Chapter 007: Deborah’s Skillful Hands
“Is it that good, my lady?”
The maid brushing the beautiful platinum blonde hair chuckled softly at the sound of continuous humming and asked.
Olivia suddenly turned around, looking at the maid who asked the question with sparkling golden eyes.
“Of course, Lucy. Right now, I’m probably one of the happiest women in the world.”
Adding the grandiose phrase “in the world,” Olivia turned back forward to make it easier for the maid to brush her hair.
“But is Duke Chester really that handsome?”
The young maid’s voice carried a mix of curiosity and intrigue about the celebrated heartthrob of Rubayk.
Having seen Duke Chester for the first time at her debutante ball at 16, young Olivia had fallen for him at first sight.
After dancing the first dance with her father, Marquis Constant, as per custom, Olivia had danced with Duke Chester.
She vividly recounted the moment he held her hand and shoulder, as if it were happening now.
It was a story so often repeated that every maid in the marquis’s household could recite it by heart.
“You’d never understand the shock of seeing him for the first time unless you saw him yourself.”
With a dreamy expression, Olivia gazed into the air, her cheeks flushing.
The maid watching her smiled brightly.
“That’s such a relief. Honestly, when the marquis said he’d finalized the engagement with him, everyone was shocked. As people say, you must have truly monopolized all of God’s blessings, my lady.”
Gently touching Olivia’s silky hair, the maid set down the brush and began adorning it with accessories.
As the maid said, Olivia seemed to have been born with all of God’s blessings.
As the precious heir of the marquis’s family, born after much difficulty, Olivia had grown up showered with excessive love and protection from her parents, earning the envy of all.
Unlike the typical arranged marriages of noble families, to marry the man she so deeply admired—and the most eligible bachelor in Ruvake, no less—could there be greater fortune?
Even though it was natural for status to determine rank, the maid couldn’t help but feel a tinge of bitterness.
Still, since Olivia, who had grown up bathed in everyone’s love, was a pure and kind young lady, the maid genuinely wished for her happiness.
She only hoped that, as the wife of the Duke Cheister she so adored, Olivia would always retain this innocent and radiant charm.
* * *
“Tch…”
A voice tinged with irritation came while tidying the bedding.
Deborah turned her head toward the sound.
Hanna, fussing with her curly brown hair, had been grumbling discontentedly for a while.
“What’s wrong?”
“…My hair just won’t cooperate today.”
At her pouting words, Deborah suddenly recalled a memory from the orphanage.
The image of a seven-year-old troublemaker, always coming to her with a hair tie and a sulky face every morning, made her chuckle involuntarily.
“Want me to do it for you?”
Deborah asked with a gentle smile, and Hanna’s previously grumpy face instantly brightened.
“Deborah, you?”
“Yeah, back at the orphanage, I used to do the girls’ hair a lot. Even the headmistress liked it so much that I kept doing hers too. Of course, it might not be to your liking.”
“I’d love it, obviously!”
Hanna beamed, looking at Deborah’s neatly braided hair.
Deborah’s hair, a deep brown in contrast to her fair, almost translucent skin, was always skillfully braided without effort, which Hanna had always found fascinating.
There was no way she’d refuse having her hair done by someone so skilled.
“Alright, turn around.”
Deborah approached Hannah from behind, taking the hair tie and accessories.
Hanna quickly turned, positioning herself so Deborah could work easily.
Deborah wet Hannah’s hair with water she’d prepared to tame it, then began combing it smoothly.
Once the hair was somewhat tamed, she deftly held the ends with her pinky and added strands with her other fingers, braiding it up.
Bored from sitting still until the braid was finished, Hanna couldn’t hold back and started talking.
“The orphanage… how long were you there? I mean… from what age?”
Finally asking the question she’d been hesitant to bring up, Hanna’s face grew tense.
Deborah’s hands paused for a moment, but she soon resumed braiding as if nothing had happened.
“I was so young that I don’t remember clearly… probably around six or seven.”
Hanna’s face darkened instantly as she waited anxiously for Deborah’s response.
“Six… seven…”
Muttering, Hanna seemed shocked, and Deborah could guess why.
