The next morning, Marsha looked as if she were fuming at the breakfast table.
Well, it was only natural for her to be angry, having lost her position as Lynnia’s exclusive maid. After all, the perks she skimmed off that position must have been quite lucrative.
“I have no idea what she’s plotting. Trying to coax the innocent Miss Lynnia into goodness knows what!”
Marsha glared at Edele as if she could grind her teeth to dust, but Edele wanted to throw those very words back at her. It was Marsha who had Lynnia in her clutches; who was really the one plotting something?
*‘Still, it’s better to keep my mouth shut. If I start engaging with her, that woman will find some way to twist my words.’*
However, Marsha seemed unable to suppress her fury and unleashed a barrage of vitriol at Edele.
“Did you seduce the Count, too? Did you strip off your clothes in front of him? How else would a traitor, a criminal, be assigned to work right next to Miss Lynnia? Isn’t that right!”
She seemed to be hoping for the other servants to chime in and support her.
I could ignore other absurdities, but I couldn’t just let that last comment slide.
“Would you like me to relay those exact words to the Count? Are you confident your tongue won’t be cut out?”
“What? You… you insolent thing!”
“You are the one bringing up rumors about our master, so why call me insolent? To begin with, I don’t even understand why you’re so angry, Madam.”
A few of the surrounding servants nodded, while those who followed Marsha were merely glancing nervously at her.
“Miss Lynnia chose to change her exclusive maid, so what can you or I do about it? Will your anger toward me change anything?”
“I’m asking what kind of poison you whispered to the Young Lady!”
“I didn’t whisper any poison. I simply selected dresses and jewelry that suited the Young Lady, and did her makeup to match.”
Marsha, who seemed ready to shout again, could only grit her teeth, unable to find the words. No matter how long her career as a maid had been, it couldn’t compare to Edele, who had lived at the very peak of high society.
And perhaps everyone was thinking the same thing, for a few people turned their heads, unable to hide their smirking chuckles.
Even at the breakfast table, the fading power of the head maid was beginning to show.
*‘I will bring you down completely, Lady Bohen. I have no intention of serving a rotten person like you for the rest of my life.’*
Edele hardened her resolve, thinking of Marsha’s embezzlement and corruption.
***
Edele had become Lynnia’s exclusive maid. And it was by Lynnia’s own fervent request.
While Laslo was relieved that it would be less uncomfortable to face Grand Lady Celestine now, he couldn’t deny a certain complicated feeling.
“Brother! Edele Lancaster, give her to me!”
Lynnia, who had just returned from a party, suddenly burst into his room and made the bizarre demand.
When he asked what on earth had happened, Lynnia spilled out the events of the last three days as if she had been waiting for the chance.
When she mentioned that on the first day of the party held by a woman named Camille Emerson, she hadn’t been able to have a proper conversation with anyone and had only been mocked, his hand clenched tightly into a fist.
But what followed was the main point.
“So, I went back to the party wearing what Edele styled for me, and you know what? People treated me differently! They even said things that sounded like genuine compliments!”
“Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand?”
“No! They hadn’t even said anything like that to me until now.”
He doubted that nobles would change their attitudes so easily just because a dress, accessories, makeup, or hairstyle had changed.
But Lynnia insisted it was true, and after repeating it several times, she pulled an invitation from her bag and waved it.
“I even got invited to another party on the spot! They probably had no intention of inviting me originally, but after seeing how I’d changed, they gave me an invitation in a hurry!”
She eventually added, as if it didn’t matter anymore, “Yeah, even if Brother is right and they were all just mocking me, it doesn’t matter. Thanks to Edele, it was the first time I went without being humiliated. I absolutely need that woman!”
‘The first time,’ ‘without being humiliated.’
Every single word stung Laslo’s heart.
Regardless, he couldn’t just refuse to call Edele after she had put it that way. Though he was flustered when she arrived wearing a shawl over her nightclothes, realizing it was quite late.
*‘Still, it’s been a long time since I saw Lynnia that happy.’*
The child who used to be so bright had slowly withered away after becoming a noble.
