Escape

There’s a what?! Did Reiner just say that there was a ‘peeping hole’ in the wall of my bedroom. Is it true? Why is it there? Who put it there? How long has it been there…?

So many questions came rushing into my mind and my body completely froze in panic and fear. The privacy that I thought I had in this bedroom was now completely gone. To be more accurately, it never existed in the first place. I never had complete privacy in this room, and I didn’t know about it all this time. I tried my best to keep my eyes on Reiner’s face so that it would not stray towards the wall behind him. I need to trust Reiner for now but what do we do now?

I want to get out of here...but how do I do that? I looked at Reiner in a panic. Reiner, save me please!

“R…I…” I started to whisper to him. I need to tell him to get me out of this room. Now!

“Yup! You’ve been good girl today. So, as I promised, I’ll accompany you for a late-night stroll. But remember, you’re not allowed to leave the house without me. Ok?” Reiner spoke up abruptly in a loud and clear voice. He winked at me, and I understood. We can leave now, right?

“Thank you! I just want to take a stroll in the garden for a bit…” I replied, trying to sound as natural as possible.

“Let’s go…” Reiner said as he turned to walk out of the room.

I quickly followed him without saying another word. I knew I had to act as natural as possible while I walked out of the room. However, I felt so much fear and paranoia deep inside. Since Reiner mentioned the hole in the wall, I had been conscious of being watched. I’ve been sleeping in that room for more than ten years; how could I never realized?

The thing that shocked me the most wasn’t the existence of the peeping hole but the implication of who had been peeping on me all this time. I was certain that the staff wouldn’t dare create a hole let alone want to spy on me. Most of the staff were female to begin with and the males were either very old butlers or Lucien’s bodyguards. Naturally, Lucien’s bodyguard never entered my wing of the house.

Who else could it be? This house only has two family members…and I wouldn’t need to spy on myself.

Lucien…why did you do this?

…

I sighed with relief as we exited the room and Reiner firmly closed the door behind us. Never in my life, did I ever dream that the room I felt the safest in would become the most dangerous room for me right now. Once again, another part of my old and peaceful life has crumbled away into dust. I stood still, stunned, and unable to take in what was happening until I felt the warmth of Reiner’s hand around mine as he gently but firmly held my hand.

“Let’s go…Natalia,” Reiner said in a low voice before pulling me along with him.

I didn’t know where we were going, and I didn’t care. Right now, anywhere must be safer than here. My mind was blurry from shock, and I didn’t pay any attention to where Reiner was taking me. We walked through the corridors of the big mansion until we emerged from one of the exits and we were outdoors in the garden. I felt the slightly cold wind on my face and the slight softened wet grass under my feet.

“Where do you want me to take you?” Reiner asked as we stood alone together in the garden. He still held my hand and I thanked whatever holy being that existed in this world that he was here with me.

I considered my options. This late at night, where could I go? My most obvious option was to go and see Zak, who lived next door. Unfortunately, Zak was not back from his business trip abroad and Reiner will probably hate that idea. Should we go to a hotel? That might seem too suspicious if we suddenly left. After all, there shouldn’t be a reason for me to leave the mansion now that I was back here, and it is already this late at night.

“Can we…go to your room?” I asked in a low whisper. For the first time, I wasn’t teasing him about letting me into his room.

To my surprise, Reiner just nodded before pulling me deeper into the garden. Did he misunderstood or misheard me? This is clearly not the way to his room at all. We were walking deeper and deeper into the garden and further and further away from the mansion.

After a short while of walking in silence, I tugged on his arm and stopped walking. Reiner immediately turned around to face me.

“R…where are we going?” I asked in a shaky voice.

“To my room,” Reiner replied flatly.

“But this isn’t the way to your room…” I replied as I looked around the garden.

“We’re going to go around the garden and use the staff entrance. You wouldn’t want anyone to find out that you’re spending the night in my room, right?” Reiner replied calmly as he patted me on the back to calm me down. I was so glad that he was so calm in this situation because it was starting to calm me down too.

“Ok…” I whispered.

Reiner took my hand and slowly we walked around the garden until we looped back to the staff wing of the mansion. I didn’t know that there was an entrance into the mansion here. The entrance was much smaller than the main entrance and lacked the usual luxurious decoration. It made sense that the mansion had a staff entrance. It was made for staff that didn’t sleep in the mansion to commute in and out of the mansion while wearing their private clothing or carrying personal belongings without disturbing the family members and other guests who could be in the house.

--To be continued...