A Familiar Silhouette
Lucio accompanied the young lady with a bored expression. She dabbed at her tear-brimmed eyes with a handkerchief and lamented,
"Father won't even believe me... He says I mustn't summon only Mr. Perez to the mansion."
She was the heiress Lucio had cultivated so carefully for the sake of investment.
"You're a fallen noble from the provinces. It can't be helped."
He had been desperate then; he was no longer. At his indifferent tone her words tumbled faster, as if she could not bear the delay.
Delfina Pignatelli had already stepped in. This young lady was no longer necessary.
I only came so we wouldn't part on bad terms, but I should head back soon.
The more investors the better, yet the minimum sum for this venture had already been met. Word had leaked elsewhere, and the smaller contributions were already overflowing.
Noble houses that clung to their pride and failed to keep pace with the age were hardly rare; in Lucio's judgment this family would not last much longer either.
"Hm?"
He had turned his gaze idly elsewhere when a strong gust of wind snatched the hat from a passer-by who had drawn the hood of a robe low over the face.
The silhouette looked familiar. Lucio's eyes locked on it.
The figure hastily jammed the hat back on, but Lucio had already seen what lay beneath.
"Lady Pignatelli...?"
It was unmistakably the Pignatelli lady.
He started forward to confirm it, only to have his wrist seized.
"Mr. Perez?"
In the brief moment he glanced away, the robed figure had vanished.
"Forgive me. I thought I recognized someone."
The most influential person in the Toulouse domain would never skulk about like that.
Rosetta Pignatelli had been in a foul mood of late.
Her own daughter had no idea how much she was being protected and spent more and more time gadding about outside, while Delfina remained obedient yet somehow kept giving her the constant, nagging sense that something was slipping out of place.
And that was not all.
After all the money I poured into that woman!
Unable to contain her irritation she slammed a fist down on the table.
How much had she scraped together—money she did not even have—and handed over to the Gatwell couple just to secure a connection at Daclay Bank?
"We're truly sorry. He simply clamped his mouth shut and wouldn't say a single word..."
An apology like that could not settle a sum of that size.
"Couldn't you at least give me a rough figure for what collateral of that inheritance would usually bring?"
"There's a widespread rumor the young lady handed everything over... Don't you trust your own daughter?"
A hothouse flower who knew nothing of the world, and yet she dared. Rosetta ground her teeth until they ached.
"Of course that isn't it. I only worry she might fall into the hands of some strange young gentleman."
"Ah... you did mention she insists on a rather unusual method of courtship."
She had used Delfina's peculiar courtship as an excuse, yet the guilty prickle in her own feet made Rosetta decide she would have to keep her distance from the Gatwells for a while.
"Are you all right?"
"Would I be?"
Fortunately it was not a matter of crucial importance.
Just learning the latter half of the will is already a stroke of luck.
Rosetta forced her heart to steady. The will that had locked the inheritance would lose its force at the end of this summer.
The final days of September.
She repeated the date once more inside her head.
Delfina had to die before then. After checking that even the window was shut, Rosetta slipped off her robe.
"Still that temper of yours. You haven't changed a bit since you were young."
"Don't talk rubbish."
Rosetta glanced around the narrow room steeped in the smell of old medicinal herbs.
When the apothecary closed the door the air grew even closer and more musty. She drew a low breath, snatched the whisky glass from his hand, and drained it in one swallow.
"Don't you have anything stronger?"
The venom she had kept hidden all this time slowly rose to the surface.
The apothecary sighed and shot her a sidelong look.
"I've been giving you antifreeze precisely so we can explain it away if investigators suddenly barge in. And now you want to switch to something stronger?"
He narrowed his eyes and spoke in a low voice.
"Your heart is simply racing."
If they used a lethal poison and it was discovered, there would be no escape.
That was why they had bought an automobile, purchased antifreeze, and prepared a loophole in case of any inquiry.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to blend a poison that never shows up in an investigation and is still perfectly usable for its original purpose?"
