little miss austin

Byron huddled in a living room with drawn curtains, which smelled of tobacco and alcohol.

Alice frowned: "It stinks! Lucy, go and call the cleaning maid."

Lucy agreed meekly, and went out to command the maid.

The maid came in quickly, and Alice pointed to the curtains and said, "First open the curtains, open all the windows, and then tidy up the room."

The maid quickly started to work.

The curtains are drawn and the sun shines in.

Byron moaned, "Don't—" He covered his eyes with his hand, the glare was too much for him.

Alice ignored him, "keep doing things!"

Sydney found a clean armchair in the room and moved it in front of the sofa on which Byron was nestling.

Alice sat down, "did you sleep last night?"

"I don't know." He answered vaguely.

"Drink so much, what do you want to do?"

"I want to get drunk." He said sadly, "Alice, I'm an orphan—"

"Then you cry."

"I want to hug you, come here, let me hug you."

"No, you stink. I can only let you hug after you take a shower."

Immediately after her, Lucy said, "I've ordered the bathwater to be boiled."

Well, this Lucy is really capable.

"Have someone wait for him to take a bath, don't let him get drunk and drown in the bathtub." Alice stood up, "After he has washed and changed his clothes, tell him to go downstairs to the living room to stay. Where is my room?" ?”

Lucy took her to the guest room, "This is the room that the young master will prepare for you as soon as you come back. All the bedding is brand new, and I bought it myself."

"What is your status in Newstead Manor now?"

Lucy hesitated, "It's the master's head maid."

This suits her identity, and it's not good to call the mother of the young master's illegitimate child always an ordinary maid.

"Where's the child? Bring me to see."

"I'll bring him here." Lucy was still very docile.

Sidney knew that Byron had an illegitimate child, but she didn't know that the child's biological mother was Lucy, so she asked ignorantly, "What child?"

A few minutes later, Lucy brought in a little boy, "This is Miss Austin."

The little boy was only about 2 years old, and he couldn't walk very steadily. He was well dressed, and he looked like a young master of a noble family.The words were also vague, but it was barely clear, "Miss Austin."

"What's his name?"

"Monk."

"Monk?" The name is rare and strange. "What's your last name?"

Lucy hesitated, "Anderson."

"Your surname?" Mrs. Becker had taught her before that illegitimate children who were not officially recognized by their biological father could not take their father's surname.

Lucy nodded.

"Where does he live?"

"In the room next to me, and I live in the servants' room upstairs."

"Have the Gordons come?"

"His house is far away, and he won't be there until tomorrow."

Alice nodded, "Okay, it's none of your business for now. Go and take care of your young master."

Lucy curtseyed and took little Monk away.

Only then did Sidney speak: "Miss, is that the illegitimate son of Master George?"

"Correct."

Sidney was confused, "The child is very beautiful, but—"

"But what? Are you stupid? I might be troubled if I married George."

"Is that Lucy the child's mother?"

"Yes. Isn't she pretty?"

Sidney immediately expressed her loyalty, "Miss is the most

Pretty, but she's not pretty. "

She continued to struggle, "Master George is like this—it's really bad!"

"You! That's because you came to my house as a maid. My father is a pastor, and my brothers have been taught very well. No one will mess with the maids in the house. Many manor masters default that they can pull any maid into bed. But, of course, George's eyes are high, and he can't see anything other than beauty."

Sidney sighed, "I've heard of it before, but... I always thought it was only a small part, but Master George is like this—what about Master Ivo? Master Oliver is not like this, right?" She was suddenly shocked.

"Don't guess, come and change my clothes."

Alice went downstairs.

Byron had already showered, washed his hair, and changed into clean clothes. He was walking around in the living room a little anxiously. When he saw her going downstairs, he rushed up to greet her, "I'm so glad you're here, Alice. "

He hugged her and saved her from walking the remaining 3 steps.

"Put me down," she said calmly.

"Don't let it go."

"If you want me to come, I will come. Now, you have to listen to me."

He thought for a while, "Okay, but—" Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly saw Henry Austin coming down the stairs, and was so frightened that he quickly put her down.

"Mr. Austin."

"Mr. Byron." Henry pretended not to have seen the scene just now, "I'm sorry."

"Thank you." He was a little annoyed, but thinking about it, how could she come here by herself, she must have a brother, sister or relative to accompany her.She can go abroad with them, and she has to be called his and Ivo's cousin outside.

"Don't drink too much, you still have a funeral to attend." Alice said to him gently.

