The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 22

Sheila cursed inwardly and struggled to push herself up.

“Didn’t you hear me tell you to lie down?”

Cedric watched Sheila sway as she stood and asked in a cold voice.

“…I’m sorry.”

Sheila apologized deeply for the sin of not waiting for her master while lying down.

“Lie down. I told them to call a doctor.”

As if displeased with Sheila’s apology, he lifted his chin. Overwhelmed by the arrogant gaze looking down on her, Sheila swallowed a groan and climbed onto the bed.

Then she hesitated for a moment.

Thinking of her thighs, lying on her stomach was the right choice, but there was no way she could stick her backside toward the young master and flop down like that.

In the end, Sheila chose to lie flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling.

Then he spoke, “Wouldn’t it be better to lie on your stomach?”

Sheila quickly stiffened at the fact that he spoke as if he knew the condition of the insides of her thighs.

“No! Lying flat is more comfortable….”

“Really?”

His tone sounded exactly like he was saying, “That can’t be true,” but Sheila pretended not to notice.

To truly act as if she didn’t know, she had to force her thoughts elsewhere for a moment.

‘A doctor….’

Just being with Cedric made her uncomfortable, and the thought of being examined by a doctor on top of that made her even more nervous.

She’d been nursed by her father or her older sister a few times when she was sick, but this was her first time actually being treated by a doctor.

The reason was obvious: their poor circumstances had never allowed them the luxury of calling a doctor.

He was the one who’d called the doctor on his own, so he wouldn’t ask her to pay, right?

There was no reason to refuse seeing a doctor for free.

Her body aches were so severe she felt like dying; if anything, this might even be a good thing.

“Um… but what brings you here…?” Sheila asked, her breath wheezing.

He had unfortunately come when she was sick and called a doctor for her, but he must’ve had a reason for coming here in the first place.

Cedric frowned at the maid, who couldn’t even speak properly yet kept stubbornly asking what his business was.

“Are you very cold?”

Seeing the maid wrapped up in her blanket like a caterpillar despite the hot weather, Cedric pressed his lips into a line.

“No, just a little….”

His expression hardened further at the obvious lie, but Cedric didn’t press her.

Instead, he said, “Try lying on your stomach.”

He meant to directly check her thighs.

Strictly speaking, it didn’t make sense for things to be this bad just from a few strokes of the cane, but there was a chance some unforeseen problem had occurred.

“Uh… pardon?”

Sheila looked utterly flustered at Cedric’s words.

“Um… why are you telling me to lie on my stomach…?”

Even so, she calmly and politely asked for a reason. Even though she had a pretty good idea already….

Cedric had already realized long ago that she wasn’t the type to say she disliked something to her master outright. Instead, not obeying immediately and asking for a reason was her own way of showing resistance.

When it came to Alfonso, she would just blush shyly….

Cedric recalled what had happened in the hallway a few days ago. The time he’d been coming down the stairs from the third floor and seen the two of them standing at the bottom.

He didn’t know what had happened, but even then Sheila’s face had been tinged with embarrassment, and it had been clearly different from how she was now.

“Why do you think?”

“I wonder…?”

Sheila, with only her fingers and face peeking out from under the blanket, rolled her eyes around. Then she gripped the blanket in her hands even tighter, as if to say she’d never lie on her stomach. Those same hands that she’d laid so delicately over her chest in front of Alfonso.

“What you’re thinking is right, so lie on your stomach.”

At Cedric’s firm words, Sheila’s face filled with shock.

“I really don’t know….”

Sheila said it like a plea. Last time, she’d been too busy indulging in lewd thoughts on her own to understand why Cedric was telling her to lie on her stomach.

Now again, being told to lie on her stomach, she could only think of indecent things….

Then, suddenly remembering the ointment, Sheila said, “If you’re trying to look at where you hit me, I told you last time that I was fine….”

“You did. While ignoring the clauses in the contract.”

Cedric cut in, interrupting the modest maid, who spoke as if even lifting her skirt up only to her thighs was some huge matter.

At Cedric suddenly mentioning the contract, Sheila wore a baffled expression.

“The contract…?”

“It clearly states it in the contract. ‘Party A bears the duty to take responsibility for and manage Party B’s health so that Party B can be beaten in the best possible condition.’ Did you already forget?”

Cedric spoke as if bearing down on her, fully aware that Sheila hadn’t memorized all the clauses of the contract.

And that had been Cedric’s intention.

There was no reason to think a mere maid would even be literate, and even if by some chance she could read, it would be impossible for her to understand one hundred percent of a contract written in difficult terms.

According to Rufus’s report, Sheila was the latter.

