The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 25

Sheila collapsed on the spot, unable to do anything, her hips twitching.

‘Haah… it hurts so damn much.’

She couldn’t even bring herself to touch the painful spot and twisted her body instead. That was when she saw Cedric’s gleaming shoes.

Cedric still hadn’t moved at all, standing fixed in place as if nailed to the floor.

Sheila’s gaze reflexively traveled up his long legs, and she looked up at him.

A handsome statue was looking down at her. When their eyes met and Sheila flinched in surprise, he said, “Number.”

Come to think of it, she hadn’t counted the last one.

“T… twenty-four.”

Sheila recited the number in a daze, and only then did Cedric finally turn his foot.

Sheila snapped back to her senses.

That bastard…!

She ground the curse into her heart, unable to say it out loud.

A person was suffering in front of him, and the best he could manage was… Number?

As if his ear itched, Cedric lightly rubbed it with his pinky finger, returned to the table, and dropped the cane with a tap.

Then, ignoring Sheila who was crumpled on the floor, he said, “You’re too loud, Judith. It’s over, so go back to your room.”

***

“Write it.”

At Judith’s order, Sheila carefully practiced her handwriting. Thanks to practicing every day on expensive paper, Sheila’s handwriting had improved a lot. But it still didn’t seem good enough for Judith.

“That’s not it!”

Judith smacked Sheila’s hand with her pen and pointed out the parts that differed from her own handwriting as she demonstrated.

“Miss, I don’t think you should be doing this.”

The reason Judith had been giving her expensive paper and ink for writing practice had become clear.

Starting the second week, Cedric had begun assigning Judith homework in Lotasian.

“Is it wrong to teach a maid how to write?” Judith asked, eyes wide, even though her intentions were obvious.

“That’s not what I meant….”

The reason Judith hadn’t assigned the actual homework yet was because Sheila had only been practicing for about a week and her handwriting was still clumsy.

But since Judith technically hadn’t ordered her to do homework, only practice writing, Sheila couldn’t argue.

‘What do I do if she really makes me do her homework?’

She wasn’t sure she’d be able to refuse an order from her lady. Sheila reluctantly continued practicing her writing, forcing herself through it.

Her hand moved calmly across the page, but her heart wasn’t calm at all. Living like this, she’d surely die before her time.

***

“Molly! You’re here?”

Seeing her coworker for the first time in days, Sheila brightened.

After her wedding, Molly had planned to commute from her new marital home close to the mansion. This was only possible because she’d married a local supplier who already delivered goods to the estate.

“Let me see the face of the new bride.”

Even though it had only been a few days, Sheila had missed her friend terribly and expressed her joy with her whole body.

Molly recoiled at Sheila running toward her while teasing her about being a newlywed.

“Why are you like this, you’re embarrassing me!”

“Oh? Embarrassing? Why would you be embarrassed, hmm?”

Sheila deliberately made a mischievous expression.

Even without experience, Sheila knew plenty about what happened between men and women. In her early days as a maid, she’d shared a room with senior maids who told endless stories. First, it hurt so much you wanted to die, then later it felt so good you wanted to die—that kind of thing. Men just needed to be handsome and good in bed, that kind of talk.

Before, the maids had said earning well was the most important thing, but when it came to the subject of “night work,” their priorities flipped instantly.

Thanks to their lively storytelling, Sheila would stay up all night listening without noticing the time.

Of course, not all the stories were fun.

A few years back, a huge incident had happened because of a romance between servants, and since then, romance inside the mansion had been strictly forbidden.

Sheila had given up on marriage, but she had no intention of growing old and dying a virgin.

‘They say it’s that good, so I should at least try it once before I die.’

Molly, returned as a new bride and acting shy, was so cute that Sheila kept teasing her.

And Molly, who really had been tormented by her groom all night long, grew redder and redder in the face.

“Stop joking around and come to your room for a moment.”

Molly, who saw Sheila constantly looking for chances to tease her, dragged her up to her room.

“What’s all this?”

Sheila’s eyes went wide at the luggage Molly spread out.

The bag Molly had carried as luggage was packed full of gifts she’d bought for Sheila.

New maid uniforms, an outing dress, socks, and even underwear, all of them practical things.

“They’re thank-you gifts, so don’t feel burdened and just take them,” Molly said.

She’d already been grateful that Sheila had considered her in so many ways for her marriage, but Molly had carefully picked out each item especially for Sheila, who had even given her a large sum as a wedding gift.

She had never imagined that stingy Sheila would give her so much money as a congratulatory gift.

She didn’t even buy herself new clothes, let alone a single new pair of socks….

There was no such thing as a maid who came from far away to work and still had a well-off family, but Sheila was unusually frugal. It wasn’t just that she saved money; she practically never spent it.

Even her maid uniform was still the very first one she’d been issued.

They were even given a separate clothing allowance once a year, but Sheila was so ruthless about saving that she even hoarded that money.

Even on her days off, all she ever did was side jobs or going to the market to sell lace she had crocheted, and she only went back to her family home maybe once every six months, if that.

Unlike the other maids, who at least bought new clothes or hats when they went home, Sheila only wore the old, carefully saved outing clothes she had put aside.

‘And after all that, what was she thinking, giving me such a big sum?’

At first, Molly had considered returning the money. But it didn’t feel right to reject her friend’s feelings. So she decided to use that money to buy gifts for Sheila instead.