Newstead Manor was probably very grand in the past. Byron said that this manor was given to the ancestors of the Byron family by Henry VIII hundreds of years ago. His cousin of Chaworth who died was also the uncle of Mary Chaworth who rejected him at the beginning, so let alone Mary Chaworth was engaged at the time, even if she was not engaged, the Chaworth family would not agree of;

The houses in Newstead Manor lack good maintenance and repairs, and the surrounding facilities are barely usable. They rely on the surrounding fields to maintain their livelihoods, with an income of about 2000 pounds a year, but the expenses are also high, and money is used everywhere.

Lady Catherine's coffin rests in the chapel near the estate, cast in ice. The weather in August is very hot, so the coffin cannot be stopped for too long. The morning of August 8th will be the funeral, which will be buried in the nearby Byron family cemetery.

Byron took Alice out of the chapel, but did not go in.

"Mother said, if you are a good girl, let us get married." He looked at her with a melancholy smile, "She always thinks things are very simple."

Alice smiled and said nothing.

Byron looked at the spire of the chapel and sighed softly.

In the middle of the night, Alice's room.

Suddenly a part of the wall moved, a secret door opened, a person came out quietly from the secret door, turned around and closed the secret door, then walked to the bed and looked at her for a while with the moonlight shining through the window.

Then, he got on the bed carefully and hugged her.

Alice didn't wake up, but after a while, she was woken up.

She was startled and wanted to shout, but her mouth was quickly covered, "It's me."

She broke out in a cold sweat. "How did you get in?!"

"It flew in through the window."

Such words are deceiving ghosts!

"Don't touch me, I don't want to get pregnant."

"Just once, you won't get pregnant."

Alice wanted to curse, "George Byron!" She slammed her elbow behind her.

Byron cried out in pain, "Alice

—"

She hurriedly got out of bed, "Where did you come from?"

"I miss you so much, I just want to hug you."

Believe him to hell!

"Let's go, don't pretend to be pitiful."

"Alice, I am an orphan, and now, I only have you."

She was unmoved, "If you really want to, go to Lucy, she won't refuse you."

"You are so cruel!"

"You are so shameless!"

The two stared at each other in the dark.

"Ivo will come tomorrow, you have to stay with me, you are not allowed to go to him."

"Who do you think you are? You won't allow it if you say no?" Rolling his eyes.

"Be my lover, Alice. I will rent an apartment near your house, and then I will go to you secretly at night, or you can come to me secretly."

"I'll think it over."

"Hurry up and agree." He was full of joy, "Then I'm leaving, don't regret it."

"No regrets, get out of here."

He quickly slipped out of the secret door again.

Alice stared at the secret door, and decided to ask the servant to move the cabinet over to block it during the day.

The next morning, after breakfast, the Gordons arrived.

The Gordons, Ivo, and the other two unmarried daughters.

Alice was delighted at first that he had reconciled with his parents, and then she was amazed that he had changed a lot: he was much thinner!Thin and out of shape, the cute bun face with a little baby fat is gone, and now it is a man's face with sharp edges and corners.

She almost didn't dare to recognize him.

"Alice." He was still so cute when he smiled, but there was something inexplicably—vicissitudes?

"are you sick?"

"No."

"Then why are you so thin all of a sudden?" Thinking about it, they haven't seen each other for more than 4 months.

He smiled, but didn't answer her.

The Gordons seemed to be as warm to her as ever, and never mentioned her illness.Alice didn't mention it either. It was all over and there was nothing to mention.

Byron didn't allow her time to be with Ivo, and always asked Lucy to invite her, and asked her to stand with him at the funeral the next day.

The Gordons secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The funeral was brief, with the pastor reading passages from the Bible, and Byron placing a rosary of Lady Catherine's cross on the coffin lid.

Workers lowered the coffin into the grave and began to sprinkle soil into the grave.

After watching for a while, Byron took Alice's hand, "Let's go." He left decisively.

Those who attended the funeral gradually left, some went home, others returned to the manor.

Mrs. Gordon told the maid to pack up and go home.

"Stay one more day," said Mr. Gordon.

"What's one more day for?" Mrs. Gordon gave him a look.

"I have something to say to George."

"What else can you do? You have taken care of him for so many years, and now he is an adult, so you don't need to take care of it. You can take care of your son when you have time!"

"Ivo has grown up too, what else can I do? My dear wife, are you still worried about Alice? I think she will soon become Mrs. Byron."

Mrs. Gordon was angry. "I really don't want to see her again."

"If you don't want to see her, don't come to Newstead."

