Chapter 115: Chapter 16 Working Woman
In the morning, the Grande family began to get busy. A long wooden table was placed in the backyard. Alice was moving between the courtyard and the kitchen. In addition to Benjamin, Matthew, and Old Hank, there were seven or eight strange men sitting at the table enjoying a free breakfast. They were not strangers, but nearby farmers, which could be said to be distant neighbors. Accepting the employment of the Grande family could usually get free meals for a day.
Zach was not in Grande, but in the church to the west of the Grande, watching several nuns cleaning the church, holding a list in his hand, checking the list of stuff that had been sent to the church.
“Then shall we wait for Benjamin to deliver the coffin?” Louise asked quietly, standing behind Zach.
Zach nodded, “Mhm.” The vampire looked at the woman behind him. There was a hint of curiosity on Louise’s face, as she looked at the church. “Have you never been to a church?” He asked.
Louise glanced at Zach and shook her head, “No. I just rarely see the church with the theme of ‘The Atonement Of God the Son’. I grew up in a boarding home, so I am quite familiar with the gospel church.”
There was something flickering in Zach’s light green eyes, watching Louise performing a standard gesture of holy blessing to several cleaning nuns: lowering her head, moving her hand from forehead to chest, and then from left shoulder to right shoulder to draw the cross. The nuns smiled, stopped what they were doing, and responded by doing the same gesture. This was the etiquette of wishing and blessing each other, of course, it had no practical effect.
“This reminds me.” Zach withdrew his gaze and put his arms around Louise’s shoulders, with a smile at the corners of his eyes, “We have never talked about our past lives. If you want to talk to someone, I am a very good listener.”
This week, Louise had been acting indifferent to everyone, but today she suddenly asked if she could help the Grande with their work. Zach was a little surprised, but apparently, he couldn’t let Louise do the labor work that Benjamin and the others did, so he let Louise follow him.
The vampire regarded this as a sign of the ending of the indifferent period, and now Louise suddenly mentioned her past. This was an opportunity to enhance the relationship. How could the vampire let it flow away?
Louise was pulled into Zach’s arms, her blue eyes under her eyelashes looked at the vampire. After being entranced for a moment, her eyes also curled, and her cheeks were flushed like ripe apples as she blew them out.
“You are not.” Louise pushed Zach away and said with a smile, “Only Jim is.”
Thinking of Jim, who always had only one expression on his face, Zach nodded with a smile, “You are right. So you prefer to chat with him?”
Louise stretched out one finger and shook it in the air, her rosy lips pouted slightly, “that’s not a chat. It’s called talking to a piece of wood.”
The corners of Zach’s raised mouth slowly lowered, his gaze drifted away. After thinking for a while, when his gaze returned to Louise, he found that Louise’s smile had disappeared and she was looking at him quietly.
“We can chat, I can tell you everything, as long as I remember them.” There was no other expression on Zach’s face, looking at Louise.
Louise’s eyelashes twitched, the end of her slender eyebrows were slightly raised, and the slight emotional undulation was caught by the vampire. But immediately, Louise’s eyes left Zach. “That is just so sly. If I ask you how many women were there before me, you can easily avoid it by simply answering that you have forgotten it.” She said with a hint of womanly complaint.
Zach thought about the true meaning of Louise’s words, whether it was the ‘past’ caused by the disparity in age between vampires and humans, or the meaning of the word ‘women’ represented, or what ‘forget’ really meant, Zach didn’t want to touch any of those.
Louise looked at Zach again, with a hint of comfort in her eyes, “I won’t ask, so you don’t need to answer. Those won’t matter.”
Zach raised his eyes and looked at Louise. He seemed to understand some recent relationships with her and why Louise would suddenly ask for a job. He held out his hand to Louise with a touch of complicated emotions.
Louise grabbed it, breathing calmly, and changed the subject, “When will the funeral begin?”
“Nine o’clock.” Zach adjusted his breathing to increase the temperature of the hand holding Louise. “The ceremony will take about an hour, and then it will be free time. After the guests are gone, the burial ceremony will be carried out.”
“Oh.” Louise nodded, looking at the flowers and incense that had been placed by the wall by the delivery man. These things could only be arranged after the coffin was delivered. The nuns checked all the facilities one last time, nodded at the two, and walked back to the church.
Louise took the checklist from Zach and confirmed everything with the delivery man under Zach’s approval. Zach walked out of the church and looked at the hearse from the east. Benjamin, who was impossible for normal human eyesight to see, waved behind the window of the car.
After a while, Zach and Benjamin stood behind the church, a place connected to the backyard where the clergy stayed. The hearse also stopped her. Matthew and several hired farmers carried the coffin out of the hearse and walked to the church.
Matthew looked at his two bosses and then looked around.
