Miss Pendleton (Update to C.222 END) - Chapter 184

Mrs. Fairfax blinked her eyes, then threw her head back and burst into laughter. It was the first time in a long while that she had laughed so heartily. These past few days, her joint pain had left her feeling so out of sorts that she hadn’t even been in the mood to smile.

“Mother, stop laughing! This is serious! A dreadful love triangle has formed between the two families.”

“Yes, dreadful. Absolutely dreadful. But Olivia, I beg you, please stop reading those melodramatic novels. Especially the French ones. All you ever read are books like Thérèse Raquin or Dangerous Liaisons, and now your brain keeps conjuring up immoral fantasies.”

“If you don’t want to believe me, fine. But I’m certain. Henry has fallen for Aunt Laura.”

“Just because he stared at Laura? Olivia, I sometimes stare at Laura too. She’s a very beautiful woman, isn’t she? Slender, clear-eyed, and soft. Does that mean I’ve fallen into forbidden love with her? If that were the case, wouldn’t I have poisoned Ian before he could make Laura his wife, adopted her as my daughter, and bathed with her every day?”

“Don’t disrupt my deductions with disgusting jokes!”

Olivia huffed in frustration.

“Get serious, Mother. Even if there’s only a one-in-ten chance, this is a big deal. And I think the odds are higher than that. Aunt Laura is beautiful and kind. Elegant and thoughtful. She has every charm a man could want. When a woman like that suddenly appears in the middle of someone’s life, do you think Henry could stay level-headed? Even if they’re technically nephew and aunt by marriage, they didn’t grow up together. Do you think his heart would truly see her as family?”

Olivia began tugging at the hair she had painstakingly styled that morning.

“Oh, if Henry loses control, the most horrific thing in the world will happen!”

“What, Ian shooting your brother?”

“No, Henry kidnapping Aunt Laura and running off to Paris!”

Mrs. Fairfax gasped in shock.

“Good heavens, I know you’re not particularly fond of Henry, but how could you imagine him as such a scoundrel?”

“Love can make even the most refined person reckless! Look at Uncle Ian. Before he married Aunt Laura, didn’t he throw a fit, saying he’d kill himself if she didn’t accept his proposal? He lived in a dusty attic just to catch a glimpse of her and ended up with tuberculosis. You said yourself that Henry’s temperament is exactly like Ian Dalton’s, just without the nerves.”

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