Laura Pendleton felt a warmth in her heart. It was a boyish smile she had never seen from the mature Harry.
“Harry, I hear you’ve been studying Latin lately?”
Harry, who had been smiling and locking eyes with Jane Hyde, looked up at Mrs. Dalton.
“Yes. I want to read the books my father has in his collection.”
“Your mother was boasting just yesterday about how you breeze through French prose, and now you’re tackling complex Latin. You’re truly brilliant.”
“You’re too kind, ma’am. It’s just something I do for fun.”
“You find studying languages fun?”
“It’s incredibly fun.”
“What makes it so?”
“The fact that every time I learn something new, I can read more. Before studying, they’re just unfamiliar, squiggly letters, but after, I can understand their meaning. It feels like being a codebreaker.”
“You’re right. That’s the charm of studying languages.”
Laura nodded in agreement.
“Come to think of it, ma’am, you’re quite skilled in languages, aren’t you? You translate German prose and read the Iliad and Odyssey without hesitation. I want to be fluent in foreign languages like you.”
A spark of admiration shone in Harry’s eyes. Laura discovered a passion for learning hidden within the young boy. Laura was surprised. She knew he was a bright child, but she had thought it was merely good learning ability. Yet, Harry had a deep affection for studying.
That affection was something Laura herself possessed. She felt a joy akin to meeting a compatriot while traveling abroad.
“So, how are you studying Latin?”
“After dinner, my father teaches me for thirty minutes.”
“Only thirty minutes?”
“He’s busy with pastoral work. And he’s teaching the tenant farmers’ children who aim for higher schools. As you know, tenant parents can’t afford tutors.”
Laura knew that Pastor Star taught children from poor families. Being a scholar who, born to a poor farmer, struggled to enter Cambridge, he was very dedicated to educating disadvantaged children.
Combined with his professional commitment to the community, he even felt a sense of calling in education.
‘What a remarkable man. No wonder God blessed him with a fine son like Harry.’
“What are you talking about?”
Ian Dalton returned, holding plates piled high with barbecue and salad in both hands. He placed one in front of Laura and one in front of Harry.
“You’re not eating, dear?”
Ian lifted Jane Hyde from Laura’s arms.
“You first.”
With her husband taking their daughter, her hands were free.
“Thank you.”
Laura gave her husband a bright smile, then sliced the meat. Harry also spread a napkin on his lap and began eating.
Even in her father’s arms, Jane’s gaze kept drifting to Harry. It was as if she were enchanted.
“Jane’s completely smitten with Harry.”
Laura wiped her mouth with a napkin as she spoke.
“She fell for him at first sight. Harry takes after Pastor Star, so he’s quite handsome.”
Harry’s face flushed as he chewed his barbecue.
Laura’s words were true. Harry closely resembled Pastor Star, a handsome man with an intellectual air, an Aryan-like beauty. Inherited from his mother’s translucent fair skin, his refined features stood out even more. He was just a cute boy now, but the signs were clear he’d grow into a striking man.
“Our daughter’s got a thing for looks. I’m not bad-looking myself.”
Ian turned his daughter’s head toward himself.
“Jane, look at Daddy. Look at your handsome Daddy.”
Jane began to whimper again. She seemed upset that her view of Harry was interrupted. Ian gave a wry chuckle and turned her head back toward Harry.
“Little rascal.”
Laura laughed and fed a piece of cut meat to her husband’s mouth.
“To Jane, maybe not, but to me, you’re the handsomest man in the world. Here.”
Ian chewed the meat, looking at his daughter in his arms with mock resentment.
Soon, Laura and Harry finished their meal. Laura took the child back, and Ian left the table to get his own food.
Harry played peek-a-boo with Jane. Jane giggled and reached out toward Harry.
Holding Jane’s hand, Harry sang her the folk songs his mother had taught him.
With Jane not crying, Laura felt like she was in paradise. With newfound ease, she leisurely looked around.
