The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 142

If there was one thing Sheila feared most these days, it was being dismissed from this estate.

Because the way her sister had been sold and how she met her death was vividly etched into Sheila’s mind.

Sheila didn’t want to end up like her sister. But the moment she was dismissed from the estate, she would be sold off into Fred’s hands.

Sheila also knew very well who the owner of the voice was. Among the butlers, he was the most arrogant one. And now she’d learned that he acted just as arrogantly even during sex.

“Tch—.”

“Hm? You don’t believe me? That junior maid who’s been getting on your nerves lately, was it Sheila? Should I, heh, get rid of her first?”

With her own name suddenly brought up on top of everything else, Sheila’s fear surged all the way to her head.

As in any estate, romantic relationships between servants were strictly forbidden in the Calley estate as well. If Bobby found out she had witnessed them, there was no way he would stay quiet.

‘I can’t get caught. Absolutely not!’

The behavior pattern of someone like Bobby was simple. Without caring about the circumstances of a mere maid, he would casually have her dismissed just to assert his authority.

If he made up any charge at all, it was nothing for a butler to have a single maid dismissed.

“N-no. Ngh, just leave her.”

At the answer that slipped from Ebony’s mouth, Sheila felt a wave of relief and pressed a hand to her chest.

It was a good thing she had appeased Ebony earlier. Sheila forced her stiff body to move and slowly began stepping backward.

There was no reason she couldn’t just turn around and walk normally, but for some reason, she kept backing away.

Moving like a broken doll, Sheila didn’t get far before she lost her footing.

“Ah!”

Thud—.

In the quiet corridor, the sound of her startled cry and her body hitting the floor rang out.

“Wh-who’s there?”

“Oh my, what do we do?”

The voices of Bobby and Ebony followed as they quickly separated their entangled bodies.

But their panic wouldn’t last long.

The moment they realized it was Sheila, a mere novice maid, who had seen them, it was obvious they would immediately change their stance.

‘No….’

For Sheila, who absolutely couldn’t afford to be dismissed from here, the fear made her mind go blank.

At that moment, someone strode past Sheila, who couldn’t even get up in fright, and walked toward them.

“What were you doing here?”

“Y-Young Master! W-we weren’t doing anything…!”

Young Master…?

“You think you can lie your way out of it? I heard every disgusting sound you were making.”

“I’ve committed a grave sin. Please, just this once, spare us.”

The sound of Bobby begging followed as he abandoned his attempt to deny it. Ebony beside him also began pleading for mercy.

“Are you asking me to pretend something that’s already happened never did? Don’t talk nonsense. I don’t want a commotion in the corridor, so both of you quietly go to the dining hall.”

At the strict young master’s command, Ebony and Bobby disappeared toward the dining hall opposite Sheila.

Caught off guard by how quickly everything unfolded, Sheila remained sitting on the floor.

‘Is it the eldest young master? Or… the second?’

Sheila couldn’t be certain who he was. The eldest and second sons of the Calley family had similar builds and voices.

As he turned around, Sheila lowered her head for now.

There was a fifty percent chance it might be Cedric.

Ever since she received that warning from Cedric before, Sheila hadn’t forgotten it for a single moment.

As the sound of his footsteps drew closer, Sheila’s shoulders gradually shrank.

Then, as he stopped in front of her, a strict voice came from his lips.

“I’ll assess the situation and take appropriate action against those two. You should also be careful about going around late at night.”

Looking down at the tip of his shoes, Sheila apologized.

“I-I’m sorry.”

She had been working in the mansion for a year…. To survive, it was better to apologize first even if you weren’t at fault. It was something like a ‘virtue’ every servant was expected to have.

“I didn’t say it to hear an apology.”

The man’s voice that followed carried a hint of awkwardness.

“S-still….”

Cutting off her attempt to explain, he spoke, “That’s enough. It’s not your fault.”

His offhand words were telling her that it wasn’t her fault, so she didn’t need to apologize.

In that instant, tears welled up and spilled from Sheila’s eyes.

‘Ah…, why am I like this…?’

Even she didn’t understand it herself. It just felt like those words were meant to comfort her.

It was the first comforting thing Sheila had heard since her sister’s death, after blaming herself day and night.

“At first, Fabiola held out and said she wouldn’t get married. So I told her. Then there’s no choice but to send Sheila instead. Only then did she say she’d go obediently.”

Even after hearing that, it was impossible for Sheila not to blame herself.

