"What do you mean?"
Fu Qian's overly sharp manner of speaking had clearly caught Lady Nightingale off guard. For a moment, even her polite expression wavered as she stared straight at him and asked.
"You seemed a little disappointed just now... that your client hadn't been troubled by nightmares."
Fu Qian made no effort to hide his disappointment.
"Given your standards when choosing wine, I thought there'd be no need to waste time on this."
"Why would I be disappointed!"
It was as if he'd exposed a secret she'd been hiding deep in her heart. Nightingale gave an almost imperceptible start, her voice turning slightly shrill.
"I was hired to confirm the patient's condition. The rest has nothing to do with me."
"Scheming to seize an estate, romantic entanglements, blood feuds... I don't care what your reason is, but if you want to get what you came for from me, you should at least stick to honesty and fairness."
Fu Qian tipped his chin toward the way they had come.
"Mr. Wenlos certainly hasn't done a very good job of that."
"Natalie."
Though he'd said only a few words, they seemed to have worked wonders.
The tension in Lady Nightingale's face vanished in the blink of an eye, and she even steadied her emotions. With a touch of indifference, she gave him a name.
She might have been a little slow on the uptake, but she did have some decisiveness. Giving her name in this situation was clearly a way to show a little sincerity.
"No wonder you'd risk angering the Order to do something like this. Wenlos underestimated you."
"And you were right about him. Wenlos really is a liar who can't tell the truth... I'm going to make him experience the pain of losing a child, too."