Chapter 9
By the time I got back, it was almost morning. Luckily, the Head Maid hadn’t caught me sneaking out.
I could only sleep for about two more hours, though, so I was in terrible shape. I was rolling my stiff shoulders this way and that when I felt a gaze right beside me.
“Eek!”
Imagine waking up to find someone staring at you. And not just anyone, but a stranger, right next to your face, without making a sound.
Even the most easygoing person would be startled so badly they could barely breathe.
“Huh? H-huh… Who…?”
Clutching my pounding heart, I slumped limply onto the floor like a paper doll.
Jessica didn’t so much as blink at my collapse and just kept chattering.
“Hi! My name’s Jessica. You must be the new girl who came in last night!”
Goodness, what a scaredy-cat. When I trembled and couldn’t even answer properly, Jessica burst into giggles.
“Here. Take my hand and get up.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. We’re going to be working together, after all. Just call me Jessica. What’s your name?”
“Gretchen Miller.”
“Nice, Gretchen.”
Jessica kindly pulled me up off the floor.
Her curious gaze was plainly friendly, but for some reason, there was something in Jessica I couldn’t put into words, a kind of genuine madness. If a bright-eyed lunatic ever took human form, she’d probably look like this.
Does everyone who works here end up with eyes like that?
Even after I stood up, I was so frightened of Jessica that I pressed myself against the wall.
Jessica carried on with her own business, unbothered.
She shook out the pillow she’d slept on and snapped the wrinkled blanket flat.
“My roommates have changed so often until now. It honestly made me so sad. So, Gretchen, I hope you’ll stay and work here for a long, long time.”
“Why… did they change so often?”
“Oh my, why so formal? You can speak casually with me.”
I really didn’t want to, but Jessica urged me on with a kind face, as if telling me to go ahead.
“Why did they change so often?”
“It’s nothing, really. There was just a small problem. Don’t worry too much. It was only a very, very small problem.”
When someone says it like that, it’s never actually a small problem.
“What was it?”
“I don’t know the exact reason. They’d be working just fine, and then one day they’d all leave, with only their luggage left behind. As if it’s enough to just vanish and leave your stuff!”
That was not a small problem at all. I grew grim as I realized how serious the situation was, but Jessica kept chirping away cheerfully.
“And thanks to that, cleaning up after them was always my job. Isn’t that awful?”
“They all just disappear, leaving only their luggage?”
Was this a Grand Duke’s household or a shrimp-fishing boat? If everyone was fleeing and leaving their belongings behind, wasn’t that serious?
“Don’t worry too much. I have a good instinct about these things, and I think you’ll work here for a long, long time.”
Strange.
It was a compliment, but it didn’t make me happy at all.
“Yep! The girl before you? Who was she again? Lily? Mary? Oh, right. Delia! She was sweet, but she was far too timid. So that very dawn, she threw everything away, luggage and all, and ran off in the night!”
“R-ran off in the night?”
“Yeah. Funny, isn’t it? Do you know how high prices are these days! It’s the worst recession ever. It’s fine for nobles, but commoners like us wouldn’t even get paid a salary like this! She was spoiled, that’s what.”
“Um… But maybe she had a reason. Do you happen to know why Delia ran away? Or can you guess?”
“Gretchen.”
She had been about to put on her frilled mob cap, but she stopped and looked at me. Even after calling my name, Jessica didn’t speak for a long while.
“Tell me, Gretchen. Do you like money?”
No one dislikes money. If someone claims to, they’re either lying or a hermit untouched by the mundane world.
“Uh, well… Sure, I do.”
“Me too. I love it so, so much. With money, there’s nothing you can’t do. So I can put up with any kind of work.”
“…”
“Any kind of work at all, you understand?”
Jessica curved the corners of her mouth into a bright smile. But her eyes weren’t smiling. I looked at those clear, glossy eyes for a moment, then turned my head aside.
When I’d first set foot in the mansion, I’d thought the Head Maid was the scariest. I’d changed my mind.
“Right…”
“Good! Have you finished unpacking? Then let’s get to what we need to do.”
The friendly, kind ones are the scariest.
Wasn’t Jessica, not the Head Maid, the true horror?
