Laura Pendleton smiled softly, noticing the vein pulsing on Ian Dalton’s forehead.She often found herself quite amused whenever Ian Dalton got angry.
“In that regard, Austen is a true realist.Most people in reality are full of flaws.But you’ve left out Miss Elinor Dashwood and Miss Fanny Price.What about those two ladies?”
“Miss Fanny Price is a lady from your favorite work, Miss Pendleton, so I’ll spare her from critique.”
Laura chuckled lightly.
“I wish Miss Price would come to Dunville Park for a cup of tea to show her gratitude.Now, tell me about Miss Elinor Dashwood.”
“She is a dignified lady who handles everything with prudence.But her prudence didn’t extend to matters of love.She suffered heartache because of an indecisive fool like Edward Ferrars.”
Laura immediately objected to this opinion.
“Edward Ferrars, an indecisive fool?I think he’s a fine gentleman.”
“How so?”
“He gave up true love to honor a promise made to a lady in his youthful days.That was proper conduct, unswayed by emotions.If he had broken his engagement with Lucy Steele and chosen Miss Dashwood,Elinor would have been disappointed in him, and readers wouldn’t have taken his side.”
“I think the same.Abandoning a lady promised in marriage is disgraceful.But if he wasn’t a fool to begin with, he wouldn’t have gotten engaged to a vulgar woman like Lucy Steele.”
Laura covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a laugh.Though Laura was tolerant in most matters, she had no words to dispute Ian Dalton’s critique of Lucy Steele.Lucy Steele was the very embodiment of irredeemable vulgarity.
“So, let’s summarize.Emma and Lizzy are proud, Cathy is naive,Marianne and Elinor, despite their differing temperaments, are both fools?And our Fanny has some unspecified flaw?Oh, how embarrassing that all my friends fall short of your standards, Mr. Dalton!”
Laura exaggerated her dismay.Knowing Laura was teasing, Ian Dalton chuckled.
But Olivia Fairfax, who had been silently listening to their conversation, grew anxious.She thought Laura’s feelings were hurt.It was understandable, as her uncle’s vocabulary was sharp, and his tone was perfectly critical.
In truth, Olivia had been doubting her uncle’s sanity throughout their conversation.How could a man so openly disparage the tastes of a woman he liked, even if provoked?If she were the teacher, she would have poured tea on his face.
“B-but, Uncle, you said you liked Anne Elliot from Persuasion.You called her a mature character.”
At his niece’s apt remark, Ian Dalton nodded.
“Anne Elliot is the epitome of strength beneath gentleness.Intelligent, patient, and wise.It’s no wonder Captain Wentworth falls in love with her again.”
Laura tilted her head.
“Do you really think so?”
“Yes.”
“That’s interesting.Anne Elliot abandoned her beloved Captain Wentworth on Lady Russell’s advice.Doesn’t that seem rather indecisive?”
“I believe Lady Russell gave sound advice, and Anne Elliot was wise to follow it.”
“Why is that?”
“Wentworth was a mere naval officer with nothing to his name back then.At the time, the navy wasn’t considered a promising career.I can’t understand why Wentworth proposed to Anne Elliot without any means.He couldn’t offer the woman he loved any certainty.Believing a woman would choose him solely for love, when he could barely support himself, is mere folly, nothing more.In the end, he made a fortune through war achievements,but if a stray cannon had destroyed his fleet,Anne Elliot’s marriage to him would have left her with nothing but a cold corpse of a former husband.”
“You surprise me, Mr. Dalton.I thought you were someone who held love as the highest standard.That kind of thinking is more suited to a pragmatic woman like me.”
“I believe in the power of love and wish to live guided by that noble sentiment,but that’s because I’m a man of means.Women face unfavorable economic conditions and are vulnerable to the influence of reputation.If they follow love alone and fall into ruin, they have no way to recover.Women must act cautiously and rationally in matters of marriage.A privileged man like me cannot criticize a woman for making practical choices.”
At that moment, a servant approached and informed him that one of the tenant farmers urgently requested a meeting.He apologized to the two ladies and left the room.
Laura waited with Olivia Fairfax, sipping tea.For some reason, Olivia was enthusiastically boasting about her uncle’s wealth and appearance.She said half the land in Yorkshire belonged to her uncle,and among all the gentlemen she’d seen, none were as handsome as him.
