Chapter 191
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 191
"Do you think I was lying when I said I came because I missed you?"
"You only said that to keep Great-aunt Trisha from getting suspicious."
"Then was I trying to deceive someone when I muttered about missing you in my sleep?"
"What? Sleep-talking? ...Did I really?"
The moment she asked, Harriet remembered the words she’d mumbled while giggling to herself in her daze.
"Ugh, no!"
Mortified, she clapped her hands over her ears and stomped her feet. Her reaction was so visceral and unexpected that Cedric couldn't suppress his laughter.
"Pfft! Hahaha!"
"What do I do? What am I going to do!"
"Hahahaha!"
The laughter echoing through the moonlit garden eventually subsided.
"Ah, you truly are unpredictable," Cedric said, catching his breath.
"Look who's talking... No, really. You’re a man who is busy beyond belief, yet you've been holed up here for hours just because you missed me? Isn't that a bit strange?"
"I’ve done well holding back until now, but today, I simply couldn't. I came looking for you without a second thought."
"Without even sending word beforehand?"
"Honestly, I was prepared to be turned away at the gates, but thankfully, Lady Fellon welcomed me warmly."
Warmly was one way to put it.
To show up out of the blue without a word—even for a Duke, it was a lapse in etiquette. Had he sold his manners on the way over?
The 'son-in-law audition,' which had begun with a rather prickly greeting the moment he arrived, had been anything but easy. But after playing chess with the woman and hearing her true feelings, Cedric felt coming today had been the right choice.
"She is a child who grew up lonely," Trisha had told him. "A child who was thoroughly betrayed by the person she trusted most. When she told me she wanted to start a family of her own, I felt both joy and immense worry."
"I can guess what your concerns might be, Madam."
"I’m glad you understand. Then, please keep this one more thing in mind."
Trisha had ignored the rules of the game, placing her own king directly in front of his as she threatened him in a low voice.
"If you make Harriet cry—Duke or no Duke—I’ll skin you alive. I’m an old woman with not much time left anyway, so I have nothing to fear."
In that moment, Cedric had found himself quite amused, wondering if Harriet’s unpredictable nature had been inherited from Trisha.
"I will bear it in mind. However, I’m rather forgetful, so please live a long, long life to keep reminding me, Madam."
"Hmph! I couldn't possibly give Harriet to a man that foolish."
Cedric had clasped his hands together, pleading once more.
"Please, stay by our side for a long time."
Trisha, who had been staring intently at him, grumbled as she brushed off her lap blanket, suddenly losing interest in the game. She’d called him a sly fox, or something to that effect.
Cedric decided to keep her rough language a secret. Regardless of her choice of words, Trisha was an elder who deserved his utmost respect.
He smiled faintly, then turned his gaze back to Harriet, his expression shifting to one of concern.
"I heard the trial has been keeping you from sleeping. You’ll collapse before a verdict is even reached at this rate."
"I know, I need to take care of myself. But it’s hard. The anxious thoughts just won't stop..."
"What makes you so anxious?"
"We’re lacking decisive evidence, aren't we?"
That was precisely why John was acting so brazenly. Circumstantial evidence pointed to him as the culprit, but without concrete proof, the law was a difficult beast to tame.
"Trying to read the jurors' faces is exhausting now. I feel like they’re all leaning toward 'not guilty,' and if that happens..."
Then her uncle and Bella would undoubtedly brand her an unfilial monster. It might even provide the fallen Bella a chance to claw her way back into society.
"Thinking about that... it keeps me awake."
Cedric reached out, pulling Harriet’s slumped shoulders into a firm embrace.
"Everything will be alright. I’ll help you in any way I can, so don't worry too much."
"I don't want to frame them with a baseless accusation. That would make me no better than them."
"Anyone listening would think they were actually innocent," Cedric joked.
His lightheartedness helped Harriet regain her smile.
"Thank you. Honestly, I feel much better now that you're here."
"Not as much as I do."
As they walked and talked, they reached an arched tunnel draped in heavy clusters of wisteria. It was a section of the garden Trisha had tended to with special care.
The wisteria blossoms at night were so ethereal it felt as if she and Cedric had been transported into a dream, leaving the rest of the world behind.
"Wow, it’s so beautiful..."
