Feeling a presence, Lily turned her head toward the landing. The moment her eyes met Charlotte’s, she gave a playful wink with one eye.
Charlotte’s lips curved upward.
It was not difficult to figure out how this situation had come to pass. Just as Charlotte had expected, Lily had started acting immediately from the day they finished their conversation.
She had gradually turned those who regarded Andrea like a thorn in their side to her side, gathered Andrea’s past mistakes one by one, and even managed to uncover the uncomfortable deceptions Andrea had pulled off. And today, just in time for the seasonal spring cleaning, Lily publicly accused Andrea.
“I, I really do not know how this happened! I have no idea why it was in my room either!”
What Daisy, Lily’s confidante, had discovered in Andrea’s room was a small box no bigger than the palm of a hand. Of course, that box had been in Andrea’s room for some time, but not a single person had ever thought of opening it.
That was because a maid had been expelled in the past simply for tidying up things like notebooks on Andrea’s desk. Fearing unnecessary trouble, no one had touched Andrea’s belongings since then. However, Daisy had been thoroughly upset after being scolded by Andrea for something trivial just moments before.
She had learned that Andrea was only clinging to her position due to the Duchess’s sentiment, and she possessed enough common sense to know that if she just caught a weakness, getting rid of Andrea the head maid would not be a difficult task. So, Daisy ended up opening Andrea’s small box.
Inside the box were thumbnail-sized jewels (pearls, rubies, sapphires, and even emeralds). At a glance, one might have brushed it off as “nothing special,” but Daisy took the box straight to the head maid of the eastern main building.
The head maid of the eastern main building was convinced that these jewels had fallen off the masters’ ornaments over time, and the butler was subsequently called. In the end, the butler, accompanied by an appraiser, inspected the jewels and proclaimed that the eastern head maid was right, and this fact was eventually reported even to the Duchess.
“They were found in your room, so saying you know nothing about it is hardly believable.”
The Duchess rubbed the dark skin under her eyes with her finger and clicked her tongue.
“M, Ma’am. Th, This is truly a frame-up. I, Truly…!”
Andrea was begging with both hands clasped together. However, her gestures conveyed a certain subtext: Head maids around this level always commit embezzlements like this anyway, and other noble houses are all like this too, right? Wouldn’t it be better to keep me around than to cast me away now? If the Duchess had only received the report about the current incident, she might have thought along the lines of Andrea’s gesture. But unfortunately for Andrea, this was not the end.
The Duchess recalled the three sheets of paper slipped under her door that very morning. On those papers, the items and sums Andrea had embezzled over the years were meticulously detailed.
Taking a few tiny jewels that had fallen off ornaments was not a major issue. Since ornaments that had lost their adhesive strength were never going to be used again, it was something that could be overlooked as pocket money for extra trouble. Embezzlement, however, was different. Siphoning off money with deliberate intent was a meticulous crime and an act of deceiving the master.
Furthermore, given that someone had directly delivered these materials to her, the Duchess could not simply turn a blind eye just to maintain household discipline.
“I specifically told her not to make enemies.”
This situation had undoubtedly been orchestrated by other maids who disliked Andrea. The Duchess glanced sideways at a few maids who wore triumphant expressions.
“If this fact spreads outside, the prestige of the ducal house will fall. You know without me telling you that the family’s reputation is the only means by which you can define yourselves.”
“M, Ma’am!”
“I do not wish for turmoil to arise in my mansion. To be frank, it is nothing short of a nuisance. I happen to be in a good enough mood to listen to you right now, but…”
The Duchess slightly lifted her leaning body and continued speaking.
“Who knows what things will be like another five minutes from now? So, Andrea, what should you do?” The Duchess tapped the marble floor with the toe of her shoe as she spoke. “Well? Speak up.”
Seeing the bright red patent leather flashing in her field of vision, Andrea felt a wave of relief that the color of those shoes was not due to her own blood. At the same time, a thought struck her anew.
My time is up now.
“I will leave.” “Good. That is a wise decision. Your severance pay should be more than enough with what you’ve skimmed off the top over the years, shouldn’t it?” “Yes.”
Because she had squandered all that pilfered money on horse racing, making a living starting tomorrow would be a major problem, but she dared not beg for any further grace. Right now, she had to be profoundly grateful just to escape with her life and an intact body.
“Ha-ah. Tiring. Truly tiring.”
