Volume 4: White Devil Chapter 206: Miller Martin
Water Mill, Long Island, New York.
"This place is so big that the entire Hope Hill neighborhood can fit in it." Colin stood in front of his Ford pickup truck, his hands on his waist, looking at the manor with its gate open in front of him, and exclaimed in shock.
On the passenger seat, Bethea, the fourteen-year-old youngest daughter of the Hawke family, jumped out of the car wearing a thick winter coat, raised the camera that looked more expensive than her father's car in front of her chest with both hands, pointed the lens at the iconic building of Watermill, the windmill built more than a hundred years ago, adjusted the angle, and took a photo of the scenery.
"I was also shocked when I first arrived. It's about fifteen acres. The sea you see now and the windmill, strictly speaking, all belong to this Mary Manor." Tommy wrapped himself like a cotton ball, walked over and stood beside his father, imitating the other's action of putting his hands on his hips, and introduced.
Living in California for too long made him uncomfortable with the New York winter.
Colin turned his head to look at Tommy and said in disbelief, "Fifteen acres?"
Then he looked around and said, "I said on the phone before that I would pay for the short-term rent this time. Wasn't it a bit too hasty? You know, in winter, the business of the shipbreaking yard is generally not very good. What's worse is that the sperm donation company I used to go to in Warwick went bankrupt. Even if it didn't go bankrupt, I don't think the money earned from selling tadpoles can pay the rent here. How much does it cost to sleep here for a night?"
"One dollar." Tommy said with certainty, and then looked at his sister who was playing with the camera beside him and did not come up to greet him immediately: "Hey, are you still mad at me because I couldn't go home for Christmas reunion? To be honest, I paid for the camera that Otilia gave you. Besides, do you see that big house? I think you should let Sofia go in with you first. I specially prepared a gift and hid it in one of the eleven bedrooms."
Bethea stood there as if she hadn't heard anything. Tommy sighed and admitted his mistake: "Okay, I'm sorry, my dear sister. I promised to go home for Christmas but I didn't do it. It's my fault. I promise that this will never happen again this year. I promise."
Hearing Tommy's confession, Bethea's always cold face finally showed a smile: "Last Christmas, although Otilia and Ashley came to accompany me and Dad, I still felt lonely because you and Tony didn't go home, but it doesn't matter, I forgive you."
"If I were you, I would go and see the gifts first." Tommy dared to reach out and pat her head gently after hearing his sister forgive him, and said with a smile.
Seeing Sophia standing at the gate of the main building of the manor in the distance and waving at her, Bethea ran towards the manor. After running a long way, she turned back and asked Tommy loudly, "I forgot to ask, what is the gift, Tommy?"
"You'll be absolutely shocked, Bethea!" Tommy shouted back at her. When Bethea continued to run forward, he added in a low voice, "In order to prevent your academic performance from declining during the holiday, I asked your tutor, Mrs. Morgan, from Rhode Island, to come over. I hope you like this surprise."
After saying that, Tommy turned around and prepared to walk into the manor with his father. As a result, he saw his father taking out his wallet and counting a stack of bills. Tommy asked in confusion: "What's wrong? The servants here don't need to pay tips, Dad."
"Here's about three hundred and twenty dollars. I'll pay you another fifty dollars later and you can renew the lease for another year." Colin handed the bill to Tommy. "Although this damn place looks no different from the countryside in Warwick, the rent for this big house is still very cost-effective."
Tommy didn't take the money his father handed over. He smiled and put his arm around his shoulders, and walked into the manor with him. "I can't do it. This is the church property of St. Dominic's Monastery. It was borrowed for vacation thanks to Ottilia's contribution. She helped the monastery with some charity activities before. In order to thank her for her kindness, the monastery rented this vacant asset to her for one dollar."
"I also often participate in the church's charity activities. I go to church every week... Why doesn't the church think of being grateful to me? The church in Warwick is too stingy. When I go back, I will call on the neighbors in Mount Hope to demonstrate. We are all God's people. The New York church can rent such a big house to believers for vacation for one dollar, but the Warwick Church only tells us, believers, this church needs to be renovated again, and we need to raise funds..." Colin immediately began to criticize the Warwick Church when he heard Tommy say that Ottilia rented such a big house for one dollar.
Tommy did not lie. This British Baroque-style Mary Manor, built in 1887, was indeed a church asset and was indeed rented to Ottilia by the church for $1. Ottilia even had the right of first refusal. But what Tommy did not tell his father was how much money Ottilia had contributed to those charitable activities, and that during the one-dollar lease period, the cost of repairing and maintaining the manor was also borne by Ottilia.
After the two entered the main building of the manor, Tommy introduced Paige, Martin, and Dorothy to Colin. Colin looked at Martin who was helping Dorothy carry various things, and whispered to Tommy: "Son, you brought two women, an old white woman, a black... black man, and even diapers from Los Angeles to New York, but you didn't bring Otilia back for our family gathering."
