they all had a decent funeral and very similar tombstones in the end.Weeds are not like flowers, they grow much faster, and many tombstones in the cemetery are covered by the surrounding weeds.Grace came frequently, and she liked to work quickly. The tombstones of mother and Sophie stood out in this cemetery.

But Grace couldn't figure out where she would be buried, whether there would be a tombstone, and whether someone would clean up the weeds for her.

Afterwards he went to Old Ston's grave.

Oldston's tombstone is much more impressive, but only a small piece in front of the tombstone is clean, and the sides and back are covered with weeds.Grace started to clean up.

These grasses had grown for many years, and their roots were all tangled in the ground, and it was very laborious to pull them out. He couldn't help but blame William and Allen for their carelessness, and he also blamed himself.When he finally cleaned up all the weeds, he wiped his hands carefully with the dewy grass blades, and then picked a large handful of daisies and placed them neatly in front of Old Ston's tombstone.Last night's cooling had brought frost, and the grass on the shaded hillside was covered with white, but the daisies were resistant to the low temperature.

After that, he continued to walk far away, to the place where the forest should have been in the past.He wandered the area for a long time, and finally identified which stake was from his and William's favorite tree.

He sat down on the stake, facing the direction of the river.

The river is no longer clean, the factory's waste water has turned the river black, and the smell is not good, so he didn't go any further.

Sitting on the stake, he always felt that something was missing, and it took him a long time to realize that there was no bird singing.

There used to be a lot of birds in this wood, and squirrels, and maybe other animals.Grace wondered where all the animals had gone.It may have found a new residence, or it may have died in winter.

The hoarfrost on the shaded side of the hill faded away little by little, and finally all the grass was green.He wiped his dewy shoes, stood up and walked back along the same path.

At this time, the villa can be regarded as really waking up, and the cooking smoke rising from that direction can be seen from a long distance away.On the road, he came across several carriages carrying goods, loaded with good things specially ordered for distinguished guests, passing by him.

He came to the garden in front of the villa and saw Mr. Raymond standing in front of the gate.Grace is a little strange, because today is not the tenth, and it is not the day to deliver newspapers to the villa.Judging from the standing posture of the other party, he may be waiting for someone, and he has been waiting for a long time.

The other party also saw him, and immediately took off his hat and strode towards him.It turned out to be waiting for him.

Grace knelt down to Mr. Raymond and said, "Good morning, Mr. Raymond. Are you here to deliver a new print to Mrs. Raymond?"

Mr. Raymond rubbed his hat, "No, I'm here to see you."

Mr. Raymond was leaving, and he came here to say goodbye to Grace. He was going to the capital.

"My friend opened a newspaper and invited me to join."

"Do you write your own newspaper?" Grace asked naively.

"Probably." Mr. Raymond couldn't help smiling, and finally relaxed a little.

"What about your bookstore?"

"...It was resold. It's too far away from the capital, and I can't keep running in both directions."

"Oh, that's a pity."

Mr. Raymond rubbed his hat again, "It is indeed a pity. But there is no way, there are too many taxes to be paid. Business is always getting worse and worse, especially the taxation of publications is higher than that of general goods. It's still high..."

He knew that he was very long-winded, and he was saying something that would bore girls, but he couldn't control his mouth.He gets nervous whenever he sees Grace.

Grace has been listening carefully, and asked at the right time: "Don't you need to pay so much tax for selling newspapers?"

His kind question made Raymond's sinking heart jump again, "It should be called 'publication'-of course, taxes must be paid. In fact, the royalties for distribution are higher than sales taxes, but the capital's Newspapers have always sold well, which may be related to the people in the capital’s concern about current affairs, so my friend felt that there was not enough manpower and asked me to help.”

Grace had been listening patiently, but Mr. Raymond did get a little verbose, which diverted some of his attention to the tulips.

He found that the tulips were all wilted.

Grace squatted down and twirled the petals with her hands, regretfully judging that the flowers were not in good spirits.

Mr. Raymond also looked at these flowers and said, "I've never seen anyone planting tulips here, maybe it's too cold."

But the count said that tulips are not afraid of the cold.

So maybe angry, Grace thought.The cooling last night made them finally realize that they had been fooled. It turns out that spring has not come yet.Thinking spring is here, but it isn't, is more infuriating than it's always been winter.

He stood up and said to Mr. Raymond, "Good luck then! I hope you and your friend's papers do well." He wanted to end the conversation.

Mr. Raymond shuddered again and kneaded his hat furiously.

Grace didn't want to wait any longer, but she didn't rush him either.

All those things about the Earl of Arundel were inquired from Mr. Raymond. Although those rumors did not help him at the time, he was always grateful to Mr. Raymond.

"I may have guessed what you want to say. You can tell me and see if I guess right."

With great gratitude in Mr. Raymond's eyes, he said to Grace, "I love you!"

Grace politely thanked her.

Mr. Raymond's eyes dimmed, and after taking courage for a long time, he finally asked, "Can I get a kiss from you?"

He was asking if Grace could give him a kiss on the cheek.He didn't dare to touch his lips to any part of Grace's body, not even her hair.

