SMR | Chapter 27

~Chapter 27~

“She seems to have her own plans, so I’m watching with interest,” Trisha said, smiling widely, which was rare for her.

Though they didn’t interact often, Cedric had always seen Trisha with a blank or slightly irritable expression. Seeing her this happy was the first time he could recall such a moment.

“It seems you’ve taken a liking to Miss Harriet.”

At those words, Trisha’s smile disappeared, and she put on a slightly cold expression, as if embarrassed to have been caught smiling.

“Not yet. She’s still lacking in many ways. She lost her parents at a young age, and since then, it seems she hasn’t received proper education.”

“Is that so?”

“There’s no need to pretend you don’t know. It would be more surprising if someone in this circle didn’t know about her. I’ve heard plenty of rumors myself.”

Trisha spoke while gently touching the hydrangea flowers with her fingertips.

“But I don’t completely believe in rumors. As you know, Duke, rumors tend to be exaggerated for dramatic effect. They can be distorted or even completely false.”

“That’s true.”

“So I’m trying to water this dying sapling, give it fertilizer, and give it sunlight at the right time. Who knows? It might bloom into a beautiful flower.”

“And what if it doesn’t bloom and withers away instead? Wouldn’t you feel like your efforts were wasted?”

Trisha, who had been gently touching the petals of the hydrangea, lifted her head to look at Cedric.

“You’ve never tended a garden, have you?”

“Well…”

“People who care for gardens don’t get upset or angry when a plant they’ve carefully watered and nurtured with fertilizer dies. Instead, they reflect on what they may have done wrong. They don’t blame the plant.”

In other words, if the plant withered, the cause usually lay with the gardener.

‘It must have been John who brought Harriet to this point. He seemed so devoted to his daughter.’

Of course, Cedric wasn’t suggesting that a person must treat a niece the same way they treat their own child. But when he thought about how well the late Arthur had treated John while alive, it made John seem incredibly ungrateful.

Trisha’s mind flashed back to the image of Harriet, who had turned to look at her while trying on a dress during a fitting.

“It’s the first time I’ve bought clothes I really liked since my mother passed away.”

Harriet had smiled, but there was still a trace of sadness in her face, something not yet fully forgotten.

After all, just because the sun is out doesn’t mean the moisture deep in the petals will dry immediately.

But Harriet had chosen to move forward, overcoming her grief. She wasn’t a fragile sapling that would wither easily.

“Honestly, even though I’m saying all this, I’ve never taken on a project that ended in failure. Harriet will improve greatly. I may look like this, but I have a good eye for these things,” Trisha said, raising her chin confidently.

Cedric found that confidence somehow appealing and even thought that he’d like to meet Trisha more often in the future.

“It seems there’s a reason why the Pellon family’s business is flourishing. If this conversation was a pitch for investment, I would have unknowingly put my money into it.”

He said this half-jokingly, but Trisha’s eyes sparkled mischievously.

“Would you like to invest?”

Since her meaning was unclear, Cedric simply maintained his smile without responding. Trisha laughed as if she had expected his reaction.

“I’m joking, of course. Haha!”

Cedric laughed along with her.

But for some reason, he felt as if he had somehow been drawn into something.

***

The Listerwell family hadn’t thought much about Harriet until one day near the end of June, when her name came up again.

Among the bundle of letters delivered by the postal worker, one was addressed to Harriet, and the sender was quite unexpected.

“Huh? The bank manager of Aseti in Perillas?”

John picked up the letter and tilted his head in confusion.

Perillas was a region near Genoa, but what business would a bank from there have in writing to Harriet?

Without hesitation, John opened the envelope.

“Dear Miss Harriet Listerwell, …The land and house that your late father had entrusted to the bank as payment for his debts will be returned on June 25. However, for the process to be completed, Miss Harriet, the rightful owner, must personally come to sign the return documents any time after June 25…”

John’s eyes widened as he read the letter.

