Chapter 1740: Chapter 1740

"This is Briny Mikhail."

On St. George Avenue, the curtains in the Williams family living room were drawn tight, but a warm, hazy yellow glow still managed to seep through to the outside.

Inside, Jenkins's introductions continued. He moved on to Briny, having learned his lesson from the previous introduction and refraining from mentioning their more intimate moments. That would be even less appropriate to discuss; the memory of what had happened on the train before their return from the mountains still made Jenkins blush.

Briny's mind was also in a bit of a turmoil. She studied the ladies across from her, and both Dolores and Alexia offered her a warm smile. Briny smiled back, privately conceding that Jenkins had excellent taste. Neither the petite young woman nor the northern heiress seemed difficult to get along with. Though she had accepted her fate, Briny hoped the people she would spend the rest of her life with would be to her liking.

She was quite pleased with the current situation; at the very least, the two new additions to the household were pleasing to the eye. Briny had anticipated all sorts of scenarios for tonight's birthday dinner, but from the looks of it, Jenkins was perfectly capable of managing this home.

Similarly, because her thoughts were so jumbled, she inadvertently missed the perfect opportunity to stop Jenkins.

"...So that's the relationship between Hathaway and Briny. They've known each other for a very long time, ahem."

He nodded toward Dolores, assuming she was the only one who didn't know.

"Since we'll all be living together, I don't think this is something we need to hide. I certainly don't mind. In fact, they both locked me in the closet once..."

He glanced at her and saw her face was flushed. She was fixing him with a scrutinizing stare, one that clearly threatened to kidnap his cat if he dared to say another word.

"That's quite all right. A pure friendship between unmarried young women is very common. It's rather nice, actually."

The princess, ever tactful, skillfully took over the conversation.

"This is Dolores Stuart. She's... hmm... sixteen this year. You've probably seen her in the newspapers."

Jenkins quickly moved on to the next introduction. He had expected some condemnation regarding her age, but Hathaway and Briny remained unfazed. Dolores, however, shot Jenkins a look of slight dissatisfaction. All the other women here were more mature than she was, a fact that vexed her to no end.

She was also discreetly sizing up Hathaway and Briny. Even though she had seen their photographs, meeting them in person made her marvel at Jenkins's luck in winning the affection of these two women. She had looked into both of their backgrounds—secretly, of course, without Jenkins's knowledge—and knew that whether it was Jenkins finding them or them finding Jenkins, it was a stroke of fortune for all involved.

Dolores believed that fate had woven a thread of love to bring the three of them together. Her own introduction to Jenkins, however, lacked such a beautiful coincidence or fateful encounter. She blamed the misaddressed pen pal letter on Julia, not herself, which significantly diminished the sense of destiny the princess had so craved.

"...for that reason, I promised I would marry Dolores after her eighteenth birthday. But rest assured, I will hold a grand wedding for everyone. I've said this before, and I have no intention of going back on my word... But since Dolores has to wait two years, perhaps we should have the wedding two years from now? We can't have them one after another; that would make it difficult for everyone to get along at home."

He spoke his mind, genuinely believing this was an excellent arrangement. But the other three women mentally calculated their ages, and then their ages in two years. Since it was a simple matter of addition, they all came to the same conclusion: because of the young princess, they would practically be "old maids" before they could walk down the aisle in a wedding gown.

Dolores lowered her gaze to the gleaming porcelain plate on the table. She, of course, had realized this as well and felt too embarrassed to meet the eyes of her tutor or the other two ladies. Yet, she wasn't about to graciously let the others have their weddings first. On the battlefield of love, there was no room for magnanimity. Still, she harbored a small bit of resentment toward Jenkins for pointing it out, though she couldn't express it.

Sensing her student's distress, Alexia gave Jenkins a light kick under the table. Official source ıs novel✦fire.net

"We all trust you. That's why we're sitting here tonight. While you may seem like a playboy on the surface, I believe everyone here knows you're actually a very pure-hearted man."

As she finished, all four ladies at the table chuckled softly. Her words had struck a chord, resonating with all of them. It was true; despite the four of them being involved with the young writer, none of them truly believed he was a heartless philanderer.

Her comment instantly enlivened the atmosphere around the dinner table. The shared laughter brought them closer, allowing them to discover a surprising similarity in their thoughts.

"And this is Miss Alexia Miller. We met last autumn during the evening classes at the Church of Knowledge and Books..."

Next, it was Alexia's turn to be introduced. The petite woman lifted the hem of her skirt ever so slightly, one leg poised and ready to "remind" Jenkins should he say anything out of line.

While Jenkins spoke, she openly examined Hathaway and Briny, meeting each of their gazes in turn. Long ago, even before she had confirmed her own relationship with Jenkins, she had noticed his ambiguous connections with the two ladies from Nolan. Thus, she wasn't surprised by a scene . What did surprise her was that Jenkins had managed to get everyone to accept it. As of early this year, her calculations had put the probability of his success at less than thirty percent.

Alexia saw Hathaway and Briny as women much like herself—proud and independent, confident and elegant. It made no sense that women like them would accept such an outrageous proposition from a man. Looking at the scene before her, she could only conclude that Jenkins was a truly formidable man.