37.
“Are you saying you’re going to let that stigma stick to you, even though you didn’t do it?”
“It’s not as if I can just peel it off right now. And as you said, Aunt, I’m famous because of this stigma, so I thought I’d try to use it to my advantage.”
Trisha’s brow remained furrowed. While fame itself had its uses, she was concerned that leaving the misunderstanding of being a promiscuous woman unchecked was too dangerous.
“I suspect you might still be naive. High society is a double-edged sword. You must be wanton at night, yet chaste by day.”
If one crosses the line where everyone pretends not to know, criticism rains down immediately. Everyone points fingers and ostracizes as if they had conspired to do so. If she were to be ostracized, there would be no point in Harriet having returned.
However, Harriet thought differently.
“I was certain of it at the Vanderbilt party. Curiosity is a much more powerful driving force than people think.”
That night, she had been unsure, but after the party, several invitations flew toward Harriet. They were requests to attend small tea parties, and interestingly, every single one of them included the condition: ‘Please keep this invitation a secret.’
Even knowing that associating with Harriet would negatively impact their reputation, they couldn’t help but be curious.
“I was a Scandal Maker before, too, but I wondered why such invitations only come now. I realized that since I was full of resentment back then, they probably didn’t think there would be any interesting stories to dig up.”
“And now?”
“Since I said I spent a year reflecting at the convent, they must think I’ve readily admitted to my past. So, they probably think they can actually talk to me now.”
“So you’re saying they wanted to hear the detailed stories behind the scandals you were tangled in?”
“If not that, why would they bother inviting a reviled Scandal Maker? I’m going to attend gladly to see what the atmosphere is like.”
Trisha tapped the armrest of her chair and asked again.
“But you said you didn’t cause those scandals, didn’t you? What are you going to say when you go?”
At those words, Harriet’s eyes lit up.
“Couldn’t I turn that into a rumor favorable to me?”
Bella and her uncle still held far more trust than she did, and if she were to impulsively expose the truth there, it could backfire.
But words were curious things; without telling a lie, one could tell people the stories they desired and achieve the results one wanted.
That was exactly the kind of thing Roxana had thoroughly taught Harriet.
Trisha seemed to ponder Harriet’s words for a moment, then nodded.
“Hmm. It’s your affair, so handle it as you see fit. But keep this in mind. People will want to use you to get to me.”
“I will never do anything that would bring shame upon you, Aunt.”
“We shall see.”
Having given that warning, Trisha stood up and exited the drawing room.
Left alone, Harriet chuckled to herself. Deciding to tidy up before heading to her room, she moved the chairs back into their places.
It was then that she discovered a thick blanket under the chair where Trisha had been sitting.
‘Why is there a lap blanket out in the middle of summer?’
It was strange, but Harriet neatly folded the blanket and placed it on the chair.
* * *
“Here is the information you requested regarding House Of Listerwell. It contains almost everything from the last twenty years.”
The man smoking on the Vanderbilt terrace appeared after a week and handed a thick file to Cedric.
“Good work. The next party I’ll be attending will likely be at the House Of Count Sheldon. Check out the surroundings in advance.”
“Understood.”
Not even five minutes after they met, he vanished again.
The information organization , which Cedric had personally formed, always moved this way. Edgar, who had helped Cedric create , was the only exception; most worked individually, members didn’t even know each other’s identities, and they kept contact times to a minimum when meeting to pass on intelligence.
Thanks to this, no one yet knew of ’s existence—even though it was arguably the best information-gathering group in the Empire.
‘Twenty years’ worth, but it’s not as voluminous as I thought.’
Cedric flipped through the documents as if he were reading a novel.
He had never once found the trivial history of other families interesting, but for some strange reason, the information on the House Of Listerwell read smoothly.
There were quite a few interesting events, making one wonder if everyone lived through such dramatic moments.
The first would undoubtedly be the tragic death of the former head, Arthur Listerwell.
「June 28, 1866: Arthur Listerwell and his wife drowned. Location: The center of Lake Tasia in Albrecht Park. Bodies discovered one week later at St. Antoine Park on the opposite side.
……As there was no clear will, the younger brother, John, inherited the title instead of the daughter, Harriet.」
He seemed to have a faint memory of a drowning accident occurring at Albrecht Park. He also vaguely recalled hearing that boating had been infrequent for a while afterward.
The file also detailed the situation at the time of the accident quite thoroughly.
‘The person who first discovered the accident scene and called for help was John Listerwell. But when he went to rescue them, they had already sunk…….’
In reality, boating accidents happened occasionally, but they rarely led to death. Usually, they occurred in shallow areas.
Yet, for some reason, the Arthur Listerwell couple had paddled out far beyond the lakeshore to an area where the water was quite deep. Had they been so absorbed in the scenery that they hadn’t realized how far they had drifted?
He could vividly picture the cheerful picnic turning into a scene of tragic bereavement.
But was it a tragedy for everyone?
‘It must have been a stroke of luck for John Listerwell. Arthur Listerwell, who had doted on his daughter so much, died an untimely death before he could even leave a will.’
Although the law had been amended two years before Arthur’s death to allow titles to be passed to daughters, that was only recognized if the previous head of the family explicitly left a will.
Even then, if the collateral branches rose up in opposition, it often ended in nothing. Since the law had been amended so recently, twelve-year-old Harriet probably hadn’t even known what rights she possessed and had everything taken by her uncle.
Cedric flipped through the pages, quickly scanning the documents until the name ‘Harriet’ appeared again.
However, Harriet, who had become a freeloader in her uncle’s family at age twelve, hardly appeared until she turned seventeen. Appearing far more frequently were stories about Bella.
「……Bella Listerwell was famous for her beauty from a young age and was well-regarded by those around her for her kind and bright disposition. Even before her father inherited the Listerwell title, she would appear at parties with Harriet Listerwell or……」
「……Once Bella Listerwell turned fifteen, she began to receive romantic overtures from men in earnest, and it is confirmed that early marriage proposals had also arrived.」
「……Bella Listerwell met with them frequently and played the role of the center of the group, and……」
Summarizing the content, it meant Bella had been popular since she was young.
Around her, there were not only men but also many women. Everyone praised Bella, and her level of closeness to her was enough to influence a person’s own popularity.
‘Judging by her behavior, she’s a typical queen bee.’
But the opinions of others seemed to be a bit different. There were almost no bad rumors about Bella.
‘And the bad rumors were actually trailed by the previously quiet Harriet Listerwell……? As soon as she turned eighteen?’
In the year that the two cousins of the same age turned eighteen, Harriet suddenly came to the fore. And for not very good reasons at that.
「……The man’s name is Julian Faith (second son of the House Of Faith). Harriet Listerwell, who usually admired him, intercepted the letters from Julian to Bella Listerwell and replied in her stead, and……」
That was exactly what Cedric had overheard at the party.
After that, Harriet was constantly entangled with men. Just like in Julian’s case, she would use letters impersonating Bella to extort flowers and gifts from men, and she would attend masquerades with Bella’s invitations to mingle loosely with men while pretending to be Bella.
Tez Roark, who had been ‘violated by Harriet’ at a polo tournament in the past, was also one of the men who had mistaken Harriet for Bella at a masquerade and engaged in a deep relationship with her.
Reading up to that point, Cedric tilted his head.