He Opened A Matchmaking Agency In 18Th Century London [EN]: Chapter 65

The Story So Far (2)

Alec Parker, who had disappeared for a week, returned completely drunk.

He swung a metal bar around like a madman, frantically searching every corner of the house for hidden money or a safe.

He even dug up the walls, ceilings, and basement floor.

“So that’s why the walls and floors are in this state?”

“Yes, it is.”

Catherine, enraged, confronted him, demanding to know what he had done with the 120,000 pounds he had taken.

Alec Parker glared at Catherine as if he would devour her, then stormed out of the house.

“Of course, Miss, you were jumping to conclusions. He hadn’t opened the safe yet. But Alec Parker didn’t deny it. That’s when we guessed that Lord Parker had taken all 120,000 pounds.”

“Huh…”

“And within a few days, we were able to obtain evidence to confirm it.”

In a sparsely populated area, news spreads quickly when someone spends a lot of money.

Blake, the butler, who had been searching for Alec Parker’s whereabouts for a week, finally tracked him down.

He obtained reliable information that Alec Parker had used the 120,000 pounds to pay off huge debts, fund gambling, and purchase a house for his mistress.

“Only then were we certain, and we immediately told Miss everything. And I advised her to gather evidence and go to the magistrate.”

Catherine, along with Blake the butler, went to the local magistrate, explained the situation in detail, and filed a complaint.

However, it seemed that Lord Parker’s father, Earl Parker, and the magistrate were close friends.

The magistrate was busy protecting Lord Parker, postponing the case, claiming the evidence was unclear, and not even conducting a proper investigation.

Then, a few days ago, Alec Parker, again drunk, came back to the house and caused a scene.

He even invaded Catherine’s room and attempted to commit a vile act of assaulting her.

Fortunately, Blake the butler and Aunt Marie, hearing the screams, threw themselves to protect her.

“John… you were injured then?”

The butler nodded silently.

Lord Ricardo, with a distorted expression, cursed.

“Damn it, that son of a bitch!”

“Lord Parker, drunk, kept shouting that Osborne had deceived him, using foul language that I can’t even repeat. He was furious, saying that she tried to trap him with marriage under the pretense of having no money.”

Lord Parker seemed to have thought that the 100,000-pound dowry was just a pittance from the start.

He had approached her hoping for Osborne’s much larger fortune.

But in reality, there was no money in Osborne’s house, and the bank was left with only debts, not stocks.

Eventually, Alec Parker concluded that the 120,000 pounds remaining in the house was, in fact, Osborne’s entire fortune.

“Lord Parker thought the 100,000 pounds in the safe was his dowry. So he shouted that she was penniless except for the dowry, and he insulted Osborne, saying she dared to marry off her daughter to an Earl’s family with such a small amount of money.”

Marie shuddered as she spoke.

“When Parker continued to insult the master, Miss rushed at him, shouting for him to get out of the house immediately. It was the first time I had ever seen that gentle lady so angry. If the butler and other male servants hadn’t been there, something terrible might have happened. Parker’s hideous behavior still makes me tremble just thinking about it.”

Marie dabbed at her tears with a handkerchief, her hands trembling. It seemed the nightmarish night from a few days ago had resurfaced in her mind.

It was fortunate that Catherine, who had no siblings, had Blake the butler and Marie by her side.

“That piece of trash… I should have come sooner… Why did you send me the letter so late?”

Lord Ricardo’s lower eyelid twitched, expressing intense anger.

His face flushed red as he thought about the hardships Catherine, whom he considered like a daughter, had endured.

Catherine was not even twenty years old yet. It would not have been easy for her to accept and cope with the current situation.

Theo, who had been listening silently, spoke up.

“If Alec Parker took all the money that was supposed to be used for the factory, how is the factory operating now?”

“Most of the employees have left, so it’s not running properly. The remaining people haven’t been paid their overdue wages, so they say they might leave at any time.”

Lord Ricardo, enraged, shouted again.

“It’s all because of that Parker bastard! We need to catch Alec Parker immediately and throw him into debtor’s prison!”

Debtor’s prison.

In medieval Europe, if a borrower did not repay the money, a system of ‘debt slavery’ was used as a means of collection.

A debtor who could not repay the debt was made a slave, and even his wife and children were enslaved.

However, as Christianity spread throughout Europe, it was deemed unacceptable to enslave a fellow brother of God, and the ‘debt slavery system’ disappeared, replaced by ‘debtor’s prisons’.

Most European countries operated this type of debtor’s prison, but the most notorious were the debtor’s prisons in England.

In most European countries, the detention period for debtors was limited to about a year, but in England, people were sometimes held for nearly 30 years.

The reason for this was that the debtor’s prisons in England were operated by private entities, not by the state. In other words, the royal family would bid out the operation of the prison to private individuals.

Therefore, private operators who had worked hard to acquire the rights to operate a debtor’s prison would try to extract money from the inmates under the guise of ‘lodging fees,’ ‘guard fees,’ and ‘food costs,’ and would never release them until all the money had been collected.

Moreover, due to the desire to maximize profits by minimizing operating expenses, the environment in debtor’s prisons was even worse than in regular prisons.

As a result, the cramped prisons were filled to the brim with nobles and commoners who could not repay their debts, and the lack of ventilation and sanitation facilities led to frequent outbreaks of epidemics and diseases.

