The Maid, Catherine (1)
“Well, now. Isn’t that well within the rights of a nanny?”
Truth be told, I had little grasp of what status a nanny actually commanded in high society. I had merely assumed that being the nanny to an Imperial Prince ought to grant at least that much authority.
Judging by her reaction, it seems I wasn't entirely wrong.
The head maid was glaring daggers at me, her face flushed a furious crimson.
“You have been in the imperial palace for less than a month!” she snapped, her words firing like poisoned darts. “We cannot entrust His Highness’s person to someone whose credentials have yet to be verified. Do you understand?”
“How strange. It seems to me that the ones requiring verification are the maids attending His Highness, not myself.”
“What did you say?”
“Unless, of course, it was you, Madam Head Maid, who ordered that His Highness be brought freezing cold water for his morning wash.”
The head maid pressed her lips into a tight, bloodless seam, struck momentarily speechless. She glared at me for several heartbeats before her features warped into an ugly sneer.
“Haah. I see how it is. No wonder you managed to slip through the gates on Lady Konrad’s recommendation, despite being nothing more than an adopted stray from some nobody count’s house.”
What strange courtesy possessed her to mumble her thoughts so loudly that anyone within earshot could hear? Still, to think the original Rachel Brown was an adopted daughter of a count.
What shocks me more is that there exists a count’s family on this continent I’ve never even heard of.
Well, if the title had been granted during the years I was dead, the possibility wasn't entirely out of the question.
“If what Lady Brown says is true, then it is truly regrettable.”
Before I knew it, the head maid had composed her face into a placid mask, as if the outburst had never happened. Her ability to rein in her expressions was genuinely admirable.
“Very well. Let us do this, then,” she added, her eyes narrowing into cold slits. “From this moment forth, every single matter regarding His Highness’s person will be entrusted solely to you, Lady Brown. Are you satisfied now?”
Clearly, she had no intention of apologizing even if struck by lightning. With a disdainful snort, the head maid turned on her heel and swept out of the room in exasperation.
Even then, I thought it was just as well.
That is, until I learned what kind of weight the head maid’s words carried in this palace.
“What do you mean by that?”
The very next morning, I learned the full, vivid meaning behind the head maid’s parting words—and bright and early at that.
“The head maid said that the nanny would be personally handling everything concerning His Highness from now on.”
The young maid gave me a thoroughly uncomfortable look as she averted her eyes.
“I’m sorry. I’m only doing what the head maid told me to do...”
When the maids who usually bustled in for the prince’s morning routine and breakfast were nowhere to be seen, I had stepped out to investigate. This bolt from the blue was what had been lying in wait for me.
“So what you’re saying is that I am to prepare His Highness’s meals myself?”
The maid looked entirely at a loss for how to respond.
“W-Well, I have duties to attend to, so please excuse me!”
Muttering a flimsy excuse, she bolted before I could even lift a finger to stop her.
“Ha. What a headache.”
I raked a hand through my hair in irritation.
That woman intended this from the very start.
A dry laugh slipped past my lips as I watched the other servants scurry past in the corridor, shooting anxious sidelong glances at me. For all its grandeur, the noble imperial court was no different from a filthy back alley.
Then again, to the maids here, I’m merely an interloper who dared humiliate their ringleader.
Though I had inhabited this body for a mere two days, the truth was already starkly clear: in this isolated palace, neither the imperial prince and princess nor Rachel Brown had a single ally.
Now what?
No matter how foul the situation had turned, as his nanny, I could hardly let the young prince starve.
Not that I can feed him anything I make with my own hands.
The only times I had ever prepared food in my past life were when I intended to poison someone. Just as I turned around with the resigned thought of scrounging up some coarse black bread meant for the common servants, raised voices drifted toward me from beyond an open window.
Quite a racket out there. Did a brawl break out?
They always say there is no entertainment quite like watching a fight. Leaning against the sill, I peered down into the courtyard below.
Several maids had formed a tight circle around a solitary figure.
“Are my words a joke to you? Did I or did I not tell you to have all the curtains washed by this morning?!”
“Why do I always have to do your chores for you? I am not your maid!”
“What?! How dare you drop honorifics with me, you insolent wrench!”
Smack!
With the sharp crack of palm meeting flesh, the defiant maid tumbled to the flagstones. The fallen girl had pale ivory hair and light hazel eyes. With her tall, slender frame, she looked rather like an oddly pretty scarecrow.
“A sham noble like you dares put herself on equal footing with a daughter of a count?!”
The maid who loudly proclaimed her pedigree held her chin high, shrieking with indignation. She ground the heel of her leather shoe squarely into the hem of the fallen girl's skirt.
“Tsk! Lady Konrad ruined the order of this entire palace! To think the maids from the annex would dare be this insolent!”
Her voice turned vile with venom.
“And bringing in some wretched wench from who-knows-where to serve as the nanny—!”
