51 - Chapter 51
“Huh……?”
What is this? An honest sentiment? Hating Ryan?
Eloise, momentarily unable to grasp the situation, slowly blinked her large eyes.
If it's Ryan, there's no other Ryan here besides Ryan Thornton.
Narrowing her eyes slightly, she examined the handwriting on the paper, confirming that it was indeed his.
Compared to others, his handwriting was larger and had a refreshing feel, making it easily distinguishable at a glance.
Moreover, as expected of a soldier, it even had a stiff feel, conveying the writer's personality and even appearance the moment you saw it.
Of course, Eloise grumbled that his handwriting was unnecessarily good compared to his petty nature.
What was on the paper now was indeed his handwriting.
'But what did I do to make him leave something like this?'
Eloise desperately rummaged through her still hazy mind. What did I do……?
In the meantime, her eyes scanned the table. She was sure she had written something full of words before falling asleep…….
“Oh my god……!”
Realizing what was missing, Eloise jumped up from her seat in shock. Then, she frantically searched around the desk. But what was lost was nowhere to be found.
“He must have taken it…….”
Eloise, slumped back in her seat, muttered in a hollow voice.
Recalling what she had written on it, she finally understood why he had written, 'Ryan whom you hate.'
Eloise recalled why she had deliberately written his name crookedly.
During the day, they had discussed what to plant in the place where the tree stump had been removed.
He said that the spot needed a large tree that would provide shade. He also said that they should find a new, large tree that was at least 10 years old and plant it.
But Eloise disagreed with his opinion. She replied that it would be better to buy and plant a younger tree, less than 5 years old, and raise it.
The two stood their ground over that. If Mr. Palmer hadn't come to find them for other business, they probably would have glared at each other for longer, asserting their opinions.
<You're really stubborn.>
Before leaving, he grumbled as if for her to hear and went downstairs. After he left, Eloise also crossed her arms, pouted her lips, and grumbled.
'Who doesn't know that big trees are good?'
It was a place where there had to be a large tree that could provide shade, as he said.
There was no way Eloise wouldn't know that fact. But there was a reason for insisting on a small tree.
'It's too expensive.'
She had definitely told him at first. That bringing such a large tree would exceed the budget that Lord Stanford had allocated to Blissbury.
Then Ryan looked at her as if it was no problem and said.
<If it exceeds the budget allocated to the garden, I'll pay for it, so you don't have to worry about that.>
Eloise's head ached at those words.
'He clearly doesn't know how expensive such a tree is.'
When Eloise was young, Lord Stanford entrusted Blissbury to Mr. Serverton and had the garden extensively renovated.
Thanks to that, young Eloise had seen how much the newly brought trees cost next to her father, who was checking the bills.
Thanks to that, she learned that bringing and planting a large tree cost a tremendous amount of money.
So she had chosen a young tree that could be purchased within the amount allocated to Blissbury as much as possible, but Ryan, not knowing her feelings, was saying things like why she didn't know that a larger tree would be more suitable.
She felt like ordering the most expensive tree, saying, 'As you said, you'll pay for all the additional costs!'
'But I'll definitely regret it later if I do that.'
Listening to his words unconsciously from time to time, it seemed that he was not in a particularly financially difficult situation. No, rather, he seemed to be on the more affluent side.
'But I know how much a lieutenant gets paid.'
Although he was trusted enough to be taken care of by Lord Stanford, there was no way a soldier's salary would be very high.
Eloise hoped that he would save his money more. Of course, if she, who wasn't even family, said that, she would probably be told that she was being nosy, so she kept her mouth shut.
After arguing with him like that, her mood didn't improve even after coming to this room.
I was saying it after thinking about everything, but he doesn't even know how I feel!
Huffing and puffing alone, Eloise checked what she had to do.
The remaining task was to make name tags to inform the guests of their seats at the Banquet.
Eloise replaced the nib of the pen and then wrote people's names to loosen her hand. The first name she wrote was, of course, her own.
