The Abandoned Duchess Seems to Want a Peaceful Life - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Maid’s Circumstances

“May I speak, Lady Melfina?”

As they locked eyes without yielding, Marie raised her hand lightly. Upon receiving a nod, she directed her pale blue eyes straight ahead.

“I serve you, Lady Melfina, under employment by His Grace, but may I request a transfer from the Duke’s household staff to serve here instead?”

“Certainly not, Marie!”

“Cedric, Marie is speaking with me at the moment.”

While he wouldn’t make a move like a knight grabbing a woman, his aura of anger was palpable. But Marie didn’t even glance Cedric’s way, maintaining a calm expression.

Melfina hadn’t anticipated Marie’s request nor could she fully discern its intent. While she had sensed Marie’s faint affection, this request was unexpected.

“Marie, forgive me for saying this, but I can’t recommend that. Working for the Duke’s household likely means you have a solid recommendation. Am I correct?”

Employees serving noble houses generally required a well-established recommendation. Serving in a Duke’s household often implied connections to noble bloodlines.

To resign as a lady-in-waiting for the Duke’s wife and serve under Lady Melfina, the rural lord of Enka, was a significant change. Despite the potential for growth, it was essentially a position in a small, remote domain, with limited prospects compared to a prestigious noble household.

In response to Melfina’s words, Marie spoke quietly.

“Lady Melfina, my father was a retainer to the former Duke, and my mother was his wife nearly thirty years his junior. Whenever my father stayed at the Duke’s estate, he always brought my mother along. And that’s how I came to be.”

Marie’s hair was a faint, almost silvery blonde. Depending on the light, it could even appear silver.

Her cool, almond-shaped eyes were a pale blue. It was strange that Melfina hadn’t noticed the resemblance sooner.

—She looks like Alexis.

Melfina seemed to grasp what Marie was implying. A bitter smile, uncharacteristic of her, flickered across her face.

“My father already had two elder brothers and one elder sister from his previous marriage. I suppose there was no particular need for me at my birth home. I spent my first five years under my parents’ care, then a year after my younger brother was born, I began my apprenticeship as a lady’s maid in the Duke’s household. There, I had the opportunity to learn etiquette and refinement.”

Though not explicitly stated, it was hinted at clearly enough for anyone to understand.

Marie was the illegitimate child of the former Duke and thus Alexis’s half-sister.

Not only in appearance but also in her consistent expression and cool demeanor, Marie shared many similarities with Alexis.

While it wasn’t uncommon for noble or gentry daughters to serve as apprentices in higher-ranked households, such positions typically began as maids-in-training. Starting directly as a lady’s maid apprentice was evidence of special treatment.

Although tasked with attending to the lady or mistress of the house, lady’s maids were more akin to aides and held a distinct position from general servants.

They often served as assistants to sisters tasked with the responsibilities of nobility and were sometimes treated as quasi-ladies-in-waiting by the noble families they served.

Moreover, since the Aldrands had been without a lady of the house since Alexis’s mother passed away, and Alexis himself remained unmarried until his recent marriage to Melfina, there had been no lady of the house for quite some time.

Given that Marie was brought in as a lady’s maid in a household without a lady, they likely wanted to ensure she had a lifestyle closer to that of a noble, despite being a bastard.

Thus, it was understandable why Marie was chosen as Melfina’s lady’s maid, considering the circumstances.

“Your situation is somewhat clearer now. However, I still don’t see any reason for you to leave the Duke’s household.”

“My parents from my birth home have both passed away, and my younger brother lives in the capital, estranged from our family. It’s been over ten years since I started working for the Duke’s household, so even if I were to leave now, it wouldn’t tarnish anyone’s reputation as a reference.”

“It’s not about that…”

If Alexis had continued to treat Marie as a lady’s maid just like the former Duke did, perhaps he intended to treat her as his half-sister.

Assigning her to Melfina wasn’t just for modeling and supervision as a lady of the house but also perhaps to provide her with opportunities to meet her brother if Melfina were to move to the townhouse in the capital or to accompany her to the royal palace.

Marie, in the prime of her youth with her cool and distinctive beauty typical of the northern regions, held the position of the Duchess’s lady’s maid. She might catch the eye of nobles and bureaucrats entering and exiting the palace, and it wouldn’t be too difficult for any noble with a bit of intelligence to investigate her connection with Alexis.

And if you thought about it that way, Cedric was in the same position. His family belonged to the Marquis household, and the capital was probably closer to his hometown. If he served as Melfina’s guard at the royal palace, maintaining ties with his family would have been easy.

Surely, Alexis hadn’t expected to settle the two of them in such a remote corner. As a daughter born from the fun-loving Duchess, she was laughed at for her questionable origins. It was certainly an unconventional move. Of course, she didn’t know Alexis’s intentions, and regardless of her feelings towards the two of them, she couldn’t help but feel a little off the mark regarding Alexis.

“Um, so why the job change?”

“I’m just not cut out to be a lady’s maid.”