“What? 165 hectares of land in Perillas? And a house too?”

He had never heard of this property before. And the fact that it would now belong to Harriet was even more shocking!

“What on earth is going on?”

Fortunately for John, the bank manager of Aseti had attached an additional document explaining the details of this old agreement, perhaps anticipating that Harriet might have forgotten about it.

The land and house in Perillas originally belonged to a baron named Thomas Belburn. Seeing his name made John recall a rumor he had heard long ago.

“Thomas Belburn, that guy would gamble even if his hands were cut off. He’d probably use his tongue to gamble.”

“And if his tongue were cut off, he’d use his toes.”

‘Thomas, the gambling addict! Yes, it’s definitely him!’

It seemed Thomas owed Arthur a large debt. The document didn’t specify the reason, but it was almost certainly because of gambling. Maybe he borrowed money from Arthur to gamble, or perhaps he lost a big bet to Arthur. ‘I’ve never heard that my brother gambled, so Arthur must have been the one who lent him the money.’

It was unclear how they became acquainted, but since Thomas had used his land and house as a guarantee, Arthur probably thought he wouldn’t lose his money. However, a gambler’s wealth is never stable.

When it was time to repay the debt, there was no word from Thomas. When Arthur checked, he found that Thomas had fled with his family in the middle of the night. When Arthur went to inspect the land he had received instead of the money, he was greeted by angry tenant farmers, seed vendors, and middlemen who hadn’t been paid, all shouting in front of the Belburn estate.

Arthur had become the new landowner in front of these furious people.

“Sir Arthur Listerwell took out a loan from our bank to settle Belburn’s outstanding debts and then entrusted the land and house to the bank for 10 years. During this period, the profits from the property would offset the loan. (June 25, 1866). The land and house were to be registered in the name of Miss Harriet Listerwell, and on June 25, 1876, 10 years later, they would be fully returned to her.”

“June 25, 1866?”

That was just three days before Arthur died.

‘That’s right! My brother said he had just returned from a trip. So, it was to Perillas?’

After returning from the trip, Arthur attended an outing with his younger brother’s family. Before he could even write down this agreement in his records, he tragically passed away.

‘That’s why I didn’t know about it.’

John clicked his tongue in annoyance.

If he had known about this when Harriet was still living with them, it would have been much easier to get her signature to change the ownership.

Of course, even now, John had no intention of giving up the land and house. Perillas was known for its fertile land, and since the property was debt-free, it was essentially a gold mine.

‘With this, I can recover the losses from the Bernard shipping disaster and make a big investment in the Azental shipping trade!’

Having recently suffered a significant loss in his trade business, John felt like the heavens were smiling on him.

‘Harriet doesn’t know about this land, so all I have to do is change the ownership.’

John began crafting a document that would transfer the ownership from Harriet to himself. He planned to forge her signature to complete the process.

The document stated that, following the change in the head of the Listerwell family, all its assets were now under the new head’s management. Therefore, Harriet Listerwell would relinquish her rights to the property.

“…In accordance with the above circumstances… ownership of the land and house will be transferred… to Uncle John Listerwell.”

Satisfied with his work, John smiled. He initially thought of forging Harriet’s signature himself but then called Bella.

He explained the situation regarding the Perillas’ land and handed her the ownership transfer document.

“If I sign it, the handwriting might be too similar and raise suspicion, so you sign Harriet’s name.”

“Alright, but in return, I’ll buy a pair of earrings tomorrow. Okay?”

Without giving John a chance to refuse, Bella quickly scribbled Harriet’s signature on the document.

Although she felt uneasy writing Harriet’s name, she consoled herself by thinking of the diamond earrings she had been eyeing. They made the task bearable.

John wasn’t pleased with Bella’s constant desire for more jewelry, but he didn’t object.

‘Once I sell the land in Perillas, I’ll get at least 30 million dirhams. What’s a pair of earrings compared to that?’

However, his grand dreams were shattered in less than a day.