Chapter 55 Return to London 17 Nothing is right
Lancaster gave him a gloomy look, and Crawford felt as if the air was frozen for a moment, and he subconsciously lowered his voice.
"She... doesn't look like she's having a good life. She was holding a child, with another in her arms, and watching her husband go out. They were both wearing very cheap clothes. I've asked around, and I found out that her husband had just been fired from his previous factory and was still looking for a new job." Crawford carefully observed Lancaster's expression.
"It sounds like their relationship is still good." Lancaster withdrew his gaze, his tone almost flat.
"Please, a duke's daughter..."
"That's her choice," Lancaster interrupted. "Everyone has the right to follow their own will and not interfere in other people's lives. Besides, at her request, I sent my nephew, who had barely opened a page of English law, to study at the Supreme Court, didn't I?"
Crawford commented impartially, "Although you sent him to prison, you didn't provide him with any guidance or discipline. You don't even know why he skipped classes every day."
"He doesn't even follow the most basic rules of the game. That's his own choice. Or perhaps he inherited his father's stubbornness and his mother's escapist mentality."
Lancaster glanced at the gloomy Crawford and continued, "You can't understand everyone's choices, just like many people probably can't understand why you and Mason chose each other."
Crawford raised an eyebrow and nudged the person next to him with his elbow. "Hey, it's rare you're curious about me." He looked proud. "Others may not know, but I can tell you. Madeline Mason chose me for that new development in Paddington. Maybe there's something else going on. After all, I'm quite wealthy now."
Lancaster remained noncommittal.
"As for me..." Crawford drawled, "I chose her because I wanted to avoid becoming her fifth ex-husband. Tsk tsk, my previous ones were either dead or injured. What a challenging project."
Lancaster: "I look forward to the day when you go to court."
As the night deepened, the young men and women attending the banquet danced enthusiastically on the terrace, despite the still-warm weather. Lancaster stood by the railing, the river lanterns fading before him, the singing and dancing surging behind him.
In fact, he was no longer at the age where he would easily get angry about things related to the couple. Although he was tired of hearing all the news related to them, he was not really angry, but more of a habitual indifference.
But Crawford talked too much, and Lancaster still had the rare opportunity to recall the last time he saw her three or four years ago. At that time, she was completely different from the gentle and beautiful duchess before her marriage. She had been transformed into a numb and haggard middle-aged person by poverty and turmoil.
"So you regret it? Do you want me to lend a hand and bring you back on track?"
"No, I have no choice. I can't go back no matter what. Considering that I am your only sister, I beg you to take Theodore to London. He is a smart child. I heard that you are not married, so let him continue to fulfill his father's wish and continue the Lancaster family's status in the legal world."
Lancaster almost laughed out loud. The deceased old man probably hated this weak yet resolute daughter who abandoned her family name the most. It would be so funny if someone with the surname Westin inherited the Lancaster family. Lancaster agreed without wasting a second.
"Hey, what are you thinking about?"
Someone approached him, too close, the faint scent of orange blossom permeated the air, and Lancaster slowly turned his head.
"What are you thinking about? Why are you so lost in thought?" Heather asked curiously. "Mr. Crawford just told me you were out here alone, lost in thought. I was stunned for a moment. Do you actually know Mr. Crawford?"
Lancaster was still immersed in old memories a second ago, and her voice suddenly burst in. His pupils suddenly shrank, and a dark feeling that could drown people surged in his eyes.
He closed his eyes and said, "Yes, I know him. Didn't you say last time that you would come to Chelsea's dance party? He also invited me. I finished my work early today and came to see him."
"Then why didn't you come to see me just now?"
"I was looking for you, and I saw you chatting with a group of people." Lancaster's voice was low and hard to hear over the background music. "What were you talking about?"
Heather had no choice but to move closer. "I was just beginning to recommend our products to those ladies, and it was working pretty well. When I went downstairs, I ran into Mrs. Mason again, so I asked her to help me find out if there were any suitable governesses in London who were willing to go to the country."
Lancaster was confused: "Tutor?"
Seeing Mary smiling as a tall young man invited her to dance, Hazel casually replied, "Yes, my two youngest nieces at Longbourn are being spoiled a bit too much. They need a well-educated tutor to teach them some useful knowledge. It would be disastrous if they go astray in the future."
Lancaster had long since lost track of her nieces who were no longer in London. He paused for a few seconds and tilted his head to look at her: "What if we end up going astray?"
Heather didn't expect him to ask this, and she recalled the plot of Lydia's elopement in the original book.
