The Maid, Catherine (Part 4)
"Aargh! Gently, be gentle!" Catherine shrieked the moment a maid dabbed a damp cloth over her lacerated back.
"I am being gentle! Good grief, look at this scrawny frame—where on earth was there even room to whip you like this?!"
That maid's indignant outcry ignited the spark, and complaints immediately erupted from all corners of the room.
"Isn't the Head Maid taking things way too far? She never breathes a single word whenever the maids in the main building cause trouble!"
"Exactly my point! Those girls slack off all day, and she never so much as scolds them!"
"That's because we're the ones stuck cleaning up the mess from their laziness!"
"And if we don't, it all gets blamed on us anyway!"
"Seriously, Catherine, why did you have to go and defy the Head Maid's orders just to end up like this?!"
"Is that really something you should say to someone who just got beaten bloody? Just leave her be. It hurts terribly, doesn't it, Catherine?"
Lying flat on her stomach atop the bed, Catherine whimpered softly under the attentive care of the annex maids. Looking at them now, they felt less like mere coworkers and more like a real family.
"We might not share blood, but we're family, Kyla. You understand, right?"
From deep within the recesses of an old memory, a gentle woman's voice echoed like a distant chime. Had I not been sold off to an assassin guild, could I have lived like that too?
"You can just make one with me. A family."
In that instant, another voice—one I had desperately tried to bury—surfaced alongside it. I lowered my gaze. What had happened was in the past, done and dusted. To drown in such useless sentimentality... I must have grown terribly soft.
I quietly turned on my heel, intending to slip out unnoticed, when fragments of the maids' conversation drifted past my ears once more.
"That wretched hag would have been thrown out ages ago if it weren't for Countess Katrina!"
"Shh! Are you crazy? What if someone overhears you?!"
Fortunately, that was a familiar name. You'd have to be a foreign spy not to recognize that name in imperial high society.
Countess Paelyn Katrina—the reigning flower of the social circles who, through dazzling beauty and shrewd political maneuvering, had swiftly ascended to become the right-hand confidante of the Second Imperial Consort.
To think the Head Maid had ties to her.
Yet why was that woman's loyal lackey stationed by Prince Edwin's side? Edwin's backing was far too pitiful for her to merely be acting as a watchdog. Is she keeping him under her thumb simply because he bears royal blood, regardless of how powerless he is?
Coincidentally, I had crossed paths with the countess once before my death. She had been striking, yet venomous to her very core. It was always the most radiant flowers that bore the sharpest thorns—and those pricked by them were inevitably the ones who kept the blossom closest.
The Head Maid's excessive, tyrannical acts flashed through my thoughts. What should I do?
As I pondered with downcast eyes, I felt several gazes settle upon me. Why was everyone suddenly staring in my direction?
"Excuse me... Miss Nanny?"
Catching my eye, one of the maids stepped toward me with hesitant, cautious steps. When I offered no answer and simply met her gaze, an awkward, troubled expression crept onto her face.
"Catherine told us that you were the one who saved her... Is that true?"
"It is."
"We are truly grateful to you for helping Catherine, of course, but... the truth is, we are merely low-ranking maids. If the Head Maid discovers what happened..."
She fidgeted anxiously, looking utterly apologetic and at a loss. The other annex maids standing behind her wore identical expressions. The warmth in the room had vanished, replaced by a suffocating gloom. Catherine was no exception.
I understood their fears all too well. They were terrified of the brutal retaliation the Head Maid would unleash upon those of humble status.
"Do not worry," I replied with complete equanimity.
The maid's jaw dropped in disbelief. "Pardon?"
"It was my doing, so I will take full responsibility."
"You... you will take responsibility, Miss Nanny?"
The declaration that I would shoulder the consequences sent a visible tremor through the group.
"Then it must be true that she came with Lady Konrad's letter of recommendation."
"Does that mean we won't have to walk on eggshells around the main palace maids anymore?"
After observing their reactions for a brief moment, I opened my mouth once more. "In exchange, there are a few questions I need to ask you."
I've obtained all the essential information for now. Having concluded my inquiries with the annex maids, I made my way back toward the main palace. Now, all that remains is deciding how to handle this.
The distance between the annex and the main building was short. In the end, I reached the grand entrance without arriving at a firm conclusion.
I'm someone who will leave this place soon anyway.
What held my feet back until the very end was a persistent hesitation. I am not even the real Rachel Brown. Do I truly need to meddle this deeply in the affairs of the Prince's palace?
To begin with, I could barely comprehend why I was wrestling with such internal debate. What is driving me to go to such lengths?
Whatever the Head Maid chose to do, what did it matter to me? The prince, the princess, the annex maids—at the end of the day, they were all complete strangers. In this world, parents sold their own flesh and blood, and children slit their parents' throats. Why should I shoulder danger just to lend a hand to someone else?
