Chapter 12

“Ow! Ow!”

Eve winced at the impact of her fall on the wet ground. With no umbrella over her head, raindrops fell on her. Her clothes were quick to soak in water, and her hair dampened.

She then looked at the man with a bit of glare. Pushing herself up, she came to stand in front of him, who stood with a black umbrella over his head.

His silver hair was almost camouflaged with the rain, but it was darker and more prominent when it slowed down. With the cloak that covered his clothes beneath it, Eve didn’t take note of where he could be from.

“Why didn’t you stop me from falling?” She asked him, feeling the dull pain in her bottom. She had seen his eyes shift towards her hand, but he had made no effort to move.

“You never asked,” replied the man, his words higher than the sound of the rain that surrounded them.

D-didn’t ask?

“Any gentleman would have been kind enough to stop it before being asked,” said Eve, the fringes of her hair now stuck to her forehead.

The man stared at her for a second before one side of his lips pulled up, and his hazel eyes twinkled, “I guess I am not a gentleman.”

Eugene, who had been walking ahead, finally realized that Eve was not behind him and his eyes widened. He looked left and right before going back in the direction where he had come from. He noticed Eve standing in front of a stranger, and she looked like she was about to fight.

A frown appeared on Eve’s forehead, and she said, “You are a rude man—”

The man took a step forward, and just for that moment, his umbrella offered shelter to Eve.

She noticed his eyes dangerously narrow, and he said in a low mocking voice, “Little girls should get back home quickly. Lest you want others to see you…”

Eve’s face paled, and one would assume that it was because of the rain, where little drops of water had dripped down her face and then her neck before disappearing in her dress. Was her scales showing up? But that was not possible, passed the thought quickly in her mind. She had learned to control and hide her true appearance. But then, it was raining right now.

She quickly took two steps backwards, this time making sure she wouldn’t fall again and make a fool of herself.

“Lady Eve!” Eugene came to her side with her umbrella that had fallen on the ground.

At Eugene’s presence, the man walked in the other direction without sparing a word of apology.

“Are you alright?” asked Eugene, “Was that someone you knew?” Eve, who was still alarmed, asked him,

“Eugene, how does my face look??” She moved her face left and right.

A little confused, Eugene replied, “You are drenched. Here, take the umbrella.”

Eve took hold of the umbrella in her hand and turned her eyes to look in the direction where the man had now disappeared in the rain. Why did he say that then? Did her scales appear and disappear?

“The rain doesn’t look like it is going to stop anytime soon. Let us hurry back home,” Eugene ushered both of them from there and away from the market.

On returning home, Eve folded her umbrella and let it lean against the wall. She ran up the stairs.

“Careful with th—ACHOO!” Eugene sneezed, even though he wasn’t the one to be drenched in the rain.

Eve had already made her way to the top of the stairs and reached her room. Closing the door behind her, she walked up to stand in front of the mirror. As expected, she looked like a stray cat thrown out in the rain.

Her blue eyes stood out compared to her wet and cold skin. She quickly looked at her face and then her neck, but she found no hint of her scales. It was when her eyes lowered further did she notice that her dress stuck to her skin like a second skin. The dress she had worn today was beige, and the usual opaque dress had turned transparent.

Blood rushed up to her face in embarrassment for not realizing it earlier.

To make it worse, she had even taken two steps away from him, letting him see her womanly curves and her snug, wet dress.

Changing her clothes to a dry dress, she rubbed her wet hair.

When she took a look at her face with her wet hair let down, she looked like her eighteen-year-old self. Young like the other girls of that age, her face was unblemished and smooth. Having lost her mother at a young age, Eve didn’t have answers to why she had stopped ageing.

She grit her teeth when she remembered the rude man who had called her ‘little girl’. She was a woman!

When Lady Aubrey returned home, which was after the rain had stopped.

“Welcome back, Lady Aubrey,” Eugene greeted the woman, taking her coat off.

“Where is Eve?” Inquired the woman, her lips set themselves in a thin line.

“She’s in the kitchen crushing the rocks,” answered Eugene, wondering why the lady had right away asked for Eve.

Lady Aubrey made her way towards the kitchen. She found Eve, using the mortar and pestle to crush the rocks.

Before Eve could greet her, Lady Aubrey asked, “Is it true, Eve?”

“What?” Eve tilted her head.

“Did you slap someone in Skellington town today?” demanded Lady Aubrey, and the expression on Eve’s face spoke volumes. A tired and vexed sigh escaped from the woman’s lips, “Why? Why did you do that?”

The older woman looked like she didn’t know what to do with Eve. A few minutes before leaving Mrs. Henley’s house, the lady had a visitor from whom she heard about a lowly woman from Meadow slapping a man. Lady Aubrey had her doubts, but now she confirmed it.

“How did you hear about it?” Asked Eve, continuing to crush the rocks carefully. How fast did gossip travel from one town to another town? It wasn’t like she had slapped a Lord or a Duke. The man was a lowly being.

“How I heard is not important. What happened that you had to slap him?” Lady Aubrey waited for Eve to speak. Worry fell on the woman’s face, and she asked, “Was it unintentional?”

Eve could tell that Aunt Aubrey was soon going to faint in distress. She shook her head, “No, it was intended.”

“Oh, dear, God,” the older woman placed her hand on her forehead in disbelief.

“He deserved it. Actually more than that,” replied Eve, using more force to crush the rocks. “He should be glad that I didn’t hit him with my umbrella after misbehaving with me,” she added. Lady Aubrey’s eyebrows furrowed, finally understanding what might have happened, and she sighed.

As if suddenly enlightened, Eugene remarked, “Ah! I now know why your umbrella would have been damaged by the heat,” realising what Eve’s earlier words meant.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

When Lady Aubrey took a seat at the dining table, Eve let go of the pestle, and she came to stand behind the older woman. She carefully massaged the woman’s shoulders to ease her worry. She then said,

“I didn’t mean to cause trouble.”

Lady Aubrey couldn’t scold Eve because what happened was something unavoidable. She asked, “How did you end up with that person? Never mind. You have to be careful, Genevieve. Especially with people from Skellington,” and Lady Aubrey sighed again. “If people find out that you were the one who slapped the ‘respectable man’, you might as well forget being a governess.”

Eve’s shoulders drooped because she knew how true Aunt Aubrey’s words were.

No one would offer her the job of governess. After all, the people residing in the towns around them were all about reputation.