Chapter 133 – Change of Position
The knight seemed to think Janet finally understood, and he turned toward the exit.
“This will likely be your last chance. If you don’t want to rot in this cell forever, make the right decision.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I’m a maid of the Frais family! The Marquis’s household will come looking for me!”
Janet screamed, sitting helplessly on the floor.
“The Marchioness hasn’t asked about you once since that day,” the knight replied coldly. Then, without another word, he left the dungeon.
“Wait! Sir Knight!”
Janet grabbed the bars and shook them, but his footsteps faded quickly into silence.
‘How long has it been since I last saw sunlight?’
The fresh scent of grass in the garden made Janet’s head spin.
At the outdoor table sat the Grand Duchess, reading the paper Janet had written all night.
Janet didn’t know much about the Marquis to begin with, but she feared that if the Grand Duchess wasn’t satisfied, she might really be locked up forever.
So she had spent the entire night racking her brain. She wrote down everything she could think of—lists of guests who visited the Marquis, the names of the maids he flirted with, the tailor he used, the food he liked, the kind of tea he drank—everything she knew.
‘Please! I really don’t know anything else!’
As Janet stood fidgeting nervously, the Grand Duchess finally spoke.
“You’ve put in some effort.”
Annette folded the paper in half.
Janet wanted to argue but instead clasped her hands politely.
“I didn’t think you’d write in such detail. You must really want to go back to the capital.”
“O-of course, Your Grace.”
Janet bowed deeply. Her nails were black with grime from the dungeon, but that didn’t matter now.
“I deeply regret the trouble I caused in the kitchen that day,” she said, trying to sound remorseful without admitting guilt.
“If you forgive me, I’ll prepare to leave immediately. I wouldn’t want to delay the Marchioness and the young master.”
“There’s no need to worry about that.”
Annette blinked innocently.
“The Marchioness and Raphael already left early this morning.”
“What?”
Janet froze. The Marchioness had left her behind?
‘But they promised I’d go with them…!’
“Then what about me?”
“Unfortunately, you didn’t provide much useful information,” Annette said casually, folding the paper again.
“Knowing that the Marquis likes aspic jelly isn’t exactly helpful, don’t you think?”
Reta, who stood nearby, handed Annette an envelope. Annette placed the folded paper inside and sealed it.
“W-Why are you sealing that?” Janet stammered, dread creeping in.
“Oh, this? I’m sending it to the Marquis as a little keepsake.”
Annette smiled sweetly.
“He should know just how thoroughly you betrayed him.”
“Y-you said if I wrote everything I knew, you’d let me go!” Janet’s lips trembled.
“Well, if you insist… I’ll let you go. The letter will just get there before you do.”
“Your Grace—please!”
Janet fell to her knees.
“I’ll do anything you ask! Please… just don’t send that letter!”
She almost wished Annette would say she planned to use her as a spy. At least then, she could bring back valuable information to the Marquis later.
But if that letter reached him, no matter what it said, he would see her as a traitor.
She would be expelled from the Frais family without a single recommendation, and no noble house would take her in again.
“Your Grace, I won’t go to the capital!” Janet cried desperately.
Better to stay here and wait for a chance than return branded as a traitor.
“Please, make me one of your people! I’ll devote my life to the duchy!”
“You want to serve me?”
Annette let out a small laugh.
“Janet, you should’ve said that before you tried to poison me.”
Her eyes flashed sharply despite the soft tone.
“I—I was wrong!”
Janet immediately threw herself flat on the ground.
The Grand Duchess she once looked down on—the Marquis’s illegitimate daughter—was nowhere to be seen now.
Annette looked down at her coldly.
“Tell me what you did wrong. In your own words.”
“I mixed black caribbean poison into the sauce…”
Annette leaned back in her chair, silently urging her to continue.
“I slapped a maid and burned her, and…”
Janet kept confessing—trying to ruin the diplomatic banquet, spying inside the duchy, approaching knights with ulterior motives.
Then she went even further back—stealing her mistress’s jewelry, gossiping about her outside, stealing food.
Annette’s face grew darker, but Janet couldn’t stop. It was pure survival instinct.
“And… I tore Your Grace’s debutante dress the night before the ball.”
When she finally stopped, she glanced around nervously.
Every knight, guard, and maid nearby looked furious.
“You’ve certainly done plenty,” Annette said dryly.
“I’m really, truly sorry!” Janet’s eyes filled with tears as she remembered the cold, damp prison.
“I’ll do anything if I can just avoid being locked up again! Please, forgive me once!”
“Anything, huh… fine.”
Annette slowly turned to Reta.
“Reta, is there any department that needs extra help?”
“I heard the laundry room is short on hands,” Reta replied.
‘Wait—she’s not sending me to the laundry, is she?’
A noble-born lady reduced to a laundress?
“That sounds perfect,” Annette said lightly.
Janet felt her heart sink.
When she said she’d do “anything,” she didn’t mean becoming a lowly maid—certainly not a laundress beneath even the apprentice servants.
But refusing now would mean going back to prison.
She clenched her fists so tightly her nails dug into her palms.
“Work hard, and think of it as washing away your old sins,” Annette said.
Janet couldn’t even respond, just blinked in disbelief.
‘So the Grand Duchess never planned to let me go from the start.’
Why had she been foolish enough to write her own confession, only to end up as a servant?
Fear in the dungeon had made her lose her judgment completely.
“Reta, take Janet to the laundry room,” Annette ordered.
Janet shuddered as she saw the faint smile on Reta’s otherwise expressionless face.
“Will it really be okay?”
“With what?”
“Lady Janet,” Cecilia said, turning from the snowy landscape outside the carriage window.
The carriage was steadily climbing the snow-covered mountain path.
“What if she causes trouble while we’re gone?”
“She won’t be able to.”
I leaned comfortably against the carriage wall.
“I told her that if she misbehaves, I’ll send a letter to the Marquis immediately.”
Before leaving, I had discussed Janet’s situation with the Marchioness.
Surprisingly, Deputy Commander Hedrick had firmly objected to releasing her.
— “She threatened a maid, sneaked into the kitchen, and now knows the layout of the dungeon. Considering her ties to the Marquis, who knows how that information could be used later.”
— “So you want to keep her prisoner forever?”
— “She’s a flight risk, and keeping her under watch would waste manpower.”
Loic and Perel both joined in the discussion.
At that moment, an idea occurred to me.
— “What if Janet chooses to stay in the duchy?”
— “What do you mean?”
The Marquis is a man who holds grudges.
If I had even a small piece of written proof that she betrayed him, Janet wouldn’t dare act recklessly.
Even if she didn’t fear me, she would fear the Marquis’s wrath.
And making that evidence was easy.
‘I’ll just have her write it herself.’
And that’s how Janet ended up working as a laundress in the duchy.
“For now, she can’t even go to the restroom without being watched, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
Cecilia sighed in relief just as the carriages stopped.
“Oh, we’ve arrived!”
The door opened, and Loic, wrapped in a thick cloak, greeted me with a bright smile, extending his hand.
“Annette, we’re here.”
His cheeks were slightly flushed from riding.
“Was the ride too tiring?” he asked.
“Not at all.”
I took his hand and stepped down. My boots immediately sank deep into the snow.
“Wow! It’s piled up this high!”
I was amazed to see so much snow in summer.
“Oh dear, my mistake,” Loic said, frowning slightly—then suddenly lifted me into his arms.
“Ah!”
Every knight and servant unloading luggage in the wide snowy field turned their eyes toward us.
