Chapter 18 18. Bertino Mansion on Harrods Street, Part IX
Editor: Aelryinth
A message arrived that the Prince, who rarely visited due to his hectic new business, would visit his mansion for the first in a long time. Anna, exhausted from cleaning to greet the owner all morning, threw a mop that was used to clean the hallway window on the second floor.
"Oh, this drives me nuts. How long do I have to do this?"
A month ago, Anna, who successfully kicked out Nicole, donned a dress and makeup, and was waiting for the butler’s call. But when Moira arrived and went into the Prince’s bedroom, she was not called for a while. She felt strange, went to the head maid, and heard the surprising news that the new ugly maid would serve the Prince.
Anna, who was stunned, protested fiercely, but only heard the cold words of leaving the mansion if she didn’t like the position of a maid.
Anna, who had packed her belongings with anger, unpacked them again. It was because she thought the Prince would kick Julietta out if he saw her ugly face.
However, a month had already passed. The order to drive the ugly girl out had yet to fall from the mouth of the Prince, who still visited the Bertino mansion, though it had become rarer than before.
Anna murmured, glancing at the mop that had fallen on the slithering floor, "Yes... because a new maid hasn’t come in yet, if she’s gone, they’ll have no choice but to call me back this time."
Anna agonized over how to get the girl out of this house. Just in time, she saw a large body coming up the stairs. In a black maid’s dress, Anna, who had been gazing at the bulky figure in a brown maid’s dress, naturally followed her back into the Prince’s bedroom.
After four months, the Prince’s bedroom was no different than it used to be. The Prince’s favorite musk was veiled in the room, and the bed, which occupied one side of the spacious room, was covered with black silk sheets for the owner to stay in today.
Anna, imagining herself lying with the Prince on those luxurious sheets, smiled to Julietta, who came out of the bathroom after cleaning it. "I was wondering if I could help you."
Julietta’s face was sulky, and she smiled pretentiously, as if she had never wanted to tear the other woman’s eyes out.
The Prince’s bedroom was a place where no one but the head maid and Julietta could come and go. On the ordinary days when the Prince did not visit, it was locked tightly with a key and only the two had the key. When cleaning in the morning and evening, two maids under Julietta’s supervision came in and cleaned, and Anna was not included in the task.
Also, everything used in the Prince’s room had to go through Julietta’s hands to get into the room. The tea leaves that the Prince drank could only be brought by Sir Albert himself from the imperial city, and for the bedding and clothing that touched the Prince’s body there was a separate maid, so Julietta directed her.
In other words, if anything happened to the Prince, Julietta, who was in charge, would be punished.
"Did you get permission?"
When Julietta asked, Anna replied with a whimper, "Hey, not long ago, I was doing what you are doing. And if you are talking about permission, it is ridiculous. I didn’t come in when nobody else was here, but I came in like this when you were here."
Anna looked quickly through the room, wondering if there was any way to kick the girl out. Julietta replied, as if she had seen through Anna’s thoughts, "If there’s anything wrong with His Highness in this room today, keep in mind, Anna, that you are to blame."
Anna had to bow before Julietta’s threats before she could do anything. She had felt it last time; unlike her dull-looking appearance, Julietta was really a sly bitch.
"I will leave now. I just wanted to see this room for the first after a long time."
Anna’s quick exit from the room, like a girl who had committed a crime, seemed to imply that she was bound to commit an accident.
Coming out of the Prince’s bedroom, Anna picked up the mop from the floor of the hallway again, and went down to the first floor without even looking at the window she had stopped wiping.
Anna, who was trying to figure out how to punish Julietta, finally saw Moira, who came in alone. Upon seeing Moira arriving earlier than usual, Anna threw the mop she was holding back into the corner and ran quickly to greet her.
"I haven’t seen you in a long time, Lady. How have you been?"
Moira nodded dryly at the greeting of the maid, who she had not seen since she was severely scolded by the Prince a few months ago.
"Yes, it’s been a long time. I thought you were kicked out of the mansion, but I guess that wasn’t true."
As Moira looked around for the head maid who should be waiting for her, Anna took her umbrella and hat, and said, "I’ll tell the head maid that you’re here. I think she has something urgent to do."
In Bertino mansion, where there was no resident butler, the head maid was almost taking over the duties of the butler.
"Get Julie."
"Oh, Julie told me to serve you today," replied Anna, who handed over the hat and umbrella to Moira’s private maid, said as she took the lead toward the room where Moira would stay.
Anna decided to kick Julietta out today. If she were to kick Moira out with her, she might have a chance to serve the Prince tonight. Moira bit her lips and fell into thought without knowing what Anna was thinking.
Four months had passed while she had been the Prince’s lover. In a secret club of aristocratic men, it said that bets were going on when Moira would be abandoned by him.
For more than fifteen days after her last night with the Prince, she could hardly sleep due to anxiety and nervousness. When the invitation to Bertino mansion arrived last night, she could barely fall asleep in relief.
Moira, who had woken up early in the morning, had a perfumed massage all day to calm her nervousness. But as soon as it was a time that she wouldn’t look bad to the Prince, she arrived at Bertino mansion.
She nervously held her hands as she walked through the familiar corridor.
’How long will I be able to come and go from this mansion?’
Moira didn’t think of arriving earlier than usual, and felt uneasy about no one coming out to greet her.
’Did Julie notice something and refuse to serve me, since I’m about to leave here?’
Entering the assigned room, Moira took off her clothes under the care of Anna and her private maid. Moira entered the perfumed bath without noticing Anna who was looking at her naked body with her eyes slightly open, stared blankly as her private maid washed her.
"Anna, why did Julie ask you to escort me?"
Entering the bathroom at Moira’s question, Anna answered politely, hiding a shady smile.
"I don’t know. Now I have no choice but to do what she says because she is in a higher position than I am. But when I asked, ’How can I serve the noble lady as a cleaning maid,’ she said, ’I don’t mind because she will not last long.’"
"What?"
Anna’s answer seemed to be the reality she had been worrying about.
"Why did Julie say that? She is not the kind of person who would say that without thinking. Did the Prince say anything?"
At the quivering question of Moira, Anna jumped, shaking her hands.
"He must not have said anything. His Highness is not the one who would say that to a maid. I know for sure because I served him much longer than Julie. Furthermore, at least three times she has seen the Prince himself."
"Then why the hell did she say that?"
"Julie has changed a lot since she became the maid of the Prince. You might have missed the change of knowing who she is, but we all know. Julie often swears at you."
"She swears at me?"
"Yes. She once laughed when she cleaned the room before you came, saying that you didn’t know who you were because you were asking for a red sheet when he wouldn’t even have to come."
Saying what the maids had been whispering among themselves as if Julie had said those things, Anna lowered her head slightly to hide the tip of her mouth going up.
Moira jumped up from the bathtub, at a loss for words.