Chapter 06
I soon had the chance to learn about the Plenigen family’s ghost. After all, Amy’s habit of chattering wasn’t something that could be easily fixed.
In the strictly traditional Plenigen household, daughters and daughters-in-law were constantly drilled on “how to behave as a proper woman.”
Women must be modest.
Women must not step forward. It is not a proper woman’s place to take the lead.
Women must know how to endure. If a husband cheats, it is naturally the woman’s duty to tolerate it.
Women must obey men’s decisions. Women are less capable of judgment than men.
Women must…
Even though it was someone else’s family matter, the stories were infuriating.
Even in a world where discrimination against women was still widespread, people’s thinking was gradually changing. But the Plenigen family had no intention of altering their age-old customs.
And at the center of it all was Lady Alice Norma.
Alice Plenigen, Edward’s great-great-grandmother and the current master of the Plenigen estate, was considered the epitome of modesty and obedience—a model for all women, by the family’s standards.
Though she knew much and had learned to read and write, the family atmosphere deemed literacy improper for women, so she reportedly never wrote a single character in her life.
Just as she had imposed strict rules upon herself, Lady Alice expected her descendants to follow the same path.
Alice was highly skilled with her hands—needlework, knitting—there was nothing she couldn’t do, and she even had a talent for painting. So, to teach her female descendants who didn’t need to learn reading or writing, she created a series of paintings illustrating the “virtues women must uphold.”
The story depicted a girl named “Alice” who committed misdeeds and faced the resulting punishment. The series became known as Alice Being Punished.
It was said that near the end of her life, Lady Alice left this will:
“If you are a woman of the Plenigen family, keep my paintings close and remember their meaning. If any woman of our family fails to follow the lessons I depicted, I will appear as a ghost to correct her.”
Thus, Lady Alice’s paintings still hung in the library on the second floor of the east wing. The women of the Plenigen family were always required to look at the paintings and recite their meanings aloud. Moreover, if a woman behaved in a manner “unsuitable for her gender,” she might be punished by being confined to the library all day to study the paintings.
The east wing’s second floor, which included guest rooms like the one Count Penwood was staying in, was part of my cleaning duties. So, I had ample opportunity to see these ridiculous paintings.
“Then the ghost the maids mentioned at Aileen’s funeral… is it Lady Alice Plenigen’s ghost?”
A ghost that curses the women of the Plenigen family.
A ghost that appears only to female descendants.
Piecing together the stories I had heard so far, it seemed that Lady Alice would appear as a ghost to correct any descendant who acted in a way “unsuitable for a woman.”
“But a ghost killing people… that’s absurd.”
Thinking this, I asked Amy what she thought of the “Plenigen family ghost.”
“There might really be a ghost like in old stories… but” Amy paused before continuing, “isn’t the suffocating atmosphere of this mansion itself the real ghost? It kills people softly, through pressure. Who in this day and age would forcibly marry a man chosen by their elders without even knowing his face?”
“Right… that makes the most sense,” I thought.
I agreed, so I then asked if she knew anything about Aileen’s death.
“I don’t really know the details either,” Amy said with a sigh.
“I was so shocked when they said Miss Aileen had passed that morning. There was no sign at all the day before. They say they found the body in the library. From morning, everyone poured into the library—it was chaos like you wouldn’t believe.”
“The library? The one with Lady Alice Norma’s paintings?”
“Yeah, that one.”
Amy casually answered, but then glanced at my face and added:
“Ellie, don’t ask to have your cleaning area changed just because the body was found there. Everyone’s scared, and they’ve already changed the person in charge twice. You and I are the youngest maids, so if you complain, it’ll surely fall on me.”
Originally, Amy, being the youngest maid, had been forced to manage that area, but when I joined as a new maid, she must have been quietly passing it on to me.
“Don’t worry about that. Anyway, did you actually see Miss Aileen’s body?”
“No! Eeeek!”
Amy shivered, as if I’d said something terrifying.
“I didn’t go near the library at all. Just hearing about it is scary! And Edward was furious that everyone came running over like it was a spectacle.”
“But why did Miss Aileen die in the library?”
“I heard it from the other maids…” Amy cautiously glanced around, then whispered into my ear:
“Miss Aileen was found hanging from a bookshelf.”
“What?”
I couldn’t believe it.
“Hanging… you mean, she actually—”
“Yes. She committed suicide,” Amy said in a low voice.