If it weren’t for her, her sister wouldn’t have been forced into marriage like that.

That wasn’t the only thing that was her fault.

She had delayed visiting her sister too long under the excuse of saving money. If she had gone just a little earlier, she might have met her sister alive. Her sister might not have made that choice.

To Sheila, it felt like everything that happened to her sister was entirely her fault, from beginning to end.

At Sheila’s sudden outburst of tears, he silently patted her on the head.

Unlike his strict and cold voice, his touch was gentle and warm.

‘It really was Young Count Cedric….’

Why hadn’t she realized it sooner?

No, in truth, she had deliberately denied the possibility that it was Cedric.

Because every time she thought of that touch, it comforted her and made her heart race.

Because it gave her the strength to endure the harsh life of a maid.

Sheila couldn’t bring herself to associate those feelings with Cedric.

Because Cedric had always been imprinted in her mind as someone she had to avoid, someone frightening.

In any case, after that, the matter of Bobby and Ebony was resolved swiftly.

Bobby, who had deceived others by hiding the fact that he was married and seduced a maid, disrupting the order of the estate, was dismissed. Ebony, whose usual conduct was already poor, became the subject of gossip because of the incident and resigned on her own.

Afterward, stricter rules were enforced for the servants, and incidents and accidents of that sort decreased significantly.

Thinking back on it now, that had also been handled by Cedric.

There was no way Count Bernard, who was indecisive, would have acted so quickly on matters concerning the servants.

The same went for Alfonso.

He showed interest in many different matters, but the servants were not among them. Moreover, Alfonso never involved himself in anything that didn’t benefit him.

Then as now, the only one who paid attention to both big and small matters in the estate regardless of personal gain was Cedric Calley.

Now, Sheila could perfectly distinguish between Cedric and Alfonso.

Though they appeared similar at a glance, there was a stark difference between them.

Cedric, with his cold appearance, wasn’t as cold as he looked, while Alfonso, who appeared warm, wasn’t as warm as he seemed.

Sheila buried her face in the bed and cried without stopping.

The sight of him being taken away by the officers wouldn’t leave her mind.

His voice, apologizing until the very end, lingered in her ears.

***

All the while he was being escorted away, Cedric was also recalling his past with her.

That day three years ago, it was late when he sensed Sheila leaving Judith’s room.

At the time, Cedric was using a room on the same second floor as Judith.

And paying attention to her presence in the corridor had already become a habit for him.

Cedric quietly followed behind her, who was leaving Judith’s room much later than usual.

Even within the estate, wandering alone late at night wasn’t very safe.

There had been incidents of molestation among the servants before, and Bernard had also laid hands on the maids.

But as Sheila was about to pass the first-floor terrace, she suddenly stopped. Cedric, who had ended up tailing her, also halted in surprise.

Listening carefully, he heard the sounds of a man and a woman entangled together.

Cedric was usually composed, but he wasn’t immune to something like that, and it caught him off guard.

Sheila seemed just as startled and stood there as if nailed in place, unable to move.

Seeing her shocked state, anger suddenly surged within him. As he moved a little closer, he heard the butler’s voice prattling on.

And before he could react, Sheila, who had been backing away, fell onto her backside.

Even more irritated, Cedric strode past Sheila and stood before the two servants. His first thought was to get them away from her.

After ordering them to go to the dining hall, Cedric approached Sheila.

Perhaps because of his cold tone, Sheila burst into tears after only a few words.

He was flustered by her sudden crying, yet at the same time, his heart ached.

He wanted to hold her and comfort her. Cedric quietly patted her head.

There were times he’d wanted to keep her trapped in his arms and make her cry as much as she wanted, but this wasn’t the kind of tears he wanted.

From that moment, no, perhaps from much earlier than that, his mind had always been filled with Sheila.

She often made him forget his sense of duty as the heir to the count’s family.

More than that, she was the only one who rendered him powerless before the principles he thought could never be broken: that he must not lay a hand on a maid, and that he must not keep a mistress besides the wife he would marry.

Sheila was that person.

Coming back from his thoughts of the past, Cedric leaned his back against the rattling carriage seat. Then he looked around the carriage he was being transported in.

The carriage used to transport nobles who had committed crimes was double-locked, both inside and out.

After a noble once died by jumping from a moving carriage while being escorted, the locking mechanism was reinforced.

The eyes of the officer who noticed Cedric examining the lock turned wary.