Her long, straight, golden, crown-like hair fell straight down around her face. Her eyes were too big for her small face, and they were as blue as the ocean.
She looked at Claire.
The girl that looked like a doll smiled with the sun rays.
“Won’t you get up right now?”
Lady Stanton, who was in her mid-40s, was the duke’s mother.
Claire, who was sitting on Wendy, pulled her teeth away from Wendy’s wrist, which she had been biting hard.
Blood came out of the wrist that had been bit. Wendy cried out loud after seeing her own hand.
Claire wiped the blood off her lips and got to her feet.
The housekeepers stood in a line and bowed their heads.
“Who are these troublemakers? Right when the Duke is about to leave…”
“Mom, I think it would be best to find out what happened before you get upset.”
Alisha, a beautiful girl with a lot of style, put her thin hand on Lady Stanton’s sleeve.
“Stop crying, Wendy, and get up!”
Wendy got up slowly from where she had been sitting on the floor. She held on to her cut wrist as tears ran down her face.
“I’m sorry… hic.”
Wendy couldn’t finish her sentence because she was still sobbing.
“What happened? Tell me.”
“May I tell you?”
Claire put up her hand in a lively way.
Everyone there, including Lady Stanton, turned to look at Claire.
“She must be completely crazy.”
“What does she think she’s doing by talking?”
The maids couldn’t stand her.
“Everyone, be quiet!”
When they heard the sharp voice, the girls immediately shut their mouths.
In the meantime, Claire quickly straightened up and fixed her messy hair.
“Well… Who are you?”
Lady Stanton’s brows furrowed as if she were trying to remember something.
“I’m Claire McIlroy.”
“Claire McIlroy?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t remember seeing your face. Do you work at our mansion?”
“The Valles Monastery sent me here three years ago.”
“Valles Monastery? But wait, the name of the Monastery head there is…”
“Director Anafi Hailrich.”
“It’s the place we helped. I asked them to let me take in a child, which I remember just now.”
“That is me.”
When Claire said that, Lady Stanton’s eyes got bigger.
“I heard that you couldn’t speak?”
“It’s not that I couldn’t, but I just didn’t speak.”
“Why didn’t you speak?”
“I’m… shy.”
“You’re shy… yet I see you fighting hard just now.”
Lady Stanton looked at Claire up and down as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Madame, don’t believe what she says.”
Cindy cut her off.
“What do you mean?”
“The fact that she said she didn’t speak even though she could shows that she’s smart. How would we know what else she’s hiding?”
“Madame, I’m not hiding anything. It is true that I am shy, I mean… it’s better than someone who gives her job away just because she’s too lazy to do it herself.”
“Hey, who do you think you are to act like that?”
Cindy snapped at her in an effort to shut her up.
“Stop it, both of you!”
Lady Stanton yelled.
Startled, the girls bowed their heads.
Still, they gave Claire dirty looks when Lady Stanton wasn’t looking.
They thought it was brave of Claire to talk to the woman so lightly, even though it could get them all in trouble.
There was a lot of tension in the air.
“Who is that person? Someone who gives other people work to do.”
The tense mood was broken by a clear voice.
Everyone looked at the person who made the sound.
Alisha looked innocent as she asked, and everyone looked at her.
“I want to know who that clever person is. Don’t you?”
“I know who that clever person is.”
Wendy stepped forward after she stopped crying. Her face showed that she was motivated.
“First, I’ll explain why I got into a fight with that girl.”
Wendy gave Claire a sly look as she looked at her.
Claire made a frown. If she told them the reason, it would hurt her, but Wendy seemed pretty sure of herself.
“As you know, my Lady, I’m in charge of cleaning, and it’s also my job to make sure they did a good job.”
After Wendy was done talking, she pointed at Claire and Hanna.
“I checked the fireplace in the mansion earlier, but they messed up cleaning it. When I told them to do it again, they refused and said they couldn’t, so I scolded them.”
“Then what?”
With an angry face, Lady Stanton pushed.
“All of a sudden, Claire bit my wrist.”
Wendy held up her hand. The bite mark still had blood coming out of it.
“Alright, you can put that down.”
Lady Stanton made an unhappy face and turned her head. Then she looked very angry at Claire.
“You’re something else. You have the nerve to try and tell the whole story and try blaming Wendy for your mistakes?”
Claire couldn’t say anything.
Wendy was the one who cleverly turned things around.
“If they told you to clean the fireplace, you should have done it. Why are you so cocky?”
“Madame, the fireplace was thoroughly cleaned.”
“She’s lying. Please believe in me.”
Wendy showed her apron and dress with a finger. She showed off the places where there was a lot of soot.
