In Evelyn’s room minutes before Aristia arrived.
"You’re learning quickly, Eve." Claire praised.
Evelyn nodded with a small smile. "Thank you, mother."
By now, she had more less gotten used to calling Claire mother.
Catherine and Alistair nodded.
A knock sounded on the door then and a maid entered after receiving permission.
Bowing, she turned to Alistair and Claire, telling them that their presence was needed elsewhere in the mansion.
Alistair and Claire nodded, then got up to leave.
"We’ll be back soon, Eve. In the anti, you can rest and have sothing to eat. You can continue to practice tomorrow." Claire said, pointing to the food a servant had brought.
Evelyn nodded and the two left the room.
Catherine poured tea into two teacups and handed one to Evelyn, drinking from her own cup.
"Thank you," Evelyn thanked and collected the cup from her, taking a sip of the soothing tea.
Catherine watched Evelyn before saying.
"You’re trying hard. Don’t worry, you’ll soon get it perfectly. You’re already doing very well." Catherine praised sincerely.
She wasn’t wrong. Evelyn was doing very well in her classes and had already shown remarkable progress. It was comndable.
Evelyn smiled, grateful for her sister’s encouraging words.
Silence settled between them.
Evelyn’s gaze floated from the cup to Catherine and out of the window.
"What’s on your mind?" Catherine asked.
Evelyn released a small sigh.
She knew that everyone wanted to know the truth about her son. They didn’t ask, and Evelyn knew that it was just because of consideration for her, but she also knew it wasn’t sothing she could hide.
Out of everyone in the family, she felt more comfortable with Catherine, and she felt like it was alright to tell her.
"I know you’re all wondering about how Allen was born. What happened to his father." She said.
Catherine’s eyebrows raised when she heard that. She had been expecting Evelyn to talk about the difficulty of the classes or that it was tireso. She didn’t think she would talk about her son and his father.
She shook her head. "No one will force you to say anything. Haven’t we made this clear?"
Evelyn shook her head and turned to her. "I can’t keep it forever."
Catherine nodded. "Yes, but when you’re ready. Take your ti."
Evelyn smiled a bit. Catherine’s words only fueled her courage to speak.
She looked her in the eye.
"I... want to tell you. Everything that happened." Her hands gripped the tea cup.
It was at that mont that Aristia appeared at the door.
But neither Evelyn nor Catherine noticed.
Evelyn had already begun talking.
"The people who raised , Adam and Samantha Torres, had no children of their own for many years..."
The couple had longed to have a child for a long ti, but sadly, they didn’t have any.
One day, they suddenly returned ho with one.
The couple had just arrived at their farm. After working a bit, suddenly, they heard the sound of a baby crying.
Confused, Samantha asked her husband. "Did you hear sothing?"
When Adam shook his head, she frowned. "Strange. I thought it sounded like the cry of a baby."
"A baby’s cry?" Adam asked, now frowning too. But after so thought, he shook his head. "There can’t be a baby left here. It’s a bit far from the village from here. Maybe it’s just the wind.. or an animal."
But when the cry sounded again, even Adam heard it.
"Impossible! It really is a child’s cry." He said.
After exchanging a quick glance, the couple followed the direction of the sound.
To their astonishnt, they saw a little child wrapped in a bundle. She looked to be around a year old, though she was quite small.
The baby was wrapped from head to toe and was very pretty, but her red eyes stood out.
"Red eyes! Is she a noble child?" Adam asked. He noticed clothing peeking out of the blanket. Just a glance, and he could tell the dress was expensive.
"Shh! Don’t speak too loudly. Which noble child is left in the field? If we hadn’t been here, this child..." She didn’t need to say it, but Adam understood.
Their farm was a bit far from the others. People didn’t usually pass by here.
The child was too little. If left longer, she could only die.
"Do I need to speak?" Adam grumbled. "The child’s voice is loud enough."
