He sighed when he got the information and said, "I am disappointed. I am very disappointed."
He is disappointed in Delia for a lot of reasons. The first and main reason is that he hates schemes and plots. The second reason he is disappointed is because she is doing this despite him warning her not to.
But he didn't stop the party because he didn't want to jump to conclusions. He would like to think he has misjudged her, so he wants to see what she is up to.
After all, it will be highly disrespectful to him if she actually went ahead to scheme and plot immediately after he warned her not to. Even he thinks it is a tad unbelievable.
He would like to think this is all a misunderstanding on his part. Besides, he also wants to know the extent of her scheme so that he will be able to mete out appropriate punishment.
So he didn't stop the party from holding. He just paid close attention to everything going on.
Where he was in his room, his blue eyes began to glow brightly in the darkness.
He frowned and said, "If this is what I think, then I will be furious."
It is an understatement because he is already furious. Things can only get worse from here if what he suspects is true.
The party was held two days later. It was a great success despite the short notice.
Arthur couldn't make it because he was unconscious, but a lot of important people came, and they had a great time.
The enjoyment of the important people was of the highest priority, not Arthur's presence at his own party, so the party was a success.
In fact, it didn't matter if Arthur attended or not. Lady Delia even preferred it if he didn't come. This gave her the room to weave whatever story she wanted to weave without opposition.
Despite this large opportunity, Lady Delia didn't lie. She only told the truth about Arthur to her guests. Nothing she said was false, but it sounded false.
The guests were so impressed by what she told them that they began investigating Arthur on their own to confirm the truth of the matter.
The party was ended, and everyone returned home with the unbelievable news about Arthur. Augustus, who had attended the party to witness Delia's schemes firsthand, didn't know what to make of it after.
He knew that she was scheming. He knew that for sure. But by every appearance, Delia was a caring stepmother who had thrown a party for her stepson.
Delia also didn't lie. That was the most important reason why he was hesitant to punish her.
He wanted to wait and see what her end goal is before punishing her. But when the repercussions of the party appeared a few days later, he realized that he couldn't punish her because it appeared that she had helped Arthur, not harmed him.
The nominal leader of the family came to him two days after the party to come and ask for his permission. But he had refused to give it.
Delia had also tried to convince him to give the family the permission to go through with their proposition, but he had maintained his ground.
The family head had said, "This is good for him. This is good for everyone."
Lady had supported this claim by saying, "With this arrangement, his potential will be put to great use. Surely you don't want his potential to be wasted."
He had said, "I don't care. Go and ask Vena. If she agrees, then you can do it. As for me, I won't have a hand in this."
Even if his father and grandfather had appeared to ask for his permission, he would have refused to give it to them.
The head of the family is just a figurehead that manages the affairs of the family. He is influential, but he doesn't have the power to force Augustus.
The man left disappointed, leaving behind an unhappy Delia and an angry Augustus. But that wasn't the end of the matter.
Arthur was injured severely during the fight for his freedom, so he continued to sleep even after seven days. During that time, Lady Vena faced a lot of pressure from every side. She even faced pressure from within too.
These things annoyed her and made her more irritable than usual. So when Brooks came to meet her for what he called a very important matter, she was tempted to cut his hand off.
She was sitting in her backyard in a seat placed around a table and under a shade. It was a structure akin to a gazebo.
She was reading while sipping occasionally from her cup of wine. It was wine from Arthur's workshop. It was bitter but very strong.
She liked that combination very much. She also needed the inebriation to dull her anger and put her in a good mood.
Brooks came to her, bowed, and said, "My lady, I have a very important matter to discuss with you."
She stood up, drew her spear, and warned menacingly, "If this matter is about letting the family train Arthur, I'll cut off your arm right now."
Brooks shook his head. "I didn't come for that."
She relaxed and returned to her seat. Then she waved to the seat opposite her and said, "Sit and tell me what this very important matter is."
Brooks shook his head. "I'd rather stand. I don't want to be so close to you when I say what I have to say. I want to be able to run if I need to."
Lady Vena's twitched in annoyance. This was the exact reason why she decided to stand when she had her meeting with Augustus.
She was putting herself in a situation where she could react easily in case he got angry because of her first request. She knew that Augustus cared a lot about his family, so she expected that asking him to break a rule of the family would make him very angry.
------
A/N: If you haven't written a review yet, please consider doing so now. I need the assistance of my readers to make my book a success.