"Evelyn! Have you done this before? You work like a seasoned farmhand!" Tess cried out, her eyes widening in surprise.

Sweat stung Evelyn’s eyes. She grabbed the towel draped around her neck, wiped her face with a harsh tug, and rolled her stiff shoulders. "I was always a quick study in school," she said, her voice steady despite the ache in her limbs. "The work isn't complicated; it’s just a matter of endurance."

Her body was screaming—she wasn't fully recovered yet—but years of surviving the Wards had turned endurance into a reflex.

In Tess’s eyes, Evelyn’s stock rose instantly. To be smart was one thing, but to be smart, capable, and willing to bleed into the soil was quite another. By noon, Evelyn was keeping pace with the locals, swinging her shoulder poles with a rhythmic, fierce determination. She looked nothing like the other city youths who had arrived in previous years—stumbling, dropping their loads, and looking like pampered fools in the mud.

The group of onlookers, who had gathered hoping to see Evelyn humiliated, found themselves staring at their own feet instead. Most of them couldn't even match her output.

Mark’s expression was a mix of confusion and irritation. "Did your sister grow up in the fields or something?"

Dominic was more baffled than anyone. He had grown up with her; he knew she’d lived her whole life within the city limits. "Of course not," he muttered. "At home, all she did was light housework. It was nothing."

His definition of "nothing" included Evelyn washing the entire family’s laundry by hand, scrubbing every inch of the house, and preparing two full meals a day—all squeezed between the cracks of her actual job. If she slipped up, she was berated; if she succeeded, it was ignored.

"Then how is she doing this?" Mark pressed.

"It’s only the first day," Dominic sneered, his eyes narrowing as he watched her. "Tomorrow, the reality will set in. She’ll realize farm work isn't a game."

Dominic remembered his own first week. After the first day of labor, his limbs had throbbed so violently he had hidden in the outhouse to cry. He didn't believe for a second that Evelyn had more grit than he did. He’d wait for her to break. He’d wait for her to come crawling to him, begging for help. Only after she’d suffered enough to truly repent would he consider throwing her a bone.

Evelyn, unaware of her brother’s petty fantasies, was busy hauling baskets of potatoes to the corn cribs. The newly dug tubers were damp and needed to air out for a few days before they could be bagged. By the end of the shift, even with the secret help of her "spirit spring" to bolster her strength, she was exhausted to the bone.

Dominic tracked her every move like a hawk, waiting for a single moment of laziness so he could report her to the Chief. But Evelyn gave him nothing. In fact, she turned the tables. While Dominic spent the day posturing, he barely finished his own small plot.

Chief Barrett, passing by several times, was increasingly impressed with Evelyn’s work ethic. She was the most productive "city girl" he’d ever seen, and her presence seemed to have lit a fire under his own daughter, who was working twice as hard to keep up.

His satisfaction with Evelyn, however, translated into sharp disappointment with Dominic. In front of the entire work detail, Barrett barked, "Dominic! You’ve been here for years, and yet look at your progress! Your sister is practically finished, and you’re still dawdling. Evelyn is diligent, grounded, and actually puts her back into it. You should try learning a bit of that spirit from her!"

Dominic felt like he was going to suffocate on his own rage. "Barrett, don't be fooled," he spat. "I don't have a sister this cold-blooded. You should ask her the real reason she fled the city—"

"I don't care why she's here," Barrett cut him off, his voice flat. "I only care about what I see with my own eyes. And right now, I see a worker and a slacker."

Dominic’s inner monologue was a snarl of contempt. He’s been played, he thought. She's ruined our family, and he treats her like a saint. "Back in the city..." he began, his voice rising.

He knew what he was about to say would destroy her reputation, but he didn't care. He assumed she wouldn't stay in the countryside forever. A ruined name here wouldn't matter once she went back home—but it would hurt her now, and that was enough.

Evelyn felt a surge of cold irony. Even Tess, a stranger she’d met yesterday, had the decency to keep quiet about the broken engagement during their cart ride, sensing it was a private shame. Yet here was her own brother, ready to drag her through the mud for a captive audience.

"I broke off my engagement," Evelyn interrupted, her voice clear and carrying across the field. "Because on our wedding day, my fiancé chose to spend the night at the hospital with my 'dear friend' Seraphina instead of coming to the ceremony. He didn't even come home."

Dominic blanched. "Evelyn! Shut your mouth! How dare you talk about her like that?"

"Nonsense?" Evelyn’s laugh was sharp and brittle. "Did your precious Seraphina not tell you why Julian stood me up?"

Seraphina hadn't, in fact, given him the details, but Evelyn’s triumphant tone made his skin crawl. "They were your fiancé and your best friend," Dominic shouted, his face contorting. "How can you be so shameless as to suggest something sordid? Are you trying to kill their reputations? If she really wanted your man, she could have him. Instead, she’s back home, sick and frail, exhausting herself trying to find you! Why would she do that if she didn't care?"

Evelyn took a step closer, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Let me tell everyone here about my ex-fiancé’s family. His father is the director of the meat processing plant. His mother is the vice-chair of the shoe factory union. He’s the only son, the heir to everything. And Seraphina? A fatherless girl with a chronic heart condition. A girl who can never bear children. She wants to marry into that family, Dominic. But do you really think a family like that would ever let her in?"

Dominic stared at her, his eyes dark with a murderous intensity. To hear the woman he secretly worshipped—the woman he had moved to the middle of nowhere to protect from afar—being insulted so publicly was more than he could bear.

"Evelyn! That’s enough! I’ll teach you to hold your tongue!"

He lunged forward to strike her, but Evelyn didn't flinch. She swung a heavy wicker basket with all her might, smashing it into his face.

Before he could recover, she stepped in and delivered a stinging slap across his cheek. The sound echoed in the sudden silence of the field. Dominic’s head spun; he raised a fist, his muscles trembling with the urge to crush her.

Evelyn leaned in, her voice a lethal whisper that only he could hear. "Go ahead, Dominic. Lay a finger on me, and I will take every piece of Seraphina’s intimate laundry—the pieces she gave you—and hand them out to the village thugs. I’ll make sure everyone knows exactly what kind of 'pure' girl she is."

Dominic’s world tilted. The sheer malice of the threat left him breathless. He couldn't fathom how she had become so base, so calculated. "Evelyn... if you do that, I’ll kill you. I swear it." He threw a desperate, wild punch.

Tess dived in, grabbing Evelyn’s arm and pulling her back just as the fist whistled past.

"Now I see why she had to pull a knife on you!" Tess screamed at Dominic, her face red with indignation. "You’re a monster! You’d beat your own sister to death over a few words? You’re the reason she’s terrified!"

Tess’s outburst acted like a bucket of cold water on the crowd. The "madwoman" rumor vanished instantly. It wasn't that Evelyn was crazy; it was that her brother was a violent brute who forced her into a corner.

Evelyn watched her brother being restrained by his friends. She offered him a thin, mocking smile.

"Don't worry, Dominic," she said loudly enough for the others to hear. "If you love Seraphina that much, that’s your business. If you can convince Mother to let a girl like that through the front door, I won't stand in your way. In fact... I’ll wish you both a long and happy life together."