Ch#66
Ch#66
Ch#66
~Chapter 66~
“The Duke says he’ll escort Sister Harriet.”
“Pardon? Me? You mean he’ll give me a ride in his carriage?”
“There’s plenty of room. I was planning to ride alone anyway.”
It was undoubtedly an overly generous offer.
Harriet had been worrying whether staying one more day might make Trisha uneasy.
But the thought of sitting alone with him in that confined space for hours made her heart uneasy.
‘But I can’t refuse in this situation either…….’
Harriet reluctantly forced an awkward smile and accepted his kind offer.
She hurriedly packed her things and, with farewells from the convent sisters, boarded Cedric’s carriage.
“I owe you so much. Stay well until we meet again!”
“Take care of yourself too, Sister Harriet. Don’t push yourself too hard. I’ll pray you remain under the Lord’s blessings always.”
As Catherine’s farewell words ended, the carriage door closed, and the wheels began to roll.
Harriet leaned out the window and waved, but the carriage picked up speed before her lingering reluctance could fade.
Emma, standing with Catherine and Agnes as they watched the departing carriage, spoke in an excited voice.
“His Grace has such a kind heart. He donates generously and never passes by someone in a difficult situation.”
Catherine replied with a subtle smile.
“Hmm…… we’ll see.”
In her view, Cedric was certainly polite and gentlemanly, but he wasn’t the type to easily cross the lines of class.
He wasn’t one to offer unnecessary kindness.
So had he really taken Harriet purely out of consideration?
“Who knows.”
Emma tilted her head, not understanding Catherine’s words, but Catherine just smiled.
Jolt, jolt.
Under the orange glow of sunset, the grand four-horse carriage raced along the snow-covered country road.
The snow had half melted, turning the road into a muddy mess, but the Kailas Duke’s carriage—with its crest emblazoned on the side—pressed on without a single wobble.
‘The Duke’s carriage really is something else.’
Inside the carriage, Harriet kept her head still but rolled her eyes to survey her surroundings.
She’d thought the Felon family’s carriage was luxurious, but this was on another level.
A four-horse carriage just for one person, with two coachmen?
To the wealthy, this was probably just everyday life.
‘That said…… I wish he’d stop staring at me.’
The real reason Harriet couldn’t find where to rest her gaze was that Cedric, sitting across from her, had been staring intently at her ever since they’d set off.
Normally, she might have called it rude, but Harriet stubbornly kept her mouth shut.
Cedric surely knew manners well enough.
The fact that he wouldn’t look away probably meant, ‘You speak first.’
It was childish. But she didn’t want to back down in this battle of silence.
‘I may be poor, but I’ve got my pride.’
As she tried to gaze out the window as if it didn’t bother her, a small chuckle suddenly sounded.
She should have ignored it, but without realizing, her eyes flicked toward him.
“Miss Harriet, you always make me want to laugh.”
Harriet blinked in bewilderment.
What?
She’d never once tried to make him laugh.
“Me……?”
Cedric chuckled softly again, clearly amused by her puzzled reaction.
“Still, it would’ve been nice if you’d told me about the Clarissa brand idea first.”
“Well, with year-end coming up, I figured you’d be busy. I was going to mention it when we met. Wait— are you sulking right now?”
“Hahaha!”
Cedric burst into laughter. It was the first time in his life anyone had ever asked him if he was “sulking.”
Harriet, on the other hand, couldn’t fathom what was so funny.
‘Some people laugh when they’re angry…… Is he one of those?’
Seeing Harriet’s flustered expression only brightened Cedric’s mood further.
Encountering someone who treated him so casually was a refreshing experience.
‘I’ve never seriously considered a woman as a business partner before. But her…… she’s not bad.’
A bold, clever woman without an ounce of guile— a rare type.
“So, when were you planning to visit me? The year’s almost over.”
“Soon. I’m waiting to get the financial reports from October to December from the accountant. Then I’ll come.”
“Are you confident?”
