The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 28

Lately, Alfonso had been getting on Cedric’s nerves in subtle ways.

Before Cedric left to study abroad, Alfonso had been an obedient and useful younger brother.

Back then, it had been obvious he stuck close to the future head of the family in hopes of catching whatever benefits fell from Cedric’s side. But after becoming an adult, he seemed to have developed too many thoughts of his own.

If anything were ever to happen to Cedric, the eldest son, the next family head would be Alfonso. That was why Alfonso had received an education nearly as thorough as Cedric’s.

From the past until now, Cedric’s way of handling Alfonso hadn’t changed.

He acknowledged Alfonso’s abilities to an appropriate degree and assigned him the duties he could perform.

“If you came all the way here like this, it means you already have a plan. Speak.”

Fortunately, unlike the third and fourth siblings, Alfonso was actually useful to Cedric.

“First, you need to set a date. Once the date is fixed, we can write and send the invitations. Looking at the schedule, holding the ceremony two months from now seems ideal. It gives enough time to prepare.”

Cedric nodded slightly, as if in agreement.

“And for the number of guests, I’m thinking around four to five hundred. Since His Highness the Crown Prince might attend, we need a fitting scale. And if the Crown Prince is coming, the number of attendees will naturally increase.”

“Do it that way.”

Despite Cedric’s lukewarm response, Alfonso continued laying out detailed plans for the guest rooms within the mansion, along with accommodations at nearby hotels for the remaining visitors.

“Of course, the distinguished guests will stay here in the mansion. Starting with His Highness the Crown Prince, and Lady Vivarini, who’s considered your most likely fiancée.”

Cedric listened with an arrogant posture. He wasn’t particularly grateful that Alfonso was managing matters about his appointment ceremony. After all, “handling such things” would continue being Alfonso’s role in the future.

“Then while we’re at it, let me ask one favor,” Cedric said.

“What is it?”

Alfonso matched Cedric’s indifference with arrogance, but Cedric could tell his younger brother was inwardly excited.

“I want you to deliver the Crown Prince’s invitation yourself.”

Documents destined for the royal palace were preferably sent by hand rather than by post. Because of concerns about loss or security, hand delivery had become an unspoken rule of etiquette toward the royal family.

And having a family member deliver it personally, rather than a servant or secretary, was considered more formal.

Of course, the Crown Prince Eric, or rather, Marquis, would not care about such things at all, but….

Perhaps because the errand involved visiting the palace, Alfonso agreed readily. He had no idea what Cedric planned to write in the invitation addressed to the Crown Prince.

Either way, Alfonso had said he didn’t mind, so he could deal with the consequences himself.

Cedric simply wanted the crafty fox he’d fed to hurry back to its den.

He’d been on his way somewhere and was thoroughly irritated at being interrupted.

Cedric’s mind right now was full of thoughts about the maid. Not in a good way. Thinking back to how Sheila had shyly drawn both hands to her chest in front of Alfonso, Cedric’s brow furrowed on its own.

<Part 2>

“Homework?”

“Here.”

At Cedric’s words, Judith handed over her Lotasian homework. The assignment was to write ten times each of the words she’d gotten wrong last lesson and the new vocabulary for the day.

Nearly a month had passed, yet Judith’s skills hadn’t improved. During that time, Cedric had increased her homework from writing three to five times, then from five to ten times.

But Judith already had a plan. Over the past three weeks, Sheila’s handwriting had improved a lot.

‘Your foresight is insane!’

Judith admired her own brilliance.

As expected, her eldest brother was no different from the other tutors. The only difference was that unlike private tutors who had been of lower rank than the nobility, her eldest brother, who would become the next head of the family, had the power to control her entire life.

‘You can’t disobey the words of someone like that.’

Cedric flipped through Judith’s notebook as he checked her homework. As Cedric lowered his gaze toward the pages, Judith lowered her head and looked at Sheila.

It was a signal telling the ignorant, timid maid that everything was fine.

“Will this really be okay, miss?”

Judith recalled her conversation with Sheila the day before.

“Of course it’ll be fine. Look, I wrote each one once, so just copy them nine more times.”

“Miss, I don’t think this is right.”

“Stop whining and do as you’re told. Before I tell Father you slacked off work all day instead of doing your job!”

At Judith’s words, Sheila had copied the homework with a face that looked ready to cry.

Compared to the beginning, Sheila’s handwriting was excellent now. If nothing else, the girl’s diligence was undeniable. In Judith’s opinion, it was now neat enough to stand next to her own handwriting. Which meant she could safely rely on Sheila to do her homework.

‘See? I told you it’d be fine.’

Judith mouthed the words in Sheila’s direction.

Seeing Judith duck her head so obviously and move her lips, Sheila flinched in shock and darted her eyes around. It was a warning telling Judith to shut up and focus on the lesson.

But Judith must have misunderstood the signal, because she even gave Sheila a mischievous wink.

‘Should I kill her?’

