Chapter 36.
“O-oh, no, that’s not what I meant. I only meant that if you had given me a hint as family, I wouldn’t have been this surprised.”
Lauren’s spirit withered quickly, but she couldn’t hide the dissatisfaction in her eyes. Her sharp gaze turned toward Harriet.
“But it’s strange. Your face seems somewhat familiar, and I have a feeling I’ve heard your name somewhere before…”
Harriet herself solved that mystery.
“Perhaps you heard my name along with the nicknames ‘Troublemaker of the House of Listerwell’ or ‘Scandal Maker’.”
“Right, that’s it! Harriet Listerwell! The one with the incredibly beautiful cousin…!”
At that, Trisha looked at Harriet, appearing astonished.
“It really seems everyone knows you! I’ll say it again, this isn’t a normal inheritance, Harriet. You might really need to be grateful to your uncle.”
“No. Even if that brought me great fame, I have no reason to be grateful to my uncle.”
At that reply, the look in Trisha’s eyes changed slightly, but Lauren was paying no attention to that conversation at all.
‘This cold-hearted woman is actually letting her grandniece, who has such a bad reputation, live in her house? This is nonsense. What on earth is she plotting?’
Pressing down hard on her hands, which were threatening to tremble, Lauren weighed the relationship between the two. What she feared most was that Harriet might become Trisha’s adopted daughter.
If Trisha adopted someone as she had threatened before, that person could become the heir. Others knew that fact as well, which was why countless people had been fawning over Trisha to get into her good graces.
‘She didn’t waver at all sorts of gifts and devotion, so I thought for sure she’d pass it on to our Jayden… Could she have changed her mind…?’
That absolutely could not happen. Never!
Lauren was the child born of an extramarital affair by the then-Count Felon, after the mother of Oster could not bear any more children. However, perhaps because the family line was thin, she was the only one born to him among several mistresses.
Lauren was allowed to use the name Felon, but her mother had been forced to live in the shadows. Even then, everyone knew Lauren was an illegitimate child. Because of that, she had been forced to marry a provincial noble far below the standing of the House of Felon, which dealt a great blow to her pride.
Therefore, she could never let this chance slip—the opportunity to swallow the House of Felon once Trisha died.
‘I will become the master of the House of Felon, even if I have to do it through Jayden!’
Wasn’t that why she had endured Trisha, whom she wanted to tear to pieces, for the last ten years?
‘Unless she’s lost her mind, she wouldn’t make a girl like that her adopted daughter, but I should be on guard just in case.’
Lauren managed to reclaim a smile and scanned Harriet up and down.
“As the Countess said, everyone knows Miss Harriet. Isn’t it said that you caused a scandal under your cousin’s name just to drag that beautiful cousin down? My goodness, how vicious…”
The children who grasped her intentions began to add their own remarks.
“I also heard that because of that, your cousin, Bella, nearly suffered a terrible fate. Weren’t you even sorry?”
“I’ve heard it from my friends, too. That she spent her time chasing after men, all of whom adored Miss Bella. Just how ugly can a woman’s jealousy get…?”
However, Harriet, who they assumed would be embarrassed and at a loss, listened to those words calmly. If anything, it felt like Trisha’s eyebrows were arching higher and higher.
Lauren snapped at Harriet.
“What on earth are you clinging to the Countess for? Say something.”
“I don’t have any ulterior motives. It’s just…”
Harriet replied, looking at Lauren with indifferent eyes.
“My guardianship was cut off without a single cent of inheritance, and I only needed the support of someone else until I was ready to live independently. I did write to my grand-aunt first, but if she had refused, I would have written to other relatives as well.”
“That’s not what I asked! I’m asking what kind of nerve you had to ask for guardianship in the first place!”
“Then, do you think I should have wandered the streets and died miserably, Madam?”
Her tone sounded as if she were asking if that was the extent of the lady’s compassion. Lauren was momentarily taken aback.
“Who told you to do that? Self-reliance means standing on your own. You’re young, so you could easily…”
“Do you honestly think a young woman who was born and raised in a noble house, without learning even an inkling of how to earn money, can stand on her own when her status, reputation, and even her funds are at rock bottom? Do you truly believe that?”
