The middle-aged woman before them was Archer the Butcher's aunt, one of his elders. She worked as a matchmaker, but she was so bossy and unreasonable that her reputation in the village was abysmal.
This time, she was here under the guise of helping Archer the Butcher collect his debt, but her real goal was to force Chloe to marry him. Before she left her house, Archer the Butcher had promised that if she succeeded, he would give her a matchmaker's fee of one thousand silver pieces.
To her, one thousand silver pieces was a huge sum, so she was putting in extra effort today.
Mrs. Xavier felt both gratified and heartbroken as she looked at Vera. 'If she hadn't returned to the Preston Family,' she thought, 'Archer the Butcher would probably have set his sights on her this time. And even though she became the provincial top scholar, we wouldn't have had the money to pay for her education.'
