Rheia's insistence on rescuing them made sneaking out of the manor less likely.
Therefore, Laura proposed to simply make it big and encourage more people to join the escape. However, she was still very cautious. She did not immediately tell the others the news. On the contrary, she only revealed it to a few trustworthy people during lunch the next day so that they could be prepared.
This would minimize the possibility of the news being leaked in advance. On the other hand, Rheia had important things to do. She had to take advantage of her weekly cleaning of Malcolm's study to take out all the letters related to Normand and Redmond.
Rheia was most worried that Malcolm would still be in the study when it was time to clean.
But the good news was that Malcolm seemed to have something to do that day. He left the manor early in the morning.
In the afternoon, Rheia went to the study as usual and greeted the guard at the door with a smile. As the door closed behind her, Rheia let out a long sigh of relief. Excluding the time she had to clean the house, there wasn't much time left for her to act.
Rheia quickly walked to a bookcase and opened the bottom drawer, but there was nothing in it. Rheia was shocked. When she cleaned the room last week, the letters were still there.
Could it be that Malcolm had asked someone to move away the important things in the study because of the recent tense atmosphere and the consecutive incidents with Nadya and Darcy?
But judging from the way the letters were stored and placed, Malcolm didn't seem to value them very much.
Rheia forced herself to calm down and think of all the possibilities. At the same time, her hands did not stop moving. She rummaged through the study, but she couldn't find any trace of the letters.
Rheia became more and more nervous. Unfortunately, she made a mistake. When she stepped back, she accidentally bumped into a slightly lower cabinet on the other side, and the porcelain bottle with two ears fell to the ground.
When Rheia turned around to catch it, it was already too late. The porcelain bottle fell to the ground. Fortunately, the floor was covered with carpet, so the porcelain bottle was not completely broken. However, one of the ears was still broken.
Leah's face turned pale. She knew that this was Malcolm's favorite porcelain vase. It was brought back by an adventurer from a faraway and mysterious country in the East. It was priceless, hundreds of times more expensive than Leah's. She used to be extra careful when cleaning it.
But this time, because she was distracted by the letters, Rheia did not pay attention to her back and made a huge mistake.
Before Rheia could come up with a solution, she heard footsteps outside the study.
Those were Malcolm's unique footsteps. The frequency was faster than the average person's, but each step was steady, and the interval between each step was almost the same. It was like him, efficient, serious, and calm.
The guard outside pushed the door open for Malcolm. Malcolm raised an eyebrow and saw Rheia holding the vase with one hand and wiping the cabinet with the other.
Malcolm seemed to be in a good mood today. "Don't clean up yet," he said to Rheia. "Go to the kitchen and grill some steak."
"Okay, haven't you had lunch yet?" Rheia turned around, shielding the amphora with her body, and tried to force a smile on her face.
"Yes, I ate two bites of apple pie on the way, but the taste was average." Fortunately, Malcolm did not look in their direction. He picked up the bottle of wine, and Leah hurried over and poured him half a glass of red wine. Malcolm moistened his throat.
"I heard from Wallace that you have a good relationship with Daisy."
Rheia was shocked when she heard that. She thought that Malcolm was suspicious of her, but he continued, "Do you know who she's close to?"
"This …" Rheia hesitated.
"What's wrong? Are you worried that you will be ostracized by others if you tell me? But aren't you already ostracized by others now? "
Rheia was surprised. She did not expect Malcolm to know about such things.
"Are you surprised? The preferential treatment I gave you would naturally arouse the dissatisfaction of others. They don't dare to hate me, so they can only transfer their hatred to you, who is the closest to me. But this way, I can also know who the unstable people in the manor are. Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you. Didn't you notice that the people who had the worst relationship with you over the years are all gone?" Malcolm downed the red wine in his glass in one gulp. "And this way, I can rest assured that you will work for me."
Rheia was not happy when she heard that. Instead, a bone-chilling chill rose in her heart.
In fact, she felt a little guilty when Laeli asked her to read Malcolm's letters. No matter what the other slaves in the manor thought of Malcolm, he had always treated her well. After all these years of being around Malcolm, although Rheia still had black skin, her thinking was actually closer to that of the white people on the island.
This made her an anomaly among her people. Rheia sometimes even felt that Malcolm understood her more than his own people. Malcolm had played a father and mentor role in her growth, and Rheia felt a trace of warmth from him.
However, it turned out that it was just her imagination. Malcolm treated her differently, not because of how special she was, but because he needed her to be "special."
"Alright, I'm hungry. Go get the kitchen to cook." Malcolm paused. "Right, the weather has been quite humid lately. Before I left this morning, I asked someone to take out the letters in the study to dry. You can collect them at sunset."
"Okay." Rheia nodded and left the study.
… …..
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.
When the clock in the living room pointed to 12 o 'clock, Zola woke up another maid on the bed next to hers and told her that they were preparing to escape. At the same time, the same thing happened in another room. In the end, more than 20 black maids gathered in Rheia's room.
That was almost half of the black maids in the manor. Other than Laeli's people, the rest of the black women who had the intention to escape were gathered together. Those who were worried that they would be captured and tortured were tied up and gagged by Zola and her men. This was to prevent them from snitching, and it was also for their own good. If Rheia and the others escaped, they would definitely be punished.
As for the male slaves, they did not live here. They were led by another organization.
Rheia's gaze swept across the faces in the room. She saw anxiety, fear, and … the desire for freedom in their eyes. In the next moment, she no longer hesitated and said, "Let us break the shackles on our necks, sisters."
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