After that conversation, I put Jessica at the very top of my list of people to be wary of.
＊＊＊
The first thing I learned about Jessica was that she was the best-connected person in the mansion. There wasn’t a single servant who didn’t know her, so wide was her circle.
“Jess! I heard your hem came undone the other day, so I mended it. When are you coming to pick it up?”
“I’ll swing by for it later, before work. Thanks, Millie. I’ll buy you cookies next time I go out.”
“Good morning, Jessica!”
“Morning!”
“Jessica, you’re here? I heard the head cook is serving his special potato-and-bacon soup for breakfast today. Eat up and fill your stomach.”
“Oh, really? Thanks for the tip, ma’am.”
People looked at me, too, but not out of delight the way they did with Jessica.
“Who’s that next to Jessica? I’ve never seen her before.”
“No idea. I heard two new girls came in last night. Maybe it’s her?”
“It must be! But what’s with that ridiculous green tunic? Did she borrow a flour sack from somewhere?”
Excuse me, I can hear you.
I wanted to grab the servants stealing glances at me and shout at the top of my lungs, but I held it in. I had no choice. Did they think I hadn’t looked for other clothes?
The trunk I’d brought had even more shocking outfits in it. Gretchen must have liked shades of green, because all of the clothes were green.
There was nothing wrong with green. It was just that among people in drab work clothes or beige tunics, green stood out quite a bit.
‘I understand, but…’
Everyone looked at me like a monkey at the zoo, and I was mortified. If it were for something good, fine, but I didn’t want to attract attention like this.
I wanted to eat quickly and get my new work uniform, but people kept talking to Jessica, so we had to keep stopping.
“I’m telling you, Edward is the best-looking! Jack is the textbook handsome type, but Edward is…”
There was no sign the chatter would ever end. Tired of waiting, I quietly tapped Jessica’s forearm.
“Jessica… I’m hungry. Could we eat first?”
“Oh. Is it that time already? You must be starving. Sorry! Anna, I’ll tell you the rest later!”
Jessica apologized belatedly and led me to the dining hall.
The dining hall was already crowded with servants.
“There are so many people! Can we even finish eating in time?”
“Who has time to wait in that line? Follow me.”
Jessica must have had something to lean on, because she dragged me into the kitchen.
“But is it okay to just walk in here like this?”
Aren’t head cooks usually touchy when they’re cooking?
The moment I voiced my worried question, a booming roar flew at us.
“Why, you scoundrels who’d yank out the last single nose hair of a dragon! What wicked brat dares to enter my sacred kitchen without permission?!”
The head cook, sensing strangers, snatched up a ladle.
“Get out this instant…! Oh, if it isn’t my clever little lark, Jessica?”
A broad grin spread across the face of the head cook, who had looked ready to bash us with that ladle any second.
The sudden change of attitude left me dazed.
“Lark? Your pet names have gotten awfully cheesy, Frederick.”
Jessica isn’t a kitchen maid, so how are they so close?
Jessica must have read the bewilderment on my face, because she whispered to me.
“Normally, maids who enter a Grand Duke’s household don’t have their duties set from the start.”
“Then what happens?”
“Unless you’re experienced, new hires try a little bit of different jobs for two weeks, on a temporary basis.”
Like career aptitude experiences for students, I supposed. True, if someone who couldn’t sew ended up as a seamstress maid, it would be a loss for both the maid and the Grand Duke’s household in many ways.
“That’s when I met Frederick! I was pretty good at prepping vegetables. He was so disappointed that I didn’t come to the kitchen as a maid.”
Jessica proudly spread out both hands to show me.
Jessica’s hands were rough, but they looked quite capable.
The head cook gazed fondly at her, then turned his interest to me.
“So, Jessica, who’s this?”
“Oh. She’s a new maid who just came in. Her name’s Gretchen Miller.”
“Hello, Head Cook. I’m Gretchen.”
“…”
‘What?’ The head cook stroked his splendidly groomed beard and fell silent for a moment. He was definitely smiling warmly, but something about him looked stiff.
Again, that feeling of being observed. A subtle wall. That uneasy gaze that seemed to be weighing and measuring me.
Was it just my imagination?
