By noon they returned to the house. Margaret is still not there so Edmund handled their lunch and they ate by the garden.

The weather is as fine like any other day in Lenin. The clouds provide decent shade along with the trees that are planted near them. The cold breeze brushes through them gently time after time.

Stine went into his study and cleans up the place. He stacks the books they were on the floor on the shelves as well as the paper that was scattered.

Laina was standing by the door looking at Stine cleaning the room.

“Do you want to help?” Stine asks.

Laina gave him a nod and went into the room to help. There wasn’t as much cleaning and dusting as Margaret comes in the room before just lightly dust the place but careful enough not to move things around too much.

After cleaning they sat by the veranda and looks at the village. Cleaning the room almost took the entire afternoon. After a short while a thought pop inside Stines head.

“Laina, about the melody that you hum from the garden the other day”

“Yes?”

“Where did you learn it?”

“I’m not sure, it just came to mind.”

“What about it?”

“It’s a lullaby my wife used to sing back when we live in the city.”

“I must’ve learnt it there.”

“Could you sing it again.”

Laina began to hum the music. Stine chuckles at his request for Laina to sing when she began to hum. He thought to himself that she probably doesn’t know the lyrics of the song. Towards the end of the tune, Stine hums and uttered under his breath.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“I will be with you once more.”

Laina stops humming and looks at Stine with a confused face

“Oh, it’s the last part of the song.”

She gave a sigh and smiles at him. Then Margaret caught their eyes walking on a distance towards the house carrying a basket.

They had dinner afterwards and Stine asks Margaret how it was working with Cynthia.

“She’s stressed out even if she says otherwise. Losing her father is taking toll on her body more than she expects.”

The night draws dark and Stine is left to his thoughts. He wonders how to help Cynthia without being tasteless as to mention her father’s death.

The next day she asks Margaret to help Cynthia out again. While he still doesn’t know how to help Cynthia, he decides to find others who might need the hearts.

One such person lives in Edo who Laina describes as a stiff looking man who looks slightly younger than the doctor, he has a prominent burnt mark on his face and a strange eye.

Edo is the town between Musica and Dalia, the place with the beautiful valley where Stine offers to help Laina to sell the hearts. They arrived some time before noon. At the village square there was the caravan that Laina usually travels with. They called out to her grabbing her attention.

Stine notices that she looks like she wanted to talk with them for a while.

“Go on ahead, I’ll be by the tavern.”

Laina’s lit up then she went to the group.

Inside the tavern there were almost no one there. The owner was at the counter and on the corner of the place is a man drinking like there is no tomorrow.

Stine disregarded the drunkard’s presence and reserve a table. But no matter how much he tries not to look at the man he became curious when he saw the cane right next to him. The drunkard wasn’t making a ruckus and the owner is happily serving the man.

After chugging another bottle of liquor, the man stood up and burps. He doesn’t have his left arm and right leg and he wears an eyepatch over his right eye. He took the cane and walks out of the tavern where he bumps onto Laina who is going in.

The man smiles smile at her and Laina apologize at the man with the red face. When Laina sat down she catch her breath then she looks at Stine with a glint in her eyes.

“You weren’t gone long, did something happen?” Stine asks the girl sitting across him like she wanted to tell something exciting.

The food just arrive before Laina could utter a word. They then talked about it while eating.

During the conversation, Stine notices how different Laina is compared to when he first met her. He thought to himself maybe she is able to finally warm up to him.

“You look like you wanted to tell me something earlier”