“The maids who saw it say that Miss Aileen struggled violently while hanging from the bookshelf. The books on the shelves fell to the floor, and when they first discovered her, the body was swinging, books scattered everywhere—the library was a total mess.”
Amy shivered.
She interpreted my frozen expression simply as fear from hearing about a death, but I couldn’t believe it or accept the story.
“Suicide? Aileen… hanged herself?”
Just a week before, Aileen had sent me a letter inviting me to the mansion. She had been excited to have discovered the truth behind the ghost that haunted the house.
Aileen had been bravely pursuing her studies despite receiving no support due to her family’s opposition.
“No.”
I bit my lip.
“No matter what happened, there’s no way Aileen would have committed suicide.”
I tried to hide my feelings and asked Amy again:
“Are you sure it was suicide? But didn’t you say there was no sign she was about to die?”
“That’s true. But how can anyone know what’s in a person’s heart?” Amy sighed.
“Something could have suddenly overwhelmed her. Living in this frustrating house, wouldn’t you feel the same? Besides, Miss Aileen had gone to university without her family’s permission and was being scolded constantly. Anyway, they made sure no one spread the suicide rumor because it would have brought shame to the family. That’s why the funeral was so simple.”
“But if it were suicide, wouldn’t the police have investigated?”
“No one even spread the rumor.”
Amy glanced around and whispered again:
“The Plenigen family has influence around here. They could easily cover it up. Just pay the doctor, and he’ll write the death certificate claiming she died of an illness.”
I was dumbfounded. At the same time, I remembered Mrs. Jenkins’ cold expression at the funeral.
Perhaps she had claimed Aileen died in an accident to avoid revealing the family’s shame.
“Did Aileen really commit suicide? Did her family hide it because they considered it shameful? Or is there more?”
A sudden emptiness filled me. If this was the truth behind Aileen’s death, then my purpose had already been achieved.
Still, I couldn’t leave the Plenigen estate immediately. There were inconsistencies in the story I had just heard.
“Not yet. I need to confirm if this story is true.”
That afternoon, I went to clean the library on the second floor of the east wing, where Aileen’s body had been found.
I wasn’t scared or uncomfortable at all. As I entered, I briefly offered a silent prayer for Aileen’s soul.
The Plenigen library looked no different from a typical library. Except for the windows and doors, the walls were lined with bookshelves filled with books.
The shelves were slightly lower than usual because seven framed paintings hung above them. These were Lady Alice Norma’s paintings.
Each frame contained two paintings—fourteen in total. The reason for putting two in one frame became immediately clear upon viewing: the two paintings formed a set.
Although the paper had yellowed with age, the detailed pen drawings were perfectly clear.
I began with the frame closest to the door on the right. The drawings centered on a girl wearing an old-fashioned dress with long hair. I would later realize that the order of the frames didn’t matter.
In the first of the two paintings in the frame, the girl approached a finely dressed man on horseback. She lifted the sides of her skirt slightly with her hands and stepped as if dancing, joyfully.
In the next painting, having walked without looking properly, the girl had fallen upside down into a pond, her legs sticking out of the water.
A caption read: “Lewd Alice, who flirted with a man, is plunged upside down into the water.”
“What the…?”
I was bewildered. Amy had said Lady Alice never wrote anything, so the caption likely wasn’t her work—perhaps a descendant added it for clarity.
The next frame depicted two paintings: one of a girl speaking before a gathered crowd, and one of a girl buried under a pile of books. The caption read: “Pretentious Alice is hit by the books thrown by others.”
Another frame showed a girl surrounded by gold coins and jewels, standing barefoot on the floor piled with coins, while menacing men threatened her with weapons. Behind them, accomplices held bags of coins. The caption read: “Alice, greedy for money and luxury, has all her wealth stolen by robbers.”
I felt increasingly uneasy as I studied the content, but I continued examining the rest.
A painting of a girl dancing joyfully, and another of a girl fallen on the ground, bore the caption: “Alice, who loved only to dance, falls and breaks her leg.”
Other captions included:
“Alice, obsessed only with eating and drinking, suffers severe stomach pain.”
“Alice, vain and lazy, is covered with filth thrown by others.”
“Alice, who quarreled with others, is chased out of the house.”
“What is all this? Even if the intention is to warn about proper behavior…”
I was speechless at the absurdity of it all.
(To be continued in the next chapter)