But of course he didn't expect that even the king of this country couldn't easily touch Grace's lips.

Grace turned her face away.He tied his own hair now, and there were always unruly hairs on both sides of his cheeks. He put the half of the hair behind his ear, so that his face was completely exposed, and said to Mr. Raymond: "You can kiss me s face."

Mr. Raymond was so moved that he almost fainted. He closed his eyes, and approached cautiously, and touched that cheek lightly.He hadn't been this devout the first time he kissed the statue of Jesus.

"Thank you." Raymond thanked again with tears in his eyes.

Grace said her last goodbyes to him.

"Can I see you again in the future?" Mr. Raymond asked reluctantly behind him.

Grace smiled back at him, "Maybe."

He wanted to go directly to the king's room, but he met Mr. Wilson on the stairs, which made him change his mind and went to the back yard first.

He has always liked to go to the backyard, and in the short free time in the afternoon, he carried an empty milk bucket to the backyard to bask in the sun.He's not really a little girl, he's Irish, he's not afraid of getting tanned, he likes the warmth of the sun on his face.

But it's a pity that the kitchen servants don't have much free time during the day. They always start working at dawn to prepare for the next day's food, not only for the owner of the villa, but also for all the servants.

One thing has always puzzled Grace: even the lowest valet can walk away with the last sip of soup, leaving the dirty dishes on the table; Even the haughtiest lady's bedroom maid knows to take away her dirty dishes, wash them, and put them back in the cupboard.

"Wash your own dishes", Grace thinks this is a very simple truth, but those servants just don't understand.What makes Grace even more strange is that no one has ever reminded them, as if this matter has become reasonable because people are used to it.Later, he discovered that many things in this world are like this, if someone proposes to change, it will definitely be a great change.

Fortunately he and Sophie didn't have to wash dishes.Sophie is because she is good at making desserts, which is what she deserves, and Grace is because of his life experience that was publicly exposed by William.

After lunch, Sophie would use this precious rest time to take a nap, the servants would secretly drink or gamble, and Grace would go to the backyard.

Sometimes he helped the servants in the backyard gather hay, feed the sheep and horses, which he liked to do, and sometimes he helped the maids he knew butter.

The maids in the Maple Leaf Grange have all used foot-operated butter buckets. It is said that there is a shaft in it, which can turn the downward motion into a stirring motion, which saves effort, and they still rely on two human arms. .Grace has seen the mechanical drawings of the cannons drawn by Alan Stone, and probably guesses the principle behind the butter barrel in the Maple Leaf Grange.He once thought about making such a barrel for the maids in the backyard, but the iron parts were not easy to make, and even the blacksmiths in the backyard said that they could not make such precise things with their hands.Then a lot of things happened, and being a butter bucket seemed unimportant.

It was not yet buttering time. When he came to the backyard, Anna was milking a light brown piebald cow. When she saw him, she immediately stood up in surprise and ran to move a bench for him.

The cow was half-milked and mooed at Anna dissatisfied.Anna quickly sat back and held the cow's two teats with both hands. With a little force, two streams of milky white milk came out vigorously and poured into the milk bucket.The two nipples next to it should have been squeezed, because they are big and shiny, and it looks like they have been rubbed by hands for a long time.

Anna smiled and said to Grace: "She is short-tempered in the morning, and she has accumulated milk all night. She needs someone to get her out to be comfortable." She called the cow affectionately: "Silly girl." Pull here, don't be ashamed.

After milking for a while, Anna would massage the cow a few times, put her palm on the huge breast of the cow, and rub it gently. The four big and bright teats trembled up and down with her movements, and the cow flicked its tail comfortably.

Grace only glanced twice before looking away.

The lady's cat ran out and was lying on the window sill to bask in the sun. The hair on her body was smooth and slippery, which was touched by the lady herself; the dog guarded the back door of the kitchen, and whenever a servant came out, it would circle around his feet, Hope to be rewarded with offal; the horses graze side by side in front of the manger, and they may or may not be ridden today.

Anna finished milking, two buckets full.She struggled to lift one bucket, and Grace picked up both buckets herself.

They went to the cellar with the milk, and Grace said to Anna, "I'm leaving here."

Anna asked him in surprise, "Where are you going?"

"The royal palace."

He knew that Anna had always wanted to be his friend.But after Orisa died, he didn't want to make friends anymore.But he can't be alone either.Even a man like the Earl of Arundel needs a Mr. Wales.

Anna is neither smart nor pretty, but Grace doesn't dislike her.Anna once secretly handed him a piece of bread through the crack of the door when he was most hungry.

He put a milk bucket on the ground, took out an apple from his skirt pocket and handed it to Anna, "Do you want to come with me? I don't know if the palace will be better than the villa, but I will try my best to treat you .”

Anna took the apple and held it in her hand. After hesitating for a while, she nodded vigorously at Grace.

Grace went back to the King's chambers, where His Majesty was still asleep.

He opened the curtains a little to make the room a little brighter, then climbed onto the bed, stroked King Louis' hair lightly, and said softly, "Your Majesty, the tulips are about to thank you, we should leave."