"Truly, Charles, must you act like some mannerless bastard?" the one with the young wife said, he was looking at the man he called 'Charles' with discontent. Then, he turned to Luo Yan and walked towards him. "Edward Harcourt, you are?" the other asked, stretching his hand towards him.
Luo Yan accepted the other's outstretched hand and shook it. "James Payton."
The man named Edward let go of his hand the moment he said his name, an expression of surprise even flashed on his face. But it only lasted for a second and his expression returned back to normal.
"The gentleman detective?" the other asked, as if making sure that his guess was correct.
"Yes. I'm flattered you know the name," Luo Yan said with a smile.
He noticed that almost everyone had a surprised reaction the moment he confirmed that he was a detective.
"You mean the nobleman galivanting around as a detective?" Charles said, his tone was definitely mocking.
Luo Yan turned to the other. "I assure you, what I do is far from 'galivanting'."
"Hah, of course you would say that," the other said with a sarcastic smirk.
Luo Yan smiled. "Maybe I could soon prove whether that was the case or not."
As he said that, he noticed that almost everyone had a negative reaction from it. Either flinching or gazing away. It's as if each and everyone of them was hiding something.
How interesting.
The the young woman standing with Edward earlier – who he now guessed was the eldest son of William Harcourt – walked towards him. No, rather than walk, it might be more accurate to say that she swayed towards him. It's the way her hips swayed when she walked. Like a sexy cartoon character. But the thing was, she didn't look funny at all. In fact, she looked quite seductive.
"Sofia Deveraux," she introduced with a charming smile, stretching out her hand.
Not Harcourt? – Luo Yan thought with a raised brow. So, the two were most likely not married yet.
He looked at Sofia's hand. As a gentleman, when a lady stretched her hand towards you, you could only hold the hand and kissed it. "A pleasure, Miss Deveraux."
"Are you really the gentleman detective?" she asked with a curious glint in her eyes.
"The one and only."
"My, I never knew you're so handsome," Sofia said, her amber eyes seemed to be trying to hook him.
Luo Yan only smiled. Was this woman trying to flirt with him? And in front of her beau no less. It's either she's ballsy or she's simply a natural flirt.
"Did you hear that, Father? It seemed that Miss Deveraux has taken a liking to Mr. Payton," suddenly said by the young man who was standing near the couple earlier.
The older man gave his son a warning glance before putting his hand on Sofia's waist. Surprisingly enough, or maybe it's not really that surprising, Luo Yan saw the woman flinching. But only for a moment. After that, she leaned towards Edward quite naturally. If Luo Yan wasn't observing them, it might have gone completely unnoticed.
"This is my son, Harry," Edward said. "Please, pardon him for saying nonsensical things."
The son, Harry, glared at his father before storming off.
"My dear, don't be too harsh on poor Harry," Sofia said, playfully fixing Edward's bow tie.
The older man only snorted.
After this soon-to-be family of three introduced themselves, the others also soon followed.
The other family of three were George and Catherine Cooper, with their daughter, Daphne. George did all the talking while the mother-daughter duo remained silent and just said one or two words. With the way they were acting, one would think that he was so unbearable to look at.
Luo Yan looked again at Catherine. She was obviously the daughter of William Harcourt, probably the third oldest, following the deceased Richard. Someone who grew up with a golden spoon should be confident or at least most of them were. So, why was this woman not?
He didn't find William Harcourt patriarchal. If he was, then he would just directly point at his daughter as the one responsible for killing his very favored son. Then, was she just born this way? Or, he glanced at the other's husband, did she become like this after marriage?
This George Cooper seemed to be the gentle type. Who knew if that was just a mask and something sinister was hidden beneath?
But he knew that he couldn't make any conclusion right now. That was if he wanted to get a more accurate result.
With Edward and Catherine's introduction, this would leave Charles as the youngest among the Harcourt siblings.
The next ones who introduced themselves were the much older man and the younger one. The former was the solicitor named Arthur Wells and the later was the doctor named Peter Baker. Arthur Wells was a bit on the serious side. While Peter Baker was the complete opposite. He's a very jovial one who seemed to smile and laugh at every turn.
Now, he finally met most of the casts of this 'play'. Most, because the widow of Richard Harcourt was not yet here.
The door to the drawing room opened. Luo Yan looked back and saw William on the wheelchair being pushed forward by a woman. The latter was wearing a black dress. He couldn't tell what she looked like because a black veil was covering her face. The veil was connected to one of those hats these English ladies loved to wear.
If Luo Yan's guess was correct, this woman was most likely the widow.contemporary romance
"Ah, it seems that everyone is here," William said.
"Father, may we know who this… woman is?" Edward asked, although based on his expression, he probably already knew who she was and just simply wanted a confirmation.
"Ah, yes, all of you haven't introduced formally," William said. "This is Sorcha Harcourt, Richard's wife."
done.co
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