“Loise is inside.” Zach waved, and Matthew nodded, carrying the coffin into the church.
Benjamin glanced at Zach, jokingly, “What did Louise say?”
At dawn today, Louise suddenly said that she wanted to work with Zach, which really surprised everyone.
Zach glanced at Benjamin with hidden bitterness in his eyes, “Everyone can laugh at me, but you can’t.”
“Why?” Benjamin frowned in confusion.
“Because you gave Matthew a job.” Zach sighed and continued to use the ‘rueful’ tone.
Benjamin scratched his neck hidden under his beard, “What does that have to do with this? Does she need money? You can give it to her directly.”
Zach glanced at Benjamin, who seemed to be enjoying making fun of him. “Why don’t you just give Matthew the money and keep him by your side?”
Benjamin stretched his arms to avoid his weakness, “She is too sensitive. If Ian is here, he also doesn’t need to work.”
The vampire’s spirit languished, “Why do you want to mention Ian?”
The dialogue of the two Grande Brothers was like poking each other’s scars.
Benjamin smiled and patted Zach on the back, “I’m just giving an example. Unless you have other ‘descendants’ wandering outside that I don’t know?”
“There is no other.” Zach shook his head, the flash of emotion in his eyes was not noticed by the werewolf, “But you really give me a difficult problem. Now, she is trying to find her place in the Grande family.”
“She has one.” Benjamin smirked, “Your girlfriend. What else does she want?”
Louise’s foothold in the Grande was just her feelings for the vampire. However, the feelings between humans and vampires seemed to always end up becoming a tragedy.
Benjamin had pointed out the key point.
“That’s the problem.” Zach frowned. “Now she is caught in an unclear boundary. Unlike you and Matthew, she cannot see where she is.”
“Then just turn her.” Benjamin didn’t want to discuss more about the vampire’s feelings and said impatiently.
Zach didn’t reply.
It took Benjamin a long time before he realized that Zach was silent, “Hey, your face looks like shit.”
Zach raised his head and shook his head in anguish, “I shouldn’t give her a choice, now if I propose, she will definitely refuse.”
Benjamin looked at Zach who seemed to have really concerned expression and stopped using a casual tone. He frowned and thought about it for a while, shook his head, and sighed, “You are right.” Benjamin chuckled slightly, “Ian is really a very, very bad example, and you are a very, very bad ‘father’.”
Do you still remember when Zach explained the vampire heritage to Louise?
There is no ethical conflict, loss of personality, or physical and mental pain. On the contrary, it seems more like the beginning of the entanglement of fate.
Let’s take a look at what happened to Ian and Zach, whose fate has become entangled. As Benjamin said, ‘a very, very bad example’.
Louise is a smart woman. She sees, she waits, she thinks, and she draws conclusions. But this conclusion was not good.
“Then what are you going to do?” Benjamin asked Zach.
Zach thought for a while, stretched out his hand, and pushed forward meaninglessly. ‘Just live like this for now’, this was the message Benjamin received.
“Mr. Grande.” Father Constantine’s voice came from behind.
The two turned their heads and saw that the priest was already wearing the ceremonial dress, a black robe, a long white collar straight across the chest, and a pale silver cross on both sides.
Constantine nodded slightly to greet them, “The church has been prepared, and the back hall has been arranged. In a while, the host of the ceremony will come. You two can go to the back hall to rest and wait.”
Zach returned with a smile, followed behind the priest, thought for a while, and suddenly asked, “Father, has anything happened in the church recently?”
Constantine was very familiar with the Grande family, and the two have been cooperating with each other for almost ten years. In the beginning, it was only the prisoners sent from the prison. Only in the past two months, there have been more real funerals. The two usually chatted when they met, so Zach’s question was not that sudden.
Constantine smiled and said, “Besides yesterday’s incident?” He thought for a while, “It seems that nothing special has happened.”
“Oh.” Zach responded with a smile, “I was curious. Has Father heard of accidents in other churches?”
Constantine stopped smiling, made the cross sign on his chest, and nodded, “I’ve heard it. It was said that the second floor of St Mary’s Church has collapsed, and it was very bad. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Holy Lord bless.”
Zach also made the cross sign, with a trace of ‘sincere’ grief, “Does father think it’s a coincidence?”
Constantine smiled helplessly, “Except for coincidence, there is no other reason to explain it. The church has already made some arrangements, and it seems like all the churches in Barton will be renovated.” Constantine said this with a hint of apology.
Zach was dazed for a moment. He then smiled and understood what the priest meant. If it were to be closed for renovation, the funeral would be postponed again.
“Has the time been set?” Zach asked.
“Not yet.” Constantine said, “I will let you know if I have news.”
Zach nodded, “thank you, Father.”
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