"I keep forgetting.."
When the woman first came to me, she'd glanced at her ever-growing belly with only disgust and fear. The creature developing inside was undoubtedly the offspring of Baron Lister, put there against the good lady's will.
Since a single illegitimate child had the power to bring generations of shame upon an established noble family like hers, her grandfather had decided to force her into marriage with the child's obscene father.
Because of the situation, Lady Greene had been an absolute wreck the first time she came to see me. With an unwanted child nestled in her womb and an imminent marriage with the offender who still haunted her dreams every night, she was truly in the depths of despair.
Her story was, unfortunately, very common for women in our time. Since society was ruled entirely by men, women were the equivalent of property and could be bought, sold, and abandoned as desired.
Luckily for Lady Greene, however, another lady (and excellent client of mine) had sneakily tucked the card of the kingdom's top gossip girl into her purse. When Lady Greene later discovered the mysterious yet tasteful, simple yet elegant, utterly impeccably designed business card (if I do say so myself), she came to me straight away.
In addition to simply destroying the filthy bast-I mean Baron, I also offered Lady Greene a discounted relocation package.
(The Greene household, though well-rooted, wasn't exactly bathing in piles of gold, but I couldn't just let the good lady suffer!)
Despite the hours of overtime and skimpy profit margin, the true reward for the Baron Lister job was seeing Lady Greene's countenance morph from misery to the delightful rosy hue it was as she stood smiling in the garden's golden lantern light.
"I wish I could pay you more, Miss Scandal Maker," Lady Greene cooed, still cradling her belly. "You've saved me… saved us."
"I'm not in this job for the money, Miss Customer," I replied, giving her a polite nod and turning to leave.
I was eager to return home and take a warm bath, and Lady Greene's carriage to the countryside would be departing in just a few hours.
"Oh, wait!" The lady called after me. "How about I let you name the baby? Whatever you say!"
I turned back toward her.
She looked beautiful standing there amongst the flowers. The glow of a soon-to-be mother radiated from her face, and the bump on her belly suited her perfectly.
"What about Rose?"
"Rose? How wonderful!" Lady Greene's smile widened.
I turned to leave again, only to be stopped once more by her call.
"Miss Scandal Maker! What if it's a boy?" she questioned earnestly.
"Then just Roe should do, don't you think?" I shouted over my shoulder with a wave.
I didn't see Lady Greene's reaction, but I'm sure it was no less enthusiastic than the previous had been.
On the way home, I pondered whimsically about some distant scene where a small child with curly hair and rosy cheeks clutched their mother's skirt while she soothed, "Roe, come say hello."
It seemed the backdrop of the shimmering ball to showcase my glorious victory over a total scumball had set my mind aflutter with all sorts of lyrical thoughts.
I even wrote a rather poetic entry to finish off Baron Lister's scandal log when I finally arrived at my house.
"Another fulfilling day," I yawned, stretching my legs above the bubbly water my lackey had heated for me as soon as I returned home.
My well-paid, dearly beloved maid is usually the one who prepares baths for me, but she had taken the night off for personal reasons.
In her stead, my lackey, a tight-lipped and well-connected man I paid for various contract work, had offered to help me (since he happened to be bumming around my house anyway?!). At this point, I was used to his bizarre antics, so I simply accepted the help.
He did prepare a pretty decent bath, though.
"My Lady."
Ah, speak of the devil.
"I took care of the Baron's men creeping around outside," my lackey reported, climbing through the washroom window.
Oh, did I mention he's also a highly skilled assassin? I had my doubts at first too, but his unique skill set made him excellent at pest control as well as information dredging.
"Don't you know better than to sneak up on a woman while she's bathing, Wolf?" I chided lazily.
"But I should be as close as possible," the peeping lackey replied, his lips curling into a smirk, "to attend to all of My Lady's needs."
"Scoundrel," I clicked my tongue. "You already know I'm a married woman."
"Ha." My lackey snorted. "Being married to yourself doesn't count, Jer."
"What are you talking about?" I gasped, flicking a handful of water toward the man seated on the window sill. "My husband, Baron Bernt, is a wonderful man!"
The audacity of underlings these days. To think he would mock my signed and sealed marriage, recognized before both God and the King.
Though, technically speaking, it had been my hand that signed both the groom's and bride's signatures.
And the groom hadn't actually been seen in public since the day of our wedding..
"Hey! Not a step closer!" I scolded, noticing my lackey had taken advantage of my momentary pause to make an advance.
This man was supposedly highly trained in the art of stealth, but it was always easy to detect the moment he tried to approach me.
"Don't you have some horses to feed and sheep to chase?" I continued, ignoring Wolf's pouting face as he returned obediently to the window sill.
"I don't feed horses and chase sheep," the man shook his head with a sigh. "I'm too busy running the entire Wulfstan March."
"Right, right," I shooed. "Now run along before the 'entire Wulfstan March' falls apart."
Another thing I forgot to mention about my lackey is that while he isn't getting rid of unwanted guests for me or bothering my bath time, he is the Marquess Easton Wulfstan, head of the Wulfstan March.
"I'll see you later then, My Lady," Wolf bowed with a grin before ducking out the window.
"Geez, why can't that crazy guy use doors like the rest of us," I groaned as a blast of cold midnight air blew past me.
Still, even my lackey's irritating antics couldn't spoil my mood.
Closing my eyes, I leaned back, resting my head against the tub's edge.
"How peaceful," I sighed.
It's true, the past few years had flown by like a blissful breeze. My business, my life, everything was truly peaceful.
That is, until..
-Next Day-
"You want me to target who??"