The Sensory Animals of Ston Hill

Eva and Anna came to pick up Grace on time, and Alan Stone called a car for them at Crown Plaza and helped them pay the fare.

On the way back to the palace, Anna asked Grace: "Have you reconciled with Master Allen?"

Grace said "yes".

Anna clapped her hands happily, and asked again: "Then Master Allen and Master William have reconciled?"

"The two of them didn't fight," Grace said.

Anna looked blank, "No? But that day when I heard Master Allen mentioning Master William's name angrily, I thought the two young masters had also quarreled."

Grace propped her arms on the window frame, looked at the street, and asked her, "Did you see them quarrel in the years when you were in the villa?"

"Not really...Master Allen has always admired Master William."

"That's right, the two of them didn't quarrel." Grace turned her head to look at Eva. The young girl had been knitting a hat for John.After moving from the countryside to the capital, the youngest brother has grown the fastest, and his old hat can no longer fit.

"Eva, don't you think it's weird?" Grace asked her.

Eva smiled and shook her head, her knitting work never stopped, "I'm very happy for you, reconciliation is better than quarrel. Master Allen sometimes speaks too harshly, but all men have this problem. Generally speaking, I Think he's a nice guy."

Grace laughed, looking at her calm face and skillful knitting hands, "Eva, you are always so calm, so enviable."

Eva stopped what she was doing, "Don't envy me, Grace. An unexcited character is tempered through disasters, otherwise you will not be able to live. On the contrary, I envy you, no matter what happens, Always quick to find new purpose and motivation. You are the most dynamic person I've ever met."

"Yes, the servants at the Heights love Grace, too!" Anna echoed, "They call her 'Grace the Mightiest'. Can you imagine, Eva, Grace can make candles! One 'Grace candles' cost almost a penny, but light up for an hour!"

Grace smiled and leaned back on her arms, looking out the window: the buildings here are denser than the trees in the rural woods, and the people are more crowded than the flocks driven by sheepdogs.This is a completely strange place, and he hopes that he can still be "the most capable Grace".

He asked Eva to call Miss Nakoren to his room, and asked Miss Nakoren to help him change his clothes for the first time.

Because of the previous unhappiness, the two quarreled again smoothly. Grace left the door wide open, and the guards in the corridor heard the content of the quarrel between the two.

Soon, His Majesty got up.Grace accompanied him to eat "snacks" as usual, and then the two went to the church in the main building of the palace together, and watched mass with other important people in the palace.And then there was rehearsal, just the two of them and a few favorite actors, spending the whole afternoon in the little theater.In the evening, there was another long banquet. Grace cheered up and sat at the card table to watch His Majesty play cards, holding back her yawns.

Seeing that he was very sleepy and willing to accompany him, His Majesty left the banquet hall two hours earlier than usual, but it was already two o'clock in the morning.

Grace almost fell asleep in the bathtub when she was taking a bath with His Majesty, but was awakened by His Majesty's gentle pat on the face, which reminded him of his plan suddenly.

He covered his upper left arm under His Majesty's gaze.His Majesty glanced from his face to his arm, moved his hand away, slowly stroked the place he was covering just now, and found the circular scar.

"I heard that you had a quarrel with Miss Nakoren today."

"Yes, she is a nuisance."

His Majesty laughed, "She is a nasty idiot, far worse than her father. However, she is your 'sister', and your future is related to her father's status, so she is the best candidate, more worthy than others. I'm relieved. You must have a noble maid to guarantee your status, Grace, bear with me a little longer, okay?"

Grace didn't care about these court rules, and he complained aggrievedly: "She said that I have this scar on my arm, and I will definitely grow a cow in the future, and you will drive me out by then."

His Majesty laughed hard and stroked his scar, "Have you ever been vaccinated with cowpox?"

Grace was a little surprised, it turned out that His Majesty knew this. "Yes, I planted it when I was a kid, I don't even remember. Chris, do you remember what I told you? Aunt Sophie said my mother was a milkmaid, so I couldn't get smallpox. It's because of cowpox. .”

His Majesty touched his round scar and fell into thought.Grace was extremely nervous, mentally rehearsing what she was going to say next.

"Who told you this?" His Majesty suddenly raised his head.

"Anna, she has also been vaccinated." Grace replied without hesitation, "It turns out that everyone in the villa must be vaccinated. It is a rule set by my father. Because he and his servants always go to sea, maybe I will bring smallpox back to the villa, and everyone will be safe after being vaccinated. I didn’t know this before, so my father is so amazing and knows so much..."

"Little poor boy, your father is indeed a capable man."

"Then... since this method is so useful, can people be inoculated with cowpox so that they don't have to be afraid of smallpox?"

His Majesty let go of his arm and leaned against the wall of the bathtub, "Don't be afraid, Grace, the palace is safe."

"But, Mrs. Durnell . . . "

His Majesty sneered, "Mrs. Denell only got smallpox after we went to the summer palace. She didn't live in the palace at all during that time. Moreover, everything they touched has been burned, and their The rooms are also limed, and there is no smallpox causative agent in the palace."

Grace lost her composure, "What about outside the palace? I heard that this disease is very bad for children. One third of the children died of smallpox."

His Majesty said indifferently: "Isn't it just right to die? There are so many mouths to eat, but they don't work hard to grow food, they only know about riots. If there are fewer small mouths, others will be full and there will be no troubles." — Grace, do you think the water is cold? Then let's go to bed."

Grace chattered, and stood up from the bathtub together with His Majesty.He wondered if the Earl of Arundel had expected such an outcome.

That night, His Majesty fell asleep earlier than Grace.Grace's eyes were open, and the light coming in from the window could barely make out the silhouettes of the people in the painting on the roof—the children with bare buttocks were all chubby, and you couldn't see such fat children on the street.

Alan Stone admitted to him that he didn't really think the wig thief deserved to die.

"Does that mean that the man who let go of other people's black slaves shouldn't be beheaded?" Grace asked.

Allen. Stone told him that this is a difficult question to answer.

"Isn't it unreasonable that one shell can buy two niggers?" he asked again.

"This is also a difficult question to answer." Alan. Stone said.

Alan Ston told him that this trade has been going on for hundreds of years, and one shell can be exchanged for two slaves, just because some kings in Africa like to use this shell for decoration.The kings waged wars, captured soldiers and people from other countries, and sold them as slaves to the captains of European continents in exchange for a lot of money.And those black slaves were transported to the plantations in the New World, because people found that they were more capable and stronger than the local aborigines in the New World, and they were less likely to be exhausted to death.

"Our father's ship..."

"Our fathers never treated niggers as a commodity."

"What if the king who started the war lost the battle?"

"Then his own soldiers would become niggers."

"Does he not consider the consequences?"

"Grace, you know, the saying 'the king is the father of the people' doesn't make sense. To those who are privileged, all the people are his slaves, and the country is just fertile ground for his enjoyment. "

Grace stood up and looked at the sleeping Majesty.He knew he had never really seen through this man, that he was sometimes afraid of him, sometimes a little annoying, and sometimes a little fond of him.But at this moment, he hated him extremely.