The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 140

If she didn’t marry the eldest son who would inherit the family, Marquis Vivarini intended to send her to a convent. Eloise had told him this over and over.

A few weeks after Eloise returned, Cedric came back from Lotas.

It was certain that Sheila, who had gone after him later to attend him, returned with him, but it was hard to catch even a glimpse of her.

‘So now she’s relying on my brother and even neglecting her duties as a maid? Ha!’

Alfonso couldn’t help but scoff at the maid’s behavior.

Unaware of the predicament Eloise, a noble lady, was in because of someone like her, a mere maid!

Alfonso tried to talk to Cedric several times.

“I have something to say.”

“I’m busy. Later.”

“Is the reason you broke off your engagement and keep making excuses about being busy every day all because of that maid?”

“Let me warn you. Even if I’m away, don’t think of approaching Sheila carelessly. You know I have many eyes and ears in this estate, right? And don’t spout unnecessary nonsense to Father or Mother either. In this family, it’s enough if you keep your mouth shut. You’re not stupid, so you understand what I’m saying.”

Cedric, who had grown noticeably thinner lately, looked sharper than before. Not only in appearance, but in the way he acted as well.

Quick-witted Alfonso realized that now wasn’t the time to provoke Cedric carelessly.

As Cedric said, if he simply kept his mouth shut, there was no one in this household who would take a deep interest in Cedric’s affairs.

Bernard would pick pointless fights whenever he saw Cedric, but only in the moment.

‘I need to make a decision soon.’

Now Cedric was openly enjoying evening walks with a maid, as if on a date.

What frustrated Alfonso even more was that their father and mother were too busy enjoying their own lives to pay any attention to what the next heir was doing.

Unable to speak freely because of Cedric’s warning, Alfonso quietly began investigating Sheila.

He wanted to know what kind of person that maid was for Cedric to dote on her like that.

And as a result of the investigation, he learned several interesting facts.

After receiving the report, Alfonso immediately pulled out paper and a pen and scribbled something down.

“Deliver this letter discreetly.”

“Yes.”

Alfonso handed the letter to a messenger. The man who received it disappeared like a shadow.

***

“Could you send this for me?”

Sheila held out a letter. Illiterate, Molly took it without knowing where it was addressed.

To Molly, Sheila seemed to have regained some of her energy compared to before.

However, she still found it difficult to face other people, so Molly accepted her request.

There was no reason to refuse. It was an easy task, just dropping it into the estate’s mailbox.

As Molly came out holding the letter, she ran into Cedric coming out of his room.

His gray-blue eyes lingered on the letter in Molly’s hand, which had likely been in Sheila’s care.

“Ah, this is something Sheila asked me to send….”

Molly, conscious of his gaze, spoke.

“Should I… show it to you, Young Count?”

There was hesitation in Molly’s hand as she held out the envelope.

The recipient’s name would be written on the back of that envelope. Cedric’s gray-blue eyes, fixed on the letter, darkened.

“That’s fine. You may go,” he said, staring at the letter.

After giving a small bow, Molly passed by him. Cedric let out a short, resigned laugh, as if giving up on something, then forgot where he had been heading and went back into his room.

***

In a small cabin somewhere in Broden.

Amid thick cigarette smoke, Ernest’s voice rang out.

“So I’m telling you, raise the stakes then. I’ll stir things up from the side.”

The four men lounging crookedly around the table, smoking, each nodded as if they understood.

One of them kept fiddling with a deck of cards without pause. The moment Ernest finished speaking, the cards fluttered skillfully through his hands.

Ernest had recently quit his steady job at the mine and started coming here instead.

Right after learning that Fred had sold his younger sister Sheila for 1,000 solids, Ernest changed his plans and laid out a new scheme.

Originally, he planned to connect Fred to Baron Hayek’s household, take a small commission, and then, in collusion with Vincent, a casino dealer, slowly bleed the money Fred got from selling Sheila.

But with 1,000 solids, the story changed.

Ernest recruited three gamblers by promising them a fixed sum and began properly designing the scheme.

While working at the mine, Ernest made a living by arranging various deals on the side. Thanks to that, his situation wasn’t bad, but it didn’t improve much either.