"...I know."
Rosetta clenched the hem of her dress until her knuckles whitened.
That was precisely why she put up with his insolence.
Insolent or not, he had once been family—and he was Evelyn's birth father. There was no one more trustworthy than this man.
"She has to die before Delfina can inherit."
A noble will was a finicky thing. If the first heir died within a year before or after the bequest took effect, everyone who stood to gain from that death was thoroughly investigated.
Even in death he had left only his daughter's name on the will in place of hers. The humiliation she had felt when she saw it with her own eyes was still vivid.
So the years I spent keeping this house were not worth a single line...
He must have known full well what became of an aging wife with no children of her own and a ruined family behind her.
As if that were not enough, the will itself contained a hidden clause: if any threat to Delfina's person arose during the period of deferred inheritance, the entire estate would pass not to Rosetta but to society at large.
She could not endure the fact that not a single sentence acknowledged that she was the one who had protected this house for so long.
Therefore killing Delfina was self-defense.
"You've been dosing her steadily, haven't you? It shouldn't be taking this long if you have..."
"She suddenly announced she would receive suitors in that bizarre fashion... I haven't had a chance to feed it to her."
Rosetta protested in a wronged voice.
New faces had begun to come and go, and even Delfina—who had almost never left the mansion—was now going out far more often.
"You know I didn't join this dangerous business just to listen to excuses."
The apothecary flicked his fingers under the oil lamp and muttered low.
"Excuses? She won't even take the proper dose when she does eat it! You don't suppose she's noticed, do you?"
After turning the thought over and over, Rosetta grew so agitated at the final possibility that she bit down on her thumbnail.
"If she had, both our heads would already be rolling."
The man drew a finger across his own throat in a cutting gesture.
"...Is that so?"
"Even if she doesn't know there's poison, her body may simply be rejecting it by instinct."
"...She's not the sort of girl who would keep taking medicine if she knew."
"Or maybe she's just cursed with good luck."
He twisted his lips and shrugged.
"...Your poison isn't weak, is it?"
"Of course not. It's a poison you couldn't even buy with the pocket change you have right now."
"You said you'd get it once we succeed!"
"I prefer money in hand over money in the future. If you'd been anyone else I wouldn't have gotten involved. One slip and I lose both the money and my neck."
Because she could not dose Delfina as often, she had to keep the poison longer than before.
For that reason she had been taking smaller amounts and making more frequent trips here, just in case.
If he were truly afraid, he would not be peddling illegal drugs in an alley like this.
The terms had already been agreed. The reason he spoke that way was obvious.
Clink!
Rosetta tossed a purse full of coin.
"Stop the theatrics."
"Heh-heh. Theatrics are how the money falls out of the sky."
"Miserly bastard."
Contempt twisted her face as she watched him snatch up the purse with greedy hands.
Even after the insult the apothecary kept smiling and tucked the medicine into his coat.
"Here. Take this as well."
"What is it?"
"A slightly improved version of the poison. Handle it carefully."
He held out a small vial and grinned.
"You could have produced it earlier."
Only then did a smile slowly spread across Rosetta's face. Business was finished. She was just drawing the robe around herself again and slipping the vial into her bodice when he spoke.
"Ahem... Evelyn. How's the little brat doing?"
The apothecary, who had been watching her quietly, cleared his throat and finally voiced the question he had swallowed several times.
"Evelyn?"
"Yeah."
When he spoke the name so casually, Rosetta's fingertips stiffened for an instant.
"Why would that concern you?"
"A man can wonder whether his daughter is well, can't he?"
Rosetta's expression turned sour at the question itself.
"She's doing perfectly well. Unlike me, she'll marry a proper man. Don't even think of seeing her."
"......."
The cutting remark—that the mere existence of a father like him was an obstacle—made the apothecary's face harden.
"I'll be going, then."
But Rosetta paid him no further mind. She simply rose from her seat and left.