Rufus, who had been involved in drawing up the contract on Cedric’s orders, had successfully brought back Sheila’s signature. Since he had always assisted Cedric in the course of business contracts, getting a mere maid to sign a contract would have been a piece of cake.

The trick was simple. When briefing the other party on the contents of the contract, you only pointed out the parts advantageous to them.

Checking whether there were any clauses disadvantageous to oneself was each person’s responsibility. If you were unsure, you simply shouldn’t sign…. Needless to say, the moment you signed, the contract acquired legal force that bound you to follow its contents.

Rufus, who had brought back Sheila’s signature, had a face that was itching to be praised. Cedric acknowledged his effort with a short, “Well done.” Whether the job had been easy or hard, the fact remained that Rufus had brought him what he wanted.

Sheila spoke with a very troubled expression, “I remember. I do….”

“And?”

Hearing the maid’s obvious lie, Cedric asked leisurely.

“The places you hit are really fine. So that ‘take responsibility and manage’ part written in the contract? Can’t you just not do that?”

“I can’t.”

Cedric answered firmly to the maid, who had no idea how meticulously the contract had been drawn up.

“Have you ever heard of the duty of good faith? The moment you sign a contract, Party A and Party B both assume the duty to observe every clause of the contract, in good faith and with sincerity.”

“How can that…!”

It was hard to understand. So even when the person involved said she was fine, he still insisted on examining her body as he pleased?

Seeing Sheila’s confused expression, Cedric said triumphantly, “Did you not read the contract carefully? I’m sure Rufus gave you plenty of time to read it. If you doubt my words, you can read the contract again right now. That’s why we each kept a copy. Where is it? I’ll take it out for you.”

As Cedric deliberately pretended to look for the contract and paced around the narrow attic room, the worn floorboards creaked. In that moment, Sheila cried out in a panic.

“No…!”

“?”

“…I think you don’t have to look.”

For some reason, Sheila gave up on seeing the contract and spoke hesitantly.

“If I just… show you the places where I was hit, will that be enough?”

“Why, is there somewhere else you want to show me?”

When he asked shamelessly, Sheila’s face flushed bright red.

“No!”

The poor maid, caught in his scheme, turned over and lay down, her body trembling.

And she kept starting to lift her skirt and then hesitating.

It was not even a situation where she was being beaten, so of course baring her thighs in front of her master would be embarrassing.

At some point, Cedric had pulled over a chair and sat down, and, unable to hold back, he yanked Sheila’s skirt up.

“Ah!”

A shrill scream burst from flustered Sheila’s lips. Then, as if startled by her own voice, she buried her face deep in the pillow.

Regardless, Cedric closely examined the areas he had struck.

‘Damn.’

Seeing the state of Sheila’s thighs, Cedric swallowed a curse inwardly.

The condition was worse than he had expected.

Perhaps because the weather was already hot and she’d been covered with a blanket on top of having the flu, heat was packed into the wounded areas. Left like this, the wounds would surely get worse.

Cedric remembered how Sheila had looked when he had come back after ordering Rufus to call a doctor earlier.

She had been kneeling on the floor, her backside pushed back, bent over the bed.

He could understand her not being able to bring herself to lie down even when he told her to, but he had thought there were many ways to make a man aroused….

Realizing that in truth she had simply been in too much pain in every way and could not help it, Cedric clicked his tongue and asked, “Where’s the ointment?”

“…The ointment?”

With her face buried in the pillow, Sheila slowly repeated Cedric’s words. Then, as if suddenly coming to her senses, she jerked her head up and looked at him.

“What for…?”

“There it is.”

Cedric turned his head and easily spotted the ointment on the worktable.

“No, that…!”

Ignoring Sheila’s oddly urgent voice, he opened the lid, and a glossy, untouched surface was revealed.

“What, you haven’t applied it even once?”

He could understand not using it the first day, but seeing that the amount had not decreased at all even when things had gotten this bad left him exasperated.

If she had applied the ointment earlier, at least her legs would have hurt less.

“What are you saving this for? Surely you weren’t planning to sell it?”

As if the offhand remark had hit a sore spot, Sheila suddenly raised her voice.

“S-sell it?! I would never…!”

Then, meeting eyes with Cedric, who was holding the ointment, she lowered her voice.

“Never.”

As if.

Sheila’s gaze had already drifted to the tip of Cedric’s finger, thick with ointment. Anyone could see she looked like she thought it was a terrible waste.

He’d heard she was serious about saving money, but he never would have imagined she had even thought of selling the ointment he had given her to use.

Sheila buried her face deep in the pillow as if resigned.

At the sight, Cedric could not help but let out a short laugh.