What happened next… They were well aware of that.

The Earl who perceived the encounter with this man as a blessing from above did not miss out on this chance of exploiting him.

In haste, he decided to form an agreement with the man and take over the rights of the soap-making process from him.

The man who was ignorant of the hidden scheme of the Earl fell for it thanks to his immense greed of collecting money from him.

The two negotiated numerous times and the commoner only agreed when the sum being offered by the Earl was exorbitant.

After all, according to him, this was a once-in-a-lifetime deal that would not happen again.

He must have assumed that even after selling the rights to the Earl, he would be able to make his own soap as he was the 'creator' in everyone else's sights.

However, due to his negligence, he had signed the documents without going through them thoroughly.

The clause which mentioned that he would forfeit any right to ever make soap using the recipe he had after signing the document was only unveiled once the money was in his hand.

The Earl threatened him that if he were ever to be seen creating soap, then he would personally throw him in prison where he would rot for all eternity.

Though aggrieved that he could not squeeze any more profit from the soap recipe which he had handed over to the Earl, the middle son paid heed to the warnings and promised to never use it.

He then disappeared along with the money he had received.

The wretched man did not inform his brothers about his treacherous deeds of selling the rights of the soap to the Earl and vanished without a trace.

The Earl too, ignorant of this fact, began mass-producing and propagating his soap as a luxurious product among the nobles.

The commoners too treated it as a rare commodity and bought it from the only sellers in the entire Kingdom.

However, all hell broke loose when Earl Blaise heard word about another family selling the same soap at a much cheaper rate in their town.

"He made sure to let everyone in the town know that he had the ownership of the product and declared that the family selling it was going against the law." Rutherford recalled the major gossip that was all the rage in his fief which was close to the Blaises.

"Earl Blaise must have figured out that man's misdeeds which was why he never allowed the news to spread to the Capital." He added as this news never left the fiefs surrounding the Viscount's.

If word had reached the King then he would have sided with the commoner brothers over the Earl who had bought the recipe from the wastrel brother.

Therefore, Earl Blaise hid this truth from everyone after threatening the true creators with a death sentence for their crimes.

The only reason Rutherford had heard about this was that this particular fief's borders touched both the St. Claire and the Blaise fief.

'That explains why Marquess Samed had never heard about this juicy piece of gossip.' Yvonne declared as her tutor's spies could possibly not have their reach in other fiefs.

Howard had been paying attention to what his father was narrating and at the end, his opinions also changed about the middle brother for whom he had felt pity earlier.

"What happened to his family?" He inquired, more concerned about the other two brothers who were the true owners of the soap recipe.

Rutherford shook his head in answer as he had no clue about what happened to them.

"No news was heard about them ever since Earl Blaise accused them of making counterfeit products." He disclosed and was equally disgusted by the Earl and that middle brother as much as his children.

Yvonne remained silent as she assimilated the information she had gathered from her father.

After a moment, she looked right into his eyes and there was curiosity and a tinge of seriousness present in those vibrant amethyst eyes.

"Is there a way to find them?" She interrogated and hoped that a positive answer awaited her.

Thankfully, this time, Rutherford nodded but paused while looking at his children.

"There is one man who can help us locate them." He stated but there was hesitation in his voice.

The little girl and her brother alike were wondering what might the cause of this reluctance be when they heard him continuing his words.

"Your uncle… He might be able to help us." The Earl revealed, causing his children's eyes to widen in surprise.

"Uncle!?" They both exclaimed in unison, flabbergasted at this revelation.

'Isn't he an only child?' Yvonne narrowed her eyes as there was never a mention of Rutherford St. Claire having a sibling in any of the conversations she had with him and with the Marquess.

Howard also had a frown as he had never heard about this Uncle who had popped up out of nowhere.

He had been to their fief and met all the staff there so he was sure that such a person never existed.

So why was their father speaking about a man who does not exist?

This was the doubt in their heads and they were eager to gain some valid answers from him.

Rutherford sighed out loud and resigned to his fate as he prepared himself to disclose a secret to his children, something that they had never known of before this day.

"The man who could help us is your uncle, Marcus Valente." He named the one whom he had been referring to all along.

When the two children heard the surname that their supposed uncle had, they were stunned as they had read up about him before.

"Viscount Valente?" Howard was the first to mutter in confusion while his baby sister mimicked his frown.

Rutherford grimaced when the name was uttered and gave them an affirmative nod.

"Yes, Viscount Valente, your mother's elder brother." He dropped another bomb on them, stunning them speechless.

As if the existence of an uncle wasn't enough to shock them, their father had disclosed that this uncle was none other than their mother's brother.

Noticing their silence, the father chuckled awkwardly while scratching his neck.

"What? You surely knew that your mother was also a noble-born woman, right?" He questioned in order to ease the atmosphere in the room but it had the opposite effect on them.

"We knew about that!" They both scowled at once which further made the air awkward around them.

'But there wasn't much mention about her family so I just assumed that she came from a fallen noble family.' Yvonne nodded as this was the speculation that she had regarding her mother's maiden family.

She recalled how during Paula's incident, she had heard about her maternal grandfather's fief which was riddled with bandits and robbers who looted his businesses.

Therefore, she had assumed that her maternal grandfather's fief was a lower-ranked one which was also one of the reasons why Rutherford's father, her paternal grandfather had been against their marriage in the beginning.

"So why have you never mentioned anything about this uncle before today?" Howard interrogated once he managed to digest the fact that his mother's side had a family as well.

Rutherford's face transformed into the embodiment of reluctance and there was also a hint of glum that overshadowed him.

It took him a moment to speak up but when he did, the children could sense the dejection coming from his voice.

"Because your uncle believes that I am not worthy of Ray so he cut ties with us after we got married." He whispered his answer both displeased and sullen that such a thing had taken place in the past.

When Yvonne heard of this, it was as though lightning struck her mind which cleared many of her doubts from the past.

'Is this the reason why Mama treated Paula with such care?' She wondered and from what she had just heard, this might explain many things.

If Raylene was unwelcome in her maiden home after she chose to marry Rutherford, then this would explain why Paula, the only connecting piece she had with her estranged family, was treated with such love and care.

'So everything started because someone thought you weren't worthy of Mama?' She bit her lip to stifle the mocking snicker that was about to erupt from her.