Right after lunch, Miss Pendleton went to the forest with the two boys for lessons.Ian asked Olivia if she would spend some time with him.

The two sat in the small dining room, drinking tea.Olivia sat across from Ian, her heart pounding.

Uncle Ian, sitting opposite, was as splendid as ever.His chiseled, beautiful face exuded a sharp aura as the light fell upon it.Olivia sipped her tea, her heart fluttering.

“Olivia, you seem to have become more ladylike lately.”

“Is, is that so?”

Ian smiled and nodded.Olivia giggled.

Ian looked at his dear niece.Olivia was his favorite after Henry, his eldest.From childhood, the bright Olivia always followed him around,and he cherished her as if she were a much younger sister.

“You’ve become much more refined since the new governess arrived.It seems you two get along well these days.”

Olivia nodded.

“What do you think of the teacher?”

“She’s a good person. I can learn a lot from her.She’s kind, knowledgeable, and truly diligent.”

Ian smiled gently.

“She’s too good for someone like me to set my heart on.”

Olivia just looked at Ian without saying a word.Ian set down his teacup.

“The truth is, I asked you to have tea because I have a favor to ask.Olivia, you must have heard from your mother.I wanted Miss Pendleton as my wife,and that’s why I recommended her as the governess for this house.”

“……”

“But there are many issues between her and me.I think she’s too good for me,but she thinks the opposite.I want to open her heart.For that, Olivia, I need your help.”

Ian noticed Olivia’s face harden with a serious expression.She seemed confused.

“No.”

Olivia shook her head as she spoke.

“Uncle, I’d do anything you ask.But not this.”

“May I ask why?”

“If you’d asked me a fortnight ago,I’d have said it’s because you and the teacher don’t suit each other.I thought that way even before she came,and hearing about her background solidified my opinion.I didn’t want such an aunt.But… things are different now.”

Olivia bit her lip.

Ian didn’t rush her and waited until she spoke again.After a brief silence, Olivia continued.

“The teacher is kind and has a gentle nature.But there was one time she showed a firm side.It was about marriage.She spoke with a solemn expression, like a judge,saying she wouldn’t stray an inch from her position.Perhaps, if she knew your feelings,she might leave this manor, even giving up her governess role…I…”

Laura’s face crumpled as if she might burst into tears.

“I don’t want her to leave Dunhill Park, Uncle!”

Ian stared at Olivia’s face.Olivia looked surprised by her own words,as if she’d just realized the depth of her feelings.

“Olivia, we share the same fear.”

“What…?”

“The fear that she might leave.I feel it every day.”

Olivia stared blankly at Ian.

“As things stand, she’s bound to leave someday.Little Ian in this house will grow up eventually,and once he goes to public school,there’ll be no more children for her to teach.Unless your mother has another child.Then she’ll become a governess for another family.Or, even before that, she might fall in love and marry another man.”

Ian gave a self-deprecating smile.

“I wake up every dawn from nightmares like that.Ever since she came to Dunhill Park.”

Olivia stared at Ian’s face.His sharpened jawline and pale complexion.She’d thought he’d only grown more handsome,but it was the pain in his heart.Olivia felt sorry for her uncle.

Ian approached Olivia.He knelt halfway and took her hand.

“I promise. I won’t let your teacher leave.To keep myself from misery, I’ll make her my wife.So…”

Ian looked at Olivia gently and smiled.

“Help me, Lady Fairfax.”

Olivia bowed her head deeply.

“I’ll… think about it.”

Ian kissed the back of his niece’s hand,as he would a lady at a ball.

That evening, Olivia went to her room after dinner.After the maid changed her into pajamas and brushed her hair,Olivia sat alone quietly at her vanity.She reflected on her uncle’s words from earlier.

If this had happened before, she would’ve refused outright.She would’ve been angry that he’d asked such a thing,and her dislike for the teacher would’ve grown.But now, she wasn’t upset at all.She was even conflicted. Conflicted!

