My services were usually attended to by the maid Lizzy alone, but today another maid entered with her.
Sola, Elena’s close maid, was holding my dress. She had never attended to my clothing before.
In my first life, Madam Olan had driven me to nervous exhaustion.
One of her methods was petty harassment. She would use very trivial things to make me uncomfortable and sensitive, gnawing at my nerves.
The attitudes of Sola, who kept glancing and watching, and Lizzy, who attended to me as usual without knowing anything, were starkly different.
Sola alone arranged the dress.
“Lizzy, is the dress prepared?”
“Yes, madam.”
“Attend to me.”
“I’ll do it.”
As Lizzy tried to touch the dress, Sola flustered and stopped her hand.
“I told Lizzy to do it.”
“I’m more skilled and capable. I’ve received praise for attending to dresses well. I’ll come in from now on.”
I gave some advice to Sola, who was carefully approaching with the dress.
“Oh? If you’re so skilled and capable, you must have a strong sense of responsibility.”
“Of course.”
“I’m Jeffrey’s wife, but I’m also royalty. If you accidentally hurt me, it would be a crime against royalty. It’s a serious offense that would result in your hand being cut off and spending months in an underground prison.”
“Wow, a crime against royalty… My wrist?”
“Naturally. Even if your skin gets scratched by a dress pin while dressing. If there’s poison on it, it could be disastrous.”
I extended my hand to the pale Sola.
“Since you’re dexterous and have a strong sense of responsibility, that won’t happen. Will you help me put on the dress? I’ll leave it to you since you said you do it better.”
I know what Sola is going to do to me.
“You’ll have to be very careful. My body has been weak lately, and even a small scratch feels like it’s been poisoned and causes hives.”
“Um, I’ll just adjust the hem of the dress a bit. Please wait a moment.”
Sola, who had turned pale, took the dress away so Lizzy couldn’t touch it, and removed the pins sewn into the seams.
In my first life, my skin was scratched by pins deliberately left in the dress while dressing. When I got angry at the repeated occurrences, Madam Olan scolded me, saying I was too sensitive and the maids found it difficult to attend to me.
She even had Sola testify about my behavior in front of the ladies invited for tea time.
I couldn’t lift my head amidst Madam Olan’s sighs and people’s mockery.
“Hurry up. If we’re late, the Madam will scold us, and it would be terrible if I said we were late because of you.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll hurry. Ouch!”
Sola let out a sharp cry, perhaps pricking herself with a pin in her haste.
When I went down to the reception room after getting ready, Madam Olan, who was drinking tea, examined me.
“You’ve come.”
“Did you sleep well?”
As I sat opposite Madam Olan, I saw Sola’s reflection in the glass cabinet behind me.
Sola shook her head towards Madam Olan, signaling her failure.
Madam Olan’s smile stiffened awkwardly.
“The dress… suits you well.”
“Thank you.”
Madam Olan, who was about to scold me for causing a commotion by shouting at the maid early in the morning, ended up burning her tongue by hastily drinking the hot tea.
“How can you bring such hot tea!”
“I’m, I’m sorry.”
“How much have you been slacking off to still not be able to manage the temperature of the tea! You’re fired!”
“Madam! I’m sorry! I’ll do better from now on! I’m sure I heated it exactly the same as yesterday… Please don’t fire me.”
The maid knelt down and grabbed Madam Olan’s skirt. Madam Olan’s lips curled up at the maid’s crying.
“Mother, the etiquette book says that the mistress of the house shouldn’t raise her voice in the morning. You know how much Jeffrey values etiquette. He would have been embarrassed if he had heard.”
“You, you!”
“Please forgive the maid. If you fire her, I’ll have no choice but to tell him why she was fired, along with your misconduct just now.”
I recalled what Madam Olan had said in my first life.
“How were you raised to raise your voice as the mistress of the house in the morning! Didn’t you learn etiquette at the royal palace?”
“To think you married our Jeffrey as a princess when you can’t even follow proper etiquette, how embarrassing.”
“Copy out all the etiquette books in your room. Since you didn’t learn at the royal palace, we’ll have to teach you properly in the Olan family.”
Madam Olan could no longer get angry and bit her lip. After glaring at me fiercely, she came up with another method.
“You may leave now. But I’ve heard that the princess has been neglecting her prayers lately, which is concerning. God is always watching our sins. Shouldn’t a princess who needs prayers more than anyone not neglect them?”
“Saint Marchio, who dedicated his life to helping the poor, said that the devout are not bound by place or time. So I pray in my bedroom as soon as I wake up, with the purest heart.”
“Still, wouldn’t it be better for the royal family if the servants could feel the princess’s devotion? From tomorrow, pray in the garden’s prayer room morning and evening. So the servants can see.”
The intention was to disturb my sleep.
People become sensitive when they lack sleep.
