Chapter 3
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 3
She hadn’t expected him to spare her even a glance, but to her surprise, he turned his head. For a fleeting moment, their eyes met.
Refusing to be cowed by his piercing gaze, Harriet gritted her teeth and lifted her chin. Though the silence lasted only a few seconds, it felt like an eternity.
Just as she felt his gaze soften ever so slightly, John spoke with a heavy, solemn air.
“I wish to offer my sincerest apologies. I shall send my niece to a convent to reflect upon her transgressions. As for compensation for the damages caused, I will provide whatever Your Grace desires.”
Harriet’s eyes widened in shock.
“U-Uncle! A convent?”
No one paid any mind to her dismay. Cedric looked down at John, who remained bowed, and clicked his tongue with visible impatience.
“It is fine. From what I have gathered, it seems there was no true intent to insult me or my late father.” His gaze swept over Harriet once more. “Perhaps I overreacted as well.”
John’s shoulders visibly slumped with relief. Cedric turned away, his interest in Harriet and the House of Listerwell clearly exhausted.
“I simply hope we do not encounter one another under such circumstances again.”
“Of course. Thank you for your leniency.”
John bowed deeply once more. Without so much as a parting glance, Cedric returned to his original place.
As the spectacle concluded, the murmuring crowd dispersed, and the banquet resumed as if nothing had happened. However, for Harriet, the nightmare was only beginning.
“Harriet! Go home and stay there. Do not utter a single word, no matter who asks!”
“Uncle, I—!”
“Are you trying to argue with me here? How much more do you intend to humiliate me?!”
Harriet flinched, her shoulders shrinking at John’s furious roar. This man held her fate in his hands. He was her guardian, her only refuge, and her closest living relative. Upsetting him further was not a wise move.
“…I will return home first.”
Harriet retreated slowly, her head bowed. She had achieved her goal of leaving the banquet early, but she had never imagined it would happen like this.
A spring breeze, fragrant with the scent of flowers, brushed against the nape of her neck, but she felt only a hollow numbness.
* * *
“Go to Saint Clarissa Convent for just one year.”
“What?” Harriet’s eyes rounded in disbelief.
“I am saying this for your own good. That should be enough time for the public to forget this incident.”
“U-Uncle!”
“You have to get married eventually, Harriet. In your current state, you won’t receive a single party invitation, let alone a marriage proposal!”
John was deciding to erase a year of her life as if it were a triviality. Harriet shook her head frantically.
“Uncle, I explained everything. I did not steal the Duke of Kailas’s brooch. I didn’t even pick it up! It was pinned to my dress, and I simply wore it because Bella suggested it. There were witnesses!”
When she had calmly explained the situation earlier, John had listened quietly, leading her to believe the misunderstanding had been cleared. Why was his decision to exile her to a convent so unshakeable? And for an entire year!
Clinging to the hope that she could change his mind, Harriet tried to persuade him again. However, John clicked his tongue in annoyance and slammed his palm onto the desk.
“The truth is irrelevant! At this point, offending the Ducal House means the end of everything. Why, of all things, did you have to meddle with the late Duke’s possession?!”
“I told you, I didn’t do it!”
“Haa… Harriet.”
John’s voice suddenly softened. Harriet knew that tone; whenever he called her name so gently, nothing good ever followed.
“Can you go to the Ducal House right now and appease the Duke? Can you stay in the capital and quell the rumors yourself?”
“That’s…”
“A year is a small price to pay. If you stay out of sight, people will stop caring. Once the rumors die down, marriage proposals might actually start coming in again. It’s for the best.”
His coaxing, whispering voice pressed heavily on her shoulders. He made her feel as though she were a spiteful child for refusing his "gentle" persuasion.
“So, Harriet, do as your uncle says. I know your circumstances are unfair, and to some extent, the fault lies with us as well. I will ensure you have a generous dowry when you marry. And not just a dowry—I’ll have a dress made by the most famous designer and prepare wedding gifts that will leave no one disappointed.”
“Are you… serious?”
“Of course! Do you think I would ever forget what you’ve done for Bella?”
John chuckled, his face returning to an amiable mask. The man who had just slammed his fist on the desk was gone. Harriet slumped her shoulders and nodded slowly.
‘It’s not as if I can refuse his decision anyway… If I’ve secured a promise for a dowry and gifts, then I’ve fought as well as I could.’
Sweat beaded in her tightly clasped hands, but Harriet tried her best to console herself.
“…I understand.”
“Good. You’ve made a wise decision. The convent will contact us soon, so stay inside and pack your bags. Since you’ll be wearing a habit there, you won’t need many clothes or valuables.”
Harriet didn’t offer a single complaint to his cold commands. There was no point in adding more despair to the weight already crushing her.
* * *
“What did Harriet say?”
“What could she say? She has no choice but to follow my orders.”
John speared a thick piece of meat with his fork as he replied to Bella. Before eating, however, he shot his daughter a sharp glare.
“Still, you went too far this time, Bella. The fallout almost reached us.”
“Did you really think I knew it was the late Duke’s heirloom? Either way, we managed to get Harriet out of the way, so the goal was achieved, wasn’t it?”
“Father, it actually worked out for the best,” Aston added, siding with his sister. “Because it was that specific item, everyone will think it’s only justified to send Harriet away.”
Once Aston spoke up, John stopped blaming Bella. After all, he and Bella had planned this incident together from the start.
“Dad! Take Harriet to the next banquet, too.”
“Her? Why?”
“You said you wanted to get rid of her.”
“Yes! Which is why I shouldn’t take her. Besides, the next banquet is very important.”
“I have a plan. You might be a little embarrassed, Dad, but in the end, everyone will pity you. You just have to bear with it, okay?”
Though she was his beloved daughter, John hesitated at the mention of being embarrassed. However, the plan to use the "confession brooch" trend to create an excuse to exile Harriet had worked perfectly.
‘It was about time to get rid of her anyway.’
Bella was already twenty-one. With her beauty and carefully crafted reputation for being pure and gentle, she had been receiving several decent marriage proposals. John wasn’t fully satisfied with them yet, but it was time to focus on her future.
And that was exactly why Harriet—Bella’s "clean-up crew"—had to disappear from the capital.
“It would have been better if she had just stayed on that boat that day,” John muttered with a sigh.
Harriet was the only daughter of his deceased brother and sister-in-law, who had perished in a boating accident. Though he had played the role of the affectionate uncle since her childhood, he had never harbored a shred of genuine affection for her. If his brother hadn’t been wealthy, and if it hadn’t been social suicide to abandon an orphaned niece, he would have sent her to an orphanage years ago.
“Exactly. Then we wouldn’t have had all this trouble,” Bella retorted.
Her mother, Miriam, let out a small laugh. “Still, thanks to her, you’ve gotten out of several awkward situations, haven’t you? Try to feel a little pity for her.”
“Mom, are you serious?”
“It just means you need to be more careful from now on. It’s time to find you a suitable match!”
“Don’t worry. This incident even helped me get acquainted with the Duke of Kailas. Who knows? I might even become the Duchess.”
Not a shred of remorse could be found in Bella, yet the Viscount and Viscountess Listerwell gazed at their daughter with nothing but adoration. To them, Bella was a treasure—the child who would elevate their status even further.
“Exactly! There is no lady as beautiful as our Bella!”
“That’s right. The Duke must have been smitten with her as well. I should find out which parties he’ll be attending. Bella must be at every single one.”
The couple smiled broadly, envisioning a future where Bella became Cedric’s bride. The Duke’s in-laws—it was a sweet fantasy.
“By the way, how did you get your hands on that brooch? Are you finally going to tell me?”