Chapter 66
As though she’d been burned, Evelyn jerked her hand away from the baby’s neck. Freshly awake, the child didn’t cry. Instead, she beamed up at Evelyn, happily opening and closing her tiny mouth.
“Uh… bu…”
Taking an unsteady step back from the cradle, Evelyn’s expression twisted.
“Buu… Ahaha!”
She knew the thing lying in the cradle wasn’t a real baby. She knew it. And yet her hand refused to move. Evelyn ground her teeth together.
Suddenly, the warning her commander had given her long ago, before his death, resurfaced in her mind.
‘Evelia, you need to harden your heart.’
It was the same voice that had once given Evelia Locke a stern warning after she failed her very first assignment as a rookie.
‘If you’ve taken the money, then you throw away your pity. If you can’t do that, then don’t take the money in the first place. Do you understand?’
Evelia Locke had failed to kill her target — the four-year-old heir of a count’s family, a child utterly incapable of defending himself. It wasn’t as though she’d pitied some pampered little noble. She still didn’t know why she hadn’t been able to do it.
In any case, after that day, no one ever hired Evelia to kill children again.
There were more than enough people in the world who deserved killing without involving children.
If anything, Evelia Locke’s reputation only grew.
Her name became infamous for eliminating targets no one else could handle, and with that notoriety came a far steeper price.
“Buh… buu…”
Evelyn drew a slow, deep breath. That damned babbling clung stubbornly to her ears, refusing to leave.
She knew it wasn’t human. She knew that. And yet the fact that she could still be shaken by nothing more than its appearance made her feel like a complete fool.
At that moment, a knock sounded at the door. Laura entered carrying a tray laden with food. The instant she spotted Evelyn standing beside the cradle, she hurried over.
“Oh! It looks like the little miss is awake.”
As though a spell had been broken, Evelyn finally let out the breath she’d been holding. She turned sharply away and returned to the sofa.
Watching her mistress’s expression with quiet concern, Laura first checked on the baby before setting the tray down on the table.
“I asked them to prepare sandwiches since they’d be easy to eat. This one has turkey, and this one’s filled with minced beef. And here’s some apple juice.”
Staring down at the two sandwiches, each nearly the size of an adult’s head, Evelyn sighed and picked up the glass of juice.
“Forget the juice. Bring me some wine. No, mead would be better.”
Wanting nothing more than to drink away her self-loathing, she asked for alcohol. Laura immediately waved both hands in protest.
“Oh? Absolutely not! You can’t have hard liquor until at least three months after giving birth.”
“…I didn’t give birth. He made it and brought it home.”
Of course, Evelyn’s words fell on deaf ears.
Laura acted as though she hadn’t heard a single word. Without the slightest hesitation, she checked the baby’s diaper before offering her a silver nursing bottle.
Unable to bear watching any longer, Evelyn turned her head away.
“My, aren’t you drinking so well? Oh, you’re just too precious. Does it taste good?”
Listening to Laura’s endless cooing only made Evelyn feel worse. Settling for apple juice instead, she drained the glass in several long gulps before speaking.
“We’ll have to set up a separate room for the baby.”
“Oh… I was being too noisy, wasn’t I, my lady? I’m sorry. I’ll be quiet.”
It wasn’t Laura who was driving her mad. It was that helpless little thing. But Evelyn couldn’t be bothered correcting the misunderstanding.
Instead, she picked up a sandwich and bit into it, like one of the children from those old tales who unknowingly ate the food of the underworld. She swallowed without tasting a thing.
Then, in a cold voice, she ordered:
“Tell the Duke I want a separate room prepared for the baby.”
“But babies should stay with their mothers for at least the first year…”
“Then all the more reason she should be with her father instead. I wasn’t the one who gave birth to her.”
Laura looked at her with an expression Evelyn couldn’t quite decipher. After finishing the last of her sandwich, Evelyn rose from the sofa.
“Should I tell him myself?”
“N-No, my lady…”
Laura had just opened her mouth to stop Evelyn when—
Knock. Knock.
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