Chapter 71

Mr. Soler’s mouth had hit the floor as he hadn’t expected Mr. Moriarty to touch a mere human’s foot, especially this one who didn’t look like she belonged to high society. But then Vincent Moriarty was famous for his unexpected behaviour, but no one dared to speak ill about the pureblooded vampire.

On the other hand, Eve turned more than embarrassed as Vincent caught hold of her foot. Thankfully he dropped her foot and picked up the off-white shoes, checking the in-soles with his fingers for a few seconds. The other two people curiously stared at him.

“Wear it now,” ordered Vincent, letting the shoe hang at the tip of his finger.

Eve took the shoe from him and quickly slipped her left foot into the shoe and then she put the other foot. This time the shoe didn’t hurt her, and she murmured, “It fits.”

When she looked up to meet Vincent’s eyes, who had stood up, he said, “Didn’t I tell you earlier that we could adjust things.”

Eve’s cheeks were still warm. With most of her words stuck in her throat, she only nodded.

“That’s perfect!” Mr. Soler clapped his hands, happy that at last something did fit the lady.

“Mr. Soler, it seems like you are losing touch with your business. What would people say if they were to hear that your shoe is trying to damage women’s feet?” Vincent questioned the shop owner, who quickly offered a deep bow.

“Forgive me, Mr. Moriarty. This stack of shoes must have had some defects when they were being made. I will make sure to check it properly before bringing the shoes to the shop,” Mr. Soler apologised, and he added, “If the lady wants to buy the shoes, how about I lower the price of the shoes from the original price?”

The shop owner’s words were music to Eve’s ears, and her eyes lit up as if Christmas had arrived early. On noticing her expression, Vincent rolled his eyes, and said,

“For your own sake, let us hope you don’t repeat this in the future,” and Mr. Soler bowed his head.

“Yes, Mr. Moriarty!” The man bowed his head two more times before taking the off-white shoes with him to pack it.

After they were done buying the shoes, they stepped outside the shop, Eve carried two bags and her umbrella. Vincent raised his hand at his coachman, who had parked the carriage away from the shoe shop. Before Eve could thank him, Vincent bluntly questioned her,

“Are you afraid of being drenched in rain?” The vampire stared at her with eyes that were cold and perceptive. “Because you look younger with your dampened hair.”

This man sure liked to dissect people, thought Eve in her mind.

“It is hard for one to take a human seriously. Especially if the person is young looking,” replied Eve, clutching onto her bags.

“True, you do look like a little girl who needs a governess,” smirked Vincent, and his eyes subtly narrowed.

“I was going to tell the same,” Eve retorted, her blue eyes staring into his coppery brown eyes, which looked redder right now.

Noticing Eve hesitate while able to hear her heartbeat, Vincent raised his eyebrow, “Something you forgot?”

“There is something that I wanted to ask you. If it is okay,” added Eve, with a serious expression. When they were in the mansion, she was mostly busy teaching the little vampiress, and it was hard to speak to Vincent, considering how most of the time he was out of the mansion or preferred to annoy her along with the other people.

Vincent stared at her for two seconds before he said, “You want to know if what you heard about me is true.”

Eve was taken aback by his words. She replied, “Yes.”

“Accept what you feel is to be true,” his eyes twinkled that had Eve frown.

“Even if it might be wrong?” She asked him.

Vincent shrugged his shoulders, “Even if it might be wrong. The inability of others not to see who I am doesn’t affect me, Miss Barlow. Because I do not care what others think.”

A gust of wind blew across the streets, sweeping the silt and dust from the ground in a few streets and alleys. Eve watched Vincent stare at her with his red eyes which were behind the silvery hair that gently moved in the direction of the wind.

“What if I say it is about Miss Allie?”

Vincent’s eyes narrowed, and he ran his tongue across his teeth. Somewhere, the action had a little threat to the nerve of her. He said,

“It seems like you aren’t too fond of your nose. Poke more in an unnecessary place and one day someone might chop it,” his words were playful, but Eve didn’t miss the warning in his eyes.

“My apologies for it, it is only because something happened recently.”

Vincent’s coachman had stopped the carriage right in front of them, and the coachman stepped down to open the carriage door for him.

Vincent sighed and said, “Speak what you want to on the way.” He stepped inside his carriage. Seeing the carriage door left open, where the coachman waited for her, she finally stepped inside.

But before that, far from where Vincent’s carriage stood, Noah Sullivan, who was talking to a gentleman, caught sight of someone familiar. It was Genevieve Barlow who stood in front of someone’s carriage. Before he could attempt to go to her, she stepped inside the carriage, and the coachman closed the door.

“Isn’t that Vincent Moriarty’s carriage?” Asked the gentleman who was with Noah.

Noah’s eyebrows knit together on hearing the name, “The Moriartys?”

The man nodded, “Their carriages are the grandest of them all.”

“I see,” murmured Noah, whose usual polite smile was missing from his lips.

Back in the carriage, Eve sat close to the carriage’s wall while ensuring there was a good distance between her and Vincent. A minute had passed since they had left Hollow Valley and had entered the forest path. The only light that spilt on the carriage’s path they travelled in came from the moonlight and the lantern that hung outside the carriage.

Vincent sat with his legs crossed one over the other, and said in a low voice for her to hear,

“How brave of you to sit in the carriage even after you heard that I killed the previous governess and she now rests not in the coffin.”