Late at night, as Emily Ernst was leaving the party, she was approached by a man.

“Miss Ernst, I need a moment with you.”

The man who stopped her was Guildford Theodore, the husband of her sister, Diana Theodore.

“Lord Theodore, you’re here. How have you been?”

“Fine until yesterday. But today, there was a matter.”

He approached Emily slowly, putting on his gloves. Guildford looked at her sternly.

“You knew what you were doing. What were you thinking?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your actions towards Mrs. Allen.”

Confronted directly by him, Emily shrugged.

There was no particular reason to hide her intentions. She candidly shared her situation with him.

“My father wants me to marry a bourgeois, some immigrant named Sejan Rubrain. I’ve never even heard of him.”

Guildford’s eyes twitched upon hearing her words.

For Emily, a lady of the Ernst family with her own pride, this must have been a bolt from the blue.

“He’s apparently in the gas business, but I’m not interested.”

She said, tidying her fingernails.

“Why marry an immigrant when I could have a well-established local, with a solid reputation and wealth? So I acted accordingly.”

Guildford ran his hand through his hair, understanding her reasoning. A month ago, he might have encouraged her to pursue it.

But now, things were different.

“Being content with what you have is also a good approach, Emily.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

She snapped back.

“You’re marrying the eldest to a noble, and I, the second daughter, should marry such a man for the family’s fortune?”

She clenched her fists and spoke with force.

“Remember, Lord Theodore, if I had been born first, you would be married to me.”

Guildford silently watched her.

His engagement began with his courtship, but not all courtships lead to marriage.

Certainly, her words had some truth.

“I’ll become someone in the Allen family, take over that grand company of my father. Wouldn’t that be good for you?”

“I doubt I’d bet on such a situation right now.”

He had said his piece. Guildford turned away.

“Whatever you do, I won’t care. But stop harming Mrs. Allen. If you do, I’ll bury you with all my might.”

A chilling threat, indeed. But Emily had no other way out.

“I’ll remember that.”

Her perfectly manicured nails dug into her palm.

Morning dawned again at the Allen mansion.

Edward woke up to find Louisa’s side of the bed empty again.

As it had become routine for them to prepare for the morning separately, Louisa’s presence during his morning routine was a rarity.

‘Yesterday seems like a distant dream now.’

He remembered Louisa in the dress he chose, her hand on his arm as they strolled through the palace, and her bright laugh as she took a deep breath at the end of the night.
Edward sighed, and Mrs. Johnson, unaware of his thoughts, cheerfully said,

“You seem very tired. Why don’t you go down for breakfast? Today, we have tomato dishes that are good for hangovers.”

The two-person breakfast set on the table indicated recent changes in the Allen mansion.

Now, it had become routine for the couple to be at home together until the sun was well up.

The couple naturally had their meals together in the dining room, and Edward’s return time from work had become relatively regular.

“I should. I’ll be down soon, so please get everything ready.”

“Of course,” Mrs. Johnson replied, smiling kindly before leaving his room.

Heading downstairs, Edward carelessly threw on his crisply ironed shirt, in contrast to his casual demeanor.

In the dining room, Louisa was already seated.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Of course, I did,” he replied, pulling out a chair to sit. Noticing the breakfast spread, he muttered with a look of disgust, “Since when did we start a tomato farm in our estate?”

The table was filled with tomato dishes: tomato sugar preserves, Caprese salad, thick-sliced tomatoes with lettuce and thin ham in a sandwich, fusilli with meat sauce, and tomato juice.

Louisa chuckled at his comment while sipping tomato juice, “Not long ago. Didn’t you know? We set up a small garden in the backyard, in a sunny spot, about 5 yards of tomatoes.”

“Tomatoes?”

Edward echoed her words. It implied other things were also planted.

“Yes, besides that, a bit of asparagus and herbs…”

She hesitated, looking at his reaction.

“Did I mention this before? Is it bothering you?”

“No, no, not at all,” he quickly reassured her, not wanting her to feel down.

He had never heard of farming, let alone discussed it. Recalling a faint memory, he said, “Now that I think about it, last winter, didn’t you mention wanting to decorate the garden…”

“Yes, that’s right. I started with various herbs and then thought it’d be nice to grow fruits too. It just happened.”

Louisa’s voice trailed off, slightly embarrassed.

“I thought it’d be nice to plant different crops seasonally…”

Edward held his forehead, realizing the ‘garden’ she mentioned was actually a farmyard she dug and toiled in.

“The tomatoes we’re having today are the last harvest. It’s too cold for more now.”

“When did you learn to garden?”