"I'll probably try to bring her back to the right path, let her suffer a little, and then help her, to the best of my ability."
Lancaster said nothing, but he looked as if he disagreed, probably believing that everyone should be held accountable for their actions.
"However, it depends on who it is. In this world, there are always people you are willing to help and those you are not. For example, if it was my niece who went astray, even if I don't have a deep affection for her, I would lend a hand for my sister and her other sisters. In fact, it's a mutual relationship. I think if my business failed and I was penniless, my brothers and sisters would help me no matter the cost."
"Even if no one is interested in this business, you will not be penniless. I have seen that your costs and investment are under very good control." Lancaster reminded.
"...Okay." The lawyer was always so strict when it came to matters involving property. "I was just giving you an example. Besides, even if I didn't go bankrupt, I'd still occasionally worry about losing everything."
Lancaster then realized she was worried about this. He lowered his head and thought carefully for a moment before saying, "Don't worry. Even if you really fail, there are ways to make it back elsewhere. According to reliable information, Paddington will undergo a new round of development next year. Conservatively estimated, house prices will double what they are now. If you buy a few more houses, you can offset the losses."
"Really?!" Heather asked in surprise, "But look, aren't you willing to find a way to cover my financial situation?"
"This is different..." Lancaster looked into her black and white eyes, and was at a loss for words.
The band stopped playing at this time, the host of the banquet stood in the middle of the terrace, and the guests left the house one after another and gathered around them. It seemed that tonight's party was coming to an end.
"But I'm really curious." Heather picked up the beer on the coffee table and took a small sip, then grimaced in the bitterness.
"What?" Lancaster handed over a plate of pudding.
"You keep proactively creating opportunities to meet with me. Is this really to maintain client relationships and win business?"
Everyone gathered together, and there was a lot of noise all around. Lancaster stood at the outermost edge of the crowd, unable to escape, listening to the thundering sound of his own heartbeat.
Heather put down the drink in her hand and stared at him with interest, as if she didn't want to miss any change in his expression.
"You just came here from an important event today, didn't you? I just happened to be studying the collection in the box recently. This brooch you are wearing is worth more than all my recent salary, isn't it, Mr. Lancaster? Yes, and that pocket watch from before."
She leaned a little too close, the scent of orange filled the air around them, and Lancaster continued to lose the ability to express himself verbally that he was usually proud of.
"I just feel that with how busy you are and your level of professionalism, you don't really need to be paid for these small tasks, right?"
"Then why do you appear in my life so frequently?"
Lancaster tilted his head and coughed, his voice hoarse.
Silence spread outward from the center of the crowd as the host began to deliver his final speech. Heather retreated to her original distance and turned to look toward the center. The betrothed couple in the center of the stage looked particularly well-matched and pleasing to the eye.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you..."
"You've already noticed something's wrong," Lancaster's voice brushed against her ear, like an ice cube scooped out of a glass of wine. "Why are you asking now?"
Heather shuddered, looked up suddenly, and met his bottomless eyes.
"…Then please enjoy the final surprise my fiancée and I have prepared for you."
As soon as he finished speaking, the river surface behind him exploded with golden-red fireworks, and the waterfall of light instantly filled their sight.
Amidst the chaotic exclamations and admiration, Heather took advantage of the moment when the crowd rushed to the railing, clutched her skirt and retreated against the flow of people, soon disappearing from sight.
Lancaster looked at her slightly flustered figure, curled up the corners of his mouth, then frowned in distress, and quietly avoided the crowd and left from the other side.
"Aunt, aunt!" Mary rushed into the carriage with her skirt lifted up: "I think I saw the Lancaster lawyer just now. You were talking about..."
"Mary!" Heather decided to seize the initiative: "I just saw you playing happily with a little boy. You are still young, you can't fall in love too early, okay?"
Mary looked at her aunt, who had suddenly lost consciousness, in shock: "I'm nineteen years old. When you were my age, you would have married and moved to France."
Heather hesitated: "Because you are still a child in my heart, and you still have a lot of things you want to do, I am afraid that you will be distracted..."
Mary reluctantly accepted the explanation. "I only accepted someone's invitation to avoid Mrs. Victor introducing me to her eldest son. But the ballroom dancing here in Chelsea is quite interesting. A large group of people gather together without any fixed formation requirements. I also got to know several young ladies and gave away a lot of the sample packs we brought with us. They were all very interested in our products."
Heather praised her guiltily, not daring to let her find out that her unreliable aunt had just been doing something other than her job.
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