“Confident? What exactly are you asking about?”
Harriet hadn’t understood half of what Cedric was saying, but she answered as best she could anyway.
“Is it really a matter of confidence or not? Of course higher net profit would be better, but even if not, investors have a right to know the full truth.”
Just then, the carriage rounded a corner, and golden sunset light gathered in Harriet’s eyes.
Cedric momentarily lost himself in the brief, beautiful sparkle in her eyes.
A soft smile, like the evening glow, spread across his lips.
“In this business, plenty of people fail to do what you call ‘obvious.’”
“Pardon? Hiding profits from the people who funded you? Isn’t that…… a crime?”
“Close enough. It always comes out eventually, but they always make excuses. ‘It was a mistake,’ or ‘a misunderstanding,’ they say.”
Suddenly, an old memory flashed through Harriet’s mind.
“Why do guilty people love the word ‘misunderstanding’ so much? Do they think I’ll let it slide if they say that?”
It was the cold words Cedric had spat at her when she insisted she hadn’t stolen the brooch, when she called it a misunderstanding.
As that chilling memory resurfaced, Harriet’s expression hardened.
“Miss Harriet……?”
Sensing something off, Cedric called her name gently, but Harriet blurted out without even knowing what she was saying.
“Some of those people might really have made mistakes. And maybe you misunderstood them. What if their words weren’t excuses, but the truth?”
Cedric’s soft expression gradually stiffened.
“Then should I evaluate each of their situations personally? Knowing how to avoid misunderstandings is also the duty of a responsible business partner.”
“But even if you do everything right, things can still go wrong. Because of someone’s manipulation or subtle changes in circumstances. When that happens to someone like me— no one believes you, no matter how much you explain!”
“No one…… believes you……”
He let out a short, dry laugh.
“I see…… You must sympathize with their side, Miss Harriet.”
Of course she did. Harriet was in the position of receiving investment from him, after all. But…… why did those words sound strangely disappointing?
As the carriage crested a small hill, silence stretched between them for a while.
They simply gazed out the window in that quiet.
Then—
As if the wheel had caught on something, the carriage jolted to a sudden halt.
Cedric frowned slightly and opened the small window toward the driver’s seat.
“What is it?”
“My apologies, Your Grace! The road looked fine, but it seems we hit a mud pit. The wheel’s stuck, but we’ll have it sorted quickly.”
“Should we get out?”
“No! It’s just…… if the young lady inside could shift to Your Grace’s side, it would help a lot. With the weight forward, it’ll be much easier to lift the wheel.”
Cedric glanced at Harriet.
Having heard everything, Harriet awkwardly stood from her seat.
“If it’s a bother, I can step outside for a bit.”
But the coachman hurriedly added his apologies.
“Oh, no need for that! Just shift the center of weight forward.”
“That’s what he says. It might be a bit uncomfortable, but I’d appreciate your cooperation, Miss Harriet.”
“After getting a free ride, this much is nothing……”
Harriet masked her awkwardness with a smile and sat beside Cedric, leaving about two hand spans of distance so he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.
Still feeling embarrassed, she peered out the window.
She could see the coachman’s assistant pulling out a lever-like tool to wedge under the rear wheel.
At his signal, the coachman whipped the horses.
“Hya! Hya!”
Each pull of the horses rocked the carriage, and on one jolt, Harriet’s hand slipped from the seat and landed atop Cedric’s hand.
“Ah! I-I— it wasn’t on purpose!”
“……I know.”
Harriet whipped her head away and muttered to herself.
‘Why’d you leave your hand right there, making a fuss.’
The air between them grew unbearably awkward.
The assistant now hammered the tool deeper under the wheel with something like a mallet.
The carriage rocked again, this time more violently— a sign things were working.
‘I can’t just leave my hand still…….’
Growing ever more uncomfortable, Harriet decided to pull out her rosary from her handbag.
If she rolled the beads and pretended to pray quietly, Cedric wouldn’t think it odd.
But the moment she took out the rosary—
