Chapter 17
When I didn’t react and just let his jokes about my loyalty slide, Claude’s eyes finally narrowed completely.
It was an expression I knew very well. He was genuinely irritated.
“What on earth is the problem?”
“…There’s no problem, Young Master.”
“Then why are you acting like this?”
“What did I do…?”
“Is it because of what happened yesterday?”
Yesterday? Only then did I recall Claude’s usual habit of chewing me out the previous day.
He’d been so harsh that the Duke himself sent consolation money through the butler when he heard about it.
But, unlike what others seemed to think, I hadn’t actually taken it to heart. All I could think about, while Claude was ranting at me, was how impressive his chest looked up close or how the veins in his neck stood out… Nothing but impure thoughts.
Clearly, I wasn’t in my right mind.
“It’s not like that would bother me at this point…”
“Then why do you look so shifty?”
Just this situation was depressing. To have the man I liked accuse me of acting suspicious.
“It’s just… There’s just been stuff going on! Do you think I spend every day with my head full of flowers?”
I pouted, like a girl hitting puberty late. And though Claude looked baffled, he didn’t press any further. Maybe he really thought I’d lost my mind.
For several more days, things kept going like that. I could feel Claude’s patience burning away, like a candle wick, day by day, but I just couldn’t handle these new feelings and kept drifting along.
Then, one day, in the midst of all that misery, I finally did something reckless and unplanned right in front of the young master.
Maybe if I’d had the chance to giggle and flirt with boys my age, like the other maids, things would’ve been different?
But for me, there had always been this burden of a young master who immediately noticed and tormented me whenever my attention drifted elsewhere, so I’d never even had a chance to like someone.
So, in a way, he bore some of the blame for my sudden, out-of-control behavior.
* * *
That day was my coming-of-age.
Of course, it’s not as though commoner maids could expect anything like the grand debutantes of the nobility. Instead, among commoners, there was a tradition of celebrating anyone who came of age on the ninth day of May.
That year, there were five maids and servants from the ducal household coming of age. The head chef made us an especially delicious lunch, and the head butler even gave us rare perfumed oil as a congratulatory gift.
And to my surprise, I even received a flower. Tommy—incidentally, Tommy was the boy who’d wet himself in front of the young master nine years ago—gave me a fresh rose he’d found somewhere. I patted his head fondly, even though he still had two years to go until his own coming-of-age.
I was in a great mood all day, but as evening came, I started to feel a little down. I didn’t know why. Maybe it was just that a girl nursing an unrequited love always has unpredictable feelings.
Of course, I was happy to get congratulations from everyone, but the one person I most wanted to hear from wasn’t even around. He’d been gone all day, not a hair of him to be seen.
That was probably why I felt so down. I knew that coming of age wouldn’t make him see me any differently, but still, still…
Claude called me to him just as I was getting ready for bed after the evening’s chores. It felt like he’d read my mind, and I quickly changed back into my maid uniform, all irritation forgotten. Right before leaving my room, I even dabbed a drop of the perfume I’d received on my neck.
With my heart fluttering, I went to see him…
Only for the young master to not say a single word about my coming-of-age.
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