Episode 9
“Lord Wyndham?” It was a name Estella had been hearing a lot lately.
“It’s not that common of a name…” she thought. Not rare, but not common either.
“The owner of the villa is Lord Wyndham. I guess I haven’t told you about him yet, have I?”
“No, you haven’t.”
“Not even the butler explained?”
“Nope.”
Even though she had been working there for a few months, Estella had never been properly told who her employer was. She calmly nodded.
“Ah… maybe the butler thought I would explain it to you,” Kamila said, and then she started a long explanation.
It wasn’t useless information, but it also wasn’t anything that important. Estella nodded here and there without really paying attention.
“It can’t be that man’s house, right? Unless… he’s that Wyndham.”
By the way, the title “Lord” is only used for someone who already has or is about to inherit a noble title. That’s why she was unsure if this Wyndham was from the same noble family she knew.
Estella thought about asking, but then gave up. She didn’t plan to stay long anyway.
While she was lost in thought, Kamila reached the important part.
“And finally—this is super important! Lord Wyndham is generally kind, but you must never cross the line with him!”
Apparently, all the other maids had left because they misunderstood his kindness and crossed a line.
“I’m not the flirty type. I was too busy working to even notice if he was nice or not. Sometimes I even pretended not to see him if I was in a rush to clean rooms. And guess what? That actually worked in my favor!”
So, it turns out, ignoring the master was better than being overly friendly. Estella didn’t mind. That was her style too.
“Thanks for the warning.”
“Of course. If you stick around, I get to keep my job too,” kamila joked.
Estella gave her a polite smile. “Still, thank you.”
After the talk, Estella unpacked in her temporary room.
****
A Week Later
Estella arrived at Lord Wyndham’s mansion just before dawn. The sky was starting to brighten, pushing away the night.
“Cold,” she muttered. Her nose stung a little from the chilly morning air.
She rubbed her red ears through her gloves, then went straight to the storage shed instead of entering the mansion. She had gotten permission to use a sprayer and went to get it.
She quickly found it and lifted it with one hand. “Lighter than I thought.”
It was a tall sprayer, about thigh-high. Carrying it, she entered the mansion and began working right away.
First task: cleaning the carpets.
She rolled up the carpet in the drawing room and lifted it onto her shoulder.
“Hmm…”
It was heavy—maybe too heavy for most women. She had carried heavier things during her military days, but still, she wondered how Kamila managed this every day.
Shaking off the thought, Estella carried the carpet outside and beat the dust out.
“Did they really clean this every day?”
There was a lot of dust.
What she thought would take a few minutes ended up taking over twenty.
Finally, she laid the clean carpet in the sun to dry and returned inside.
“Let’s do this.”
She opened the windows and sprayed the air.
Shhhk—a mist spread out, making dust in the air settle.
She wiped down furniture with a cloth, drying it carefully so the wood wouldn’t get damaged. Then she swept the settled dust off the floor and polished it with wax.
She did all this in fifteen minutes.
“Drawing room, done.”
Despite the delay with the carpet, she was on track. She kept working with the same speed through the dining room, central hall, hallways, and stairs.
At 7 AM, the clock in the central hall rang.
“Plenty of time before breakfast.”
She stepped outside to get the carpet. The sun and breeze had freshened it up. Smiling, she rolled it back up and lifted it onto her shoulder again.
“Still heavy.”
Even though it wasn’t that big, the thick weave made it very dense.
She took a breath and entered the mansion.
As she headed to the drawing room, she heard footsteps on the stairs. Looking up, she saw a familiar face.
“It’s him.”
It was the man who had attended Baron Vansen’s funeral. So this was the same Wyndham she suspected.
“Mrs. Vansen?”
He recognized her and gave her a sharper look.
Estella quickly set the carpet down.
“Nice to see you again.”
The man walked over, slightly surprised.
He glanced at the carpet on the floor and then said,
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here, and not like this.”
Maybe he had just woken up, but his voice sounded heavy and serious. It made Estella a little nervous.
“…Am I going to get fired?”
She didn’t think she had done anything wrong—but there wasn’t much reason to hire a former noblewoman as a maid either.
“I can’t lose this job.”
Then he looked at the carpet.
“You’re stronger than you look.”
Estella replied immediately:
“Yes. If there’s anything heavy that needs to be moved, just let me know.”
That was her way of saying: I work hard—please don’t fire me.
The man paused. So did Estella.
“Was that not convincing enough?”
She quickly added, “I can even move a two-seater sofa by myself.”
Actually, she could move a three-seater, but that might sound like a lie. So she played it safe.
He let out a small laugh.
“Does he not believe me?” she thought.
Maybe even a two-seater was too much for a woman, in his eyes.
“Should’ve said a single chair… Oh well. I’ll just prove it later.”
At least he didn’t look like he was going to fire her right away.
Just then, the old butler came rushing down the stairs.
“Young master!”
He looked flustered to see Estella talking to his master. He ran down in a hurry.
“She’s the new maid. I meant to warn her not to talk to you, but I forgot—”
“It’s fine,” the master said.
“I’ll give her a proper warning—”
“Wilbur.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll make sure she knows not to speak first—”
“It’s not a problem.”
“Huh?”
The butler looked between the two, confused.
But the young master only gave a small smile and turned to leave.
“I’m going to be late. Let’s go.”
Estella picked up the carpet again. The butler looked horrified.
“Why are you carrying that on your shoulder?!”
Estella blinked at him. “You told me to dust it in the morning.”
At her reply, the man—Lord Ian Wyndham—snorted a laugh.
The butler chuckled too.
“Why are they laughing?” Estella wondered.
The butler said, “I meant dust it in place, not carry it outside! Give it here, don’t carry it like that!”
“Oh…”
That explained the ridiculous amount of dust that had come out earlier.
“How did you even lift it with that small frame… Wait. Did you plan to do the same for the upstairs carpets too?”
“Yes.”
“Why on earth—”
“Because that’s the best way to get the dust out.”
At her calm answer, Lord Wyndham burst out laughing.
This time, there was no denying it: he found her genuinely funny.
