Those Who Do Not Forget Grace (3)
“You, youuu!”
The head maid shrieked as she charged straight at Rachel.
“It’s you! It was you all along! You damn bitch—!”
Once again she swung her hand in a wide arc, aiming for Rachel’s cheek.
But this time she couldn’t even graze a single hair.
Rachel had seized her wrist out of the air in a single breath.
“Head maid.”
At the low voice, the woman flinched again.
“I believe I’ve been more than patient with your rudeness. Once was enough.”
Rachel smiled, baring her teeth at her.
“Wouldn’t you agree?”
It was a smile as sharp as it was icy, like the fangs of a bird of prey.
The head maid stumbled backward, clutching the wrist still trapped in Rachel’s grip.
“In that case, head maid.”
Rachel continued with a pleasant smile on her face.
“The exit is right this way.”
Once again, her guidance was impeccably courteous.
Countess Pailin Katarina left the Third Prince’s Palace with her knight in tow.
The knight following a step behind spoke quietly.
“How should we handle the head maid?”
His tone was impeccably polite.
The meaning behind the words, however, was anything but.
“Leave her alone.”
“But…”
“For a woman like her, being sent back to her old life is a harsher punishment than death. There’s no need to complicate things.”
Staging an accidental death would have been an annoying amount of work.
Besides, the woman might prove useful again someday.
Cornered rats will do anything.
Pailin hid her curled lips behind her fan.
“Make certain her mouth stays shut, though.”
Her voice was firm as she gave the order.
“This must not reach the ears of Her Highness the Second Consort, the Empress, or any of the other nobles.”
If word got out, both she and the Second Consort would become the topic of vicious gossip.
Everyone knew she was the Second Consort’s right hand.
“Truly, I’m so embarrassed I can hardly lift my head.”
After all, the head maid had been personally chosen by Pailin herself.
Not only had the woman committed corruption, she had even been caught.
It was utterly humiliating.
Pailin clicked her tongue in irritation.
“This is exactly why the stupid ones are more aggravating than the clever ones.”
“Understood. Shall we plant someone new in the Third Prince’s Palace, then?”
“Someone new?”
Pailin gave a derisive snort.
She had once thought the Third Prince might become a nuisance, but she had been wrong.
A timid child whose only possession was his bloodline.
That was all the current Third Prince amounted to.
Even today, the moment he heard she had arrived he claimed to be ill and sent his nanny down in his place.
He was the same prince he had always been.
“No need. It’s time we stopped wasting attention on the Shabby Prince.”
She smiled, remembering the face of that bothersome old nanny.
“Countess Conrad, who kept stirring up trouble, is dead now too. There’s no one left to fill the prince’s head with useless dreams.”
“Understood.”
“Ah, one more thing.”
Pailin stopped as though something important had just occurred to her.
“Have you found that maid yet?”
“My apologies. We have not.”
The knight bowed his head in shame at her question.
“You haven’t found her?”
“No. We searched for any woman matching the description given by the servant who claimed to have seen her, but we found nothing.”
Pailin frowned.
The unknown maid who had delivered the head maid’s ledger to the count’s estate.
The woman had used a servant to pass the ledger to Pailin, along with a note declaring she could not stand by while the head maid who betrayed her went unpunished.
At first she had been suspicious, but the handwriting in the ledger was identical to the head maid’s.
There had been no room for doubt.
Since she specifically claimed it was for my sake, she must either know me well or be trying to earn my trust in the head maid’s place.
Yet contrary to Pailin’s expectations, the maid had not shown herself.
It was almost as if she had no desire to reveal her identity.
If she wanted a reward, she would have come to me directly. Or at least appeared before me today.
The more she thought about it, the less sense it made.
Just what reason could she have for exposing the head maid’s corruption and ensuring the woman was driven out?
“Should we expand the search area?”
“Hmph, are you planning to search the entire imperial palace? Forget it.”
Pailin examined the tip of her nail with an indifferent air.
“How many black-haired women in maid uniforms are there in the imperial palace to begin with?”
The knight bowed his head silently at his mistress’s words.
“And she was wearing a hood. We don’t even know her face. How are we supposed to find her?”
“My deepest apologies.”
Leaving the bowing knight behind, she climbed into the carriage.
“Return to the count’s residence.”
“Will you not pay your respects to Her Highness the Second Consort?”
“No need. I’ll see her in two days anyway.”
She thought of the banquet to be held at the Redcliffe Marquisate in two days.
