OBS Chapter 2568 Bennett's Old House
Chapter 2568 Bennett's Old House
Chapter 2568 Bennett's Old House
"I'm sure Shade won't mind."
Miss Danister had met little Mia many times and knew that Shad liked to have cats around, so she teased with a special smile.
Xia De hesitated for a moment before nodding:
"Miss Winslet, as long as you don't mind standing on my shoulders, I have no objection. It's my pleasure."
Then the witch took off her glasses again, and then turned into a gray-black cat in the gray-white mist. But like the fat owl, the face of the cat that Flora Winslet turned into also looked round and quite charming and beautiful.
Xia De then squatted down and stretched out his hand to her. The cat, which had just acted quite indifferent, took a few steps towards him, but before it really stepped its paw into Xia De's palm, it raised its head and looked at him again, then stepped back:
"Okay, I admit I'm not ready for contact with strange men."
She changed back into human form and put on her glasses to signal Shade that he could go out:
"The passive property of the Sage-level relic [Confusion] is that I wear glasses. Unless I am willing to reveal my identity, strangers will never recognize me. The positive properties are hypnosis and rewriting cognition. Although it is a bit troublesome to transform into a human, I can still maintain it. Let's go like this."
"Well, let's go to the old Bennett house first."
Shade suggested, and Miss Danister asked:
"Are you coming back for lunch?"
"Not necessarily. If we don't come back before twelve o'clock, you can eat by yourself."
Miss Winslet said, following Shade out of the room. The eighteen-year-old red-haired sorceress smiled as she watched them leave. After the door closed, she did not pick up the book but let the small mirror under the coffee table fly into her hands:
"Eighteen years old."
She sighed in front of the mirror, and for a moment she felt that even if she remained eighteen years old forever, it didn't seem to matter. But then she began to wonder what Shade and the witch would encounter today, and finally asked the mirror with a smile:
"Mirror, mirror, please tell me when they come back tonight, will Shad hold the cat?"
Of course, an ordinary mirror could not answer her.
The old Bennet family estate, where the cabinets were stored nearly a hundred years ago, was located on the northwest edge of Creekwood in those days, but in today's era it is located on the outskirts of Vista, just north of the city.
Because the development direction of Ximu Town is towards the southwest, the manor is not surrounded by the city, but is gradually surrounded by forests.
With the Bennet family being stripped of their titles half a century ago and various changes since then, although the manor still belongs to the Bennet, it has been almost completely abandoned due to poor maintenance and exists only as an ancestral home.
To move from the city center to the Bennett's old house, one needs to take a carriage. Miss Winslet, who followed Shad downstairs, did not communicate with him on the stairs of the hotel, but when the coachman rang the bell and the wheels began to roll on the road, the lady with long gray-black hair finally spoke:
"Have you told Carina about me?"
She sat opposite Xia De, but no emotion could be seen in her golden eyes.
"Of course I did. She asked me if my rescue of Miss Danister in Vista Glades went smoothly and if I needed her help. I told her the whole process. I don't have the habit of lying to Carina."
Schade said so, and Flora Winslet pointed out:
"If you help me hide this from her, maybe you can win my favor. Isn't that the case with all you men? You have already won the favor of a witch, I don't believe you don't have other ideas, I am very confident in myself."
"But I shouldn't have lied to Carina no matter what. Gaining your favor is not as important as Carina's favor to me."
Xia De emphasized, and the witch with glasses laughed:
“Very good, it seems that although Carina concealed something important, her vision is still as good as ever.
Just tell her, at least it guarantees that if any of us three run into trouble locally, there will be someone to rescue us. "
Somehow, Shade clearly felt that Miss Winslet had a high degree of favor towards him. This was not the kind of favor of "liking", but the kind of favor of "friendliness". However, he was not stupid enough to ask this question, so the witch took the initiative to ask:
"There will be another great witch appearing in Tobesk next. Did you know about this?"
"Miss Vanessa Benedict? I know. The opera company will probably arrive later next week. They didn't take the direct train."
The lady with gray-black hair then complained:
"I knew that Karina must have told you a lot about us. As long as you say a few sweet words and smile at her, she will definitely not refuse to answer any of your questions."
"She just talked about things that might be related to me. For example, your story. Before I met you that day, I had no idea who you were."