As Harriet tilted her head back, marveling at the flowers that seemed to pour down like a violet waterfall, Cedric lowered his gaze from the blooms to her face.
"You are more beautiful."
In that moment, as the night breeze stilled, Harriet instinctively knew he was about to kiss her. Watching Cedric lean in, she let her eyes drift shut—a natural, inevitable reaction.
Wisteria blossoms fell around them like a blessing, the night air hazy with their fragrance. The warmth, the scent, and the heat of the man she loved... nothing more was needed for the moment to be etched into her heart forever.
Their lips met several times, a mix of longing and lingering regret, before they slowly opened their eyes to gaze at one another.
"I... I never knew I was such a patient man," Cedric whispered.
Harriet couldn't quite grasp the full weight of his words. Or rather, she was afraid she understood them all too well. If it were true, and if they both acknowledged the depth of that desire, she feared their relationship would accelerate at a terrifying pace.
"When I’m too happy, it scares me," she admitted softly. "So, just like this... this much is perfect."
Cedric stroked Harriet’s back, his touch steady and reassuring.
His beloved needed more practice in accepting happiness. If she gradually, bit by bit, increased the amount of joy she could handle, the day would come when she could freely accept everything he wanted to offer her.
‘To do that, she must win this trial cleanly.’
He believed that the day Harriet finally rectified her past would be the day she was truly reborn.
And that day was fast approaching.
*
The atmosphere of the Harriet vs. John Listerwell trial, which had been a grueling back-and-forth, shifted unexpectedly when fragments of dried glue were discovered in the crevices of the nearly dried boat hull.
The glue on the parts exposed to the elements had long since washed away, but some that had seeped into the tight gaps where the wooden planks joined remained.
"The glue found on the vessel is the exact same substance Miss Harriet heard Miss Bella describe!" Harriet’s lawyer shouted, gesturing toward the judge and jurors. "It is not a type typically used in shipbuilding. Do you still believe this is a story Miss Harriet fabricated to slander Miss Bella?"
But Bella immediately stepped forward, her voice trembling with indignation.
"As I’ve said many times, I never said such a thing! I was twelve years old at the time, just like Harriet. How could a child so young possibly conceive of killing her uncle’s family in such a gruesome way?"
Weeping, she turned to Harriet with a look of profound betrayal.
"Why are you tormenting us like this, Harriet? No matter how much you hate us, how could you accuse my father and me of murdering your own uncle?"
Her tears, still beautiful even in her distress, were enough to make the jurors waver.
Sensing the shift in the room, John’s lawyer followed up with his defense.
"It seems certain that the boat’s hull had holes drilled into it and was coated with water-soluble glue. However, that is not evidence that Miss Bella or Viscount Listerwell committed the act."
He had clearly decided to exploit the lack of a direct link rather than disputing the boat's condition.
"It could have been the work of a third party! Is it not more plausible that Miss Harriet, having heard of such a method elsewhere, is framing her uncle’s family to seize the viscounty for herself?"
He hammered home the point: there was no way to prove Bella was the source of the information.
To corner Harriet further, they called upon the collateral relatives—the very people who had been "kind" to her back when Arthur Listerwell was still alive.
"Viscount Ainborough. You are Miss Harriet’s grand-uncle, are you not?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"At the time of the incident, did you sense even the slightest hint that Viscount John Listerwell or Miss Bella were involved?"
"Not at all," the old man said, clearing his throat. "Arthur and John were very close. John, in particular, was a devoted younger brother who deeply respected and followed Arthur."
"I see. I heard you had something to say regarding this matter."
As the lawyer set the stage, the Viscount cleared his throat again, his expression turning deliberately somber.
"It pains me that our family’s succession is being dragged through the mud because of this. It is impossible that John killed Arthur. Furthermore, Arthur was unable to designate Harriet as his successor before his passing, and Harriet was far too young at the time. Therefore, John is the rightful successor to the Listerwell viscounty."
He then turned a cold, judgmental gaze toward Harriet.
"Harriet! To commit such a shameful act, accusing your own blood! If you continue this, your father will never be able to rest in peace! Do you truly intend to become such an unfilial monster?"
The moment the words unfilial monster left his lips, Harriet was so stunned she was left utterly speechless.