The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 23

Cedric began spreading the ointment that he had scooped thickly onto his fingers over Sheila’s thigh.

Every time his fingers passed over the horribly swollen wounds, Sheila’s legs and hips flinched.

The urge to roughly handle the woman’s battered body writhed inside him, but Cedric quietly suppressed that filthy desire.

Then, forcing himself to ignore the curve that ran from her round hips to her slender waist, he finished applying the ointment.

Sheila squirmed, trying at least to pull her skirt down herself. Finding the sight amusing, Cedric simply watched. Then he took out his pocket watch and checked the time.

“The doctor will be here soon. Lie properly.”

At Cedric’s words, Sheila groaned and turned over to lie on her back. Cedric pulled the blanket over her and said,

“Once you take the medicine and the flu passes, it’d be better to keep your skirt pulled up.”

At the words of a master so kindly concerned even about the state of her insides, Sheila shuddered.

“Please, could you not….”

She was about to ask if he could please not say things like that, but Cedric ignored Sheila’s words and felt her forehead. Since her face was even redder than before, he was checking whether her fever had gone up.

Just then, there was a knock.

“Come in.”

At Cedric’s command, an old doctor, a young man, and lastly Rufus, who was holding the door, came in.

With three more men entering a room where Cedric was already inside, Sheila felt suffocated by the oppressive sight.

Feeling it was a bit much to lie there alone in front of four towering men, she tried to sit up, but Cedric pressed his index finger firmly against her forehead.

“You stay lying down.”

Sheila, subdued by a single finger, was at a loss.

“But….”

“Patients are supposed to lie down,” Cedric said.

As if accepting that one sentence, Sheila stopped struggling and lay still.

“Did you call for me, Young Master? This is my new assistant, Frederick.”

Watkin, who had long served as the Calley family’s attending physician, introduced the young man who had followed him in.

But making Watkin’s introduction meaningless, Cedric immediately gave an order.

“Rufus, take that man outside.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The assistant, who had hoped to make a proper impression on the first young master who would be the next head of the family, left looking very disappointed as he followed Rufus out.

“Begin the examination.”

Only then, at Cedric’s instruction, did the flustered Watkin set his medical bag down on the floor and sit in the chair beside the bed. Then he addressed Sheila.

“Tell me about your condition.”

Sheila rolled her eyes and then said, “My whole body aches and I’m cold…. My head hurts, my stomach hurts…, and my throat hurts too. I have no appetite and it feels like I can’t digest anything…. I sometimes see or hear things that aren’t there.”

“Ho ho….”

The doctor tilted his head at the sheer number of symptoms. In that moment, Sheila said,

“Could you perhaps give me separate medicine for each symptom?”

Cedric pulled a dumbfounded face as he caught on to the maid’s intention to get her money’s worth out of this visit. It was obvious she planned to sell the medicine if she could not sell the ointment.

For the flustered old doctor, Cedric stepped in.

“Stop talking nonsense and only tell him what your real symptoms are.”

“…I’m serious, Young Master….”

Judging from how she relaxed her voice and put on a straight face to make it sound convincing, she was clearly not as sick as she claimed.

“It all looks like malingering to me, so let’s end this here. I’m sorry to have dragged you here for nothing.”

Cedric spoke to the doctor. Just as the old and naïve doctor was about to rise at Cedric’s words, Sheila squeezed out her voice urgently.

“It really is true that my whole body aches and I’m cold…!”

The doctor met Cedric’s gaze and resumed the examination.

“It’s just body aches. If you’ve been tired or overworked more than usual, it comes often, so I’ll prescribe you some medicine.”

Sheila nodded obediently.

Cedric, who had overworked Sheila’s thighs more than usual the day before, asked the doctor, “She is Judith’s whipping maid and was beaten again yesterday. Could that perhaps be the cause?”

In his own judgment Cedric did not think so, but he was not a doctor. So it was better to get a doctor’s confirmation just in case.

“If the wounds became infected, it could happen, but judging from her condition and how well she is speaking, that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s most likely simple body aches.”

The mansion was a place where rumors spread quickly. The family doctor already seemed to know about the existence of the whipping maid, as he showed no sign of surprise when he answered.

And he added, “Just in case, I will take a look at the places where she was struck.”

To give a proper examination, seeing it in person was best.

“That’s enough.”

Cedric refused him flatly.

“No. Since I have come all this way, I will make sure to check properly before I go.”

Watkin, whose skill had earned him the position of the Calley family’s attending physician, had one flaw: he was a bit lacking in tact.

“Are you not busy? That will be all, so you should go now.”

Cedric, arms crossed, spoke again.

“I appreciate your concern, but I’m not busy at all.”

The old and naïve doctor, who was dense on top of it, chuckled and went on.

“These days the world has improved, but back in my day, I saw the swollen, beaten buttocks of maids more times than I can count. One look from me and I can immediately tell what needs to be done….”