"Love makes people blind. Even someone as intelligent as Carina can be affected by it."
She was sighing there, and Xia De really didn't want to talk about this topic, so he asked again:
"Let's talk about the Bennet family before the carriage reaches its destination. You and Miss Danister should know the Bennet family better than I do. How many of them are there now?"
"Not much. The oldest of the Bennet family is Thomas Bennet, the owner of the Accordion Inn. He is considered a very stingy man, and his wife is a typical sarcastic country woman, but she is pretty."
Miss Winslet said, and she wiped her face with her hand, and her beautiful face immediately turned into the face of an ordinary woman. Of course, it was still beautiful in the eyes of ordinary people:
"The couple has five children, the first four are daughters, and now the oldest one got engaged this summer and plans to hold the wedding next spring.
In fact, the old Bennet didn't care much about the children at home, but only about the business. Mrs. Bennet didn't care about the moral and cultural education of her daughters at all. Her only concern was how to marry off all her daughters decently as a capital for her to show off.
The witch restored her face to normal:
"As for the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, he is only 11 years old now. They do not live in the Accordion Hotel, but in a mansion three streets away from the hotel. They are well-known wealthy people in the local area. The five children will occasionally appear in the hotel, and you will have the opportunity to see them."
"Five children?"
Shade frowned slightly. The "mermaid" said that the content of the deal between Bennett and her included "three children", and also said that Bennett's wife died early and was fortunately not included in the deal:
"So, isn't desire talking about Thomas Bennet?"
He guessed in his heart and asked again:
"What about Thomas Bennet's sireship?"
"Bruce Bennet, his family lost the title when he was young. He gave birth to three children, and now the only one left alive is the innkeeper.
Bruce Bennett died seven years ago. I just did a superficial investigation and it was said that he had contracted a serious illness. If you are interested, we can also exhume the body for an autopsy."
After saying that, she raised her eyebrows at Xia De again:
"From your expression, do you really want to dig up the body?"
"There may be some conflicts between the Bennet family and me. I suspect Bruce Bennet is not dead. Well, it's just a guess. Let's go to the Bennet's old house first, and hope we can gain something."
In 1763, when Miss Winslet and Miss Danister had been there, the owner of the old house was the great-grandfather of the current innkeeper. After the grandfather's generation was stripped of his title for protecting musicians and political prisoners, the old house was abandoned.
Therefore, when Shad and Miss Winslet stood at the gate of the manor locked with heavy iron chains, what they saw was a dilapidated courtyard overgrown with weeds and a building with badly faded walls.
But other than that, the place is in good condition. The iron fence is not rusted, and every window in the mansion has glass. It seems that although the Bennet family no longer lives here, they have not completely abandoned their ancestral home.
In 1763, when Shadcat chased Miss Owl out of the manor, the streets outside were still relatively prosperous. But now that the city is developing, the streets where the manor is located have become depressed and unrecognizable.
The main part of the street is very different from more than 90 years ago, with a small amount of farmland and some low farmhouses scattered around. The street that was originally accessible to horse-drawn carriages is now bumpy and looks like a country road.
Looking further around, the forest gradually surrounded the manor. The city was developing, but the old Bennett house had been abandoned in the past.
"For me, it only took two or three days for this place to become deserted."
Xia De heard the witch sighing beside him, and he asked:
"If the Bennet family still hires someone to maintain the place regularly, then are there servants in the house now?"
"Maybe there are, but there are only one or two at most. We just need to be cautious and avoid them."
Although there were people nearby, it was harvest season and the farmers were busy in the fields so no one was looking in that direction. While Shade was still lamenting the poor harvest this autumn, the witch beside him had transformed into an owl and flew over the fence.
And when she landed on the ground in human form again, the silver cat also crawled in through the gap in the fence.
The two walked side by side through the courtyard covered with fallen leaves. The door of the mansion was naturally locked, but when Shade reached out and knocked on the lock, it automatically popped open. Pushing open the door and seeing the dim interior of the mansion, Shade felt as if he had returned to 1763.
Because compared to the desolation and dilapidated courtyard, the interior of the building was exactly the same as that snowy winter, except for the lack of some furniture and paintings.
"time."
【Don't worry, there is no time travel. 】
(End of this chapter)