"You're truly a walking contradiction, Kyla."
Once again, that bastard Ian's voice whispered in my ear.
"You slaughter people without batting an eye, yet you turn around and help total strangers without a second thought. I honestly cannot make sense of you."
Those had been his words to me shortly after we first met, and they were the very words I wished to direct at myself right now. Why was I stepping forward on behalf of a palace maid I would soon leave behind? Was it simply because I could not stomach seeing the Head Maid punish an innocent girl? In truth, the person I found most baffling was myself for taking such active initiative over something so trivial.
Let's just resolve this matter first before deciding anything else.
I gave my head a brisk shake. In any case, I had promised the annex maids that I would deal with the fallout, and a promise had to be kept. Breaking a vow was something I loathed above all else. Armed with that justification, I pushed the heavy doors open.
The instant I stepped into the foyer of the main palace, two maids seized my arms as if they had been lying in wait. They dragged me out into the courtyard and forced me down onto the dirt ground. Before long, the Head Maid marched outside and loomed over me.
"Lady Rachel Brown. I trust you are well aware of what you have done wrong."
Raising my head, I met the Head Maid's visage, flushed crimson like an enraged bull, backed by the gathering crowd of main palace maids. Their faces sparkled with malicious excitement, practically salivating over the spectacle about to unfold.
The second our eyes locked, the Head Maid unleashed a thunderous bellow. "By what country's customs does someone dare release a punished maid without the Head Maid's permission?!"
For a petty dictator who treated the imperial prince like an afterthought to spout nonsense about etiquette and custom was laughable in the extreme. It was a line that could not have suited her less. Just as I suppressed a scoff, her hand rose high above her head.
Her posture plunged me into an untimely dilemma: Should I allow that vicious palm flying toward my cheek to hit me, or shouldn't I? Dodging an attack telegraphed so blatantly was child's play. However, dodging it would only stoke her outrage further.
There's no avoiding it for now.
I lowered my eyes. A loud, sharp crack echoed through the courtyard, and white light burst across my field of vision. My left cheek throbbed with stinging heat. It had been such an eternity since anyone had struck me that the sensation felt jarringly bizarre.
And utterly revolting, at that.
Meanwhile, the Head Maid glared down at me with unrelenting venom. "Did I not speak plainly, Lady Brown? I told you that all matters concerning His Highness the Prince would be delegated to you, and that you must fulfill all responsibilities as his nanny!"
Placing her hands on her hips, she continued her tirade at the top of her lungs. "Yet not only did you foist your duties onto another, you dared to overstep your bounds and interfere in my jurisdiction!"
She gestured abruptly to a maid standing at her side. "Go and fetch the whip at on—"
"I cannot accept this."
My limit of tolerance ended precisely with my left cheek. My voice rang out freezing and devoid of warmth. "It is impossible for me to attend to both Their Highnesses alone. The cooperation of the maids is an absolute necessity."
The Head Maid offered a derisive scoff, her brow furrowing with disdain. "Ha! Are you offering pathetic excuses now?"
"I am merely stating facts." I fixed the Head Maid with an unblinking stare. "Yet under the pretext of delegating the Prince's personal care to me, you strictly prohibited the maids from serving His Highness. Is that not rather peculiar?"
"What did you say?!"
"The master of this palace is Prince Edwin, first and foremost."
At my assertion, a flicker of unease crossed the Head Maid's face, her brow knotting tighter as she realized the direction of my words. "Just what are you trying to insinuate?"
"You saw fit to punish a maid who prepared His Highness's meal without obtaining His Highness's consent. That is entirely contradictory, is it not?"
In that instant, the Head Maid's eyes widened in shock.
"That is—!"
"If this is not an open challenge to imperial authority, then what else could it possibly be?"
Usurping the master's authority in an empty manor was one thing, but posturing as the master of the house when the true lord was residing under the very same roof? It was an act no one could overlook. A turbulent murmur immediately rippled through the ranks of the main palace maids behind her.
Seeing her subordinates waver, the Head Maid lashed out with an even louder roar. "You dare flap your reckless lips! How dare you attempt to incite rebellion with such baseless slander?!"
Her hand shot upward once more.
It was at that very moment.
"Stop this—! What do you think you're doing?!"
A piercing, furious shout shattered the air from behind the Head Maid. The voice belonged to none other than the master of this estate: Third Prince Edwin.
Edwin stood atop the entrance staircase, his features contorted in fierce indignation. Clinging tightly to his side was a frightened Emilia. The young prince looked between the Head Maid and me before stepping down the stairs with slow, deliberate steps.
"I asked you what on earth you think you are doing right now."
His voice trembled with an uncharacteristic, blazing intensity.