Mrs. Gordon snorted, "Ivo hasn't forgotten her yet. No, if you want to stay for one more day, tell George to marry her as soon as possible. Then Ivo should give up."

"I said, ma'am, don't you think Ivo is not suffering enough? Just spare our son!"

"Ivo's an idiot! I need to get him to meet other girls quickly, he's always going to like other cuter girls

. "

Mr. Gordon couldn't understand his wife's psychology. They decided not to let Ivo see Alice because Alice was dying of illness; but now that Alice's illness has recovered, Ivo ran away from home She also went home, what was she still upset about?She liked Alice quite a lot before, why would she hate her so much now?

Almost everyone in Newstead Manor regarded Alice as the future mistress.

When the butler had something he couldn't figure out and Byron was impatient to deal with it, he came to ask her.

Alice found out on the day of her arrival that this was not a good thing.Although Newstead Manor is not operating in debt, it is not good. It urgently needs a large sum of money for repairs. Byron plans to rent out the manor and use the rent to repair the manor. He lives in London.

They haven't had time to discuss this issue in the past two days. They have time to discuss it after the funeral.

"Well, even if you still have a little money to pay the rent and pay the bills, what are you going to do? You can't really drink wine every day?"

"Aren't you going to publish my poetry collection? How many copies should you sell?"

"It's not that I'm going to publish your collection of poems, but my brother's publishing house will publish your collection of poems." The reason why she asked Brother Henry to accompany her was also to sign a publishing contract with Byron.

"That makes no difference. I've signed the contracts."

"Don't forget, you still owe me £5000."

He froze for a moment, "How about I rent a room in your house?"

You better go!

She didn't even want to refute this kind of nonsense, "I still have a house in London. I don't need to charge you rent, but you have to earn your own money for living expenses."

He didn't even think about it, "This shouldn't be difficult. But, is that house far from your home?"

"far away."

"Then why did you come to find me?"

"Think about it when you're dreaming."

That night, Byron tried to enter her room through the secret door again, but was blocked by the cabinet.

"Alice!" he was so angry, "move the cabinet away!"

"I can't move."

"Then I came in through your door."

"How dare you!" She hurriedly said, "Don't let Henry know."

"He lives far away from you and won't know."

"You shameless bastard!"

"You cruel woman!"

He left angrily.But after a while, he knocked on the door outside.

Alice had to let him in.

"Why don't you go to Lucy? She is so beautiful, can't she satisfy you?"

"Don't mention her, okay? There are many beautiful women! But you are only one. You haven't answered me yet. Be my lover and let me into your room."

"Aren't you coming in?"

"I mean, your room here."

"you think too much."

"You're just a ruthless woman. You weren't like that when you were young, how cute you were when you were young!"

Alice suspected that he drank too much and hurt his brain. She framed him and Ivo for countless times when she was a child.

after awhile.

"Do you have to ask me to use this?"

"It must be used, or you will go out."

"Then you have to help me."

"Shameless!"

"Hurry up, I'm going crazy."

"Hold on!"

"I'm a man, I can't hold back."

"Then do it yourself."

"Stop talking, kiss me, and then, close your eyes."

Alice soon returned to London.

Body Smuggling and Kidnapping in London and England

Investigation Report on the Current Situation of Man

She was very surprised by the publication of the report: the report revealed several crimes, from stealing corpses to selling corpses, a one-stop service of stealing, transporting, and selling corpses, and the major buyers were medical students; And the more sensational crimes carried out: kidnapping, murder, and trafficking.Victims are often street vagrants, tramps, prostitutes, male prostitutes, homosexuals, and a small number of abducted children from good families. Thousands of children disappear in London every year. This is a very alarming number. How many families suffer from this, how many The husband and wife turned against each other because of this, and many children died before they started life.The pain of children is the pain of the country, children have no future, and the country has no future;

Then he scolded the medical students who knew that all these corpses were of unknown origin-because the government banned the sale of corpses-but they were still willing to pay 8 to 10 pounds for a corpse. A corpse thief can sell 30 corpses or more a month. However, there are dozens of corpse thieves in the London area alone. The government knows nothing about the entire market and the entire smuggling chain. What is even more frightening is that some people know about it, but indulge the criminals by accepting bribes.

The investigation report was written in a clear, powerful and well-organized manner. It included the real names of some corpse thieves and the suspected murderer, who seemed to be undercover on the ground.

But also extremely dangerous, because you know what a desperado will use to get revenge.

She paid attention to the author, and this time it was not the "Eye of Truth" that she had thought of at the beginning, but a strange male name: Black White.