To have lived in an orphanage from such a young age must have stirred pity and sympathy.
Deborah gave a quiet, bitter smile.
“There were lots of kids my age, and younger ones who followed me around, so it wasn’t too lonely.”
Of course, saying she wasn’t lonely was a lie, but she didn’t want to burden Hanna, whose expression had darkened over such a small comment, with tales of her harsh and miserable childhood.
Seeming to believe Deborah’s words, Hanna’s expression brightened a bit compared to before.
“Ignore everything that nasty Ludmilla says. The best thing is to let her vicious words go in one ear and out the other.”
She seemed to be referring to the phrase “lowly orphan girl” Ludmilla had used toward Deborah during the recent staff meeting in the servants’ hall.
Deborah herself had heard far worse and was now unfazed by such remarks, but it seemed Hanna had taken it to heart more than she had.
Then, Deborah suddenly recalled hearing similar words the previous day and let out a small chuckle.
At the unexpected laugh, Hanna instinctively turned her head slightly.
With a gentle “tch,” Deborah turned her head back forward.
“Why’d you laugh?”
“Oh, your words just reminded me of a kind man I met yesterday.”
“A man?!”
Reacting instantly to the word “man,” as typical for her age, Hanna prompted a playful shake of the head from Deborah.
“Well… he said he was Mr. Greig’s grandson. Do you know someone named Robin? I heard he’s the duke’s aide.”
“Robin?! Of course I know him! Who in this mansion doesn’t know Robin?!”
“…Really? He’s that famous?”
Surprised by the unexpectedly enthusiastic response, Deborah asked back.
“Well, you saw him yesterday, so you know, but aside from being Mr. Greig’s grandson, he’s so kind and capable that everyone likes him. Even the scary duke and that wicked witch Ludmilla—”
For some reason, Hanna was terrified of Duke Chester.
Though he was a bit cynical, Deborah didn’t find him particularly frightening… Catching herself with that thought, she shook her head quickly and repeated Hanna’s words.
“…Ludmilla?”
“Yeah. She’s so famous in the mansion that no one doesn’t know her. That witch Ludmilla has had a one-sided crush on Robin for ages.”
Of course, Robin consistently rejects her, and Hanna giggled, saying it served her right.
Honestly, it was a bit surprising.
The idea that the ill-tempered Ludmilla liked someone, and was nursing an unrequited love, no less, was unimaginable.
Without realizing it, Deborah pictured the charming aide she’d seen yesterday alongside the cold and sharp-tongued Ludmilla in her mind.
The image was so jarringly mismatched that she shook her head.
“Hold still for a moment. I need to secure the ends properly.”
Deborah pressed her chin down on Hanna’s head, who was still giggling with her shoulders shaking.
Hanna quickly straightened up and sat properly.
With swift and skilled hands, Deborah tucked the finished braid neatly inward and tapped Hanna’s shoulder.
“Want to take a look?”
Holding up a mirror to show the back of her head, Hanna stood and examined her hair from every angle.
After studying it for a while, Hanna’s face lit up with a radiant smile.
“My goodness, Deborah, with this skill, you could be a lady’s maid!”
Deborah chuckled at Hanna’s continuous exclamations of awe, unable to take her eyes off her hair.
“Come on, it’s just this much skill.”
A lady’s maid, who managed the mistress’s wardrobe and accessories, assisted with makeup and hair, and was closest to her, was considered the highest-ranking “upper maid” among maids.
Deborah, who had barely gotten a job as a lower maid through Teacher Helena’s connections, found Hannah’s simplicity in praising her hair skills amusing.
“Alright, now that your hair’s done, let’s hurry. If we’re late for the morning meeting, we’ll get an earful from Lady Charlotte.”
Hanna, still beaming and admiring her hair, suddenly made an “oh no” face and stood up.
“No way, I already got on Lady Charlotte’s bad side after that spat with Ludmilla the other day. I can’t afford to get in more trouble.”
Nodding seriously a couple of times, Hanna hurriedly began folding the scattered pajamas.
Deborah also gave the neatly arranged bedding on the bed one final pat.
Another busy, exhausting day was about to begin.
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By Anna 💓