She was an honest, cheerful tomboy, but she was also a smart girl who had managed a household without an older brother at a young age.
Because of that, he had been complacent.
He thought that even as a noble, Lynnia would adapt energetically. That she would become a confident and dignified noblewoman.
*‘What on earth was I thinking, to believe that?’*
Even though he gave her a bigger, better house, more money, and more servants, Lynnia looked unhappier than before, and Laslo felt anxious and unsettled.
But he didn’t know how to make his sister happy, and there was so much work to do. The problem of Lynnia was constantly pushed to the back burner.
Yet, Edele had suddenly emerged as the solution to that problem, so how could he not be pleased?
*‘To think she would help Lynnia, who had forced her to her knees. Does that woman really have no pride? Or is she, what… an angel? Is that it?’*
His words to Edele, telling her she didn’t have to do it if she didn’t want to, hadn’t been a lie. But Edele had said she would gladly do her best.
In that moment, he felt genuinely grateful to her.
He felt like doing something more for her, beyond the good room and salary that were naturally given to an exclusive maid.
That was why he called Edele.
“Did you call for me?”
Edele, who had come to find him, was much more polished than when she worked in the laundry or the kitchen.
She had always been tidier than the other servants, but now that she didn’t have to worry about getting her clothes wet, dirty, or wrinkled, she seemed to shine even more.
*‘It’s as if the clothes benefit the person.’*
The same maid’s uniform as everyone else looked like a parlor dress for a Duchess.
“…Count?”
“Ah! Ahem.”
Laslo snapped out of it at Edele’s call. It seemed he had been staring at her for too long.
He spoke hastily, trying to hide his embarrassment.
“The reason I called is that I personally wanted to offer you a reward.”
“A reward? I’m not sure what you mean…”
“A reward for helping my sister.”
Edele shook her head from side to side.
“I did not do it expecting a reward. And I have already been promoted from a kitchen maid to the Young Lady’s exclusive maid, so I have already been rewarded.”
“It’s a promotion that can’t exactly be called an advancement. Taming that tomboy won’t be easy. So, I want to reward you all the more.”
Laslo handed Edele a blank check he had taken out from his desk earlier.
“I figured this would be better than any gift I could choose, as it might not suit your tastes. Take it.”
However, Edele looked at the blank check he held out with a ‘What is this?’ expression, and then shook her head again.
“I apologize. I have done nothing worthy of receiving something like this. And even if I received a large sum of money, I would have no use for it.”
“You have done something worthy of it. And why would you have no place to spend it? You can go out and buy whatever you want—clothes, jewelry, perfume—whatever you desire.”
“I cannot leave the mansion in the first place, so how could I…”
Laslo’s eyes widened at those words.
“What do you mean, you can’t leave?”
“Yes? That, well… I…”
Edele stammered.
Laslo realized that Edele was under some massive misunderstanding.
“Wait a moment. Did you perhaps think you were under house arrest in this mansion? Because you were brought here as a prisoner?”
“…”
Only then did the puzzle pieces fall into place for Laslo.
Why Edele had endured Marsha’s unreasonable malice, and why she had lived with such unnecessary caution.
“Look, did I ever say I would use you as a slave for this house?”
“N-no.”
“Then?”
“You said you would use me as a maid…”
“Exactly!”
He folded his arms and tilted his head, asking Edele.
“I understand that you have been receiving the same monthly wages as the other maids. Am I wrong? Did someone intercept it in the middle?”
“No. I have received it every month.”
“Then have you been treated any differently from the other maids?”
“I…”
“…”
“But why on earth did you lock yourself up in this house?”
“……I suppose so.”
Laslo let out a short chuckle at that final answer.
“I thought you were someone with your head on straight, but you have an unexpectedly sloppy side.”
Seeing the tips of Edele’s ears turn red, Laslo felt inexplicably amused.
He held out the blank check to Edele once more.
“Now, you can accept it, right? It’s not like you don’t know how to use a blank check.”
Even then, Edele simply stared at the blank check for a moment before shaking her head again.