Chapter 104
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 104
“Your Grace, it’s Herbert. You have a visitor.”
It was the butler, announcing an unscheduled arrival.
Cedric roughly swept back his disheveled hair and flung the door open. The butler looked startled by his master’s haggard appearance, but Cedric ignored him, his gaze fierce.
“Is it Miss Harriet Listerwell?”
“Yes, Your Grace. How did you know?”
Harriet was here. Cedric’s heart hammered against his ribs, fueled by a strange, turbulent emotion. He couldn’t quite name it, but it had to be rage. What else could make him feel this utterly insane?
“Show her to the rear garden. By the fountain.”
“…Understood.” The butler seemed taken aback by the unusual request, but he bowed respectfully and withdrew without a word.
Cedric had summoned her to the garden instead of the drawing room for one reason: he was certain that if they were alone in an enclosed space, he might actually strangle her. He wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, demanding to know if she had any sense at all—if she realized the kind of danger she had walked into.
Only a short while ago, he had felt a flicker of gratitude toward her for saving him. Now, that feeling was gone.
If I get any angrier, I might actually kill her. Better to meet her somewhere she has room to run.
Cedric took a deep breath and threw on his jacket. Even as he stormed out of the room, he still hadn't decided what kind of face he should show her.
*
For the first time since she began visiting the ducal estate, Harriet found herself admiring the rear garden. Her mouth hung open at the sight of the massive, cascading fountain. This was no modest garden ornament; it was large enough to swim in, deep, and gushing with a thunderous volume of water.
“Oh, it’s beautiful…”
In the early spring, the spray might have felt chilly, but surrounded by the vibrant, waking greenery, it was nothing short of refreshing. Water erupted from the top of a central pillar, falling like a heavy curtain and creating a constant roar. Because of the noise, she didn’t hear Cedric approaching from behind.
Cedric stood still, watching her back. She was reaching out a hand, trying to catch the mist scattering through the air. In that moment, she looked like an innocent child—and yet, like a faint mirage that might vanish at any moment.
“If I’d known you liked fountains, I would have shown you this place sooner.”
Startled, Harriet spun around. Her chestnut hair whipped across her back, and the spring light sparkled in her intelligent eyes, which looked large and bright against her pale, ivory skin.
It was strange. A moment ago, he’d wanted to seize her the instant he saw her, but now, an irritating sense of relief washed over him. Cedric quickly crushed the feeling. He refused to be played by the outward appearance of a woman whose true intentions remained a mystery.
“I apologize for the sudden visit…”
“Indeed. You do seem to enjoy surprising me, Miss Harriet. What brings you here today?”
Harriet faltered, cut off mid-sentence, but Cedric offered no apology. It took everything he had just to suppress the emotions threatening to boil over.
She hesitated for a beat, then a faint smile touched her lips.
“Well, I… I have something to give you.”
She reached into her dress pocket and pulled out a small box. With a look of quiet pride, she held it out to him.
“It’s a gift.”
As Cedric took the box and flipped the lid, he prayed that the contents were anything but his father’s keepsake. He wanted Edgar’s report to be a lie. He wanted to believe Harriet had been sleeping soundly at home last night, and that she hadn't gone anywhere near a man named Tez.
But there it was. A brooch of a painfully familiar design.
As he stared down at it, Harriet’s expression shifted from pride to confusion.
“You’re not surprised? It’s almost as if… you knew I would bring this.”
Cedric let out a sharp, cold scoff.
“What exactly do you hope to gain by pulling a stunt like this?”
“What?”
He gripped the brooch—a memento that seemed to attract nothing but trouble—so hard his knuckles turned white.
“I already told you, didn't I? I promised to invest in your next venture. What more could you possibly want?”
“No, that’s not—!”
“I am asking you why on earth you would go so far!” he roared. “Why would you willingly ingest a Mood-Enhancing Drug? Something that could ruin your mind, something addictive, just to get your hands on this? I cannot for the life of me understand your logic!”
Harriet froze, visibly shocked that he knew everything. Her eyes trembled, wide and brimming with unshed tears, and her lips, stained red as spring blossoms, parted but found no words.
The sight only infuriated him further. He thrust the brooch inches from her face and snarled.
“Did you think this would make me owe you some grand favor? I arranged an audience with the Empress when you protected my honor. Did you think finding this would get you a meeting with the Emperor himself?”
“That’s not it!”
“It had better not be. What I value are the memories of my father, not some paltry object like this!”
In a surge of inexplicable rage, Cedric hurled the ruby brooch. It cut through the air and splashed directly into the center of the fountain.
Harriet stared in horror at the spot where it vanished. She turned to Cedric, her voice a scream.
“What are you doing?!”
Before he could utter a word of reply, she hiked up her skirts and leaped straight into the fountain.
“Harriet!”
Cedric shouted in alarm, but she didn't look back. His voice was drowned out by the crashing water. She didn't care. She was already submerged, her head disappearing beneath the surface as she searched frantically for the jewel.
Cedric’s mind went numb. This was far beyond anything he had expected.
“Are you insane? Get out of there! Harriet, now!”
He called out desperately, but she ignored him. She threw her entire body into the search as if her life depended on it. She resurfaced, gasping for air, only to plunge back into the depths with a splash.
It felt like a fever dream. Everything from the moment Edgar had burst into his office until now—it had to be a dream. How could this be real?
“Puh-ha! Cough! Cough!”
Harriet broke the surface again, stumbling and coughing violently. Cedric, panicked, moved to climb into the fountain himself. Even if this was a dream, he couldn't stand by while a woman drowned before his eyes.
But Harriet was faster. She scrambled out of the fountain, clutching something tight in her fist, and staggered toward him. Water, smelling faintly of the basin, streamed from her sodden skirts. Wet strands of hair clung to her pale face, but her eyes were ablaze with a fierce, burning determination.
She marched up to Cedric, who was staring at her in a daze. She grabbed his hand, forced it open, and slammed the recovered brooch into his palm.
“This is the very object you were willing to exile me to a convent for!” she spat, her voice trembling with rage. Her lips had turned a faint shade of purple from the cold. “If you can throw it away so carelessly, then how utterly insignificant must I be to you?”
She raked her wet hair back with a trembling hand and gritted her teeth.
“I told you before, didn't I? I have decided to live by my pride now.” She glared at him, her eyes flashing. “So do not insult me further. Who knows? Even a cornered rat will bite a cat.”
She didn't look like a drowned rat. She looked like a feral, defiant cat—formidable, fierce, and, in some twisted way, almost cute.
No. He couldn't afford to think like that.
Cedric snapped back to his senses and grabbed Harriet’s wrist as she turned to leave.
“You’re angry at me? Do you even realize how dangerous your actions were last night?”
“I know! I told myself a thousand times that I was being insane! But still…!” Harriet bit her lip, then let out a shaky, ragged breath. “If I were you, I wouldn't want my father’s keepsake stolen like that. I thought… I thought I could find it for you!”
Tears of pure indignation finally welled in her eyes.
“If I had known you already knew everything, I wouldn't have gone. If I had known I’d be treated like such a fool…!”
Unable to finish, she pressed her lips into a thin line and wrenched her arm from his grasp. She turned and marched toward the garden exit. Her water-logged clothes were heavy and awkward; she had to hike up her skirts to move, her gait a clumsy, waddling stride.
Cedric watched her retreating figure, the brooch heavy in his hand, and let out a hollow, breathless laugh.