Hmm. I was the only nanny in the 3rd Prince’s Palace.
Did she just refer to me as a wretched wench from who-knows-where?
For a mere maid, she had remarkably sharp instincts.
Still, I am the imperial prince’s nanny. It would hardly do to let petty servants walk all over me, would it?
Respect for the nanny was, by extension, respect for the prince himself.
Since I’ll be staying here for the foreseeable future, I ought to establish some order before I go.
After a moment’s hesitation, I decided to step in. I swear to the heavens, it wasn't because they had insulted me behind my back or because they belonged to the head maid's faction. It was solely to put into practice that remarkably dutiful thought that had just crossed my mind: restoring discipline to the 3rd Prince's Palace.
“Are you talking about me just now?”
I leaned my elbows casually on the window frame and called down. The maids’ heads snapped up in unison, the color draining from their faces in an instant.
“N-Nanny?”
“If you’re talking about me, you really ought to include me in the conversation.”
“W-Well, the thing is...”
The maids froze where they stood. Whether it was the sudden appearance of the gossip's target, or the fact that I had vaulted effortlessly over the second-story windowsill to land softly before them in a single breath, or perhaps rumors of me dousing a maid in cold wash water had already spread—I couldn't say for certain.
“You don’t seem particularly busy with your duties. Gathering like this to gossip in broad daylight, are we?”
My deliberate, mocking drawl caused their postures to stiffen.
“And so what? Are you saying you intend to hold us to account?”
Yet the maid standing at the center didn't bat an eye, shooting back with bold insolence.
“Do you honestly believe you have the authority to do that, Nanny?”
“Of course not. Who am I to judge your right and wrong?”
At my nonchalant answer, the maids exchanged triumphant, smirking glances.
“However,” I continued, my voice dropping several degrees, “I certainly possess the right to hold you accountable for slandering someone who wasn't even present to defend herself, bringing up her pedigree like common fishwives.”
The moment the ice settled into my tone, their shoulders flinched.
“Why the sour faces? Is it that unpleasant having to listen to the words of a ‘wretched wench from who-knows-where’?”
“N-No, that's not...”
By rank alone, my position as the imperial prince’s nanny sat far above any maid present. They knew that better than anyone, which was why none of them dared openly argue back.
However, it seemed I had underestimated the brazen arrogance and fragile vanity of the aristocracy. The maid claiming noble blood stepped forward, a sneer plastered across her mouth.
“Good grief. This is why you should never show kindness to common trash. Give them a little leeway and they act as if they own the world.”
Poke.
“Just who do you think you are?”
She jabbed her forefinger repeatedly into my forehead.
“Huh? Who the hell do you think you are?! Outside these walls, a wench like you wouldn't even dare raise her eyes in my presence! Where do you get off trying to lecture me? An adopted stray from some nameless count's house, completely ignorant of her station—”
I caught her pointing hand by the wrist and twisted her arm behind her back in one fluid motion.
“Aaaagh—!”
The noble-born maid let out a piercing shriek. As I pressed down with just a fraction more leverage, her complexion turned utterly ghastly.
“I suppose they never taught you in your noble household that pointing fingers at people is profoundly ill-mannered.”
“W-What did you say?!”
I pulled her close, murmuring softly so that only she could hear.
“My lady, you should consider yourself immensely fortunate that I do not know your family's name.”
“W-What?”
Like a mischievous phantom whispering a deadly secret, I leaned into her ear.
“Because if I did, by nightfall, not only your family but every living soul in your household might have choked down poison and dropped dead.”
“D-Don't talk nonsense! As if a pathetic threat like that would ever—”
“My lady, you really shouldn't go around cursing someone when you don't even know where they crawled out from.”
“L-Let go of me! Let go, I said!”
“After all, one never knows.” I let out a low, chilling chuckle against her ear. “I might just have crawled out of a place far more dangerous than your little mind could ever fathom.”
The maid trembled violently, squirming to tear herself from my grasp, though her frantic struggles were entirely useless. Drained of every drop of blood, she swayed on her feet as if she might faint on the spot.
Dear me. Was that a bit too harsh on a young noble lady?
Relaxing my grip, I brightened my expression into a sweet, disarming smile.
“It will become rather troublesome if you are caught indulging in ‘pointless gossip’ again. Understood?”
This time, I spoke loudly enough for the shivering onlookers behind her to hear every word. The two maids nodded frantically, their heads bobbing in terrified compliance.
The second I released her arm, the count's daughter stumbled back and fled as fast as her legs could carry her. Her two terrified companions scrambled after her heels without looking back.
Tsk. It’s always the nobodies who put on the loudest display.
I watched their fleeing backs until they vanished, then turned my gaze toward the flagstones.
The maid who had taken the blow to the face was still sitting right where she had fallen, staring up at me in absolute, wide-eyed bewilderment.