His speech had changed to informal language. Renéee, who had been sitting, gripped the armrests as if she would bolt from her seat at any moment. Harris stood with his back to the window. As the sunlight was blocked, darkness came to the room.

“Renéee, think carefully. I can give you things that gardener can’t even imagine.”

The fever of love strikes both rich and poor without discrimination. The moment he first saw Renéee, young Harris’s mind conjured the image of this woman in a plain dress being in his bedroom. Wearing a chemise woven from fine cotton thread instead of the old dress of unknown age.

Who would have known he’d discover such a treasure in a house he’d casually stopped by during his travels? Since that day, Harris had visited Fairville more than once each season to attempt courtship. No one could comment on his eccentric behavior of going all the way to that countryside to bring back a bride, leaving behind the precious young ladies of the capital.

Harris, who had instantly appeared before her, looked down at her with domineering eyes.

“Renéee, I know. You will become the most famous woman in Humingham. As soon as we marry, I’ll give you plenty of land and mines in your name.”

“……”

“It might be burdensome at first. But Renéee, that gardener can’t guarantee you even a house that keeps out the wind, let alone jewels. What does it matter if you’re a member of the baronial house? Do you think your aunt will leave even a penny of her fortune to a niece who’s been led around by the nose by a gardener?”

“……”

“I plan to put diamond rings from the continent across the sea on your fingers, and hang gold necklaces so heavy that slender neck of yours can’t bear them. How about it, isn’t it beautiful just to imagine? Between hanging yourself with the rope of poverty and holding your head high adorned with jewels. It’s too obvious which is the better choice.”

Harris Chesterfield was certainly confident. He never thought that this confident self would be shouting in rage a few days later.

***

Their story sounds quite romantic. A love story where a young man who had been nurturing feelings for the baronial house’s young lady alone chooses to leave together, his heart softened by her tears.

They had neither diamond rings nor gold necklaces. What David had saved working as a gardener and the small amount Renéee had prepared by selling her few jewels (half of the jewels the baroness had prepared for her were fake) was all their funds.

But Renéee didn’t lose her smile.

“Renéee, honey. I made oatmeal. Do you want to eat it now?”

“Thank you, darling.”

Renéee answered while closing her notebook. The palm-sized notebook was packed with tiny handwriting. In an era when paper was expensive, it was a wedding anniversary gift David had given Renéee with great determination.

Saying she couldn’t waste even one corner, she wrote so small that David teased that he’d need a magnifying glass to read it when he got a little older. It was a joke full of self-reproach from a head of household who couldn’t provide more comfortable circumstances.

The two sat facing each other across the dining table.

“Where’s Izer?”

“He went out to play with friends. He’ll come back.”

“He’s already grown up.”

Renéee smiled thinking of her son. It seems like yesterday he was crawling, but when did he grow up enough to go out and play with friends? Lately he even imitated his mother by holding a pen.

David, who had been watching such a wife, began to speak.

“Renéee, I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s go to Humingham.”

Thunk, the powerless spoon hit the bowl. The savory smell of oatmeal suddenly felt nauseating. That was the impression Renéee had of Humingham. A place that was shiny on the outside but rotten inside, like Harris Chesterfield.

David pulled out his chair. He was going to get a new spoon. Despite his consideration, Renéee lost her will to eat.

“David, are you serious?”

“There’s a posting for a dedicated gardener at a villa near Humingham. It’s not a position like here where you go around from house to house working when needed and getting paid. The salary is decent too.”

“I hate it.”

“Renéee, don’t think so negatively. It’s not like I’d be working next to the ducal residence. There won’t be any chance of running into that person. And even if we do run into him, so what? That was so long ago.”

“David, I……”

“Of course.”

David playfully raised his eyebrows.

“He probably couldn’t easily forget a woman like you. But look at it realistically. How many women must be swarming around the duke? You’d just be a woman who briefly passed by in the past — forgive me for speaking so dismissively, but if I don’t say this, you get unnecessarily frightened — don’t worry too much, Renéee.”

Renéee swallowed her words.

‘You don’t know anything about that hypocrite.’

If Harris Chesterfield had been an ordinary noble young man, Renéee would have agreed with David’s words. But Harris reeked of sinister blood. The incident of the previous duke and duchess dying at regular intervals after he began courting her was representative.

But David insisted.

“Actually, this job is also my desire. First, the person who posted the job opening is General Berienne. A man any man would want to meet once would become my employer. And second, I want to have my own garden.”

“……”

“Of course I’ll be taking care of someone else’s garden. But there’s a world of difference between me tending trees from start to finish and going when needed to trim branches as ordered. I’ve been wandering too long, Renéee.”

Renéee was speechless. When he was at Baroness Avery’s house, David could tend the entire garden as if it were his own. The reason he became a ‘wanderer,’ as he put it, was largely because he couldn’t get a proper position after running away with Renéee.

Renéee thought for a moment. She had lived happier than anyone after running away with David. The diary she wrote with a crudely sharpened pen dipped in ink full of all sorts of foreign matter proved that fact.

But she hadn’t considered David’s position. If she had felt liberation from the freedom gained after living almost imprisoned in the baronial house for half her life, David had to leave the baronial house where he had barely settled after wandering for half his life. It wouldn’t have happened if not for her.

So Renéee nodded.

“If that’s what you want, then yes.”

***

The story after that is the same as what Izer knows. David Ren settled at Marquis Berienne’s villa as he had wanted. The generous salary was enough to feed a family of three.

Izer Ren decided to become a stenographer with his mother and father’s encouragement. His dream was not fulfilled. It faded with time and he can’t even remember it.

And David Ren died. Renéee Ren walked into the house of the man she hated to protect her son.

Izer looked up at the sky and thought. Did his mother really not know about his father’s death? Could his mother, who loved his father so deeply that she fainted before his corpse, not have perceived the danger targeting him at all?

Perhaps his mother’s bringing him into the Chesterfield house meant she wanted him to gain power and avenge his father.

But the dead don’t speak. Izer would never know the answer. As he just stared up at the empty sky, he heard chirping whispers in his ears.

“Sister Bess, it looks like brother is sleeping standing up.”

“Percy, be quiet.”

He felt watchful gazes. Izer turned around. Bess, who met his eyes, tapped Percy. The boy, who had been doing something else, came to his senses and folded his hands obediently.

“Daddy!”

……Estelle was still too young to read the mood. As she flailed her short limbs in the governess’s arms, struggling to go to her father, Miss Lierre tried to soothe the baby with a flustered face.

Eventually the baby was transferred to her father’s arms. Shaking his head at Celian who extended her hands saying she would hold her, Izer walked toward the water.

Celian, who had been watching him, also moved a step forward. The afternoon sunlight stabbed their eyes painfully, but neither Izer nor Celian suggested going into the shade.

In one of Izer’s hands was a bouquet of white Cherokee roses. They were the flowers David and Renéee had loved most while alive. Blooming naturally as if they were there yet not there, then falling, and blooming again in the same place the next year.

Celian turned her head.

Izer crouched beside her, supporting the baby with one arm and holding a bouquet of white Cherokee roses in the other. After several minutes that felt like silent hesitation, his eyes fixed on the bouquet, and he finally loosened his grip on the modest flowers.

“……”

The bouquet floating on the water spun around once, then remained in place. It looked exactly like it was greeting them.

Right on cue, Estelle began to whimper. Izer, who had been looking at the white bouquet, straightened his bent legs. Orange sunlight poured over the man’s head.

His farewell was short and simple.

“This is my family.”

〈The House of the Man Who Hates Me / Side Story Complete〉