Assuming of course that the whipping maid had been beaten on her bare buttocks, Watkin rambled on.

After all, one could say that beating the buttocks was the very basis of corporal punishment.

While the two continued their conversation, Sheila grunted as she turned over to bare her thighs to the doctor. At the sight of Sheila lying face down, Cedric’s brows twitched.

Cedric took a step closer to Watkin, uncrossed his arms, placed a hand on the doctor’s shoulder, and said, “I. Said. There is no need for that.”

A strong grip could be felt from Cedric’s hand. Only when Cedric spat out each syllable, biting down on the words, did Watkin finally catch on. Embarrassed, Watkin fumbled, taking out his watch for no reason.

“Oh dear, look at the time. Then I will quickly prepare the medicine and send it along with my assistant.”

As Watkin hurriedly grabbed his medical bag and left Sheila’s room, Cedric told Rufus, who was waiting outside, to ask around for a female doctor, then closed the door.

Sheila was still lying face down.

Cedric’s expression was not pleasant as he looked at the maid who had dared to lie down and show her thighs to just any man.

Even so, his hand carefully pulled the blanket over the sick maid’s body.

All the while, Sheila lay motionless as if dead. From that sight, he could feel a strong silent will.

‘So she is going to pretend to be asleep, is that it?’

Suppressing a dry laugh at Sheila’s little ploy, Cedric deliberately scraped the chair loudly as he pulled it closer and sat down.

At the sound of him sitting down, Sheila hesitated and cautiously opened her mouth.

“Are you… not going?”

So she must have thought he would leave if she pretended to sleep.

“Should I?” Cedric asked back.

“This is my room….”

“I know.”

He readily acknowledged that this was her space.

“I’ll go after I see you take the medicine when it arrives.”

At Cedric’s words, Sheila let out a small groan and lowered her head.

Even if she couldn’t say it, it was obvious she was not pleased by his presence.

Yet absurdly enough, soon an even breathing sound could be heard.

Just like last time, she had fallen asleep quickly.

‘Hah…!’

Looking at the maid who wouldn’t notice even if someone carried her away, Cedric could only let out a dry laugh.

***

The next day, Sheila woke up early in the morning feeling refreshed.

Cedric was already gone, and the chair he’d been sitting in was neatly pushed under the worktable.

Sheila shot up from the bed as if bouncing and hurriedly opened the floorboard.

The creaking floor had always bothered her; he didn’t find out, did he?

Sheila carefully checked her secret storage space. Fortunately, there were no signs that anyone had touched it. The bundle she’d dropped carelessly after returning from the market yesterday was also just as she’d left it.

There was no way he would’ve gone through her shabby bundle. It was impossible to imagine the young master touching something like that.

Relieved, Sheila finally realized she’d dropped to the floor with such quick movements.

Her body aches were gone, and her thighs felt much better than the day before.

Yesterday, when four full-grown men had packed into this tiny room, she’d felt dizzy, but thanks to Cedric sending everyone out except the doctor, she’d somehow endured.

When the doctor had asked to examine the places she’d been hit, Cedric had stopped him, and she was grateful she could avoid it. Strictly speaking, it would’ve been right to have the doctor look if it was serious, but even she could tell the pain was from the body aches and unrelated to being struck.

She remembered how, once the examination ended and her tension faded, she’d fallen asleep face down just like that.

‘I’m insane. Completely insane.’

Falling asleep like that when the young master was right beside her, she must’ve lost her mind. He’d even given her the medicine in the middle of the night, and she’d fallen asleep again right after.

And then, suddenly, a blurry memory resurfaced.

“Ah… don’t….”

She remembered half-asleep, feeling someone’s touch and whining like a child.

“You need the ointment. You’ll never put it on yourself, so I’m just applying it one more time before I go.”

The soothing voice had sounded unusually gentle. And then, in that same voice, Cedric had asked her,

“What were you planning to do by not applying the ointment?”

“Sell it at the market…. It’s real ointment from a pharmaceutical company, so it sells for a pretty good amount….”

As she felt the careful touch spreading the ointment, Sheila had drifted back to sleep.

“Ah…!”

Remembering what had happened during the night, Sheila grabbed her head in agony.

This was all because of that old doctor’s medicine.

‘Damn medicine!’

Sheila, who rarely got sick and even then relied mostly on home remedies, had never taken prescribed medicine before.

And its effect had been powerful.

She’d been half-asleep and drugged the entire night. Thanks to that, she had woken up refreshed… but-

Sheila held her head and agonized for a long time. Eventually, she lifted her head with a great revelation.

“Right. I don’t remember anything.”

If he said something, she’d just insist the medicine was too strong and she’d been hallucinating.

Once she thought of a solution, Sheila jumped up and began changing her clothes.