"Otilia, Ashley will come and meet up with their parents tomorrow, and then we will go to pick up Tony together. I promise that I didn't leave her in Los Angeles on purpose. In fact, she is in New York now, but she just doesn't have time to come." Tommy immediately explained to Colin that he had no intention of leaving Otilia in Los Angeles and bringing the other two women to New York to fool around.
After getting Tommy's assurance that Otilia would definitely show up, Colin walked towards Martin in the distance with a cigarette in his mouth.
Tommy breathed a sigh of relief. In the Hawke family, women had a higher status than men. If he dared to tell his father today that he did not respect Ottilia, Tommy absolutely believed that his father would give him a severe lesson in public.
Last Christmas, Tommy was unable to go home because he had to stay in California to help Jason with some EFF work, and Tony was overseas, so the Hawke family had to spend Christmas alone with Dad and Bethia.
But Ashley and Ottilia did not let this happen. Ashley brought her parents and Ottilia brought her parents to the Hawke family, and the three families happily spent Christmas of 1988.
This also made Colin accept Otilia more, and every time he called, he would persuade his son Tommy not to fool around and to be loyal to love.
But today, Father Colin didn't spend too much time teaching Tommy, because a black man named Martin attracted his attention, and he now had more important things to do than instruct Tommy.
…
In the afternoon, in the gym of Mary Manor, Martin was playing with Mr. Page's defibrillator, pushing the switch from time to time, making the defibrillator make crackling sounds, while Mr. Page was relying on the equipment in the gym to do weighted squats one by one.
"Mr. Page, do you feel that the boss's father is targeting me?" Martin asked. "I mean, he is like an overseer. He always finds things for me to do, lest I be idle."
Martin felt that he was being targeted. There were more than a dozen servants in this manor, and Tommy even brought his housekeeper Dorothy from Los Angeles. Originally, he, a driver and bodyguard, didn't need to show up for anything, but this old guy named Colin just kept an eye on him and arranged various things for him to do.
For example, when washing the car, Colin saw him chatting with Paige, so he walked over and asked him to help him wash the broken pickup truck, on the grounds that he was the driver of the Hawke family and the driver should help wash the car.
But just after he finished wiping the car and returned to Mr. Page to take a breath, the damn old man immediately appeared in front of him. He did not call him Martin, but said with a stern face: "Mr. Hart, my son does not pay you a salary to stand here and brag to others."
Martin said he had just finished wiping the car, and then this guy tilted his head and asked him to follow him to a place in the manor. When he arrived at the place, Martin was stunned. It was a carriage house located in the corner of the manor.
Carriage houses were a type of building that essentially disappeared from American urban homes after World War I.
In the carriage house of this manor, there are two shabby old wooden carriages that have been covered with dust for at least a hundred years.
"A carriage is also a car, Mr. Driver." Martin imitated Colin's tone depressedly and complained to Paige: "Can you imagine? He actually moved a recliner to the door of the carriage house and sat on it to watch me clean the two carriages. Is this something a human can do? When I was cleaning the carriage, what were you doing, Mr. Paige? What were you doing~"
Paige counted silently, and after he finished squatting, he stretched his limbs and said, "I moved another recliner and sat next to him, drinking beer and chatting, and by the way, I accompanied him to supervise you cleaning the car."
"That's the problem, Mr. Page, he and you are both damn racists!" Martin cursed bitterly.
Paige wiped the sweat off her face and corrected the mistake in Martin's words: "No, I must be, but Colin must not be."
"How do you know that's not the answer? Because he was wearing a black coat?" Martin asked, rolling his eyes.
"No, actually, when I observed the surroundings of the manor, I found that in addition to the carriage house, there was also an old-fashioned mill. I told Colin that after you clean the car, I should let you push the mill to grind some flour, but Colin refused. If he was a racist, he would definitely agree with my suggestion." Page said seriously:
"But Colin said that if he ever settled here, you could come and be the miller and hire other black people to work for you."
Martin clenched the stun gun in his hand: "You know, I'm going to blast your club first, then I'm going to blast the boss's club, and then..."
"Martin~" Sophia came in from outside, holding a credit card and a piece of paper with more than a dozen phone numbers in her hand and handed it to Martin: "This is Tommy's credit card and the phone numbers of more than a dozen high-end clubs or nightclubs in New York, as well as the address of a car rental company in Long Island. You can rent a luxury car you like, or even ask them to provide a driver, and then drive to those clubs and nightclubs and pick out the one you like best. You can invite your friends in New York to have a drink there tonight, and all expenses will be paid with this credit card."
The words Martin had not finished saying were stuck in his throat. He took the credit card and phone number handed to him by Sophia, lowered his head to look, and then looked back at Sophia blankly.
Sophia asked Martin in confusion: "What's wrong? Do you have other plans?"
"He's about to electrocute Tommy's club." Page walked over and said, wiping the sweat off his face.
"Really?" Sophia immediately looked at Martin with new eyes: "Shock him a few more times for me, warrior, you did what I always wanted to do."
"Crack, crack, crack~" Martin pressed the electric shock device against himself and his body shivered twice unconsciously with the current. Then he said, "I am ashamed of my intention to hurt the boss and his father just now. From now on, I am Martin, the loyal miller of the Hawke family."
