The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 105

Cedric already looked into that man called Duker, the one who drove Sheila’s sister to her death.

The butcher shop he ran went under long ago. The man sold off the shop and moved to the outskirts of town, and people said he was already just waiting for the day he’d die.

He was getting on in years, and after Fabiola died, he spent several months doing nothing but drinking before falling seriously ill.

And regardless of his downfall, it was clear from the ledger that Sheila steadily saved money and brought it to the guild.

In other words, from the beginning, there was a strong chance that Duker wasn’t her real target.

Which meant the only one left was the brother who’d been sucking the life out of Sheila.

As Cedric finished speaking, Bill suddenly burst out laughing. “Haha! I didn’t know the Young Count had a hobby of writing novels.”

“So you’re going to deny it.”

At the guildmaster’s petty attempt, Cedric shrugged as if telling him to do whatever he wanted.

From the faint agitation Bill showed, Cedric was already convinced most of his deductions were correct.

“I’ll give you one warning. If there’s an organization doing illegal work in my territory, I won’t leave it alone. And if you let Sheila get involved in illegal business, I definitely won’t let it slide.”

After delivering the one-sided warning, Cedric stood up from his seat.

As he reached for the door to leave the guildmaster’s office, a space that was only a few steps compared to his own room, two figures stumbled.

It was Rufus and Jerry, who were pressing their ears to the door to eavesdrop.

Cedric’s icy gaze moved past Rufus and settled on Jerry.

“You won’t be impersonating a servant to come and go in my estate anymore either. Jerry of Holzeroad.”

Cedric called Jerry by name, even though they’d never formally introduced themselves, and issued the warning himself.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, Young Count!”

Watching the two of them leave with a stunned expression, Bill called out sharply.

“Jerry, get back in here!”

***

The entire ride back in the carriage, Cedric’s mind was filled with thoughts of Sheila.

He decided to visit the guild even before receiving the letter about contract killers.

Reports from her hometown arrived constantly, but information about the guild was scarce.

So he thought it was time to step in personally as the Young Count. The letter arriving when it did allowed the conversation to go even further.

Cedric hoped the guildmaster understood him clearly.

Given the nature of the region, he didn’t want to dismantle the only guild that barely survived with his own hands, as long as it wasn’t an organization that introduced contract killers to Sheila.

Of course, Cedric wasn’t worried about the life of that man Fred. What he hated was the idea of Sheila staining her hands with dirty blood because of a piece of trash like him. He didn’t want even a speck of filth, let alone blood, on a woman as white and soft as a marshmallow.

The image of the softhearted woman who begged even someone like him for a kiss surfaced in Cedric’s mind.

Ever since the first day he lost his reason and swallowed her lips, Cedric deliberately avoided kissing her.

No matter how blatantly Sheila looked at him, or how shamelessly she asked for a kiss with some flimsy excuse about being thirsty, he never gave in.

Cedric was quite satisfied with his own self-control.

The relief that he wasn’t that deeply infatuated with a maid allowed him to remain himself.

“Are you planning to meet that brother of hers as well?”

Rufus, who failed to overhear the conversation but knew the full results of the investigation so far, asked Cedric.

“Why would I?” Cedric shot back.

“You seem pretty worried. About Miss Sheila….”

“Not particularly.”

“Ah, yes….”

Rufus replied lukewarmly to Cedric’s curt answer and quietly shook his head.

When Cedric returned to the estate, he washed up lightly and changed his clothes.

For some reason, Sheila was nowhere to be seen that day.

‘Did she fall asleep?’

Seeing how late it was, Cedric thought so. She slept extremely well, so it was obvious she lay down with her head on the pillow and drifted off.

‘But a promise is a promise.’

Cedric opened his door, intending to carry the sleeping woman over if he had to.

“Young Count!”

At the sight of Rufus running over without having slept at all, Cedric frowned.

“What is it?”

“I, um, could I have a word….”

What is he talking about now?

Under Cedric’s chilling gaze, Rufus glanced around. The corridor was empty at this late hour.

Failing to whisper in Cedric’s ear, Rufus lowered his voice as much as he could.

“Well, earlier today….”

“….”

As Cedric listened to why Rufus came running in such a rush, a look of dismay flickered across his face.

Without even realizing what expression he wore, Cedric hurried toward Sheila’s attic room.

***

After Fred left, Sheila returned to her room and counted the remaining money once again with trembling hands.

The amount she needed to bring to the guild was thirty-eight solids.

