Chapter 718 A Bold Speculation
Uncle Jasper's house was not big but was old and rundown. Even the quilt on the bed was torn.
Still, it was much better than the little damp mud house that was Aunt Anne's home.
When they were inside the room, Nora made sure that the door was locked. Then, she placed her ear to the door and listened.
She heaved a breath of relief when she was sure that there was no sound of movement outside and that Uncle Jasper had gone downstairs with his wife to rest. Then, she pulled Clarissa to the bed and sat down together. She began to speak excitedly.
"Let me take a look at you. How are you? I was worried and scared to death when I woke up and didn't see you!"
As she spoke, she examined Clarissa from head to toe.
Clarissa allowed her to carry on for a while, then grabbed her hand and inquired, "I'm fine. How about you? I heard that your leg was injured. How was it? Is it serious?"
When they were walking in together, Clarissa noticed that Nora was limping on the left side. There was also a big bump in her trousers.
Nora replied, "I'm fine. When I parachuted down, I hit a rock and fractured my leg. Later, with their help, the broken part was set in place. It's no big deal. I'll recover after a while."
Straightaway, Clarissa knew that it was not a minor injury.
After all, that was a fracture rather than a dislocation. It was conventional wisdom that it needed a hundred days to heal a broken bone. Nora made an offhand remark as she did not want Clarissa to worry.
Clarissa thought for a moment, then patted Nora's hand and proposed, "The first thing is for you to recover completely. Fortunately, we are reunited now. We decide as we go along. Eventually, we will find a way out of here."
Nora nodded in agreement.
It was getting late, so they did not continue sitting but changed to pyjamas, and laid down.
For the first time in the past few days, Clarissa felt calm and reassured.
In her mind, with Nora beside her, any dangerous situation could be turned around.
Then, they began to consolidate whatever information they knew about the current situation.
They talked about the village that Clarissa was in before and the situation in that village.
In the same manner, Nora described the situation in this village.
Nora only just found out that the village was named Swouca Village. This village was even more remote than Laenteglos Village where Clarissa was.
Not only was the transport system primitive, but there was also no means of communication at all. The inhabitants here hardly stepped out of the village all year round.
They were self-sufficient in all their needs.
Anything else that was not available in the village could be bought from a grocery store more than ten miles away.
Any valuable farm produce would be sent and sold at the same place where the grocery store was.
In this short period of two days, Nora made a surprising discovery right in this village which was cut off from the world.
She found out that the men outnumbered the women by far.
Another observation was that a good number of the women looked dull and reticent.
Nora already regained consciousness when they rescued her from the mountain.
Since Nora was conscious, she was able to keep note of the people and their expressions as they passed by her.
They looked at her as if she was some strange being from elsewhere.
Their stare was blank and empty yet with a hint of sympathy, which gave Nora the chills.
She could not figure out why these people stared at her this way.
Her leg injury forced her to stay put in the house these two days.
Being confined to the house with only Uncle Jasper and his wife as the only company was getting intolerable for her.
There was no particular reason, just that the way this couple looked at her made her very uncomfortable.
Nora felt that the way they looked at her was not like they were looking at a living person.
It was more like they were looking at a piece of valuable goods or...an animal.
There was no other way for her to describe their stares, just that they made her very uncomfortable and queer.
Hence, she could not wait for Clarissa to come over.
Once they were reunited and started discussing, they should be able to find a reasonable answer.
After listening to Nora's account, Clarissa realized that she had similar feelings too.
Laenteglos Village gave her very strange feelings when she was there.
Although Aunt Anne saved her and appeared to be kind-hearted, she gathered a group of children to mind Clarissa. If Aunt Anne's reputation was impeccable, why was she afraid that Clarissa would wander around?
Logically, any normal adult would not wander around in a completely unfamiliar environment for no reason.
Therefore, she felt that the children were not there to care for her.
Instead, they were there to kept surveillance on her.
No matter how suspicious Clarissa felt, there was no way for her voice out since she was an outsider.
After all, it was only her gut feeling. Would it not be embarrassing if she voiced it out and it was not true?
Now that she knew that Nora shared the same feeling, she knew that she was correct in her suspicion.
Clarissa was quiet as she thought deeper about it.
Suddenly, she blurted out as she stared into the empty darkness, "Nora, do you think we have walked into a human traffickers nest?"
Nora was startled.
Her eyes widened in disbelief as she exclaimed,
"No, that can't be!"
Although Nora felt that something was wrong, she did not think of such a possibility.
Clarissa groaned aloud and explained.
"I hope not, but from what I have observed and your account of what happened over these two days, I believe it's very likely."
"Then, what should we do?"
Such bold speculation shook even the normally cool and calm Nora.
Nora was thinking through their dilemma. If this was a human trafficking nest, her martial arts skill would be useless. Both of them were not familiar with the terrain and had no idea of the route out. Furthermore, they had no means of communicating with the outside world. To be able to escape from this place would be a mountain too high.
Clarissa thought about it for a while, then shook her head and proposed,
"I am not sure. Let's take one step at a time. In my opinion, fortunately, they have no intention to harm us for now. I guess we are just two helpless women to them, so they are not on their guard. This is to our advantage. What we need is time for you to recover from your injury, and we'll take it from there."
Nora knew that what Clarissa said made sense.
She knew that no matter how big the background of the other party was or what intentions they might harbour.
Her injured leg was the biggest problem at hand.
Until she had recovered from her injury, conjuring up an escape route was futile.
Then, she closed her eyes and slept.
Clarissa was quietly thinking about what Anderson would be doing now.
The news of her mishap must have already reached him. What would he do about that?
Realistically, he was thousands of miles away and was too far away to help.
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