Even though she was casting off a trusted subordinate who had been by her side for some twenty years, the Duchess’s expression remained utterly serene. It looked just like someone pruning away a diseased tree branch. The only difference from a gardener was that she wasn’t trimming for the health of the tree, but rather grooming it for the sake of a single flower. A single flower.
In the current situation, that flower would be herself. With a somewhat refreshed expression, the Duchess shook her head slightly from side to side. Then, as if she had suddenly remembered something, she opened her wrinkled eyelids wide.
“With such a thing happening, what is Charlotte doing anyway? Does she have no awareness whatsoever that she is the master of this annex?”
Charlotte had long since grasped the situation and hidden away in her room. Consequently, the Duchess had not spotted her. The voice, swelling as it reached the end, signaled that the Duchess’s “good mood” time had come to an end.
Everyone gathered around instinctively shrank their shoulders and grew cautious. The butler was no exception. Aside from Marlene, no one else could stop the Duchess when she threw such hysterics.
Right at that moment,
“Should I go and check on her?”
A maid standing behind Andrea cautiously raised her hand.
“It’s just that the young lady relies on me quite a bit. Her health condition, her mood, things like that, she shares all of them with me.”
At those words, the Duchess’s eyes narrowed.
“Well, something like that kind of relationship. So I thought that if I went, she might talk to me more. Ah! I am Lily. I’ve been at the estate for eleven years.”
The Duchess’s gaze swept down from the top of Lily’s head to her toes and back up.
Although she rambled incoherently, stepping forward when she was already deeply irritated by this whole unseemly mess earned Lily a few bonus points. Furthermore, the fact that she was a child whom Charlotte relied upon was quite pleasing. If that were the case, she could find out even more about Charlotte.
Having finished her train of thought up to this point, the Duchess looked over at the butler. The butler, weighing his assessment of Lily, soon nodded toward the Duchess. It meant she wasn’t a bad choice.
“Then, you will take over Andrea’s duties for the time being. Depending on your performance, the butler will decide your final placement.”
“Goodness gracious… Yes! Thank you!”
“And tell Charlotte to come find me.”
“Yes, yes!”
The Duchess left the annex immediately afterward. However, Lily could not move easily.
What on earth did the Duchess’s words just mean? Taking over Andrea’s duties meant being given the position of acting head maid! She hadn’t even become a senior maid, and she had thought she would live and die as an ordinary annex maid, yet here she was experiencing such a sudden rise in status!
Her salary would probably be triple what it is now, right? Since her standing had gone up, the people she could meet would change too! Dreaming of a future that was delightful just to imagine, Lily grinned broadly. And she expressed her gratitude. Not to the Duchess or the butler who appointed her, but to Charlotte, who had created this very situation.
Thus, it was the moment Charlotte gained her first and only loyal subordinate.
Naturally, it was Charlotte who had exposed Andrea’s embezzlement.
I almost missed the timing by a hair’s breadth.
Before her regression, it had been revealed that Andrea had embezzled funds by manipulating the quantity of ingredients entering the annex kitchen.
And that for a full ten years.
This fact wouldn’t have come to light either if Marlene hadn’t stayed in the annex under the pretext of nursing Charlotte. Either way, Andrea was driven out of the estate almost as if she were being chased away because she dared to touch Marlene’s food, and her whereabouts became unknown.
She probably, no, undoubtedly, would have been killed. After all, the Duchess was someone who would drop her beloved alcohol and run whenever it concerned Marlene. Therefore, what Charlotte did just now merely brought future events forward a little bit.
Well, isn’t this better for Andrea anyway? At least this time, she managed to save her neck.
Amidst all this, the harvest was that the Duchess directly pointed to Lily. Of course, there were better maids than Lily, but it seemed that the hint Charlotte had given Lily beforehand, telling her that it was a good idea to always mention she was close to Charlotte, had paid off.
Up to this point, everything went according to Charlotte’s expectations. And it was also the starting point of a grandly launched revenge drama.
“My, oh my…”
Resting her forehead against the window, Charlotte murmured softly.
“It’s a good thing they’re so stupid.”
At the end of her gaze was the back of the Duchess walking away toward the main building with quick steps.
“This is all thanks to you, Young Lady!”
Lily exclaimed while helping Charlotte with her attire. Even though she knew the atmosphere in the annex was unusual and that the Duchess summoning Charlotte separately meant the young lady was about to get severely chewed out, she still let out that cry.