Chapter 17
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 17
“Oh... has that already become public knowledge?”
“It has become quite the topic of conversation.”
Harriet would have bet every gold coin she owned that her uncle had deliberately spread the rumor himself. But just as she was beginning to wonder why this news had brought a complete stranger to her door, Alfonso spoke, his expression darkening with displeasure.
“It was only after hearing that Viscount Listerwell had severed his guardianship over you while you were at the convent that my long-held suspicions turned into certainty.”
“What? What do you mean by that...?”
“Nine years ago, I was among those enjoying a boat ride in Albrecht Park.”
At the mention of Albrecht Park, Harriet froze.
Nine years ago, Harriet’s parents, Arthur and Lillian Listerwell, had gone for an outing at Albrecht Park. They took a boat out onto the water and drowned. Young Harriet, who had preferred running around with her peers to sitting on a boat, had survived only because she chose to play with her friends. At the time, she had often wondered if becoming an orphan was truly better than dying alongside her parents.
Alfonso continued, his eyes clouded with regret.
“At that time, the Viscount and Viscountess met with an accident in the center of Tasia Lake. It was a dangerous area with deep waters—a place no one ever ventured to.”
Even the memory was a painful ordeal.
Harriet’s parents, like many others, had rented a boat from the dock to enjoy the lake with her uncle and aunt. However, about an hour later, John came running back, panting and screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Someone, help! My brother fell into the water! He’s in the water!”
Even then, Harriet had believed people would rescue her parents quickly. She vividly remembered having the idle, innocent thought: Mom and Dad shouldn't catch a cold.
But the only things the searchers retrieved were one of her mother’s shoes and her father’s hat.
“By the time we reached the site, the boat and the Viscount and Viscountess had already completely submerged.”
At that moment, Harriet had been beside herself, unable to process the reality. Beside her, her uncle had been wailing and screaming as if he’d lost his mind.
The bodies were found a week later in Saint Antoine Park, which sat on the opposite side of Tasia Lake. On the grounds that it would be too cruel to show a child waterlogged corpses, Harriet wasn't allowed to see her parents until their coffins were nailed shut.
“Why are you bringing this up now?” Harriet managed to compose herself enough to ask.
Alfonso raised his head and looked her in the eye. “At the moment the Viscount and Viscountess fell into the water, my wife and I were nearby. Though I say ‘nearby,’ we were still close to the boundary where the water grows deep.”
Harriet’s eyes widened. But his confession didn't end there.
“However, the ones even closer to them than we were... were John Listerwell and his wife. And when the Viscount’s boat encountered trouble and began to sink, John steered his own boat in the opposite direction.”
“What? The opposite direction...?”
“Not toward the Viscount and Viscountess, but toward the lakeshore.”
“That can’t be...!”
At the time, John had claimed he and his wife were resting by the shore. He said he had rushed over the moment he saw his brother and sister-in-law struggling from afar. He also claimed he had no idea why his brother had steered the boat into the middle of the lake.
Alfonso let out a long, heavy breath.
“I rowed as fast as I could, but I couldn't reach them before they sank. I was sixty-two then, and my strength failed me. I can swear to you that I put every ounce of effort into it, though to you, Miss Harriet, it likely sounds like a poor excuse now.”
“Oh, no, not at all.”
What Harriet was curious about wasn't Alfonso’s struggle.
“Baron, you’re saying that my uncle seemed to deliberately distance himself back then, aren't you?”
“I am sorry to say this, but it looked as if he intentionally chose not to save them.”
Alfonso recalled Arthur Listerwell desperately calling out to his brother.
“John! The boat’s leaking! Help me!”
“John! John! Don’t go! At least save Lillian!”
That desperate voice, screaming until his throat was raw, had been clearly audible even to Alfonso, who was further away than John.
Yet John, as if he heard nothing at all, had only looked toward the shore and rowed diligently. His wife, Miriam, also kept her head turned in the same direction as her husband, as if by prior arrangement. Because of this, they hadn't even noticed that Alfonso was witnessing the scene.