I had insomnia anyway, so it didn’t matter to me.
I smiled and praised Madam Olan.
“Mother, you are truly admirable. To worry even about the servants’ devotion, you are indeed a model for society.”
“Well, everyone does say so.”
“Yes, I’ll visit you morning and evening. Let’s pray together.”
“Me, praying? I…”
Madam Olan was flustered.
She intended to make only me suffer, but it’s unthinkable in family etiquette for the Madam not to pray when the Viscountess is praying.
“As the elder of the family, you should set an example, Mother. If it becomes known that I prayed alone, people will gossip about what the Madam was doing.”
“That’s true. Alright, let’s do it together morning and evening.”
“Yes.”
I’m not sure if Madam Olan, busy with social activities, will have time for naps, but that’s her problem to solve.
In my first life, I lived quite diligently.
I dreamed of a foolish life of becoming the mistress of a viscount’s family, managing the household, and living cozily with Jeffrey.
Before the seasons changed, I prepared fashionable fabrics and patterns to change the curtains and furniture covers of the mansion and tended to the garden.
I tried hard to get used to the unfamiliar household management of the mansion.
Madam Olan and Elena always found fault, scolded me, and mocked my skills.
Jeffrey wasn’t interested in what I was doing.
So this time, I didn’t do anything.
I enjoyed a cake made of thin biscuits layered with honey and cream. It crumbled lightly and melted on my tongue. The taste was deep, rich, and sweet. It went well with hot black tea.
While I was enjoying my private tea time in the sunroom, something heavy fell from the pocket of a maid who was refilling water in a vase and leaving.
A necklace with a large diamond.
The maid, who had been nervous and conscious of me since entering the sunroom, was greatly surprised and broke out in a cold sweat.
She quickly picked up the necklace as if caught doing something wrong.
‘They really can’t act at all.’
“Melinda.”
“Ah, it’s, it’s my necklace! I didn’t steal it!”
I only called her name, but she confessed first.
“I didn’t say you stole it. Come here.”
“It’s, it’s my property.”
When I held out my hand, she handed it to me with a tearful face.
It’s a necklace given by the royal family as a birthday gift, a less valuable item. It’s flashy but has many small scratches and a dull color from being stored with other jewels.
It was originally my property, but Elena had taken it secretly.
I took out a handkerchief and carefully rubbed the jewel.
“You should carry it carefully. No matter how beautiful a jewel is, it loses its luster if not properly cared for. Wipe it well with soft silk.”
They set it up to make me suspect the maid had stolen it.
When I, surprised, asked about its origin, the maid cried, feeling wronged for being accused of theft. Later, Elena testified that it was her property and she had given it to the maid, making me the only bad person.
I returned the necklace, which had regained its sparkling light, to Melinda.
“You have a nice item.”
“Aren’t you wondering why I have such an expensive item?”
“There’s no reason a servant working in the mansion can’t have such an item. Ah, take this pouch.”
I removed the herbs from the scent pouch and gave it to Melinda.
“Oh, why such a high-quality pouch…”
“It must be a precious item to you, keep it in here. Precious things should be wrapped in something nice.”
“Madam…”
Melinda sobbed with tears in her eyes.
She carefully cradled the scent pouch.
There was someone watching this scene. Someone waiting to criticize me when I mistook Melinda for a thief.
“Elena, if you want to drink tea, come here.”
“Eek! No, why would I drink tea with a princess!”
Elena, who had been standing in the corridor, sharply kicked the floor and left.
‘This isn’t enough.’
Being people who care about appearances, they didn’t come on too strong. Just look at how they sneaked into my bedroom at night and hit me with a pillow.
“They should at least use a whip or beat me with thorny branches. People are so naive.”
It’s troublesome if the Olan family doesn’t put in more effort.
[This is the timeline separator]“Ah, a snake.”
When I lifted the blanket to go to bed, a snake was coiled up. Small stones were also scattered on the sheet.
They hate and despise us.
The me from my first life struggled quite a bit with their obvious malice. I was used to being hated, but because they were my husband’s family, their actions left deeper wounds on me.
‘But I’m not afraid now.’
I carefully trapped the snake in a vase and threw it out the window. I shook the sheet with my hands and got into bed.
The underground prison was damp, hard, and cold.
Rats crawled over my body and lurked around, and sometimes snakes would appear.
Frogs or snakes encountered in prison, or in a secret cage or closed tower, were welcome guests.
I would sometimes give bits of leftover bread to the rats.
I needed someone to talk to.
I desperately needed a living being other than myself, a being that didn’t harbor hatred or greed towards me.
The bed was soft and the blanket was warm. Small stone fragments that I couldn’t shake off pricked my skin, but they reminded me of the underground prison and made me feel nostalgic.
Maybe that’s why.
For the first time in a long while, I slept soundly.
‘I should thank the Madam.’
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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