“W-well, of course!”
“Then, could you, wise Madam, teach me a method? What would you have done if you were in my situation? I don’t even have a house to rest my head in right now, and all the assets I have are five thousand dirhams in cash and a few gold trinkets.”
Lauren felt strangely uncomfortable with Harriet’s gaze. She wasn’t excited, crying, or angry, yet it was more aggressive than any gaze she had ever encountered.
‘Someone who’s practically a commoner—how dare she look at me straight in the eye?’
In the end, it was Lauren whose temper boiled over. Intending to make Harriet realize her place, she spat out venomous words.
“I wouldn’t know, but in your case, why not sell your body? They say if you claim you were a noble, you can sell for quite a high price in the back alleys of the commoners.”
It was Trisha who flared up at those words.
“Lauren! Are you in your right mind?”
“C-Countess!”
“I was listening to see how far you’d go, and what? Tell a bloodline of the House of Listerwell to sell her body? Is that something you wanted to say to me, perhaps?”
“That’s impossible!”
“You’re the one who told me to get out of this house when Oster died. How did you manage to hold back saying that to me back then?”
Trisha was trembling with fury, her fists clenched tightly. Only then did Lauren remember that Trisha was also a daughter of the House of Listerwell. She had forgotten, having called her ‘Countess Felon’ for so long.
“You’re as rude as ever. I clearly told you I am her guardian, and that she is a guest in my home. You dare criticize someone based on rumors you don’t even know well? My face burns with shame for you!”
“I-I was just worried that the young lady might be deluding and using you…!”
“Hahaha! That’s a pointless worry. You know better than anyone that I can spot people trying to use me like a ghost, don’t you? And that I haven’t even let those people take a single sant from me.”
In that moment, Lauren realized that Trisha had no intention of handing the House of Felon over to Jayden. Since they were the only collateral branch, they hadn’t devoted themselves entirely, but they had still visited every summer, showering her with gifts and fawning over her. She had believed that by then, Trisha would have cast aside the grudges of the past and announced Jayden as the heir ‘as was only natural.’
But looking at the angry Trisha now, it was clear she had not forgotten the conflict that occurred when Oster died for even a single moment.
‘After all the value of the gifts I’ve bought for her! If she was going to be like this, she shouldn’t have pretended to have forgotten it all!’
She was resentful. She had always hated Trisha, who held more power than she did despite being from another house, while she herself was of the true Felon bloodline. She hated Oster, who had given her that power, so much that she wanted to pull him out of his coffin and crush his bones.
And yet, to be scolded by her in front of a grandniece who hadn’t even visited once? There was nothing left to expect from Trisha.
‘I’ll have to find another way to have the title succeeded to Jayden.’
Lauren clenched her teeth and rose from her seat.
“I am truly disappointed in the Countess for receiving my concern in such a way. I still thought we were family, but it seems I was just a jackal in your eyes.”
As she shook out the hem of her dress, Baron Marshall and their children stood up with bewildered expressions.
“We shall take our leave now, so enjoy your meal with that grandniece who is rumored to be a harlot. We shall see you next time.”
“I won’t see you out. Come back when you’ve reflected on the rudeness you’ve committed. Although, I suspect you might never come back.”
After a brief staring contest with the unyielding Trisha, Lauren clicked her tongue lightly, turned around, and left the parlor.
Feeling as though a gale had just passed through, Harriet let out a sigh. Then, Trisha looked toward the direction where the Marshall family had left and said.
“That is your current reputation. A scandal maker blinded by jealousy, a harlot who deserves to be pointed at. How do you intend to overturn this?”
A faint sense of worry and concern was embedded in her voice. It seemed that seeing the prejudice of others right in front of her eyes had been somewhat shocking.
However, Harriet felt, on the contrary, reassured. Compared to a year ago, when there wasn’t a single person who believed in her, she now had someone beside her who was worried for her. She felt a little sorry that she couldn’t give the answer Trisha expected.
“I don’t really have any intention of overturning that reputation.”
Trisha’s eyes narrowed as she gazed at Harriet.