“How much did all this cost?”

Sheila looked dazed at the sheer number of gifts.

“I picked out every single one of these just for you, so if you sell any of them or anything, I’ll kill you!” Molly said in a threatening tone.

At that, Sheila muttered softly, “…I won’t sell them.”

“What?”

Molly didn’t hear her quiet answer, and Sheila grinned broadly as she mussed Molly’s hair.

“You really grew up after getting married. Look at you, taking care of your big sister’s gifts and everything.”

“Who’s my big sister!”

To Molly, who protested, Sheila said, “I’ll wear them well, little sister.”

“You little…!”

Bickering back and forth, the two of them went down to Judith’s room, reminding themselves that there was no class today and that there would be a family dinner in the evening instead.

***

When the appointed dinner time came, the Calley family gathered in the dining hall. Each of them cut their own steak with elegant movements and sipped their wine.

It was the picture of a cultured family meal. Since their looks backed it up as well, the visual was excellent. Of course, that was only when everyone had their mouths shut and were chewing.

Most of the time, the silence was broken because of Judith.

“Sherry! Come fix this for me.”

Sheila quickly went over and pushed back the long, trailing cuff.

“Molly! Napkin.”

A moment later, Molly had to rush over and wipe the sauce off Judith’s chin with a napkin.

“Sherry!”

“Molly!”

When Sheila and Molly had each been summoned twice in quick succession, Cedric finally spoke to Judith.

“Judith, don’t order the maids around for simple things. Try not to make the kind of mistakes where you spill food or drop your utensils in the first place.”

No matter how noble and elegant the meal, little mistakes could happen, and calling a maid to take care of them wasn’t against propriety.

But the problem was that Judith did it far too often. On top of that, she always shouted loudly for the maids without any regard for the atmosphere, constantly ruining the mood at meals.

No, until Cedric pointed it out, Sheila had thought she was the only one who felt that way. The Calley family had simply continued eating as if nothing were wrong.

So even when she was being called back and forth in the banquet hall by that dog-like name “Sherry” and running around nonstop, she had forced herself to bear the embarrassment, telling herself it was nothing.

But now even that effort had gone completely to waste.

The moment she unconsciously lifted her head and her eyes met Cedric’s arrogant gaze, Sheila’s face burned hot.

Since the day she’d come down with body aches, Cedric had been coming to Sheila’s room every day to apply the ointment.

He probably wore that same expression even when he applied the ointment, didn’t he?

His touch was as dry as that arrogant expression.

Of course, it was nothing like Allen’s greasy flirting, but it wasn’t gentle like Alfonso either.

So the word “dry” fit perfectly.

Even so, Sheila always felt strange.

‘I’m really the only piece of trash here.’

In truth, it made no sense in the first place for the eldest young master, the future count, to be in a maid’s room, and for her to be lying there with her skirt hitched up in front of him while he personally applied ointment there. All of it was something no sane maid could possibly endure.

Sheila lowered her head to avoid his eyes.

“I’ll wipe it, so go over there, Molly.”

Deflated by her eldest brother’s scolding, Judith dismissed Molly, whom she had called over to wipe the sauce from her mouth.

Right, she should at least do that kind of thing on her own.

As Sheila tried to shake off the memories from her room and focus on the atmosphere of the dinner, Cedric opened his mouth again.

“Stop calling the maids’ names like they’re dogs.”

Huh…?

When she lifted her head and looked at Molly again, Molly’s face was already bright red.

The name Cedric had called dog-like was simply Molly.

What was even more ridiculous happened right after that.

Judith quietly asked Molly, “Molly, what’s your name?”

Absurdly enough, Judith was asking the name of Molly, who had been by her side for three years.

Her voice had been small, but there was no one who hadn’t heard. Everyone’s attention focused on Molly.

A brief look of indecision flashed across Molly’s flustered face. Then she opened her mouth.

“Molly…s, my lady.”

‘…?’

Ah, for fuck’s sake…!

At Molly’s crazy improvisation, Sheila bit the inside of her lip to keep her laughter from bursting out.

Of all the things she could have made up, what was with “Mollys.” It wasn’t like she was going to be Judith’s sister.

Sheila secretly grabbed her thigh and held back her laughter. She suppressed it so much that tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

In the midst of that, Cedric drove the nail in with a serious voice.

“From now on, make sure you call her ‘Mollys’ correctly.”

“Yes, Brother.”

Aaaah, spare me…!

‘Think of something sad, something sad…’

They said pleasure and pain were only a hair’s breadth apart. Sheila’s face, as she held back her laughter, twisted into one on the verge of tears, and in the end, a tear streamed down from one eye.

When Molly returned to her seat and saw Sheila crying, she ducked her head.

Molly, who had been tense under the masters’ gazes, finally burst into belated laughter.

“That’s right, Judith. If you’re going to be a proper noble, you need to call your servants by their proper names too.”

When even Alfonso, who normally took her side, agreed with Cedric, Judith grumbled.

“Even you, Second Brother?”

Not missing the chance, Allen sniped at Judith.

“Good grief, how can you not even know your own maids’ names? Mother, didn’t she fall on her head from somewhere when she was little?”

Each time one of the Calleys chimed in, a new crisis struck the two maids.

Sheila and Molly had to pinch their own thighs hard enough to bruise to get through the ordeal.