If You're Going to Sell Yourself, Sell It to Me - Chapter 131

“Is this the residence of Lady Evelyn Leona Seymour, formerly Georgiana Courtney?”

At the sound of the familiar female voice, Georgiana’s head whipped around.

From a carriage parked beside the lobby, Sarah, whose face was still as mischievous as it had been a year ago, hopped down lightly.

Her long, wavy black hair, now seemingly longer than before, fluttered like curtains.

“Sarah!”

Without a care for etiquette or anything else, Georgiana ran straight over and pulled her friend into an embrace. Tears of joy streamed down her cheeks.

Ever since they’d parted on the ship, she had thought of Sarah almost as often as she had of Locke.

She had worried Sarah might be in trouble because of the letter she had left behind.

Had she married into the marriage arranged by the Mayfield, living happily now? Or was she seeing Mr. Anthony Tobias?

She had so much she wanted to say, having missed her so dearly, but she hadn’t even been able to look for her, being a wanted criminal herself.

After the bounty was lifted, she had hired an expensive detective, but the Mayfield office’s records about Sarah had been completely wiped out, as if someone had deliberately erased them.

She thought they’d never meet again, but recently, through Henry, she’d been able to reconnect with Sarah.

The news was that Sarah and Anthony were in the West.

Before Georgiana left for Northwest, she had written to Sarah, telling her she would be coming here and to please wait, as she would definitely visit once she got settled.

Apparently, the letter had reached her, as Sarah had come to see her first.

“I could have waited inside, but I wanted to surprise you, so I stayed in the carriage. Also, I just couldn’t wait to see you. I’m so glad I waited out here.”

Still holding her hand tightly, Sarah beamed brightly.

“Did you come straight from the West?”

“Yes. As soon as I got your letter, I flew here with my eyebrows flapping. I nagged the coachman so much that he threatened to quit once we got back.”

“Really?”

At Sarah’s words, Georgiana looked up at the driver’s seat and saw the gaunt coachman shaking his head with exasperation.

“But I managed to soothe him with the promise of a double bonus.”

Watching her still cheerful friend, Georgiana laughed with her eyes crinkling.

The two of them passed through the increasingly tight security as the election day approached and headed straight to the parlor attached to Georgiana’s room.

As they moved through the grand mansion and saw the guards stationed throughout, Sarah whispered into Georgiana’s ear.

“I couldn’t believe it when I first heard, but now that I’m here, it feels real. That the Supreme Commander is your grandfather! And you’re even the daughter of a Duke. I heard the current Emperor of the Empire doesn’t have any children, right? Then that would make you royalty. Like, Princess-something in the line of succession. You really were a princess!”

Sarah cupped her cheeks in both hands with an enchanted expression.

Watching her friend who was still just like a girl, Georgiana replied in a small, bashful voice, “A princess? I still can’t really believe it myself.”

“I knew it. There was always something different about you. I noticed it right away at the Mayfield office. That I had to stick with you.”

“That probably wasn’t the reason, but you did make your decision really fast that day.”

She still remembered the day they first met vividly. Sarah, who had been just as anxious about the New World as she was, signed the contract after only exchanging a few words with her.

In fact, Georgiana had been startled and hadn’t managed to stop her that day.

She thanked God that their relationship had lasted until now.

And she had a feeling that, just like her, Sarah had her own reasons back then.

Henry had said she should hear it directly and had intentionally withheld the details. Georgiana was confident it wasn’t bad news, but she was still curious how Sarah had been.

After taking a sip of the tea that Finn had brewed, Georgiana opened her mouth to ask.

“I already shared how I’ve been in my letters, but what about you, Sarah? Did you settle down in the West?”

“Don’t even ask. Maybe not as much as you, Georg—no, Leona—but a lot has happened.”

With a big sigh, Sarah began to recount everything that had happened.

“The contract arranged by the Mayfield was a scam. They were looking for brides, yes—but brides for slaves.”

“Brides for slaves?”

“Yes. The ones running southern plantations or western mining towns deliberately tried to marry off women brought from the Empire to their slaves. That way, the number of slaves would naturally increase, and once children were born, they too would become slaves. I guess buying a slave outright was more expensive than our dowries.”

“How could something like that happen? That’s not marrying someone—that’s being sold as a slave!”

Georgiana shot up from her seat, outraged at the absurdity of it.

She had thought they were offering large sums to women whose identities couldn’t even be verified. But to use marriage as a disguise to turn them into slaves?

“The truly ridiculous part is that there was nothing illegal about the contract.”

“No way.”

It only stated that the women were to come to the New World to marry—there was no mention of who the groom would be, so legally, there were no grounds for objection.

Of course, it was clearly marriage fraud, but even if a trial were held, it was still a time when the wealthy would win.

“You didn’t get dragged into that too, did you, Sarah?”

“I almost did, but fortunately, I was able to break the contract.”

At Sarah’s reply, Georgiana let out a breath of relief. The mere thought of Sarah having become a slave was horrifying.

Though her grandfather had declared that the moment he became president, he would abolish slavery across the New World, Georgiana had seen how slaves were treated on other plantations, and she was grateful that Sarah hadn’t lived such a life, even for a short time.

She too might have suffered the same fate had she not disembarked from the ship.

“I’m really glad.”

“Yes. Honestly, I had already told Anthony I didn’t think we were a good match and broke things off before I got off the ship. I thought I’d never see that man—who was probably from the highest class—again.”

Georgiana strongly related to Sarah’s story, since she had felt the same way toward Locke.

“But Mr. Tobias must have come after you.”

“Yes. On his way to meet a friend, he learned it was a marriage scam and ran to the office. At that point, I was about to leave with the person who’d come to claim me. I was trying to forget Anthony.”

“And then?”

“In the middle of the chaos at the office—where everyone was shouting about getting married or not—I thought I was about to be taken away, but suddenly Anthony appeared and paid back the money we’d received, canceling the contract. He even threatened that unless it was resolved, he wouldn’t let the Mayfield ship keep sailing. I had never seen anything so dramatic in my life.”

Sarah’s eyes sparkled as she recalled that day.

“So you ended up staying with him?”

“Yes. Since there was no need to get married anymore, I decided to stay by Anthony’s side no matter what.”

“I see. That was a good decision.”

Georgiana thought Sarah’s happy face said it all.

“He hasn’t convinced his whole family yet, but I was confident he’d be successful enough to give up his family name if needed. He’s trying to get into the railway business.”

If it was Anthony, with his sharp mind, that was entirely plausible.

He always seemed to have Sarah’s best interests in mind.

“And I opened my own teahouse. It’s not very big, but it’s my first shop. You have to visit next time.”

She fidgeted with her fingers in a way uncharacteristic for her—it was the most bashful Georgiana had ever seen her. When Sarah talked about tea, she looked just as happy as she did when talking about Anthony, albeit in a different way.

“Congratulations!”

Georgiana beamed as she wiped away the tears welling in her eyes.

She was deeply proud of Sarah, who had found something she loved and made it her own.

Georgiana recalled a conversation she once had with Sarah at the ball held on the ship.

“I’ve only ever been around people like me, so being here feels like a different world. Like I stepped into a storybook. But it’s the kind of storybook where I’m not the main character.”

Back then, neither of them had dared to dream of being the protagonist.

They had felt out of place—certain that the world of those people was not their own.

But now, the two women who once thought they could never be the main characters of a fairy tale were confidently starring in the stories of their own lives.

And they were headed for happy endings.