I thought she might not want to be treated as a bastard or feel suffocated, but Marie simply stated it without hesitation.

“Seeing other children of servants of the same age working hard with calloused hands while I was just forced to watch was embarrassing. I didn’t really want to learn manners and culture as a lady that I would never use in practice. I’m not interested in pretty dresses, and if anything, I wanted to wear cotton clothes, make friends, and go out in town on holidays for some snacks.”

Marie’s words left both me and Cedric speechless.

Marie had always been a beautiful woman with a composed expression, giving off a cool and unmovable impression. I never imagined she had such thoughts deep inside.

“Besides, even though Lady Melfina doesn’t mind herself, she doesn’t let me do the washing here. I understand that it’s because she considers me a ‘lady’s maid’. But then Lady Melfina herself says there’s no point in pretending to be a Duchess here… I was jealous of that.”

“Well, there’s nothing to be jealous of, you know? Being told by your husband that you can do whatever you want is, well, kind of insulting for a noblewoman.”

“Treating someone who’s not actually the daughter of the house as if she were one is an insult to various people in various positions.”

Even among the servants, she wasn’t just a servant. Even when treated as a lady, she wasn’t truly one.

You wouldn’t understand until you were in that position, but in a way, not being demanded by one’s husband might have similarities to being unwanted, like a wife who wasn’t asked for.

“I’ll never become a Duchess’s daughter. And even if I marry into some noble family, I’ll still end up in a position where the nobles gave a commoner servant away. But if I were to marry a commoner in the position of a lady’s maid, it would lower the value of the other unmarried servants in the Duke’s household… It’s all just too bothersome for me.”

It might sound like a luxurious dilemma, but this was the real world, not just some maiden game. Besides the nobles, there were many poor commoners, and it wasn’t uncommon for them to starve or die without proper medical care.

The position of being able to wear beautiful clothes, enjoy good meals, and even have the right to choose a wealthy man was not something easily attainable.

But Melfina argued that her sixteen years of living as Melfina were not enough.

Even as a Duchess’s daughter living free from poverty, Melfina, who was not loved by her parents, always felt miserable somewhere. To overcome this, she had desperately studied and behaved as a noblewoman.

Even if she couldn’t obtain her parents’ love, she had been optimistic about using what she had learned so far in her future marriage. However, she was denied all of that by the man she married immediately after the wedding.

The original Melfina, apart from her desperate pride, had nothing else to support her. And then came Maria, an innocent and beautiful saint who was loved by everyone, including her husband, who rejected Melfina despite knowing nothing of noble education or etiquette.

The groundwork for Melfina becoming a villainess was laid by the people surrounding her other than Melfina herself. Yet, the responsibility fell solely on Melfina’s shoulders.

In the original story, the hero and heroine ended up together, happily ever after. But Melfina’s life, enduring a harsh existence in a distant convent, continued beyond that.

In routes other than Alexis’, Melfina doesn’t have much of a presence. I can’t know what her future holds, but perhaps she lived in the capital, indulging in social activities and luxury, feeling unfulfilled while neglecting her duty to bear children as a frivolous Duchess.

In Alexis’ route, upon hearing that her husband and the saint had become a couple, what kind of feelings did Melfina experience?

“If that’s what you wish for, Marie, I don’t mind. Would you prefer to be treated as a maid? Or do you have other preferences?”

Apart from maids, other female servants might include nurses, governesses, and perhaps cooks. There’s no need for nurses or governesses, and Marie is well aware that there’s no demand for them.

For the first time, Marie showed a hesitant expression. She glanced down at her lap, then glanced at me before lifting her face with determination.

“If possible, I’d like to be your secretary.”

“A secretary…”

“I can read, write, and do calculations. Since there wasn’t anyone to serve as a maid, I helped with the duties of the housekeeper and butler, so I can handle bookkeeping and inventory management. I want to assist you, as the lord of the domain, Melfina.”

“That would be… incredibly helpful!”

I couldn’t help but lean forward. It might not be proper for a noblewoman’s demeanor, but I couldn’t help it; it felt like the push I needed.

“I’ll try to keep your salary as close to what it is now as possible. I really want to ask you for this, Marie.”

“…Thank you very much.”

Marie, who usually remained cool and almost expressionless, smiled softly. With her naturally beautiful features, it was like watching a white flower bloom.

“I’ll do my best to meet your expectations, Melfina.”

“Yes, please do, Marie.”

We gazed at each other for a moment, then both simultaneously felt embarrassed and looked away.

For Melfina, who hadn’t had close female friends of her own age until now, it was an unfamiliar but pleasant awkwardness.

“Oh my, it seems we’ve forgotten all about Cedric, haven’t we?”

Well, whether to return to the capital or to remain by Melfina’s side as her guardian is not a decision that can be made hastily.

Cedric is naturally a very serious knight.

Surely he wouldn’t resort to violence to force Melfina back to the capital, even if he’s been instructed to do so. It would be best to observe the situation for a while and then make a decision.