The Nanny of House Herzen - Chapter 2
Tsk, tsk…The head maid clicked her tongue again.
“Poor thing.”
Just then, the sound of a baby crying echoed again. Wah, wah!
The head maid moved closer, sat down on the bed, and with careful but firm hands, she pulled back the blanket.
Evelyn neither felt the urge to cover herself nor had the strength to hold onto the blanket. Her wet nightgown clung to her exposed body.
With a fleeting glance that held a mix of pity and embarrassment, the head maid asked,
“You have nowhere to go, do you?”
Evelyn nodded slightly.
If her survival became known, her husband—no, her former husband, the Marquis—would surely send someone after her. As the head maid said, Evelyn truly had nowhere to go.
The head maid’s thick hands gently grasped Evelyn’s bruised ones.
“You’ve come at the right time. It seems Heaven sent you to save our little Miss. Help us. If you can save the baby, you’ll be duly rewarded. I promise to see to it.”
Confused by her words, Evelyn looked up at her just as the crying got louder.
Wah, wah! The baby’s wails drew closer.
As if triggered by a signal, the sensation in Evelyn’s breasts intensified. It helped her understand the head maid’s previously cryptic message.
“You’ve lost a child, but we’ve lost the Madam of the house. Unfortunately, the wet nurse we had caught an infectious disease and had to be sent away. Our little Miss hasn’t had anything but water for three days. She’s developed severe jaundice. She might not survive without help. Please, save her… save our little Miss.”
Wah, wah! Now the cries were right beside them.
The head maid carefully added.
“You also… seem to be in pain from engorgement. If you don’t express the milk soon, it could lead to fever. Mastitis is as painful as childbirth, isn’t it? That’s worse than your current pain, right?”
Knock, knock. The sound of knocking came again, and as the door opened, a maid about Evelyn’s age entered, cradling a baby wrapped in a blanket.
The baby was as small as her own dead baby had been. The child, with curly golden hair, had bright emerald eyes filled with tears, and cried with a hoarse voice.
“Wah, wah!”
Her own child, whom she hadn’t been able to save, had also had blonde hair, resembling hers. She had never even touched one of their tiny fingers.
Evelyn shed tears and reached out her arms as if entranced.
“Wah, wah…”
As she held the baby, the head maid quickly loosened her gown.
Her swollen breasts were immediately exposed. Drops of yellowish liquid fell from her tender n–ples.
The nanny quickly adjusted the baby so its lips touched the n–ple. The starving baby buried its nose into her breast and quickly found the n–ple to suckle.
Finally, the crying stopped, and the room filled with the sound of clumsy sucking and the baby’s swallowing.
Watching the baby hungrily nurse, its golden eyelashes tightly shut, Evelyn finally cried out loud.
“Huuh…”
The head maid gently stroked Evelyn’s back, offering her comfort.
* * *
“Is this Duchy…… Herzen?”
At the mention of the infamous name known throughout the kingdom, Evelyn paused, dropping the spoon she was using to eat her soup.
The head maid, unfazed by Evelyn’s reaction, nonchalantly tore off another piece of bread for her. After Evelyn had nursed the baby, the head maid had immediately prepared a meal for her.
“Have you heard the master’s name before? Despite appearances, it seems you’ve heard rumors from the streets. But the master is not like that. He’s just a bit more sensitive than others.”
Though the head maid was assertive, Evelyn’s appetite did not return.
She didn’t know just the street rumors. What Evelyn knew were far more specific rumors circulated among the ladies.
“They say another body was found at the Ducal house.”
“How horrible! Was it a woman again?”
“Shh, keep your voice down. It was so mutilated, it was hard to tell the gender. Do you know what’s really frightening?”
“What?”
“Whatever they did there, it is said that the bodies that come from there don’t decay…”
Carius Demik Herzen. The head of the only noble family permitted to train private soldiers.
Known as the Lord of the West, the Duke’s notorious reputation was significant in high society. Holding a status second only to the king himself, the lives of his servants were as expendable as flies, and bodies were said to appear from the Herzen estate without end.
He was on such familiar terms with the king that he treated him like a brother, and because of this relationship, it was said that no matter what he did, he never had to stand trial. Anyone who dared to accuse the Duke would disappear without a trace, and the only way to survive was to pretend ignorance about him.
Evelyn grimaced.
With nowhere to go and her life as insignificant as an insect’s, Evelyn knew that if she disappeared silently, no one would mourn her. But she wondered if it might have been cleaner to die from a gunshot in the reeds than to be butchered at the blade’s end.
Unaware of Evelyn’s deep thoughts, the head maid urged her.
“Eat up. Even if you’re not hungry, eat for our little Miss, okay?”
It then occurred to Evelyn that the Duchess had died in childbirth, and the wet nurse had contracted an infectious disease.
Was that the truth? What were the chances that a carefully selected nanny in the Ducal house would suddenly catch an infectious disease?
A chill finally ran down Evelyn’s arm under her sleeve.