Because of this, many people died from contagious diseases or suffered from violence and starvation at the hands of guards and prisoners, creating an atmosphere in society where people tried to avoid debtor’s prisons at all costs.

“John! Investigate and find out for sure where else that bastard touched besides the safe. It looks like he took all the valuable antiques too. We need solid evidence to throw him in debtor’s prison until he dies.”

“Yes, Lord Ricardo. I’ve already gathered all the evidence. But I’ll double-check thoroughly again.”

After hearing all the circumstances, the operation of the textile factory seemed to be the biggest problem.

Theo asked Blake the butler.

“Last time I saw there were three factory managers, are they all still there?”

Each of the three factories had its own manager, and Hester Walker, the manager of the largest factory, was in charge of overall responsibility.

Blake the butler shook his head.

“Only the head factory manager, Hester Walker, remains. Another one was still here until last month, but he left when he stopped receiving his weekly wages.”

Hester Walker was the most trusted subordinate and factory manager who had worked with Osborne for nearly 30 years.

However, even for him, who had a large family to support, he would have no choice but to leave if the factory’s operations continued as they were.

Even though it was a city, rumors about Osborne would spread quickly, and no employee would stay in a factory facing bankruptcy to the point where they couldn’t even pay weekly wages.

Knock, knock, knock-

At that moment, someone knocked fiercely on the front door knocker.

Marie, startled by the sound, jumped up.

“Oh my, who is it? No one should be coming at this hour…”

Marie looked anxious, wondering if it might be a creditor.

“Oh my!”

Marie cried out as she opened the door.

And soon, a familiar name was heard.

“Isn’t that Lord Peterson!”

At the mention of Peterson, Theo jumped up and ran to the front door.

“Lord Peterson!”

Indeed, Colin Peterson was standing at the door.

However, he had lost so much weight that he looked like a different person, almost unrecognizable.

“Mr. Sanderson!”

“How did you get here? Did you hear about Mr. Osborne?”

“Yes. I heard… That Mr. Osborne passed away… How did all this happen?”

Lord Peterson’s eyebrows drooped, and his eyes lost their strength, revealing genuine sadness.

Lord Peterson, who had gone to a distant relative’s house to recuperate, had come straight up as soon as he heard the tragic news from a friend in Manchester.

Lord Peterson, who came into the living room and looked around, asked.

“But… why isn’t Miss Osborne… visible?”

His voice trembled slightly with concern for Catherine.

When Marie told him about Catherine’s condition, Peterson looked even more worried.

“Shall we wake Miss? She’ll be very happy to know that Lord Peterson has come. She really wanted to see you.”

“No, please don’t wake her. How heartbroken and difficult must she be right now? She needs to rest. We can say hello later.”

Catherine, now a pauper, was of no use to Alec Parker, but to Colin Peterson, it was the opposite.

Theo could feel his heartfelt sincerity towards Catherine.

‘Now that Mr. Osborne’s enormous ‘fortune’ has disappeared, it’s very clear who the true son-in-law is.’

Alec Parker’s sole purpose for marriage was money, so when that money disappeared, he left Catherine without hesitation.

But Colin Peterson, who harbored sincere love, rushed to find Catherine, who had lost her money.

‘Unfortunately, Mr. Osborne’s death has resulted in finding a true husband.’

Mr. Osborne tried his best to choose the most suitable son-in-law with money while he was alive.

But the fact that his death and the disappearance of his wealth resulted in choosing the best son-in-law was truly ironic.

*

Theo headed to Osborne’s factory with Lord Peterson. It was to see with his own eyes what the current situation of the factory was.

Lord Ricardo, who was old, was tired and decided to stay home to rest. He seemed to have caught a cold from riding in the carriage for nearly a week.

Lord Peterson was able to meet Catherine briefly just before leaving the house.

Waking up to the loud noises in the living room, Catherine came out of her room.

Catherine, facing Lord Peterson, just shed tears without end.

Peterson silently hugged and comforted her.

◈ Osborne Factory 1

“Lord Peterson, Mr. Sanderson. It’s been a while. Nice to see you.”

“Yes. Nice to see you too.”

Hester Walker, the factory manager and head of the entire factory, greeted Theo and Peterson warmly.

He was a jovial man with a round face and a generous belly.

But the jovial laughter from before could not be heard from him again.

“I still can’t believe it. That the boss would pass away like that…”

Working together for 30 years, he had regarded Osborne as a brother.

As much as he trusted and relied on him, Osborne’s death was a difficult shock for him as well.

“We came here at the request of Miss Osborne to find out what the current situation of the factory is.”

“Yes, I see. But there’s nothing to figure out. Let’s take a look around first, shall we?”

With Walker’s guidance, they toured the factory.

When they first came a few months ago, it was so busy and noisy with many workers spinning yarn and making fabrics. But now, that bustling scene could not be found anywhere.

Only about ten people were quietly pulling yarn from a few machines.

“Are these all the employees working at the factory?”

At Theo’s question, Walker gave a bitter smile.

“Yes. Still, almost half came until last month, but now that it’s been over two months, the number of people not coming has increased significantly.”

For the factory workers, it was a matter of livelihood.

Since they lived on a weekly wage system, they had no choice but to face great difficulties even if they couldn’t earn for just one week.

No matter how well Osborne had treated them in the meantime, they now had to find a way to survive.

“Factory Manager, I think we need to go into the office and talk about what to do in the future.”

“Yes, let’s go to my office.”