The Maid, Catherine (4)
“Ack! Be gentle!”
Catherine screamed as one maid dabbed at her wounds with a damp towel.
“I am being gentle! Honestly, this scrawny body barely has any flesh to strike—what kind of monster would whip her like this?”
That single complaint unleashed a flood of grievances from every direction.
“Isn’t the head maid going too far? She never says a word when the main palace maids cause trouble.”
“Exactly! They slack off every single day and nothing happens!”
“Because we end up doing all their abandoned work, that’s why.”
“If we don’t, it becomes our fault anyway.”
“So tell me, Catherine—why did you disobey the head maid and end up like this!”
“Is that any way to speak to an injured girl? Just leave her be. Does it hurt badly, Catherine?”
Catherine lay face-down on the bed, whimpering, surrounded by the annex maids.
Looking at them now, they seemed less like colleagues and more like family.
“Even if our blood isn’t mixed, we’re family, Kyla. You know that, right?”
The gentle woman’s voice echoed through an old memory like a distant bell.
If I had never been sold to the assassins, could I have lived like this?
“You can just do it with me. As family.”
Suddenly the voice I wanted to forget joined the chorus.
I lowered my gaze.
It had already happened. It was in the past.
To think I was wallowing in pointless sentiment. I must have grown far too soft.
I turned to leave without another word—only to catch a fragment of the annex maids’ conversation.
“If it weren’t for Countess Katrina, that woman would have been thrown out ages ago!”
“Shh! What if someone overhears you?”
This time the name was familiar.
In the imperial social world, not knowing that name would make you a spy.
Countess Paylin Katrina—the flower of high society who had become the second consort’s right hand through her dazzling beauty and masterful handling of people.
To think the head maid has ties to her.
But why would one of that woman’s closest aides be glued to Prince Edwin’s side?
His background was far too insignificant for it to be simple surveillance.
Are they simply keeping watch because he is a prince, regardless of his standing?
Coincidentally, I had met the countess once before my death.
She was beautiful yet venomous.
The lovelier the flower, the sharper its thorns—and those who bleed are always the ones who stand closest to the bloom.
The head maid’s excessive behavior suddenly flashed through my mind.
What should I do?
As I stood with downcast eyes, I felt their stares.
Why were they all looking at me?
“Um… Nanny?”
One maid who met my gaze approached cautiously.
I simply stared instead of answering, and she continued with a troubled expression.
“Catherine says you saved her, Nanny. Is that true?”
“It is.”
“We’re grateful you helped Catherine, but… we’re only lowly maids. If the head maid learns of this…”
She looked utterly mortified, at a complete loss.
The other annex maids behind her wore the same expression.
Unlike moments ago, their faces were now very dark.
Catherine, of course, was no different.
I knew exactly what they feared.
They were terrified the head maid would retaliate against them for their low status.
“Do not worry.”
When I answered with a perfectly calm face, the maid gaped.
“Pardon?”
“Since I acted, I will take responsibility.”
“You’ll take responsibility, Nanny?”
The maids stirred at my declaration.
“So it really is true she came with a recommendation from Madam Conrad.”
“Then we won’t have to tiptoe around the main palace maids anymore?”
I studied their reactions for a moment before speaking again.
“Instead, there are a few things I would like to ask you.”
I had gathered every piece of information I needed right away.
I was walking back to the main palace after finishing my conversation with the annex maids.
Now all that remains is deciding what to do with it.
The distance between the annex and the main building was not great.
Yet by the time I stood before the main doors, I still had not made up my mind.
I am leaving soon anyway.
What clung to my ankles until the very end was a kind of hesitation.
I am not even the real Rachel Brown. Is there any reason I must involve myself so deeply in the prince’s palace affairs?
The very fact that I was entertaining such doubts was incomprehensible to me.
What is driving me to exert this much effort?
What did it matter what the head maid did? It had nothing to do with me.
The prince, the princess, the annex maids—they were all complete strangers.
This was a world where parents sold their children and children killed their parents.