There were some slightly misaligned parts because she was writing in decorative font after a long time. But after writing a few more times, her hand regained its former sense.
After writing her name several times for a long time, the next name she wrote was Ryan.
Then, the moment she tried to continue writing the surname Thornton, Eloise's lips twisted. Her hand wrote the surname Wilgrave instead of the surname Thornton.
Her hand moved again. When she wrote Ryan Wilgrave again, the writing was much neater and more beautiful than before.
Satisfied with her writing, Eloise practiced the name Ryan Wilgrave several more times. Then, remembering the argument she had with Ryan during the day, she deliberately wrote his name in ugly handwriting.
That still didn't relieve her feelings, so she even drew childish doodles, and he had taken it all.
Eloise swept up her falling hair and muttered.
“Take it if you want.”
Wasn't he the one who had taken even more than that? She didn't care anymore. What was he going to do, show it off to others?
Finding a ribbon nearby, Eloise tightly tied her constantly falling hair and picked up the pen again.
Her eyes were swollen because she had just woken up, but she felt like she could sleep comfortably only after finishing all the work she had to do.
In fact, there wasn't that much work left.
The work would be finished once she made the guests' name tags and decided on their seats at the Banquet. But she was suffering until this hour because that work wasn't finished.
It wasn't just this year that it was like this. Every year, the seating arrangement at the Banquet was always a problem that she pondered over and over until the very end.
Even in a small and quiet village, big and small things were bound to happen where people lived.
Naturally, there were many cases where people who had been sitting next to each other and talking happily last year would turn their heads away and pretend not to know each other this year, even if they just made eye contact.
Therefore, before the Banquet, Eloise would find out what had happened between the invited guests through people.
This year was no different. Things like who had argued over a book, or how families who hadn't been on good terms until last year had become close friends after finding a lost child.
Fortunately, there was nothing this year that would require a major change in seating arrangements. Then the work should have been finished quickly, but…….
Eloise took a long sigh as she looked at the seating chart she had made.
The name Ryan Thornton was written in the center seat of the host. The problem was right across from him.
The seats that could be said to be across from him were two seats.
Eloise still hadn't decided who to seat across from him.
There were many people to seat. This Banquet was full of unmarried, young women.
She could choose anyone from among them, but…….
“Haa…….”
The deep sigh that she had let out dozens of times today flowed out again.
Eloise quickly began to write the names of the invited guests on thick paper cards.
There were a few mistakes, but once she made up her mind and wrote, the cards were completed in an instant.
After checking several times to make sure that the guests' names were not misspelled, she stood the paper cards on the table.
Then, thinking that she was arranging the seats for the Banquet, she placed the cards.
“The Ogilvy family on the left across from him…… The Howard family…….”
First, she decided on the seats for the couples, and then she seated their young children next to them. Then, after sending the still young ladies and other young people to the end, Eloise was left with the names of a few young ladies in her hand.
She took out Julia Ogilvy's card from among them.
No matter what, Julia was definitely the most suitable person to sit across from Ryan.
Besides, hadn't she talked to him a little more than the other young ladies of Feltham?
If she sat across from him, at least there would be less awkwardness than with others.
After placing Julia's name, Eloise picked out the name Patricia Felding from among the remaining young ladies and placed it next to Julia's seat.
Patricia was the young lady who had been standing right behind Mrs. Greenwood when she went to Cambon.
She must have talked to Ryan at that time as well, so there would be no awkwardness. Besides, she was the same age as Julia and was a young lady who needed to find a marriage partner quickly.
She was beautiful, knowledgeable, and polite. Frankly, she would stand out much more if she was with Julia.
And she seemed to get along well with Ryan too…….
When she thought that far, Eloise unknowingly took Julia and Patricia's name tags aside.
A moment later, realizing what she had done, she sat down on the chair and lay down on the table.
The problem wasn't who to seat. The problem was her heart, which didn't want to seat anyone.