“Then why didn't you say anything back then? Why have you remained silent until now?”
At Harriet’s voice, laced with accusation, the Baron ran a hand over his receding hairline as if wiping away cold sweat.
“I agonized over it. I wondered if we had truly seen correctly, or if there was some other circumstance we didn't understand. And at the time, John Listerwell seemed so grief-stricken... everyone was busy comforting him.”
Harriet understood. Even she had thought her uncle seemed more devastated than she was.
“So I kept silent. I feared that if I spoke rashly, we might be blamed instead. I tried to forget it, telling myself I must have been mistaken.”
When news broke that John had taken Harriet in to raise her, Alfonso assumed he had misjudged the man. When Harriet gained a reputation as a "scandal maker," he merely felt pity, thinking she was a girl adrift after losing her parents.
But when he heard that John had not only exiled Harriet to a convent for a year but had also severed his guardianship, a sharp intuition struck him.
“I, for one, do not want to believe that your uncle put a hole in that boat. However, I suspect that when his brother and sister-in-law were in mortal danger, he decided then and there to seize control of the family. Leaving you at the convent and severing your guardianship was likely the final stroke of that plan.”
While the legal succession of titles and property by women had been permitted two years before the accident, it still required the family head’s will. That was why Harriet couldn't simply become the head of the house.
However, recently, there had been an increasing number of court rulings stating that if the daughter of a deceased former head was unmarried, she should inherit enough property for a dowry. The problem was that filing such a lawsuit required money.
Furthermore, if Harriet chose to become a nun, she would lose all rights to the Listerwell assets. Those who entered the clergy were legally considered to have severed all ties with their birth families.
“Not only did he turn a blind eye to his brother and sister-in-law’s deaths, but he has now cast out his niece, leaving her unable to even marry. What a shameless act!”
“From my uncle’s perspective, it was a clever move, wasn't it?” Harriet remarked.
An unexpected opportunity for succession. If it was the John Harriet knew, he wouldn't have failed to notice that opportunity—nor would he have let it slip away.
“I regret having to inform you of such a devastating truth. But I felt I had to tell you, My Lady, before I die. That is why I came.”
The old man’s confession, akin to an act of repentance, concluded. Only after hearing the entire story did something finally click in Harriet's mind.
Why had I never found it strange that Mom and Dad went to the middle of the lake?
They had gone boating several times every year before the accident, but her parents had never once ventured into dangerous waters. Yet Alfonso said John and Miriam were nearby.
Is there any guarantee that Uncle didn't lure them there?
Considering he had lied about his location, her uncle clearly knew the truth would be detrimental to him. And if he had lured them there, did that mean he knew the boat would sink?
It’s hard to believe... but it fits too perfectly to be a coincidence.
Even if it wasn't a premeditated murder, the fact remained that he had left Arthur and Lillian to drown.
A hellfire-like rage burned in her gut, yet at the same time, she felt fortunate to have learned the truth now. What if she had never known? Her foolish self might have one day forgiven her uncle, telling herself she should be grateful to him for raising her.
“Thank you.” Harriet bowed her head to Alfonso. “You could have remained silent, yet you came all this way...”
Before Harriet could finish her sentence, her voice choking with emotion, Alfonso took out a white envelope and offered it to her.
“It is a small sum, but I hope it helps you, My Lady, in standing on your own.”
“Oh, no, Baron! You don't have to do this!”
“One of the reasons I remained silent was for my own safety. I have been truly tormented for days, feeling that you ended up in this position because of my cowardice.” He pressed the envelope into Harriet’s hand and pleaded. “Please, accept it. It is an apology for my silence. I am truly sorry that even this is so meager.”
At the sight of the old man bowing even deeper than she had, Harriet finally shed tears.
They were tears of gratitude and sorrow. But beneath it all, they were fueled by sheer rage.
The person who should be bowing and apologizing to me is someone else entirely!