Chapter 010. The Arrival of Mrs. Charlotte
“Deborah!”
The maids, having finished their morning duties, were eating lunch in the servants’ hall.
Deborah, sitting side by side with Hanna at a long table, looked up at the sound of her name being called.
It was Celine, a housemaid who used the room next to Deborah and Hanna’s.
Having apparently finished her meal, Celine squeezed into a gap at their table and took a seat.
The maids eating nearby shot her sharp glares, but Celine, completely unfazed, turned to face Deborah.
“…What?”
Still holding her spoon, Deborah awkwardly spoke.
“Hanna’s hair, you did it for her, right?”
At Celine’s loud voice, the hostile stares from moments ago began to shift to curiosity one by one.
“Hey! You came to ask Deborah to do yours, didn’t you?!”
Before Celine could say more, Hanna, seeing through her intentions, threw down her spoon and snapped angrily.
“What’s with your attitude? Who said I was asking you?”
“Me, me! That’s why I absolutely wasn’t going to tell you!”
Hanna slapped her mouth with her hand, lamenting.
Caught in the middle, Deborah just sat with a blank expression, glancing between the two.
“Deborah! Can you do my hair too?”
“Don’t do it, Deborah!”
“Hey, stay out of it!”
As the two bickered, the attention of those around them focused even more on their table.
Realizing the eyes on them, Deborah finally tried to calm the two down.
“Both of you, stop it. It’s mealtime, and we’re being too loud. Everyone’s getting annoyed.”
At Deborah’s calm words, Hanna and Celine, looking frustrated, pursed their lips, huffed, and turned their heads away.
With both radiating a fierce aura from either side, Deborah, caught in the middle, sighed and spoke to Celine.
“Can you come to our room a bit early tomorrow morning? I’ll do it then.”
“Really? Of course, I’ll come early!”
Celine’s previously sour expression brightened instantly.
As she stood, she turned and made a deliberate “hmph” at Hanna’s back before smiling brightly at Deborah again.
“Thanks, Deborah! I’ll come to your room early tomorrow then! Enjoy the rest of your meal.”
Celine disappeared as quickly as she had come.
Phew— Deborah sighed and was about to resume eating when a grumpy voice cut in from the side.
“Why’d you agree to do it? What has that girl ever done for you? She’s such a sly fox.”
Seeing Hanna’s pouty expression, Deborah let out a small laugh.
“Come on, it’s not a big deal. I can do it for her.”
“You’re too nice, it’s practically a disease.”
“Just eat. We don’t have much time left for lunch.”
“Ugh, that girl totally ruined my appetite.”
Despite saying her appetite was gone, Hanna scraped up every last bit of her soup.
Deborah shook her head, as if to say she was hopeless, and picked up her spoon again.
At that moment, a murmur spread through the room, and everyone’s eyes turned toward the source.
The maids seated near the entrance stood one by one, bowing to someone who had suddenly entered.
“Huh? …What’s Mrs. Charlotte doing here at this hour?”
The identity of the person entering the servants’ hall was revealed by someone who recognized her first.
The same bewilderment appeared on everyone’s faces.
Mrs. Charlotte, the housekeeper, was in charge of overseeing all female servants and acted as the mistress’s deputy when the master of the house was away, making her the highest-ranking manager.
As such, Mrs. Charlotte had her own private space.
She handled administrative tasks there, took personal rest time, and often dined with the heads of each department.
So it was strange.
For Mrs. Charlotte to suddenly appear in the servants’ hall where the lower maids gathered to eat together.
Tension spread across the maids’ faces.
The head maid trailing closely behind Mrs. Charlotte instructed everyone not to make a fuss and to continue eating as usual, and only then did the murmurs begin to subside.
After a brief conversation, Mrs. Charlotte began to walk slowly between the tables.
Though the maids pretended to eat as instructed, with Mrs. Charlotte’s sharp eyes meticulously scanning their faces as she passed, there was no way the food went down easily.
Her behavior, as if searching for a culprit, made the maids who had finished eating hesitate, unsure whether they could leave or should stay seated, watching her cautiously.
The servants’ hall remained so quiet for a long time that not even a breath could be heard.
Then, Mrs. Charlotte suddenly stopped in front of one table.
