Chapter 23
IV.
On a sweltering summer day, so hot that not even the cicadas were singing.
As usual, I was passing the day waiting for the young master, who was away from the manor, when I encountered a rather unwelcome incident.
It was such a small, trivial thing that calling it an ‘incident’ was almost overstating it. It should be just an ordinary anecdote.
That day was the bi-monthly delivery of groceries and daily necessities needed by the manor. Together with the other maids, I was in charge of carrying in the goods and checking the inventory.
“Hey there. I haven’t seen you before. What’s your name?”
The familiar voice called out just as we were finishing up, with barely anything left in the wagon.
I was especially quick-witted when it came to unpleasant matters, so I immediately recognized who it was.
It was Jack, the freckle-faced young man from the village who still hadn’t quite grown out of boyhood.
Jack seemed not to know who I was, but I’d often and in great detail heard about him from the other maids. For a time, he’d been something of a hot topic among them.
Objectively, he wasn’t anything special, but in an environment where decent men were extremely scarce, Jack was one of the better options available to the manor’s maids.
Tall and lanky, Jack was reasonably good-looking, and after he started coming around the manor, he quickly supplanted Alan the newspaper boy as the center of the maids’ attention.
Jack enjoyed that attention and even made good use of it. But there was something the still-young Jack hadn’t realized.
The moment he became the target of those young girls, every move he made would be shared among all the manor’s maids in real time.
Jack enjoyed the dubious honor of being ranked ‘number one man the maids wanted to meet’ as soon as he arrived, but within just three months, he had to hand that title over to Paul the shepherd.
The reason was Jack’s feather-light morals and his disastrous way with words.
“…Me?”
Stupidly caught dating three maids at once, he instantly became persona non grata.
Jack, sensing his popularity wasn’t what it used to be, had apparently been trying even harder lately… or so the rumors went.
Unfortunately, today I had become his new target.
“Yeah, you. Your eyes are really cute, you know? Hmm, just like… like acorns left behind by a squirrel. So, could you spare a moment for me?”
“Me? My time? For you? Why?”
Whether it was because I knew his reputation, or just the horrifically cheesy pick-up line, I replied with an unnecessarily defensive answer.
Jack looked flustered for a moment at my response, but soon enough, he acted as if nothing was wrong and tried again.
As far as I could tell, this was his attempt at flirting with me. The unfortunate part was that it didn’t come off as even slightly charming.
“It’s only natural for a man to want to steal a beautiful young lady’s time… Does that explain it a little?”
“I’m not really sure I understand.”
He must have been desperate, because Jack didn’t back down easily even with my cold response.
“My heart is pounding so hard, I must have fallen for you at first sight. There’s no cure for lovesickness, but maybe a lady like you could be my medicine?”
Just as I was about to kick this pitiful Jack to the curb after his line, which was even worse than I expected, a dreadful idea flashed through my mind.
What if… really, what if…
If the young master found out that I was seeing another man, would he start to see me differently?
I’d heard somewhere that even a man who never cared would try to claim a woman for himself when a rival appeared, just for the sake of victory.
It was hard to imagine Claude feeling any competitive spirit or fierce jealousy over Jack…
But still, just maybe.
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.