Olivia shook her head vigorously.She’d firmly decided the teacher and her uncle could never be together,so why was her heart changing now?

No. It can’t happen. It’s impossible.Her uncle, the wealthiest and most respected gentleman in Yorkshire,marrying Laura Pendleton, a penniless spinster and illegitimate child?It’s not something to help with—it’s something to stop at all costs.

But her heart kept picturing her teacher in the drawing room.Her kind Laura, playing chess with her fatheror card games with her siblings.As her image became vivid, Olivia sighed.

If she were merely pitiable,Olivia would’ve offered help other than marriage.

But to Olivia, Laura was no longer just an object of pity.She admired, respected, and even felt something close to love for her.

To convince herself, Olivia thought of suitable suitors for her teacher.The middle-class men she’d once planned to introduce.Pharmacists, tailors, merchants.

Olivia shuddered.Imagining her teacher paired with them felt like an insult.They were decent men, but they couldn’t compare to her teacher.How could an elegant, beautiful lady like herbecome the wife of such ordinary men?

“No matter how I think about it, the only man suited for her is my uncle.”

Olivia buried her face in the vanity.If her teacher married her uncle, he’d face difficulties.The Dalton family, Yorkshire’s most prestigious for centuries,would become gossip fodder for the first time,and his children would be subject to whispers.

But her uncle could easily overcome that.And, most appealing of all…

“If she marries my uncle, she’ll be my aunt!”

Olivia was instantly captivated by the thought.Every birthday, her teacher would come with her uncle,bearing gifts to celebrate.Every Christmas, they’d have parties at Whitefield Hall,and in spring, they could pick strawberries together.If they had a child, she could attend christenings and birthday parties.And maybe… just maybe…

“If they have a daughter, I could ask them to name her after me!”

That thought sealed Olivia’s decision.A beautiful girl in her teacher’s arms.People would admire her beauty and ask her name.

Her teacher, with an angelic smile, would answer,

“Olivia. Olivia Dalton.Named after Miss Olivia Fairfax,my husband’s cousin and my dear friend.”

The next day, Olivia wrote a letter to her uncle in Whitefield.The letter was very brief.

Uncle, what should I do?

“Teacher, would you like to go to my uncle’s house with me?”

One late summer morning,Olivia, who had joined Laura’s morning walk, suddenly asked.

Laura, breathing in the cool air mixed with fir scentwhile mentally planning the day, looked down at Olivia in surprise.

“…Your uncle’s house?”

“The new reading list you made has many books we don’t have at home.Ordering them from the bookstore would take over two weeks.”

Laura tilted her head.

“Can’t we ask a servant to have them sent?”

“That wouldn’t be as fun.”

“Oh, so it’s a visit for fun?”

Olivia smiled brightly and nodded.

Laura tilted her head and gave an ambiguous smile.The desire to see Whitefield’s beauty with her own eyeshad been a wish since her days in London.But now, closer to Whitefield than ever since coming to Dunhill Park,Laura found the idea of visiting unappealing.

Whitefield was surely beautiful.She could feel it just from his landscape sketches.But it was Mr. Dalton’s estate.No, it was Mr. Dalton himself.The land where he was born, raised, and loved like a child.If she became enchanted by it,her heart would lean even more toward him.

It would be like shining sunlighton the emotions she’d locked away in the coldest, most remote corner of her heart.

Laura frowned unconsciously.Whenever she became aware of her presumptuous feelings,she disliked herself a little.

Seeing Laura’s reluctance,Olivia, looking anxious for some reason, began to plead earnestly.

“Teacher, please.If I go alone, Mother rarely lets me have the carriage.She says I stay for days and make it unavailable when needed.”

“If I accompany you, would she allow the carriage?”

“Definitely. If you’re with me, staying over isn’t possible.”

Olivia took Laura’s hand (such contact was now natural between them)and begged her to come along.

Seeing Olivia cling to her, Laura found it hard to refuse.Laura decided to ask Mrs. Fairfax about sending Olivia alone.