So why should I risk danger to help others?
“You really are contradictory, Kyla.”
That damned Ian’s voice rang in my ears again.
Killing people without batting an eye, yet helping complete strangers just as casually.
Words he had spoken to me when we had not known each other long.
I truly cannot understand it.
Those were the words I wanted to say to myself in this very moment.
Why was I stepping forward for an annex maid I would soon leave behind?
Was it simply because I could not accept the head maid punishing innocent girls?
In truth, what I could not accept most was my own eagerness to act so decisively over such a reason.
For now, let me resolve this matter first and decide afterward.
I shook my head quickly.
I had promised the annex maids I would clean up the situation, and a promise had to be kept.
I hated breaking promises more than anything else.
Convincing myself with that thought, I flung the door open.
The moment I stepped into the main building, two maids seized my arms as though they had been waiting.
They dragged me back outside and forced me to my knees on the dirt ground.
By then the head maid had already emerged and stood before me.
“Lady Rachel Brown. I assume you know exactly what you have done wrong.”
When I lifted my head, I saw the head maid’s face—red and swollen with rage like an angry bull—and the main palace maids clustered behind her.
They looked thrilled, as if eagerly awaiting the spectacle to come.
The instant our eyes met, the head maid bellowed like thunder.
“In what country’s laws is it permitted to release a maid under punishment without the head maid’s approval?”
For a dictator who ignored even the prince himself, she spoke of laws. How unfitting.
I nearly laughed aloud inside.
The head maid’s hand rose high above her head.
Suddenly I faced an unexpected dilemma.
Should I let that vicious palm strike my face, or should I dodge?
Avoiding such an obvious swing would not be difficult.
Yet if I did not obediently accept the blow, it would only inflame her anger further.
I have no choice for now.
I lowered my eyes.
A loud smack rang out and the world flashed white.
My left cheek burned.
It had been a long time since anyone struck me; the sensation felt strangely awkward.
And thoroughly unpleasant.
The head maid continued to glare at me with pure venom.
“Did I not tell you clearly, Lady Brown? That I would entrust all matters concerning His Highness the Prince to you, and that you were to fulfill every responsibility as his nanny?”
She planted her hands on her hips and roared.
“Not only did you push your own duties onto others, you even dared interfere in my jurisdiction.”
The head maid gestured to a nearby maid.
“Go fetch the whip at once—”
“I cannot accept this.”
My limit had been exactly one slap to the left cheek.
I continued in a frigid tone.
“It is impossible for me to attend to both of Their Highnesses alone. The maids’ cooperation is essential.”
The head maid sneered and wrinkled her nose.
“Ha. Are you truly offering these pathetic excuses?”
“I am merely stating facts.”
I stared steadily at the head maid.
“Yet under the pretext of delegating matters concerning His Highness the Prince’s well-being to me, you forbade the maids from attending him. Is that not strange?”
“What?”
“The true master of this palace is, after all, His Highness Edwin.”
The head maid frowned, sensing that something had gone wrong.
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Yet you punished the maid who prepared His Highness’s meal without his permission. The logic does not hold.”
At that moment the head maid’s eyes flew wide.
“That’s—!”
“If this is not a challenge to imperial authority, what else could it be?”
Acting like the owner of a house when its rightful master stood right there—it was something no one could tolerate.
A ripple of unease spread through the main palace maids.
When those beneath her began to waver, the head maid only raised her voice louder.
“Such reckless nonsense from a flapping mouth! Inciting others with baseless claims!”
Her hand shot upward once more.
Then—
“Stop—! What on earth are you doing!”
A shrill cry rang out from behind the head maid.
The voice belonged to none other than the master of this palace, Third Prince Edwin.
He stood atop the stairs, brow deeply furrowed.
Clinging tightly to his side was a startled Emilia.
Prince Edwin glanced between me and the head maid, then slowly descended the stairs.
“I asked what the hell you think you’re doing.”
His voice trembled with uncharacteristic fury.