It was a celebration for her newly born grandnephew’s birthday; the Second Consort would certainly attend.
Today’s events could wait until then.
There are stories that only sound trivial when the listener is in a good mood.
She would have to choose her words carefully to keep the Second Consort’s unpredictable temper in check.
Pailin sighed, thinking of that difficult personality.
“I’m tired. Leave at once.”
“Yes, my lady.”
The carriage carrying Countess Katarina glided smoothly out of the prince’s palace.
As though nothing of note had happened there at all.
“This is completely ridiculous.”
“What is?”
“Why on earth did I—why did someone like me end up as head maid?!”
Catherine, the newly appointed head maid of the Third Prince’s Palace, threw both hands into the air and wailed.
“I’m nothing but a viscount’s daughter! Why? Why would His Highness appoint me of all people as head maid?!”
“His Highness told you himself. Because you are the most trustworthy maid he has.”
“More like because he liked the way I make stew, you mean.”
“To be perfectly accurate, Her Majesty the Empress heard about the former head maid’s crimes and was so impressed by your loyalty to His Highness that she made the appointment herself.”
The ears of the imperial palace were terrifyingly sharp. Even though the head maid had walked out under her own power, the reason for her dismissal had already spread to every corner of the palace.
By some twist of fate the news had even reached the Empress’s palace.
There had to be a reason the Empress—who had never shown the slightest interest in the Third Prince—had personally stepped forward to appoint a new head maid.
Countess Katarina is the Second Consort’s right hand. Now that the loyal agent she planted in the Third Prince’s Palace is gone, it’s the Empress’s turn to move.
The forces currently fighting for the throne were split into two clear factions: those supporting the First Prince, born of the Empress, and those supporting the Second Prince, born of the Second Consort.
Given that reality, the Empress and the Second Consort could only be bitter enemies.
Not to mention the long-standing bad blood between their families.
It made sense that the Empress would no longer tolerate the Second Consort’s influence inside the Third Prince’s Palace.
I tilted my head, watching Catherine who was still making a miserable face.
Still, I don’t quite understand why the Empress specifically chose Catherine for the position.
If the goal was simply to plant a spy, sending an entirely new person would have been more logical.
Instead the Empress had deliberately appointed Catherine—the very maid who had defied her direct superior’s orders to cook stew for the prince.
The reason was impossible to guess.
“Nanny, when exactly are you planning to return the maid uniform I lent you last time?”
“Ah.”
Right. I had completely forgotten.
“Nanny?”
“…I lost it.”
“You lost a maid uniform?”
It was closer to having thrown it away than lost, but there was no helping it now.
“I’m sorry. I’ll buy you a new one.”
“Never mind. It’s not as if you have any money to spare, Nanny.”
Catherine gave the dress I was wearing a pitying look and let out a long sigh.
“Anyway, the head maid can’t wear a regular uniform. The moment I receive my salary I’ll have to order a proper dress first.”
Unlike ordinary maids, the head maid of each palace was its public face and therefore required elegant attire.
Paid for out of her own pocket, of course.
“Still, there is one advantage to becoming head maid. All the unpleasant people left on their own.”
After Catherine’s promotion, a natural reshuffling had taken place among the maids of the Third Prince’s Palace.
Perhaps because the former head maid had been driven out in disgrace.
Most of the maids from the main building, afraid they would be implicated and dismissed as well, had resigned of their own accord.
Thanks to that, the annex maids who had worked alongside Catherine were able to move into the main palace.
It was for the best. The work the main-building maids had originally been responsible for had always been the annex maids’ true duty anyway.
In any case, the Third Prince’s Palace returned to its usual routine.
No—it was even more peaceful than before.
They’re having fun.
I shifted my attention from Catherine, who was still chattering away beside me, to the prince and princess.
The children racing about beneath the warm spring sunlight looked exactly like playful puppies.
I was watching them when I unconsciously swept my hair back.
Black powder came away on my fingers.
More than a week had passed since that day, yet charcoal dust still clung to my hair.
I had thought it was only on the borrowed uniform.
I was irritably shaking my hair when—
“Nanny! Are you even listening to me?”
“Yes.”
“Then what did I just say?”
“Actually, I wasn’t listening.”
I couldn’t withstand Catherine’s murderous glare and finally asked.
“What were you saying?”
“You know how I sometimes talk to the servants who work at the Emperor’s Palace?”
Catherine lowered her voice as though revealing a great secret.
“They say the most famous person on the entire continent right now is staying at the Emperor’s Palace.”