“If you cleaned it right, it shouldn’t have been stained, right?”
“No, no, that’s not it!”
Claire shook her head very hard.
“How evil of you to deny it when the proof is right there in front of your eyes.”
Mrs. Stanton looked down her nose at Claire. Wendy stood next to her and smiled in a mean way.
“Madame…”
Mrs. Stanton’s heart was already set on Wendy, so it didn’t matter what Claire said.
Claire became the evil maid who couldn’t do her job properly.
Hanna looked upset and stomped her feet, and the other maids laughed and enjoyed the scene behind her back.
“We can’t keep someone like you, even if the Director asked us to. Get out of here right now…”
“Wait a moment, Madame!”
At that time, Claire yelled with a serious look on her face.
“You must be crazy! How dare you talk over Madame while she’s talking!”
The maids whispered as they saw Claire step forward with courage.
“We cleaned the ashes from the fireplace thoroughly. Please believe us.”
“Do you have proof? It looks like proof that you didn’t clean.”
Mrs. Stanton took a quick look at Wendy’s smoky clothes.
“There is proof.”
“What proof do you have? Madame, you don’t have to listen to this liar any longer…”
Claire hurried over to Wendy, who was talking. She got on her knees and quickly pulled Wendy’s skirt up. Under the gray skirt was a white petticoat that could be seen.
“Oh, what are you doing?!”
Wendy yelled and pulled her skirt down with both hands.
“Stop.”
At that time, Mrs. Stanton put her hand up, she looked very upset.
Wendy stopped what she was doing.
“What on earth is that?”
Mrs. Stanton looked at the black handprints all over the white skirt.
The girls’ eyes went to the skirt as well.
“This, this…”
Claire spoke up as Wendy stuttered and got red in the face.
“Wendy’s clothes would have been dirty if she had cleaned the fireplace instead of us, but she didn’t. As you just heard, she told us to do it again, so she didn’t clean the fireplace and had no reason to get soot on her.”
Claire told the same lie that Wendy had told before.
After Wendy saw this, she clenched her teeth. She seemed very angry.
“So you’re saying Wendy put the soot there on purpose?”
“Yes, because these handprints show it.”
Claire pointed to the black handprints that were all over the dress.
“She got soot on her hands by rubbing the fireplace, then used those hands to get her clothes dirty and wiped them on her petticoat to cover it up.”
“Wendy”
Mrs. Stanton gave Wendy a hard look. Everyone looked at Wendy.
Wendy’s face got white. She was sweating as she looked around while shaking.
“No, it’s not true! Madame, I’ve been wronged! Look, she bit me and now I’m bleeding. Why do I have to go through this?”
Wendy, who was trapped, knelt down desperately.
“Be quiet! How dare you lie to me?”
“Madame, this is a trick. That girl has something against you and is lying to you. Cindy, speak up!”
Wendy became more desperate as Mrs. Stanton’s face didn’t change, so she clung to Cindy’s skirt.
“Hey, why are you doing that? Madame, I have no idea what she’s talking about.”
Cindy got up quickly. Then, she shook Wendy’s hand off her skirt like she was trying to get rid of dirt.
“Cindy, you said you thought it would be fun too.”
“What a load of rubbish! When did I ever say that?”
Cindy tried not to look at Wendy. She moved away from Wendy, who was stuck to her like a bug. If she wasn’t careful, Mrs. Stanton might think she was lying as well. If that happens, she might end up like Wendy.
“Don’t lie Cindy!”
“Did you also trick me?”
Cindy quickly got on her knees after Mrs. Stanton said something in a sharp voice.
“No, Wendy did put ashes on purpose, that’s true.”
“I already knew it.”
“But I told her not to do it! Even if it was just a joke, I told her not to go too far, because it would be a disadvantage for Claire!”
When Wendy heard what Cindy said, she opened her mouth in shock. Cindy kept telling Mrs. Stanton stuff that would save her own butt.
“Wendy has always picked on Claire, saying she can’t talk or work. It was Wendy’s lie that got them kicked out of their room and made them sleep in the stable.”
“What’s that all about?”
Mrs. Stanton made a face.
“A few days ago, they spilled a bucket of filth. Claire dropped the handle of the bucket because Wendy bumped into her on purpose. Wendy’s clothes got dirty because of Claire’s mistake, and Wendy made a big deal about it, saying she couldn’t sleep with Claire…”
“Wendy.”
After Mrs. Stanton heard everything, she called out to Wendy in a cold way.
“Ma— Madame…”
Wendy replied with a sad look on her face.
“I really hate people who lie.”
