Dawn drew nearer, and, as it did, it bathed the village in flat grey light. Rosalba waited, partially hidden next to a trash bin, for one particular person to show up. That was the time when the village started being alive, as many of its men and women had breakfast before heading out to the factory, and some of them were already on their way. The train station itself wasn't crowded, since every worker in the village was employed within the village itself, but that was only one more reason to be careful: the less people were around, the more she would stand out if someone who knew her saw her. The train had yet to appear on the tracks.

Damian showed up before the first rays of dawn, as he promised, dressed sharply and carrying his briefcase with him. He wore a fancy top hat and the biggest smile she had ever seen on him. Oh boy, she couldn't wait for the juicy news promised by that smile. She smiled back.

"Good morning, Rosalba."

She raised a brow, still smiling wide. "Yeah, yeah, 'morning. How did yesterday go?"

"Impatient, are we?" He chuckled. "Well, how can I put this? Nothing went as planned, but everything turned out great."

His grey eyes shined brightly as he briefly recounted the events of the day prior. Rosalba had to consciously restrain herself from squealing with delight when he told her that he and Clelia had finally had their first kiss. She imagined that he skipped over a lot of details, which was a bit of a shame, but understandable.

Rosalba vigorously patted his shoulder. "Well, looks like I get to say I told you so."

"I guess you do," he confirmed. "Tell me just one thing…"

The unmistakeable sound of the approaching train was just starting to become audible.

The olive skinned girl shrugged. "Sure, ask away."

He glanced at the platform, but quickly gave his attention back to her. "You already knew something before I talked to you the other day, didn't you? About me and Clelia, I mean."

"What tipped you off?" She smugged.

"Just a feeling. I got the impression that, when I told you about my feelings for her, you got really excited and had to restrain yourself hard in order not to spill something you had on your mind."

She giggled. "Hehe, guilty as charged. Buut, if you want to know more about that, why don't you ask your wifey?"

Damian shot another glance in the direction of the approaching train. "Alright, that's what I'll do then. Now, before it's time for me to leave, let's get to the real reason why we met here. I did promise you a reward for helping us… I was a little surprised at your request. Is everything fine at the farms?"

Rosalba affected a smile and tried her best not to show her anxiety. "Yep, everything absolutely fantastic. I just uh… need a little boost, that's all."

As the train stopped to the station, Damian put his hand in his pocket and extracted three, no, four golden coins from it. "You asked for three cunias, but I figured I'd give you an extra one: it doesn't make much of a difference to me, but I know that they're pretty valuable."

"Oh, I can't accept, master Damian, I'm not…"

"I insist. I don't know exactly what you need the three coins for, but you can use them and still have one for yourself."

She swallowed. One of those was worth more than the value of two weeks of work for her. She took them, her hands visibly shaking. "Thank you, master Damian."

"And please just call me Damian."

She barely registered the pleasantries they exchanged before he entered the train. Her heart was pounding. She was holding in her pocket the key to get out of the trouble she had accidentally found herself into. All she needed to do now was to swallow her pride, give the coins to the butler, or even the master herself, depending on the circumstances, and she'd probably get yelled at and maybe punished for a few days again, but at least the police wouldn't get involved. Plus, she could hide the fourth coin somewhere before getting to the farms and, perhaps, use it to buy something for herself…

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"Rosalba, how rare to see you up this early in the morning. I seem to recall that they always struggle to get you out of bed when it's time for the servitude to wake up, do they not?"

That voice stabbed her in the back, chills exiting from the wound in place of blood. She turned, eyes wide open in pure terror, to meet a pair of devilishly smiling reddish-brown eyes, encased in a perfect ivory white face surrounded by elegant black locks of hair.

"M-master…" Rosalba gulped, "Master Marianna."

What was she, of all people, doing there? To her knowledge, she didn't have any trips to the city scheduled.

Slowly approaching with elegant pace, Marianna explained, as if reading her mind, "I came here knowing that my cousin was about to leave for his first in-person lesson at the university, wanting to wish him good luck. I was not expecting to see you here too."

The olive skinned girl automatically assumed the usual position: hands and feet together, her head slightly bowed and her eyes focused on the stony ground. That's the pose she always took when about to get reprimanded.

"Say, what were you doing here? To my knowledge, you hadn't been in contact with Damian since we were all children. What changed?" Marianna inquired, maintaining her tone of fake friendliness.

Her mind raced, looking for the least pathetic explanation she could find, hoping against all hope that she hadn't seen Damian giving her the money. "Um, I… couldn't sleep last night and uh… you know, just wandered about until dawn came and I figured I'd watch the train and, you know, met master Damian by chance. He um… he recognised me and…"

Marianna, now close enough that her elaborate dark red dress filled a lot of Rosalba's face-down field of view, lowered her tone of voice and allowed the friendly tone to waver somewhat. "You know you're not allowed to go wandering about at night without permission, don't you?"

Rosalba gulped again. She knew, but the punishment for that would definitely be lighter than what would come if the truth was revealed. "O-of course, ma'am. I'm sorry, ma'am."

The beautiful girl clicked her tongue in disapproval. "Saying I'm sorry is useless if you're just going to do the same things over and over again. A master less generous than my mother would have kicked you out by now."

"Yes, ma'am."

A few tense moments later, Marianna sighed. "I suppose I might turn a blind eye, just this once. You're in deep enough trouble already, I don't see the point in piling this one infraction on top of everything else."

Trying her best not to look too relieved, Rosalba bowed. "My sincere thanks, ma'am."

When she brought her head back up, a perfect index finger landed on her thin lips.

"On one tiny condition," Marianna clarified.

As her hands started shaking again, the servant girl stuttered, "W-what condition, ma'am?"

An ill-boding smile expanded on the gorgeous face in front of her. "How about you show me what it is that my cousin gave you, right before leaving?"

"I b-beg you perdon, ma'am?"

"Pardon," she drily corrected. "I'm not blind. I know he gave you something, and you'll either show it to me now or I'll have you searched by Giovannone."

Marianna didn't shout, if anything her voice got a little quieter, which, somehow, managed to terrify Rosalba even more than screaming would have. She definitely didn't want to end up in Giovannone's hands, but perhaps she could find, on their way to the farm, a way to quickly get rid of the coins in a spot where she could hopefully find them later. Again, she would without a doubt get in trouble even if that plan worked to perfection, but it was still far less trouble than allowing them all to know that Damian had given her money.

"I don't know what you're talking about, ma'am."

The servant girl almost jumped, startled, when Marianna stuck a hand in the right pocket of her overalls, eventually drawing out the coins.

"Oh, what's this? Looks like, instead of just surrendering the coins you stole last week, you had an old friend bail you out, huh? With a little extra, too."

"Please, ma'am," Rosalba whimpered, "I didn't steal them, I swear. As I said many, many times I just lost them and couldn't find them no matter how…"

"Ugh, spare me." Any trace of fake kindness had gone from her eyes. "This time, making you skip a few meals won't be enough even for my mother to forgive you. Especially considering the circumstances in which you stole those coins. This time, finally, we will get rid of you, as we should have a long time ago."

Not just her hands, every joint in Rosalba's body shook. It was over. She really couldn't picture herself weaselling out of that one. They wouldn't listen, no matter how many times she told them the same story, no matter how true it was. Perhaps, the only way she had of getting out of trouble this time would be to run away. She didn't know where she could go, but…

No sooner had she formulated that thought, two officers came out of the station and walked towards them at a steady pace, summoned by a small and elegant gesture of Marianna. Rosalba's legs almost gave out. There really was no way of getting out of this one.