The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 76

Sheila was planning to leave this estate.

Of course, not right away. She meant to wrap things up within a few months, after she gathered the full commission fee and finished the job.

Before, she had vaguely thought about moving somewhere easier, somewhere without Judith. Now she had made up her mind to leave entirely.

It was thanks to Cedric.

Because of him, she could cut the time she thought she would need to gather funds, more than two years before she became a whipping maid, down to about six months.

Once the appointment ceremony was held, Cedric would be assigned a fiancée too, and six months was enough time for him to get engaged, no, perhaps even get married without it being strange.

She didn’t have any romantic relationship with him, but still, they had shared bodies. Staying in this estate after that would feel strange.

When Rufus stepped out for a moment, Sheila, having finished her snacks, spoke carefully.

“Um, Young Count. If you allow it, I’ll clean the punishment room….”

“No. Read this instead.”

Instead of granting her permission to clean, Cedric tossed her a book.

The punishment room was kept locked, so she couldn’t enter unless he opened it.

She’d tried to ignore it, but Sheila couldn’t stop worrying about who might be cleaning the punishment room.

“Um, then… who cleans that room…?”

Come to think of it, there was one person she suspected.

“D-don’t tell me Secretary Rufus is the one doing it?”

Rufus was the only person who knew about the contract between her and Cedric. He had surely noticed that the contract’s contents had turned strange too.

The way he treated her was so polite it couldn’t be called the way a secretary treated an ordinary maid.

“If another man saw those traces.”

“What?” Cedric looked straight at her and asked, “Would that excite you?”

No!

Instead of answering, Sheila shot him a look that said, what nonsense are you spouting?

He smiled faintly and said, “If it’s not that, then don’t worry about who cleans that room.”

At his smiling face, Sheila subtly looked away. She hadn’t realized it, but he had a surprisingly sly side.

Even before, because she’d become a whipping maid, they ran into each other needlessly often, but seeing him this close, she noticed new sides to him.

“I’ll… go clear the plates.”

“As you like.”

With her face heating up for no reason, Sheila deliberately got away.

‘Isn’t it unfair to smile like that with a face that handsome?’

Only now did Sheila feel like she understood why he always wore such a cold expression.

If he smiled like that anytime he pleased and bewitched people, the peace of this kingdom might be broken.

***

“Uncle, these days, how much water do you mix into the milk?”

As always, Sheila went down to the kitchen first to start the morning, and after receiving dairy products from Sam, she decided to have a calm talk with him.

“Huh? Wh-why are you asking that?” Sam stammered, caught off guard by the sudden question.

“Why else? When I drank it yesterday, the milk didn’t taste like water.”

“Uh, well, you see….”

For some reason, Sam looked quite flustered.

“Ah, come to think of it, I heard you became the Young Count’s maid?”

News really spreads fast….

Come to think of it, it was because she became Cedric’s maid and kept getting various snacks that she learned what milk was supposed to taste like, and asked.

“Nothing wrong, is there?”

“There isn’t.”

Sheila gave Sam a short reply as he needlessly changed the subject, then shot him a look that said he should answer the question already. Sam, who’d been fidgeting for some reason, opened his mouth again.

“Well… the new machine’s stabilized, and production’s increased because of it, so I decided I won’t add water anymore.”

“Really? That’s good.”

Sheila answered evenly. Then, looking at Sam, who seemed oddly relieved, she spoke again.

“Then why did you keep giving me money?”

At Sheila’s sharp question, Sam flustered again.

“Huh? Well… I had to keep giving it to you so you wouldn’t reveal that I’d been adding water all this time….”

So that was it?

No, who does he think she is, some kind of extortionist?

“As if I’d do something like that. Don’t give it to me anymore.”

Sheila said it coldly.

It was good enough that he wouldn’t add water anymore, and even better that he stopped before anyone in the master’s family noticed.

Even if Cedric still grumbled that the milk tasted bad.

Just as her thoughts started branching toward Cedric again, she heard Sam mutter quietly.

“That would be a problem….”

“What?”

When Sheila asked, Sam said, without even checking the time, “Oh, would you look at the time! I’m busy, I should get going.”

Did she mishear?

Sam, who was especially flustered today, hurried off before Sheila could even say goodbye.

So much for a calm conversation….

‘What’s he thinking, leaving like that?’

The fact that it ended without any real closure left her uneasy.

As she carried the dairy products she’d just received into the kitchen, Sheila thought she would refuse it next time, even if Sam offered her money.

It was something that had been pricking her conscience anyway, so it was a relief to stop now.

Sure, it would be nice to receive it for another month or two until the job was done, but rather than get greedier, she decided to be glad it ended cleanly.

