“Huh…?”

‘What is this? Honest opinion? The Ryan I hate?’

Eloise blinked her large eyes slowly, unable to grasp the situation for a moment.

If it’s Ryan, there’s no other Ryan here except for Ryan Thornton.

She narrowed her eyes and examined the handwriting on the paper more closely. It was definitely his.

Compared to others, his handwriting was larger and more bold, making it instantly recognizable.

And, as expected from a soldier, it had a certain stiffness to it—just by looking at it, you could sense the writer’s personality and even imagine his appearance.

Of course, Eloise would grumble that his handwriting was unnecessarily good for such a petty person.

But the handwriting on the paper was unmistakably his.

‘But why did he leave something like this? What did I do?’

Eloise desperately tried to recall what had happened with her still-clouded mind. What had she done…?

As she thought, her eyes scanned the table. She was sure she had filled a sheet with writing before falling asleep…

“Oh my…!”

Realizing what was missing, Eloise jumped up in alarm and frantically searched around her desk. But there was no way the missing item would turn up.

“He must have taken it…”

Eloise slumped back into her chair, muttering in a defeated voice.

When she remembered what she’d written, she finally understood why he’d left a note signed “Ryan, the one you hate.”

Eloise recalled why she had deliberately written his name in such messy handwriting.

Earlier that day, they had discussed what to plant in the spot where the tree stump had been removed.

He insisted that the spot needed a large tree to provide shade, and that they should bring in and plant a tree at least ten years old.

But Eloise disagreed. She argued that it would be better to buy and plant a younger tree, less than five years old, and raise it themselves.

They had clashed over this, and if Mr. Palmer hadn’t come by for another reason, they might have kept arguing for much longer, each stubbornly defending their own view.

“She really is so stubborn.”

Before leaving, he’d grumbled loudly enough for her to hear and stormed off. After he left, Eloise had also crossed her arms and pouted, muttering to herself.

“It’s not like I don’t know a big tree is better!”

As he said, it was a spot that needed a large tree for shade.

Of course Eloise knew that. But she had her reasons for insisting on a smaller tree.

“It’s just too expensive!”

She had told him from the start: bringing in such a large tree would exceed the budget Baron Stanford had allocated for Blissbury.

But Ryan just looked at her as if it was no problem at all and said,

“If the cost exceeds the garden budget, I’ll pay the difference myself, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

That gave Eloise a headache.

‘He clearly has no idea how expensive those trees are!’

When Eloise was a child, Baron Stanford had entrusted Blissbury to Mr. Surberton and had the garden completely renovated.

As a result, young Eloise had seen the price of all the new trees on the invoices while standing beside her father.

She knew from experience that bringing in and planting large, mature trees cost a shocking amount of money.

So she had chosen the youngest trees possible that could be bought within Blissbury’s allocated funds, but Ryan, not understanding her reasoning, kept insisting a big tree was better.

Honestly, she was tempted to say, “If you insist, then you pay for it!” and just order the most expensive tree.

‘But I’d definitely regret it later if I did that.’

From things he’d said without thinking, it didn’t seem like he was in financial difficulty. In fact, he seemed to be rather well-off.

‘But I know exactly how much a sergeant’s salary is!’

Even if Baron Stanford trusted him enough to give him extra, a soldier’s pay couldn’t possibly be that high.

Eloise wished he would be more careful with his money. Of course, since she wasn’t family, she thought she’d only sound meddlesome if she said so, so she kept her mouth shut.

Even after their argument, she couldn’t shake her frustration when she returned to her room.

She was only trying to be practical, but he just didn’t get it!

Fuming to herself, Eloise checked her to-do list.

The remaining task was to make the name cards for the guests’ seats at the banquet.

Eloise changed the pen nib and, to warm up, wrote people’s names. The first name she wrote, of course, was her own.

Since it had been a while since she’d written in decorative script, it was a bit uneven at first, but after a few more tries, her hand regained its old feel.

After writing her name several times, the next name she wrote was Ryan.

When she started to write Thornton as the surname, Eloise’s lips twisted. Instead of Thornton, her hand wrote Wilgrave.

Her hand moved again. When she wrote Ryan Wilgrave one more time, the writing became much neater and more beautiful than before.

Pleased with her own handwriting, Eloise practiced writing Ryan Wilgrave’s name several more times. Then, remembering her argument with Ryan earlier that day, she deliberately wrote his name in ugly script.

Even then, she didn’t feel fully satisfied, so she drew a childish doodle as well, never imagining he’d take it.

Eloise swept her fallen hair back and muttered,

“If he wants to take it, let him.”

Hadn’t he already taken far more than that? She thought there was nothing left to care about. Was he going to show it off to others or what?

Finding a ribbon nearby, Eloise tied back her hair, which kept falling forward, and picked up her pen again.

Her eyes were puffy from sleep, but she felt she wouldn’t rest easy until she finished her work.

In fact, there wasn’t much left to do.

Once she made the name cards for the guests and arranged the seating for the banquet, her tasks would be finished. But because she hadn’t finished, she was still up at this hour.

It wasn’t just this year. Every year, the banquet’s seating arrangement was always a matter of endless worry until the very last minute.

No matter how small and quiet a village is, where there are people, there are always little incidents.

Naturally, last year’s friends who sat and chatted together might this year turn away and pretend not to know each other at the mere sight.

That’s why, before the banquet, Eloise always investigated what had happened between the invited guests.

This year was no different. There were stories about who had argued over a book, or how two families who weren’t close before became best friends after finding a lost child.

Fortunately, there were no major events this year that required drastic changes in seating. So the work should have been finished quickly, but…

Eloise sighed deeply as she looked at the seating chart she’d made.

At the center seat was the name Ryan Thornton. The problem was the seat directly across from his.

There were two seats that could be considered directly opposite him.

Eloise still hadn’t decided who to seat there.

There were plenty of candidates. After all, the banquet was full of young, unmarried women.

She could choose any of them…

“Ha…”

She let out yet another deep sigh, one of dozens she’d already exhaled that day.

Eloise began quickly writing the invited guests’ names on thick paper cards.

Though she made a few mistakes, once she set her mind to it, the cards were finished in no time.

After checking several times to make sure none of the names were misspelled, she stood the cards up on the table.

Then, imagining the banquet seating, she arranged the cards.

“The Ogilvy family to the left opposite… and the Howards…”

She first seated the couples, then placed their young children beside them. After sending the younger ladies and other young men to the end, Eloise was left with the names of a few young ladies in her hand.

She took out the card for Julia Ogilvy.

No matter what, Julia was certainly the most suitable person to sit across from Ryan. Besides, hadn’t she spoken with him more than any other young lady from Feltham?

Sitting across from him, at least, wouldn’t be awkward for her.

After placing Julia’s name, Eloise picked Patricia Fielding’s card and set it beside Julia’s.

Patricia was the young lady who had stood just behind Lady Greenwood when they visited Camborne.

She had also spoken with Ryan then, so it wouldn’t be awkward. Besides, she was the same age as Julia and urgently needed to find a match.

She was beautiful, intelligent, and polite. Honestly, when she was with Julia, Patricia stood out even more.

And she seemed to suit Ryan as well…

At that thought, Eloise unconsciously pushed Julia and Patricia’s name cards aside.

A moment later, realizing what she’d done, she slumped over the table.

The problem wasn’t who to seat across from him. The problem was that she didn’t want to seat anyone there at all.