Laura, assuming Olivia wanted to brag about her uncle, humored her appropriately.But in her mind, she was preoccupied with other thoughts,so she didn’t notice Olivia’s barely concealed anxiety,or the fear beneath it that her uncle had lost favor with the teacher.
Contrary to Olivia’s thoughts, Laura wasn’t offended in the least.As she had said, she was a woman with clear boundaries between her tastes and her identity.Rather, the recent conversation made her sense that she would never come to dislike Ian Dalton.
As far as she knew, Ian Dalton paid no mind to things he disliked.He immersed himself deeply in what he loved and was coldly indifferent to everything else.
The fact that Ian Dalton had read all six of Jane Austen’s major novelsmeant he must truly admire Jane Austen.A gentleman who likes Jane Austen!Laura couldn’t help but like him.
“Becoming friends with Mr. Dalton is truly fortunate.”
Laura quietly thought this while sitting beside Olivia, who was eagerly boasting that her uncle was the best marksman in the region.
He returned in less than thirty minutes, just after the three o’clock bell chimed.He suggested moving to another room.
“The tea has gone cold, and flies are starting to gather around the desserts.Let’s move to the music room.There’s a well-tuned piano there, so I can naturally invite Miss Pendleton to play.”
“Then I can pretend to be reluctant and show off my skills.”
Laura cheerfully played along.
“And I can grumble a few words to Uncle while you play, Miss.”
Olivia muttered in a slightly displeased tone.
Laura thought Olivia was upset because Ian Dalton had been away for so long,and she patted her shoulder to comfort her.
The three moved to the drawing room.He brought five or six pieces of sheet music prepared in the drawing room.The two stood side by side at the piano, browsing the music and choosing a piece to play.
Olivia sat on the sofa, watching their backs.They looked so good together standing like that.Like a friendly newlywed couple.How wonderful would it be if the teacher settled here as her uncle’s wife?To stay forever as part of their family, without the worry of her leaving someday.
But her uncle, who should be winning the teacher’s heart, seemed to have no such intention.All he had done in front of the esteemed teacher was boast about his embarrassing nickname, Miss Havisham,and openly criticize her favorite author.He should be sitting close to her, charming her with sweet words, yet here he was.Olivia was furious.
Soon, Laura began playing the piano.It was Mozart’s Sonata No. 12.Ian Dalton sat beside his niece Olivia, watching Laura play.Olivia glanced at her uncle’s face.
His eyes were fixed on Miss Laura Pendleton at the grand piano,a smile playing on his lips.
Olivia was shocked by her uncle’s expression.
He looked utterly entranced.His gaze was dreamy, his skin faintly flushed.It was a look she had never seen on his face before.
“Oh, Uncle is truly smitten with the teacher.”
Olivia felt a twinge of jealousy toward the teacher who had elicited such an expression from her uncle.She glanced at the piano.The teacher, wearing the ruby earrings Olivia had lent her,played the keys with long eyelashes lowered,her fair skin like alabaster beneath her pinned-up auburn hair,her features refined and elegant.
Olivia’s jealousy quietly subsided.
“Even if I were Uncle, I couldn’t help but fall in love.”
Olivia readily admitted it.Laura was a woman far beyond her,and Olivia felt nothing but awe for her.The jealousy she had felt moments ago was merely a lingering cough at the tail end of a cold,replaced entirely by love for the woman who had stolen her uncle’s heart.
Olivia was an honorable defeated soldier who knew how to accept loss.
“Uncle.”
Olivia called her uncle in a low voice.Her uncle, entranced by Laura playing the piano, didn’t notice his niece’s call.Olivia called him three more times before finally pinching the back of his hand.
Only then did her uncle look down at his niece.
“Yes, what is it, Olivia?”
Olivia leaned close to her uncle’s ear and whispered.
“You have a plan, right?”
“Oh, I’ll give you a chance to play too.Just wait until Miss Pendleton finishes her piece.”
Her uncle turned his gaze back to the teacher.Olivia furrowed her brow.
“Not that.I mean a plan to win the teacher’s heart.”
He looked at Olivia again.
“Your letter only said to bring the teacher here today.What’s the actual plan?”
“To have an enjoyable time together at Whitefield.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.Showing her Whitefield and the estate is enough.”
Olivia was dumbfounded.But Ian Dalton remained utterly composed.
“That’s some confidence.You think showing off land and an estate will make a sensible woman like the teacher fall for you?”
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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