RNP Chapter 2588: Unmarried Couple and Cousins
Chapter 2588: Unmarried Couple and Cousins
Chapter 2588: Unmarried Couple and Cousins
Now that the topic of "old maids" had come up, the skinny old man looked at Miss Winslet again:
"Flora, hasn't your mother sent you another letter to urge you? Didn't she talk to you about this topic at the end of last year? If I remember correctly, you and my second daughter were born in the same year, and now it's the same..."
"Cough cough."
Flora Winslet successfully interrupted the other party's attempt to tell her age with a cough, and then looked at Shad.
"Madame Bovary, I have a companion to-day."
So the elderly lady stared at Xia De again, with a look of obvious dissatisfaction on her face:
"She is indeed good-looking, but it's a pity that she is from the north. Don't be like Countess Belindel of Yuewan some time ago and find a northerner as your lover. Girls nowadays really don't care about your age and can't ask for too much."
The lady with gray-black hair looked unhappy, but the people around her all smiled kindly, obviously everyone knew about Madame Bovary's tradition of "discriminating against northerners". Such people are not uncommon in both countries, especially among the elderly, after all, they grew up in an era when the two countries were not so peaceful.
When she heard the words "Belindel" and "Northern Lover", the clever witch's heart skipped a beat and she subconsciously thought of Shade:
"Could it be."
But she immediately denied this speculation. After all, during the Moon Bay incident, Carina did not rush to Moon Bay to participate in the battle until the very end. There was no reason for her not to go to Moon Bay herself but let her lover go to Moon Bay to accompany Bella Belindel.
After all, the Duchess doesn't look like someone who has that kind of special hobby.
In short, it was a pleasant conversation with these artists with many titles. After achieving the goal of "reasonable attendance at the banquet", Miss Winslet winked at Shad, and the two of them temporarily left the group of people talking, and then each of them came to the window of the banquet hall with a glass of wine.
Because the manor was not big, there was no garden view outside the window, only some stacked wooden boxes. The two glasses collided with each other, and then the witch approached Shade with a blush on her face until she hugged Shade.
Shade's figure blocked her view, and she took the opportunity to put on Miss Danister's monocle.
"Actually, you can block your view without hugging."
Xia De thought to himself, but also agreed that this method was safer.
Soon, Miss Winslet gave her answer:
"The Bennet family is fine. The relationship between the four of them is normal. You can talk to them later and confirm whether they are infected with the curse."
"Ok."
Xia De held her and rocked her gently, as if they were dancing in front of the window:
"Where are the Cummings?"
"Wait a minute, I didn't see Baron Cumming's. I saw it."
She focused her attention on the family. Baron Cumming and Mrs. Cumming were chatting with two other local nobles. Their young son and his fiancée were chatting with the young people.
"Baron Cumming and Lady Cumming are grandmother and grandson. Well, after all, little Cumming is Baron Cumming's father, one generation older than him. Oh, little Cumming is indeed Lady Cumming's son, there is no problem with that either.
So Mrs. Cumming is both the biological mother of little Cumming and his daughter-in-law. Wait a minute, don't move, I'll check again. Oh, guess what I saw again?"
She squeezed Xia De's wrist a little hard, and there was some excitement in her deliberately low voice:
"This relationship is too complicated! Mrs. Bennet! Mrs. Bennet is related to Baron Cumming's family!"
Xia De turned his back to the banquet hall and looked at the window:
"Don't tell me that Mrs. Bennet is also the daughter of Little Cummings. In that case, her daughter must be Little Cummings's."
"Of course not. What are you thinking? I mean, Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Cumming are sisters!"
Xia De was silent for a moment. He was not shocked, but he added another thread to this complicated network of relationships in his mind:
"So James Cumming and Jane Bennet, who are already engaged, are actually cousins? What is this? Lovers eventually become siblings?"
"What weird things are you talking about?"
The lady with long gray-black hair asked, her voice still full of doubt and excitement. Xia De understood her feelings at the moment, because he was also curious about the relationship between the two families.
The witch continued in a low voice:
"Although Baron Cumming is a noble of Willendell, I seem to have heard that Lady Cumming is from Creekwood. Old Baron Cumming brought his son to Creekwood to handle business matters, which led to the current Baron Cumming meeting the current Baroness. But I haven't heard of the relationship between Mrs. Bennet and Lady Cumming."
