Chapter 173: Faith in Love
Land Farm.
Davey received a letter from Trelawny, sent from Saint Denis.
It concerned the Laramie Gang.
Trelawny had already found a fixer—someone who had previously worked with Laramie—and was confident this would not arouse Laramie’s suspicion. However, the fixer demanded a fee of no less than five hundred dollars to handle the matter for Davey.
Five hundred dollars meant nothing to Davey, but it was obvious that Trelawny couldn’t afford it himself and would need Davey to pay. Technically, Davey could have sent the money by telegraph under the company’s name, allowing Trelawny to collect it through the post office. Yet after a brief hesitation, Davey chose a different approach.
Stella had been quiet for a long time—though not missing.
After her last departure, the two of them had kept in frequent contact. Officially, it was for work, but there had also been an unspoken hint of something more between them.
He had to admit, that feeling wasn’t bad at all.
But a few weeks ago, Stella seemed to have suddenly become a different person. Her attitude turned strictly professional, distant and cold. At first, Davey hadn’t thought much of it, but as the weeks passed, he began to sense that something wasn’t right.
Although Stella was the legal counsel for Davey’s company, there was currently very little that required her assistance. And it wasn’t especially convenient for Davey to travel to Saint Denis himself.
So he decided to use this matter as an excuse to contact her.
Telegrams were fast. Davey kept a considerable sum of US dollars deposited at the post office. Whenever something urgent came up, he’d have staff at the receiving post office run errands for him. With a little extra tip, they were always more than willing to help.
...
Saint Denis, a luxury apartment building.
“Miss Stella, hello. You have a telegram,” the post office worker said politely, knocking on the door.
This was a commercial apartment building, where offices and residences coexisted. Stella’s law firm operated in exactly this way. After all, legal advisors at this time mainly served wealthy clients—there were practically no walk-in customers.
“Thank you.”
Stella, dressed in a tailored women’s suit, accepted the telegram from the post office worker and began to read.
The telegram contained Davey’s request for assistance. It informed Stella that a man named Josiah Trelawny would be coming to see her within the next couple of days. Five hundred dollars had already been transferred by wire into her company’s account.
No further explanation was needed. Though the telegram said nothing outright, how could Stella fail to understand? Davey clearly didn’t need to go through her at all.
“Goddess of fate, is this your test for me? You let me meet him, yet made me arrive one step too late.”
“I should have realized it sooner. What Catherine introduced wasn’t helping me—it was helping him. How ridiculous that I never saw it.”
“Davey… Davey… why did you have to let me be one step behind Catherine? If only I had met you first.”
“But if you hadn’t met Catherine, how could I ever have met you at all?”
Some time ago, after becoming the legal counsel for Davey’s Land Security Company, Stella had written a letter of thanks to Catherine. Davey, after all, was a major client who had effectively saved her law firm, and Catherine, as the one who introduced him, naturally deserved a great deal of credit.
But when Stella received Catherine’s reply, her world was shaken.
In that letter, Catherine spoke of how much she missed Davey and thanked Stella for helping him. Those words made Stella suddenly realize the true nature of Catherine and Davey’s relationship.
Originally, after finishing the company-related matters for Davey, Stella had planned to return to Valentine. Now, she no longer dared to go.
She had confidence in her looks, but doing so would go against morality—and her own conscience. Catherine had introduced her to business, and now she was supposed to steal Catherine’s boyfriend? What kind of person would that make her?
So Stella decided to gradually put distance between herself and Davey. At the very least, she needed time to calm down.
In the US, attitudes toward romance tended to fall into two extremes.
Most people advocated free and equal relationships. Even if two people slept together, it didn’t necessarily mean they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Even if intimacy occurred, it was simply dating—liking, not love—let alone marriage.
It was even common for people to be intimate with multiple partners at the same time. But once married, everything changed completely.
This contrast was especially clear in Abigail’s case. Most people didn’t care about chastity; such notions held little importance.
But Catherine and Stella were different.
Among the upper circles of the country, Puritans largely held influence, whether in politics or other spheres. Puritan families viewed intimacy with extreme strictness. According to their doctrine, intimacy without love was deeply repugnant.
Premarital intimacy, in particular, was seen as a betrayal of one’s faith.
Both Stella’s and Catherine’s families were essentially Puritan in nature. This shaped their views on marriage and intimacy, setting them apart from most other citizens of the US.
Comments (0)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.