‘Just focus on knitting.’

Since she hadn’t been going to the market, she still had a few of Judith’s accessories she hadn’t sold yet, along with the tablecloths she’d knitted so far.

If she knitted more diligently and sold them, it wouldn’t be as much as what she received from Sam, but she could make up for it to some extent.

Since her body was more at ease now that she handled Cedric instead of Judith, she could even cut down on sleep a little.

In fact, she was already doing that.

And she had plenty of paraffin oil tucked away, too….

After finishing up, Sheila headed to her room. There was still a little time before she needed to start her proper maid duties.

If she used that time to finish the knitting she’d been doing before she fell asleep last night….

“Kyaaak!”

Sheila screamed as soon as she opened the attic door without thinking.

“What are you so startled for?”

“Young Count…!”

Inside Sheila’s tiny room stood Cedric, tall as ever.

Why…?

“Where did you go at dawn?”

“I, um, th-that is….”

Sam had been stammering earlier, and now she looked exactly the same.

Cedric strode up to Sheila and lifted her chin.

“Don’t think about making excuses. Tell me honestly.”

Cedric’s force, barging in this early, was blazing.

“The kitchen.”

“Why?”

When Cedric asked again, Sheila, her chin still caught in his hand, answered as sincerely as she could.

“Paula… she’s in charge of the kitchen, but she’s sick today, so she asked me to pick up the milk for her.”

Of course, she couldn’t tell him only the truth.

“I see.”

She was about to let out a relieved sigh when he added, “Then should I take it that it was only for today?”

Why did he need to know that…?

Sheila looked up at him with questioning eyes.

“I’ve heard there have been incidents lately where people pass off the work they’re supposed to do onto someone else for a few coins.”

Sheila’s eyes widened.

‘Don’t tell me I got caught? I should have kept their mouths shut more thoroughly.’

As anxiety rose in her, Sheila’s thoughts jumped in a different direction.

‘Don’t tell me… there’s someone else doing things like that besides me?’

A sudden sense of crisis washed over her.

“Anyway, I plan to tell the head maid and the head chef to crack down thoroughly so that it doesn’t happen starting tomorrow. So don’t go accepting pointless requests and getting caught. Just stay still.”

“Yes….”

At Cedric’s advice, Sheila answered obediently. Whether it was because of her or because of someone else, she needed to keep her head down for a while.

Sheila put more weight on the idea that there was someone else. Somehow, she didn’t feel like she’d been caught. There hadn’t been any problems for years, and recently she hadn’t sensed anything unusual either.

It really was fortunate she was close to the Young Count and could hear information like this in advance.

But for Sheila, the real problem came in the next moment.

“By the way, what brings you to my room…?”

Cedric had been coming and going from her room as he pleased for quite a while, but this was the first time he came at dawn, so she couldn’t help but ask why.

His expression sharpened at that moment.

“I came to check your condition.”

“At this hour?”

“Is there any reason I can’t?”

“No….”

Of course there’s nothing the Young Count can’t do.

Sheila started to fumble at her apron first.

“Stop.”

“Yes?”

Sheila froze, awkwardly gripping her half-removed apron, and looked at him.

Unbothered, he walked over to Sheila’s worktable.

On top lay the tablecloth she had been knitting until late last night, along with her knitting basket.

‘What’s the problem?’

Sheila still couldn’t figure it out. She lived with excuses on her tongue, always watching her master’s mood, but she had never once thought knitting could become an issue.

“Did you fall asleep doing this again yesterday? How long did you do it?”

This?

Come to think of it, the very first day he came to her room, he’d used an expression like that about knitting too.

“How long are you going to keep doing this?”

Does he have some kind of grudge against knitting?

She didn’t know what it was, but it was obvious knitting put him in a bad mood.

“I… I didn’t do much before I went to sleep.”

“Oh, you didn’t?”

Cedric swept his gaze over the worktable again.

“I’ve heard there have been incidents lately where people pass off the work they’re supposed to do onto someone else for a few coins.”

Only then did Sheila recall what he said earlier.

‘Did he come to inspect my room first?’

A bead of sweat ran down Sheila’s spine.

What was fortunate was that she still hadn’t collected the maid uniform for this holiday.

It wasn’t taking on someone else’s work, but Judith’s accessories, which hadn’t originally been hers, were stored well under the floorboards, and….

If there was anything that could become a problem….

“For a room used by one person, it seems you have quite a bit of oil.”

Cedric didn’t miss it. His gaze fixed on the jar where she’d gathered and tucked away paraffin oil.

“Ah, that’s because I saved it and saved it…!”

“What are you talking about? You save everything else, but you seem to use oil lavishly.”