At this rate, his children’s lives were obvious. They would spend their lives breathing in mine dust just like him.

But after hearing about the 1,000 solids, Ernest’s dreams grew bigger day by day.

This time, he planned to make one big score and leave this place.

In the life he dreamed of, there was no more mine dust.

“I’ve already set things up in advance. If we just follow the plan, that money will all be ours. Come on! We only get one chance, so let’s practice!”

Vincent, who had been flicking the cards, stopped and dealt them smoothly.

***

“Even if you’re fast, if you make a mistake, you lose no matter what!”

“Got it. Start!”

As she called out the start, Sheila’s crochet hook moved quickly.

Not to be outdone, Molly’s hook sped up from the opposite side.

The two were working together to crochet a large round tablecloth. To keep the work from getting boring, they turned it into a small competition, racing to finish patterns faster than each other.

“Done!”

After a long stretch of concentration, Sheila called out first. Molly, who finished right after, carefully examined Sheila’s work.

There were no mistakes.

Clicking her tongue, Molly made a displeased face, and Sheila asked, “Another round?”

Molly glanced out the window and said, “Let’s stop here for today.”

It was almost time for the walk.

Molly stuck the hook into the yarn and quietly began preparing to leave work. Her mind felt much lighter than before.

Sheila was gradually regaining her strength, and her hands were moving as quickly as they used to.

Sheila flopped face-down onto the bed in disappointment, but even that looked different from before, when she used to lie there in complete lethargy.

Molly smiled as she watched her. Sheila mistook it for a smile from someone excited to go home and asked, “Do you like your husband that much, seeing him every day?”

“Hey! What are you saying….”

Molly’s face turned red, not knowing what Sheila was imagining this time.

Sheila thought she really needed to open Molly’s head and see what was inside. She was sure at least a dozen lewd demons would come pouring out.

“Your face literally says, ‘I’m so happy I could die.’”

“That’s not it!”

Sheila narrowed her eyes and stared at Molly, who kept denying it to the end.

“Yeah. Fine, I get it.”

Unable to withstand that gaze, Molly finally confessed.

“Heh. What’s got you so happy?”

Having drawn out the confession, Sheila asked back with a sly smile.

Sheila herself could feel the change in her.

“Fine, I ruined everything. It’s all my fault. So stay here and rest as much as you want until you recover. I’ll take responsibility for everything.”

She no longer twisted the things he said.

After that, they didn’t talk much about him. Most of it was trivial things from the day or stories about family.

But walking every day, Sheila could feel it. That what he said wasn’t a lie. Especially the part where he said he would support her choice.

Sheila began to dream of an ordinary life again.

“Come on, tell me. What’s got you so happy?”

At Sheila’s continued question, Molly cleared away her lewd thoughts and replied.

“It’s nothing special. It’s just… I feel at ease, I guess. It’s not like I was unstable before, but it’s funny, right? So you should hurry up and get married too….”

Molly trailed off mid-sentence.

An awkward silence settled in the room.

From the outside, it was obvious that Cedric and Sheila’s relationship wasn’t an ordinary one.

But even Sheila herself couldn’t explain what kind of relationship they had.

At that moment, a commotion suddenly rose from the corridor outside the door.

At the unusual noise, Sheila also sat up from her place.

“Wait here, Sheila. I’ll go see what’s going on.”

Leaving Sheila, who was still uncomfortable meeting people, Molly went out to check the situation.

Left alone in the attic, an unknown sense of unease surged in Sheila’s heart.

And a few minutes later, Molly came back, pale as a sheet.

Closing the door behind her, Molly spoke, “Sheila, something’s wrong. The corridor is filled with officers. They say they’ve come to take Young Count Cedric away.”

Sheila’s heart dropped with a thud.

Seeing Sheila panic, Molly relayed what she had overheard in the corridor.

“I don’t know the details, but it sounds like the Young Count violated some kind of royal decree.”

“A decree?”

As Sheila hurried to get up and go outside, Molly opened the attic door for her.

Sheila couldn’t go far and stopped right in front of the doorway.

Through the servants who had come up to watch and the uniformed officers, his figure came into view.