Because Fred extorted money from her today, the amount she saved, which was over twenty solids, dropped to just eighteen solids.

Since she wouldn’t be sending her next paycheck home, she could secure twenty-eight solids.

If she failed to send her wages on time, Fred would go berserk, so before that, she needed to gather the missing ten solids and be ready to go to the guild the moment she received her pay.

‘Where am I supposed to get that much money?’

There were less than twenty days left until her next paycheck. That meant she had to borrow ten solids, the equivalent of a maid’s monthly wage, before then.

Her mind was racing, but she couldn’t think of any way to get the money.

‘It must be because I got hit on the head earlier.’

Tears dripped steadily from Sheila’s panicked eyes.

‘Knitting. I should knit and calm down.’

With shaking hands, Sheila took out her needles and yarn from the knitting basket.

But her hands trembled so badly she couldn’t knit at all.

In the end, Sheila lay down.

‘Maybe I should rest for a bit.’

Trying to calm her unsettled heart, Sheila thought that way. She didn’t have any work to do until Cedric returned anyway.

As soon as she lay down and closed her eyes, memories of her childhood living happily with her father, Fred, and Fabiola came back.

She came too far to ever return to those days. And both her father and sister were no longer in this world.

Tears poured endlessly from Sheila’s closed eyes.

The fact that Fred was now her only remaining blood relative weighed heavily on her heart.

Of course, she wouldn’t change her decision.

There was no reason to sacrifice her life for a piece of trash like her brother.

Exhausted from crying, Sheila drifted in and out of sleep.

It wasn’t deep sleep.

Each time she opened her eyes, it grew darker outside.

‘The Young Count will come….’

With her mind still in turmoil, Sheila needed to come up with an excuse to give to Cedric.

If she entered the punishment room like this, everything would be exposed. But no good excuse came to mind.

As she struggled with her thoughts, night fell completely.

Sheila knew Cedric was back from the various sounds drifting in, but everything felt too bothersome, so she didn’t get up.

After a while, the door to Sheila’s attic room creaked open.

Leaving it unlocked was intentional.

If she locked it, he’d knock until it opened, and then she’d have to get up to open it.

Sheila decided it was better to pretend to be asleep.

And when she heard the door open, she instinctively held her breath.

***

Scratch.

Cedric struck a match and lit the lamp with a small amount of paraffin oil.

“Get up.”

He ordered the woman lying with her back turned to him. As expected, Sheila showed no sign of getting up. And Cedric had no intention of backing down.

“I know you’re pretending to sleep.”

He’d seen her fall asleep during massages countless times.

Cedric could tell whether she was asleep or awake just by her breathing.

At his words, Sheila, who forgot how to breathe naturally, pushed herself up onto her side.

“Ah, I slept so well…! Young Count, you’re back.”

Even seeing Sheila’s awkward acting, he didn’t feel like laughing today.

Her voice was hoarse.

“Oh? If you slept well and woke up, then we should go to the punishment room.”

“Ah, right. It’s today… But Young Count, I’m not feeling very well today. I fell asleep in the first place because I wasn’t feeling well….”

Sheila lowered her head and continued making excuses.

“What’s wrong with you?” Cedric asked as he pulled over a chair and sat beside her bed.

“Ah, well… my head! My head hurts a bit.”

As he moved closer, Sheila lowered her head even more. But the swelling on her left cheek couldn’t be hidden.

Without realizing it, Cedric clenched his fist.

“Lie down.”

“Yes…?”

“You said you’re in pain.”

Sheila, who didn’t expect him to tell her to lie down so readily, said things like, “Ah, yes, that’s right,” and lay back down.

“Do you know your face is swollen?”

“Ah, I, this is….”

“Stay still. I’ll put some ointment on it.”

Unable to come up with a suitable excuse, Sheila shut her mouth.

An awkward silence settled between them as Cedric carefully applied the ointment.

‘Of all days, today…!’

He came back directly from the guild to learn the truth about Sheila.

He already had a clear grasp of Fred’s movements.

The letter saying Sheila’s brother started frequenting the casino arrived about ten days ago, the day after Cedric found the resignation letter in her ledger.

‘A gambler. You never know what kind of stupid thing he’ll do….’

While keeping an eye on whether Fred would do something reckless, Cedric needed a way to keep Sheila from moving elsewhere after writing that resignation letter.

That was why he suddenly gave Judith a three-hundred-question test.

As Cedric finished applying ointment to her face, his hand moved to undo the buttons of her clothes.

Sheila, who lay there quietly, flinched in shock and grabbed his hand.