3. Secret Spots

Nara left the room bursting into tears. She ran all around the house and the kitchen chambers going straight to the end of the garden, on the other side of the large property. There, hidden between bushes and shrubs, was hidden by a wooden door down on the ground. Nara pulled it with both hands and opened it wide with a crackling sound. She went down, underground, stopping the wooden stairs that creaked under each footstep. Waiting a moment so her eyes could adapt to the dark, she remembered to light the candle that she always keeps here for when she visits.

On her right she found it and she lit it, giving to this space a warmer feeling. Still dripping tears and having the hurtful words of Lady Jang in her ears, Nara sat down on the cold stone flooring.

“Mother, I wish you were here!” , she cried, leaning on the wall of the stone grave where her dear mother had been since she died. This place, hidden in the backyard, became the tomb of her mother and the place where Nara runs to whenever she is sad and feels alone.

For 17 years she lived as a stranger in the house of Lady Jang who hated her for being a “bastard child”, as she used to call her all the time. She found comfort in this hole dug in the ground, which was the place where they put the dead body of her mother, the exact same day when Nara was brought to life. Her mother died when she gave birth to her and so she grew up without feeling her love and affection.

Minister Jang ordered to bury her there as she wasn't worthy to be put in the graveyard of the family. She wasn't a Jang, in the end. She was a maid and the one who brought shame on the family's name by claiming that she was pregnant with her master. Lastly, this is how Lady Jang always portrayed Nara’s mother.

Saran, the mother of Nara, was brought in the house by Minister Jang, before he was a member of the court. At that time he was a businessman who was well known for making great deals and getting lots of money from all kinds of trade and wholesale activities. He was buying and selling various products and getting richer and richer from one day to another.

It was 17 years ago when he brought Saran home and told his wife to take her as house maid. Lady Jang wanted to know about her, from where she came and how she arrived in her house, but her husband totally forbade her to ask any details from her or Saran. This did not stop Lady Jang from treating heat poorly and being aggressive towards that girl who wasn't more than 19 years old. Many times she scolded her for her clumsiness because she kept breaking things or making mistakes as it seemed like she wasn't used to labor work or any house chores. It seems to her like she wasn't a maid originally, but a girl from a rich family. Also, her fair skin and slender body didn't resemble a working woman who cleaned, scrubbed all day long and carried heavy things around the house.

Even after she noticed her getting sick, Lady Jang didn't treat her any better. Saran started to look weaker and faint at times. One day, while she was putting the food on the table, immediately after laying the fish plate, Saran went out holding her mouth as she would vomit. This was the day Lady Jang knew why her husband brought her home three months ago, at the end of march.. Although Saran's stomach was growing day by day, Lady Jang gave her more work and put her to do more effort around the house.

Then at the end of cold December, Saran lost her life after a long and strenuous labor, while giving birth to a daughter. Only her and another maid who helped her, Saran fought for her life, knowing very well that if her daughter would be left alone she would suffer enormously under the hand of Lady Jang. The heavy bleeding did not allow Saran to have the energy to fight and gave her last breath having Nara on her chest.

Nobleman Jang ordered the building of that underground tomb and put her body in there and then closed it with a large wooden door. Then he demanded his wife to take Nara and raise her along with Hana who was just borne a week before Nara. Lady Jang didn't accept responsibility for raising a bastard child so she asked the maid, who helped Saran to give birth, to take care of the baby and raise her to be a maid later on.

Hana and Nara grew up together, but they were never told that they were sisters. Nara was raised as the lady-in-waiting of Hana and the one to look after her at all times. She was helping her at all tasks, from cleaning her clothes, preparing her food, serving her or making sure she looked perfect all the time. They even studied together as she was also in care of her lessons and tutoring sessions. So Nara learned how to read and write which is not common at all for a maid.

The two girls discovered the world together and Nara knew all her secrets while they became young ladies. Hana treated her better than her mother did, even though Lady Jang always told her to keep distance and not be affectionate or kind to the “dumb maid”. At times, Hana did not understand why mother was so mad about Nara and treated her badly, but she never asked more about it. She trusted Nara and she had confidence in her.

Nara saw she was treated differently as she grew up, compared to how everyone treated Hana.
Hana was the precious daughter of the family, the one who spent hours with her mother, laughing together and talking about all kinds of things and who ran to hug her father, giggling, every time he came home.

Minister Jang didn't scare Nara as much as Lady Jang did. He was indifferent and didn't care about her doings. The only time he talked straight to her was in the summer, when Nara was 11 years old. That day she brought him a cold tea in his office on a hot afternoon and while she turned to leave the room he shouted at her and threw the cup toward her.
“You disgusting thing!”, she heard him yelling while grabbing her arm and dragging her across the house at the end of the garden. There he opened the wooden door in the ground and threw it down there, closing it afterwards.

She felt hurt and sick as she already wasn't feeling well that day. Nara woke up at the end of those few stone steps and tried to look around her. It was too dark so she squirted her eyes in the dark to see what that place was. Then she noticed a rectangular block built in the middle of the place and then she realizes it is a tomb. She got scared and started to cry, holding her face onto her shirt. She stayed there the entire night till next morning when she woke up in excruciating pain. Her stomach was uncomfortable and she felt her skirt was wet. She thought that she urinated while sleeping so she tried to get up and go under the door which had a few cracks that the morning light was passing through. She grabbed her skirt and looked around herself and noticed something that seemed to be blood. This and remembering the fact she is in a tomb frightened her and started to cry and scream and kick the door from under the ground.

Nobleman Jang was getting ready to leave the house when he heard her screaming and sent word to his wife about the girl who he locked in there and to go release her.

“But why did you lock her? What else did she know about this clumsy stupid girl?”, asked Lady Jang.

“That disgusting thing touched my tea and came to me while she was dirty with her menses.”, answered her husband and spat, leaving his wife behind .

Lady Jang called a maid and sent her to take Nara out and clean her and talk to her about what just happened to her and how a woman should behave during this time.

This day Nara learned about becoming a woman and what is allowed and not and she felt ashamed about this and appeared like this in front of the man of the house. She went to bow and apologize to him for this unfortunate and unpleasant situation and he kicked her away from his office forbidding her to enter there again or appear in front of him again while he was at home.
Since that day Nara never met Minister Jang again, face to face. And it is the same day when she learned that the place she was thrown into, was the tomb of her true mother.

“That place is where your mother is buried. You can go down there and do whatever you want about it, but never tell Hana about it or about who is in there. Understood? ”Lady Jang told her that time, with a cold look on her face.

Nara had this secret to keep from Hana. However she knew all about the young lady. She knew everything about her habits and her sneaking in the kitchen to listen to the stories of the cooks about the king, or the queen or the crown prince. She saw that Hana had a crush on the prince and she dreamed of being a queen one day.

Nara also knew about the secret spot that Hana had on her body. As she was with Hana all the time, she saw it while helping her to wash up. A large brown mark that resembled a leaf located on Hana’s chest, under her left breast. It was there forever and it made both Hana and her mother uncomfortable to see it or speak about it.

Chapter end