Sheila, in utter despair, turned her head and stared at empty space.

Not making eye contact was the only way to make Judith stop doing that stupid thing.

She really couldn’t kill her….

Her opponent was the precious daughter of the count. Sheila forced down the murderous impulse that flared up for a moment and accepted reality as a maid.

While that was happening, Cedric finished checking the homework and handed the notebook back to Judith with a short compliment.

“Good job.”

‘See? Told you.’

The moment Judith began to turn her head again toward Sheila, Sheila instantly shifted her gaze back to the empty air.

Pssf.

‘Huh? It sounded like air leaking somewhere….’

Did he… laugh?

Startled, Sheila looked at Cedric.

Cedric, wearing his usual aloof expression, simply told Judith, “Begin.”

‘Phew… I guess not.’

Sheila let out a sigh of relief inside.

If he’d noticed, he would never have let it slide. If she’d been caught, she would have been dead.

It wasn’t a joke. Someone of his position could kill a person without consequence.

Come to think of it, both Judith and Cedric really lived blessed lives.

Money, status, looks, nothing was lacking.

Well, in Judith’s case, the ‘brain’ part was a bit… no, very lacking, but it wouldn’t hinder her life.

Even now, Sheila was the one being beaten in Judith’s place.

“…Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six….”

Lost in thought, Sheila hadn’t realized the lesson was over for the week, and she was now receiving strikes equal to Judith’s wrong answers.

At first, Cedric would send Judith out only if she cried too much, but today he’d sent her out even before the beating started.

It didn’t make sense no matter how she thought about it, but as it repeated, Sheila somehow came to accept it.

“Go on out.”

At Cedric’s one word, Judith, who had been revving up to squeeze out tears, flounced right out.

Unlike when she cried, at times like that, she was unbelievably rude.

‘I guess she’s acting like that because she’s frustrated too.’

Sheila tried to understand how Judith felt.

Nearly a month had passed, yet Judith’s grades still had not improved.

Sheila had thought that since Judith could not mess around as much as she had with the other private tutors, her grades would improve quickly, but that judgment had been completely wrong.

Well, if grades could improve overnight, there would be no need to study for years.

Not knowing what was going on inside Judith’s head, Sheila could only think that way.

Fortunately, today again it did not go over thirty strokes.

“Twenty-seven, ngh. Twenty-eight….”

The number of strokes varied each time, but it was most often around thirty.

“Hhngh… twenty-nine.”

Sheila, who had been beaten, gave the final count.

Since the birch switch bundle had appeared, the implements used for beating had changed frequently, and today it was a crop.

The crop was similar in size and shape to a cane, but there was a square piece of leather attached to the end.

When she was actually struck, the part that touched her was the small, square rubber piece at the tip. It would leave marks in that exact shape, but compared to the other tools, the pain was much less.

Even so, that did not particularly make her happy.

‘I’m not even a horse….’

The crop she had diligently brought over every time for the young lady’s riding lessons was, of course, a tool meant to be used on horses.

But Sheila soon changed her mind.

‘No, what matters is that it does not hurt much.’

Thinking about it again, from the point of view of the whipping maid, the best thing was to be hit and not hurt.

Humiliation or shame were just luxury emotions.

To shake off such spoiled thoughts, Sheila went over what she had to do tomorrow.

‘First, I have to write each word ten times….’

Since Cedric hadn’t caught on, it was clear Judith would now openly make her do the homework.

In terms of the atmosphere he gave off and his actual power, Cedric was the scariest, but Judith was not someone Sheila could ignore either.

In a way, the ultimate reason Cedric was so frightening was because the thing she feared most was being fired from the mansion.

For someone like Sheila, falling out of the favor of even one person who bore the Calley name meant losing her job as a maid.

So Sheila, crying on the inside, had no choice but to follow Judith’s orders.

Thanks to nearly a month of taking lessons together, at least she was no longer blindly copying letters without understanding anything, like at the beginning….

As she was going over the tasks she had to do, Sheila remembered one important fact.

Tomorrow was the day Alfonso would leave for the palace.

Not that that meant any grand duty had been given to Sheila. All she had to do was go out with Judith when she went to see him off and stand there.

“What are you thinking about so hard?”

“N-no, nothing.”

At Cedric’s sudden question, Sheila answered in a hurry.

Cedric, who had been observing Sheila’s ever-changing expressions from the start of the lesson to the end, muttered, “Nothing, huh.”

At his tone, which sounded a bit like he was sneering, Sheila fell into worry.

‘Do I have to answer…?’

Asking what a maid had been thinking about was excessive interest.

But somehow, the mood felt like she couldn’t get away without answering.

“I was just thinking about what I have to do tomorrow….”

When Sheila spoke hesitantly, Cedric waved her out with a gesture, as if he found it troublesome.

‘Damn it, I shouldn’t have answered.’

Still, since he did not tell her to go to her room and wait, it seemed she would not have to see Cedric again today.