The little child kept crying, but her voice wasn’t too loud.
If the surroundings hadn’t been so quiet, they wouldn’t have heard it.
Samantha quickly looked around. Seeing no one, she relaxed sowhat.
She turned to her husband, and a thought entered her mind.
"This child has been abandoned. We can’t leave her here. should take her ho and take care of her. We’ll raise her as our own."
Adam’s eyes shone at the thought, but he still retained a bit of rationale.
"I don’t think..."
But Samantha persisted.
"We’ve always wanted a child, and now, the heavens has sent us one. This will solve all our worries."
Hearing Samantha’s convincing words, Adam finally gave in.
"Alright. We’ll raise her as our own. But if any family cos looking for her, we’ll hand her over."
Samantha nodded.
As she cuddled the little child in her arms, the child seed to feel the womanly warmth.
Her cries reduced to little hiccups.
Samantha stared at her face, and the more she looked at the child’s face, the more she liked the girl.
She looked up at her husband.
"Go to the nearby market and buy so things for the child. I can’t leave her here, and I can’t take her with ."
Adam nodded. "I’ll be back soon."
Samantha sat down under the shade of a tree with the child in her arms.
The child’s eyes moved around, looking at everything curiously.
Suddenly, Samantha noticed sothing around the child’s neck.
"What is this?" She muttered, reaching for the child’s neck.
She pulled out a necklace.
After examining the necklace, she noticed so words engraved.
She couldn’t read, but Adam could to an extent. She decided to wait for her husband to return and show him.
Seeing the necklace, the child’s eyes lit up.
She reached out for the necklace, babbling.
"Mama, papa."
"Oh, your parents got this for you?" Samantha asked with a smile.
The child smiled. "M-Max, Rin."
Samantha had no idea who the people were, but there was already a small unwillingness in her heart to let the child go.
She tucked the necklace away, seeing that Adam had arrived.
Adam handed her the food he bought.
"I saw so guards in the marketplace. I don’t know which noble household they belong to. They seed to be searching for soone."
Samantha didn’t reply, but she clutched the child tighter.
"Let’s go ho after feeding the child. We can’t work anymore."
She carefully fed the child the food Adam had gotten.
The child quickly fell asleep.
Samantha showed the necklace to Adam. "I found this around her neck. There seem to be words written on the back."
Adam frowned a bit. "Let see."
He took the necklace, already noticing the material the necklace was made with. "... To our precious Evelyn." He muttered.
"Her na is Evelyn." Samantha said.
But Adam was still frowning. If anything, this necklace showed that her family cared for her. It would be wrong to take the child.
But...
When he looked at the joy in his wife’s face as she stared at the sleeping baby, his heart couldn’t bear to break her heart. Alas, she had already grown attached to the child.
"Let’s return." He said. "But the neighbours. What will we tell them." It would definitely be suspicious if they suddenly brought a child back.
"Well tell them it’s a relative’s child. Her mother died, so we were given the baby." Samantha said.
The couple returned ho.
Thankfully, the child remained asleep, making her red eyes unnoticeable.
The child barely ca outside. The couple would take her out to the farm just as the sun was riding and would be back at night.
But none of the simple neighbours suspected a thing. They believed that the child was really the couple’s niece, after all, who would take care of an unknown child? They were simply farrs.
But a few weeks later, guards ca searching for a child.
When Adam who had been outside heard, he quickly rushed ho.
The couple hid Evelyn under so stacks of hay, asking her to keep silent.
The little child nodded. Even though she didn’t understand why, she did as told.
Adam and Samantha went to et the guards.
A guard stood in front, peering into the house.
"We’re searching for a female child. A year old. Black hair and red eyes."
But the couple shook their heads. "We haven’t seen any child with that description."
The guards ordered to search the house, and the couple obliged.
But after searching, the guards didn’t find anything.
They turned to leave, when one of the guards caught sight of the small hut behind the house.
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