"Let's not rush into this. Let's solve them one by one. Besides, Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Cumming are not too far apart in age, both around 40 years old. This may not involve time, but just an ordinary incident like extramarital affair or human trafficking."
"That's true, but it still makes the relationship between the two families very complicated. Now the question: How are James Cumming and Jane Bennet related?"
She gave up looking and smiled and asked Xia De. Xia De gave up thinking about such a complicated question in just one second. He thought of another thing:
"Does the law of Carsenrick prohibit marriage between cousins?"
"Of course not. Why should we prohibit it?"
Miss Winslet asked curiously:
"And as far as I know, the laws of your Draerion don't seem to prohibit this. What kind of strange question is this?" (Note)
The stranger opened his mouth but said nothing. He just sighed in his heart that everything was different.
After confirming this complex kinship relationship, the next step is to determine which of the two families has the "time curse".
Mrs. Cumming was the only one left in the Cumming family who was still unsure. Fortunately, the middle-aged woman went to the bathroom alone soon. Miss Winslet immediately pulled Shade to follow. When they passed each other in the corridor, the witch's gold-rimmed glasses hypnotized the other party.
Xia De quickly reached out and placed his hand on her forehead, and shook his head after half a minute:
"There is no curse, but it's just a rough perception and I can't be 100% sure."
"Okay, next one."
Four people from the Bennet family came. The eldest daughter was not easy to approach, but the remaining three stood together.
So Miss Winslet took Shade directly to greet them:
"Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Bennet, it's been a long time."
The witch spoke enthusiastically. The couple turned around after hearing the voice and recognized each other, showing surprise expressions:
"Good evening, Miss Winslet. Are you staying at our hotel again? I'm so sorry I didn't have time to say hello."
Mr. Bennet said:
"Tomorrow I will have someone send you a bottle of fine red wine, which my friend in Willendel gave me."
"Mr. Bennet, you are very polite."
Even though she felt disgusted, the witch still replied with a smile on her face:
"It's the eve of the Moondance Festival now. You must be very busy. I also want to thank you for reserving the room for me. Oh, I forgot to introduce you. This gentleman is my distant cousin. He came to Vista City with me this year to attend the Moondance Festival concert."
She didn't say Xia De's name, but the couple still greeted Xia De warmly.
Thomas Bennet is indeed the kind of modest and cautious country gentleman that Shad knows. Although he no longer has a noble title, one can still feel the difference between him and ordinary "rich people".
This doesn't mean that he is arrogant, but that he is maintaining a kind of "decency" that is hard to describe. Xia De doesn't hate this, but has a good first impression of him, after all, he is very polite to him.
As for Mrs. Bennet, I don't know if it's because I've heard a lot of negative comments about her from other channels, but this woman in her forties, whose wrinkles can't be covered up even with makeup, does seem to be a little too flattering to Miss Winslet.
If what others say is true, she probably cares more about Flora Winslet's "Winslet family" background than her identity as an artist.
Of course, this may also be because Xia De himself looks at people "through tinted glasses."
As for Philly Bennett, who has always been with her parents, she is the second daughter of four sisters, 20 years old this year, and can be considered an unmarried girl. The unmarried girl is said to have inherited her mother's appearance when she was young, so she looks pretty except for some freckles.
However, when she spoke to Miss Winslet, she kept using honorifics, making it seem as if Miss Winslet was of the same generation as her parents. Shad could see that this made "Miss Owl" vaguely unhappy.
"So, is it possible that Miss Winslet is slightly older than Carina?"
After shaking hands with Thomas Bennet and standing side by side for a while, Shad confirmed that he was not cursed; then Shad found an opportunity to contact Mrs. Bennet and Miss Philly Bennet alone, and also did not detect any trace of curse.
As for Jane Bennet, the last one left, during the ball before the end of the banquet, when Shad was dancing with Miss Winslet, he took the opportunity to get close to the engaged couple who were also dancing, and used magic to hide his hands in public, and secretly touched the 21-year-old lady to the sound of the music at the ball.
This move was quite risky, but fortunately no one discovered it, and the Red Butterfly Illusion was still very trustworthy. And Shade concluded that Jane Bennett also did not have the time curse.
At this point, the only ones carrying the time curse are Baron Cumming and Little Cumming, the "conjugated father and son", and the subsequent investigation will focus on them.
PS: Even today, British law still allows cousins to marry, and this was even more so in the Victorian era, so this is not an intentional exaggeration.
(End of this chapter)