After staring intently at something, she said something to the head maid behind her, who approached and closely examined the maid sitting at that table.
Shortly after, she told the maid to stand and follow her.
Sensing the ominous atmosphere, the maid, frantically wondering if she had done something wrong, soon followed the two with a tearful expression.
By the time the two had made a full round of the servants’ hall, five maids were trailing behind them like a tail.
Finally, they approached the last row of tables where Deborah and Hanna were seated.
Hanna muttered under her breath, just loud enough for Deborah to hear.
“Please just pass by. Just pass by…”
With her eyes tightly shut, Hanna murmured as if praying, and Deborah, silently bowing her head, felt the same.
Mrs. Charlotte, slowly scanning the last table, nodded once as if there was no one there who met her criteria and turned to leave.
‘Phew…’
Everyone at the table let out a collective sigh of relief with identical expressions.
At that very moment of relief,
Mrs. Charlotte, as if she had missed something, abruptly stopped in her tracks.
A few nearby maids froze again, but unfortunately, Deborah, with her back turned, didn’t notice Mrs. Charlotte approaching.
Only when she saw Hanna’s smiling face suddenly stiffen across from her did Deborah sense something was off and slowly turn her head.
The sharp gaze of Mrs. Charlotte, now standing before her, caused Deborah to let out a sharp breath.
As Mrs. Charlotte closely examined Deborah’s startled, rabbit-like eyes, her own eyes gradually narrowed.
After a long pause, as if making a decision, Mrs. Charlotte gave a slight nod, and her low voice fell over Deborah’s head.
“Stand up and follow me quietly.”
The other maids’ gazes, looking at Deborah, shifted to ones filled with pity, as if she were being led to her doom.
Deborah silently followed the five others, who wore similarly grim expressions.
She became the sixth tail.
* * *
“What?!”
The six tails—no, the six maids who had followed Mrs. Charlotte into her private quarters—let out high-pitched gasps in unison.
Moments ago, their faces had been pale with dread, but now they were filled with astonishment beyond mere surprise.
And for good reason—Mrs. Charlotte, having lined them up, made an unexpected proposal.
“It will be a bit challenging—but the tasks you’re currently assigned to aren’t exactly easy either, so if we’re weighing the difficulty, it’s hard to say one is particularly heavier than the other.”
The condition of “a bit challenging” caused deep contemplation to settle over the faces of the five maids, except for Deborah.
Deborah recalled the first words Mrs. Charlotte had spoken upon entering the room.
‘You will need to take on parlour maid duties for the time being.’
A ‘parlour maid,’ referring to the parlour, was essentially a public-facing maid.
Unlike other maids who worked out of sight of guests, parlour maids greeted guests at the entrance, escorted them to the master, served tea to guests, or carried dishes and drinks at banquets—tasks that involved serving directly in front of guests.
As such, their appearance became a reflection of the master who employed them.
To project a good public image, the masters of the house competed to hire women of striking appearance, dressing them in ornate, visually pleasing uniforms rather than practical cotton ones.
Some scoffed, calling them ‘decorative dolls,’ but among the maids, parlour maid was a coveted position, second only to ladies’ maid.
In any case, the pay was significantly higher than that of maids doing general heavy labor, and the beautiful, exclusive maid uniforms were provided for free, making it a dream job for young women of the working class.
The six chosen by Mrs. Charlotte today, including Deborah, were all lower maids working as housemaids, laundry maids, or dairy maids.
Naturally, it was an offer that should have had them jumping for joy, but their hesitation stemmed from the certainty that such a dramatic, rapid promotion would invite jealousy and envy.
As no one stepped forward and they continued to dawdle, Mrs. Charlotte threw out another enticing bait.
“For those who accept the offer, I’ll raise your annual salary by five pounds each.”
Five pounds!! A collective gasp escaped everyone’s lips.
It was a significant expense, but with Miss Cecilia’s tea party approaching in a few days, it was a desperate measure to secure parlour maids to present. Mrs. Charlotte’s calculation paid off.
“Me, me! I’ll do it!”
“Me too!”
One by one, the five maids swallowed hard and raised their hands, and all eyes turned to Deborah, the last one remaining.
Overwhelmed by their momentum, it goes without saying that Deborah timidly raised her hand as well.
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By Anna 💓