William Fairfax was still carrying Lewis around the tables. Guests laughed loudly at the baby and took turns holding him, but the infant sucked on his pacifier without a fuss.
Laura looked at Lewis with a fond gaze. How fortunate that Lewis was a calm child. If he were like Jane, she wouldn’t have survived this long.
Smiling at her son, Laura’s gaze wandered among the guests. She saw the Dunville Park family’s tent nearby. Olivia Fairfax was holding her earrings with both hands. The heavy jeweled earrings seemed to be hurting her earlobes.
Mr. Robert Fairfax was, as usual, devouring barbecue with a hearty appetite, while Mrs. Fairfax pointed at Olivia, holding her earrings, and laughed heartily.
Next to Mr. Fairfax sat Daniel Fairfax. Laura had mistaken Daniel for someone else that morning. He’d grown as tall as her, with stubble on his face and a deeper voice. Moreover, the harsh discipline of boarding school life had made him far more composed and restrained.
Yet, the smile he gave his aunt was still that of the Daniel she knew. The cute little boy who’d spill daisies and wild strawberries onto her skirt, Daniel Fairfax.
Amid the busy baptism preparations, there was only a brief moment to talk with Daniel. But she could tell. Daniel still remembered the kind Laura Pendleton from her governess days, just as she remembered the young boy Daniel.
‘What kind of man will Daniel become?’
She couldn’t yet know. Word from school was that he was well-regarded in the rugby club and, surprisingly, keeping up with his studies. But at the table now, Daniel was threatening George Fairfax, who was reaching for cake, with a fork. With his younger brother, his childish habits resurfaced. Daniel still had growing to do.
Laura smiled at little Ian toddling around the tables, then shifted her gaze to the opposite tent.
Couples she had brought together in her London days caught her eye. As she’d confirmed earlier while greeting them, they were either pregnant or accompanied by two or three children.
They were well-matched pairs, all seeming happy.
A sense of pride spread through Laura’s heart. Their existence was the most valuable achievement of her long life in London.
Back then, she hadn’t realized it, but looking back, she was unhappy. That’s why she’d worked so hard for her friends’ happiness—because she didn’t want them to end up like her.
Laura had thought the happiness of a “harmonious marriage” would never come to her life. Worn out by life’s experiences, she was pessimistic and coldly realistic about her situation.
Happiness, she thought, was a luxury she couldn’t afford.
Then a man appeared before her. The man she met at the end of her London days changed her values and life. And he taught her what love was.
He called her an angel, but to Laura, he was the angel. An angel sent by God to pour happiness into her life.
Soon, her angel returned to the table with a barbecue plate far from holy. He sat close to Laura.
“I stopped by the other tent, and it’s chaos there too with a crying baby.”
“Whose baby?”
“Laura Morton. Mrs. Morton’s daughter.”
Laura let out a soft sigh.
“What’s got the little lady so upset with this garden party?”
“If this party isn’t to her liking, we might as well send her to Buckingham Palace early. The granddaughter of the deputy minister might get to sit on Her Majesty’s lap.”
Ian, picking up his cutlery with a smirk, looked down at Jane sitting on Laura’s lap. Jane was too engrossed in Harry to care whether her father was there or not.
Ian gave a huff and began cutting his meat.
‘He’s sulking.’
Laura stifled a laugh. Her husband, jealous of a child not even seven, was utterly endearing.
“By the way, Laura, I didn’t see Mrs. McGill.”
Ian, finishing his meal and wiping his mouth with a napkin, spoke suddenly. Laura, stroking Jane’s hair, sighed.
“I haven’t seen her either.”
“Is she not coming?”
“Maybe. Something big must have come up. She sent an express reply saying she’d definitely be here.”
Ian sensed his wife’s disappointment. He stood from his chair.
“I’ll check the other tents. Harry, want some cake?”
“Wow, yes!”
Harry nodded eagerly at the mention of cake. A child, after all, was still a child.
Even after Ian searched every corner of the tents, the McGills were nowhere to be found. Not until tea and cake turned to fruit and wine.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
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