It looks like a pseudonym at first glance, who would name a child "Black and White"?

This is one of the topic selection plans for the investigation report she submitted to Wesley a few years ago. Wesley thought this topic was too risky and rejected it.

So, who went undercover?

Wesley said: "I can't tell you, the fewer people who know about this matter, the better. This is to protect you."

"Aren't you afraid of the revenge of these outlaws?"

"Afraid, why aren't you afraid? You see, we have some more employees. These are the bodyguards I hired."

"I'm really afraid that one day you will become the news in the newspaper. You didn't let me choose this topic at the time, why would you want to do it now?"

"This topic is very dangerous for you, but it is not necessarily dangerous for Black White. We made foolproof preparations together and it took a long time."

"Is this Mr. White safe now?"

"As far as I know, it's safe."

"Is he in London?"

"No."

"That's good. But be careful, I don't want to see you die young."

Wesley smiled, "I will be very careful. Well, don't talk about work all the time, tell me about you, you have been away for more than two years, what do you think of going abroad?"

"It's fun, but because of the war, we didn't go to many countries. The Mediterranean Sea is beautiful, Greece is particularly beautiful, and the sea is shockingly blue. But I haven't played in Egypt. I went to Lisbon to visit Oliver, and Oliver was injured. "

"I heard that his injury was not serious, so he was promoted and is now a major."

"Yes! He's young and handsome. He must be handsome in a major's uniform."

"You... well, what happened after that? Did you enjoy your time in Italy?"

"I don't have many places to visit in Italy. I didn't go to Naples, Sicily, or Malta. As I told you, I studied oil painting in Rome, and now I can draw very good portraits."

"Have you ever met a Roman courting you?"

"Yes, but I can't have anything to do with them. I don't understand Italian."

"You should learn a little Italian, Italian is very nice." He then said a few words in Italian.

"Have you studied?"

"Yes, William and I met a pair of lovely sisters in Italy."

"Really?" Alice became interested, "But

William never mentioned it. "

"That's because the sisters were just flirting with him, they were both engaged and we didn't find out until we separated from them."

"And you? Haven't you met any lovely young ladies in Europe and America?"

"Yes, but there are too many lovely girls, no one can be like Jane."

"You should have forgotten her long ago. It's not that you can only love once in your life."

"That's too difficult. At least, there must be a girl worthy of love."

"There are so many good girls in England that there isn't another one worthy of your love?"

"Maybe, but she doesn't have me in her eyes."

Alice doubted: "Is there really such a girl?"

He didn't answer the question again.

At the end of August, Byron arrived in London.

Alice chose an apartment from her own property for him to live in, and he brought Hugh, a valet, Fletcher, a valet who was away on errands, the maid Lucy, the maid Anne, and little Monk came with his mother .There is also a cook and a washerwoman.A young master cannot have enough servants, no matter how poor he is, he cannot lose face.

He didn't ask Alice to borrow money, but he still has money in his hand, which is enough to support his life. It should be Mrs. Catherine's savings over the years, but the house is not big, so he can't call friends.

Alice sometimes came over during the day to spend a long time with Byron, and occasionally stayed after dinner before going home.She saw Lucy and little Monk, and thought he brought the illegitimate child, which was not irresponsible, but it just felt a little weird to her.

Byron may not have any "interest" in Lucy, but this guy has no morals, and it's hard to say, after all, Lucy has a beautiful appearance and a very docile temperament. Don't men like such a woman?

One day in September, Wesley held a ball at his villa in Hyde Park and invited Alice.

Cousin Anna took her adopted daughter Claire and accompanied Alice to the ball.

After two dances, the host, Wesley, invited her to a dance.

When the dance music was over and during the break, he took her upstairs quietly.

"Someone wants to see you," he whispered.

"Who?" Alice felt strange.

When she arrived at the door of a guest room, she still remembered that this was the room she lived in when she was young.

Wesley knocked on the door three times very carefully.

The people in the room opened the door.

"Ivo?" She was surprised.

Wesley pushed her lightly, "Go in quickly."

She entered the room, and Ivo hugged her tightly.

"Ivo?"

The door closed gently.

"I have to see you."

"You can come to see me at my house." She really felt a little strange.

"I can't. Alice, I'm leaving soon, I... I've messed with someone who is not easy to mess with, so I can't go to you directly."

Alice was a little puzzled at first, but it didn't take long to figure it out, "Black White is you!"

Shock!My ex-boyfriend was an amazing investigative reporter!