Chapter 5
To think the only thing I could say after running into a handsome man was that. It couldn’t be helped.
Even though I yelled right in his ear, he didn’t flinch. Trembling, I threatened that I wouldn’t forgive him if he so much as touched me again.
“P-put me down this instant! Do you even know who I am? How rude!”
I was shaking a little, but to my ears, it sounded like a pretty solid threat. Yet the knight, still holding me in his arms, calmly replied.
“I apologize, my lady. I’ll offer my full apologies once you’re in a safe place.”
And he did just that—he brought me to a safe area near the entrance of the riding grounds and gently set me down.
As soon as I was standing steadily on the grass, the knight knelt on one knee. He bowed his head like a stage actor in a period drama.
“I sincerely apologize for my discourtesy in laying hands on your person.”
He was incredibly polite even though no one was watching.
“I-I… it’s alright…”
I stammered, suddenly realizing I hadn’t even thanked him yet. I had assumed the worst and treated a respectful man like a brute. Embarrassment rushed in, and my throat felt dry. I let out a small cough.
“Thank you for rescuing me. I think I was just overly startled a moment ago. Considering the situation… I hope you’ll let it slide.”
With a tone implying “you know what kind of place this is,” I straightened my disheveled skirt.
The hem of my riding dress had torn. It wasn’t a bad tear, but when the man saw it, his face turned bright red.
“I-I swear, I never intended to insult your honor!”
“Of course not.”
Whether he understood what I meant or was just incredibly innocent, he continued calling me “my lady” and stammered adorably.
I found myself staring at him, then quickly straightened up. I shouldn’t be talking to this man for too long. I gave a subtle signal that I’d be leaving now.
“Th-thank you again. I’d like to repay you, but… the situation doesn’t allow for it.”
I lifted my chin high enough to seem proud. Saying I’d repay him without even asking his name felt unbearably arrogant, but the man didn’t even flinch. Rising from his kneel, he bowed again.
“Would you… allow me to escort you?”
The handsome man looked at me with almost sorrowful eyes. It made me feel like I was being cruel.
“No, thank you.”
He looked like a knight straight out of a romance novel—and that’s exactly what worried me.
I can’t get swayed.
If I wanted to use the earl’s affair to reclaim my assets, I had to stay clean. I couldn’t let rumors spread that Carla was playing around with other men.
Ignore it.
I quickly walked toward the crowd to escape the man.
The knight followed from a distance—just far enough that onlookers would assume he was simply headed the same way. But I could still feel his eyes on my back.
Only after he saw me reunite with my companions did he finally leave. It felt strange. He must have truly been worried about me, nothing more. I didn’t breathe easily until he was gone from view.
Then the shame hit me again. Not only had I misunderstood his good intentions, I’d spoken rudely. And on top of that, I never even asked his name. I had completely shut him out.
As I fanned my burning cheeks, the ladies around me exchanged glances.
“Seems like even royal knights come here to ride.”
“Well, it is more fun out here than inside the palace.”
They were sharp enough to guess his affiliation just by glancing at his back. And they had the talent to spin entire stories from that alone.
“I hear knights from the temple also visit sometimes?”
“Oh my, how scandalous.”
The topic soon shifted to affairs between knights and palace maids, and then to trivial gossip like who fell out with whom over a game.
Luckily, the chatter didn’t last long. The wind started picking up. As the breeze scattered their skirts, the ladies decided to wrap up.
“Shall we meet again next week if the weather’s nice?”
“I’ll send an invitation.”
“They say getting sunshine and fresh air is good for health. There’s too much to worry about at the estate.”
They were subtly encouraging me. Their intentions were obvious—they wanted to use me as a new excuse to keep coming to the riding grounds. I pretended not to notice and accepted their offer.
“I’ll be waiting for the invitation.”
The torn hem of my dress kept brushing my ankle. I was tempted to just rip it off—but then I remembered Belle’s face and held back.
Belle, who had been waiting in the carriage, looked horrified when she saw my torn dress hem.
“I almost fell off the horse.”
“Madam, are you alright?”
“Yes, I’m fine. I didn’t get hurt.”
Relieved, Belle vowed to fix the dress as soon as we returned to the estate. I nodded and leaned back in the carriage seat, exhausted.
Still, getting fresh air had improved my mood a little. Even if this world lacked things like chastity, there were still some redeeming parts. If only the carriage wasn’t headed back to the earl’s mansion, I might have gotten attached to this world.
If the earl had respected Carla as his countess, he should never have touched a maid in the house. What hurt Carla’s pride the most was that the mistress he cheated with was the laundress.
Status shouldn’t matter when it comes to cheating, but Carla was ashamed. Raised in a class-conscious society, she would have preferred he fooled around with noble ladies of similar standing. That way, she might still have had a chance to reclaim him.
But the earl mocked her and reached for a maid—and even whispered that the maid would soon become the new lady of the house.
The earl was truly vile. His treatment of Carla said it all—and what he did to me only confirmed it. He picked a fight the moment I returned to the mansion.
“Your dress is torn. How indecent.”
“I nearly fell off a horse.”
Would Carla have been embarrassed? Or just happy to speak with him at all? Either way, I wasn’t her.
I was just annoyed. As I ascended the stairs, I looked down at him and retorted.
“The fabric must’ve worn out. It’s old.”
It was a jab at the earl who, despite being rich, wouldn’t buy his wife a single new dress. But he wasn’t fazed.
“Frugality is a virtue. But excessive frugality is just miserly.”
I exhaled in disbelief. Typical of him. I decided to use this opportunity to wring a new wardrobe out of him. I wasn’t about to let his stingy comment slide.
“You’re right. I’ll have to get a few new dresses then.”
Only then did the earl twitch his brow in irritation. He raised his head to look at me standing on the stairs. I gripped the railing and smirked. His face twisted.
“You already have too many. It’s wasteful to buy more over a torn hem.”
I scoffed. Carla’s dressing room only had outdated dresses. And even those were few in number.
There’s only so much you can repair and rotate. Maybe that’s why Carla rarely went out?
The earl clearly didn’t even know how many dresses his wife owned—or maybe he just thought it wasn’t worth spending money on.
“Is that so? I see.”
Instead of arguing, I smiled. Pity I couldn’t tell him in advance what I was planning to do.
At dawn the next day, I ordered every dress in the wardrobe to be laundered.
“Madam, all of them, suddenly?”
“Yes. Except for a few indoor ones.”
I offered Belle a prepared excuse.
“They’ve been stored too long. Better to wash them before tailoring. Makes your job easier, right?”
She accepted it readily. The dresses, though outdated, were made of fine fabric and needed careful handling. On top of that, they had been mended so often, washing them was no small task.
As a result, the laundry maids had to work around the clock. Their dark circles made me feel guilty, but there was no helping it. I tormented them for days.
“There’s pilling on the bed sheets.”
I nitpicked over a speck on the sheets, even spilled tea on the tablecloth on purpose. Claimed the curtains were too dull and had them all replaced.
Guilt stabbed at me. While the earl’s mistress wept, innocent maids’ hands became raw.
After two weeks of this, the earl gave in.
“Get what you want tailored. Just don’t overdo it.”
He muttered tiredly without even looking at me. I guess his mistress had been giving him hell.
To think he tormented Carla for a whole year with that kind of fragile resolve—it was almost laughable. But for now, I was satisfied that I had broken his spirit at least a little.
