The next day, an angry-sounding voice suddenly woke Ariel up. “It’s time for breakfast.”
She sat up in a daze and saw that the maid from yesterday had brought Ariel’s meal with a sour look on her face. Once again, she didn’t wait for a reply from Ariel, irritably placing the tray on the desk with a clatter and turning on her heel to leave.
“Wait!” Ariel cried out hurriedly.
The attendant kept walking away as if she hadn’t heard anything.
Ariel tried again. “I want some water to wash my face! And my body’s all sticky too, so I want a bath!”
The maid clicked her tongue. “If you want water, get it yourself!” she said with annoyance, and left.
However, Ariel didn’t lose heart. “Well, then I guess I will,” she decided and carefully made her way down the attic stairs.
It should be around here... Ariel thought as she approached a building a short distance from House Balladur’s main residence, where the staff workrooms were located. The servants all cast her puzzled looks as she walked inside the building. The facilities included a storeroom, a general-purpose kitchen, another kitchen dedicated to baking, and finally the laundry room. Inside, the staff were busily washing clothes.
Ariel took a deep breath, and addressed a middle-aged woman. “Hello. Er, I’d like to wash my body. Could I take some water?” she asked. I wonder if this manner of speech is fine...
Up until now, Ariel had only ever given her servants orders. She’d say things like “Come on! Hurry up and bring the water!” or “You should’ve brought it without being told!” But she was sure that if she tried doing that here, nobody would respond to her. That was why she was trying to mimic her stepsister Jeanette’s attitude. She spoke kindly, without losing her temper, and with a friendly smile on her face.
I bet Jeanette would’ve been even more energetic, but surely I don’t have to imitate that too...?!
The woman Ariel had spoken to muttered, “What’s that?” and looked up with a flash of annoyance. But when she spotted Ariel, she looked startled. “Y-Your Ladyship?!” she exclaimed. She hadn’t been expecting Ariel to show up here. Her face went through a number of expressions in a very short amount of time. Hatred based on the rumors she heard about Ariel being a wicked woman, confusion as to why Ariel was here, and conflict over whether she should heed Ariel’s request.
After a long moment of silence, she said, “The water’s over there, so feel free to take some!” Just like the maid from before, this woman concluded that she’d treat Ariel in an unsociable and brusque manner.
“Then I will. Thank you.” Ariel smiled, and picked up a nearby bucket. She filled it with water, and added some hot water from a pot that happened to be boiling. “Oh, I’ll borrow this towel too,” she said as she took one of the folded towels that was waiting to be brought into the manor.
The flabbergasted woman watched her, but Ariel didn’t care. The marquis said that he’ll provide my basic necessities. The staff told me to take it, so this doesn’t count as stealing, right? Though her heart was beating a little fast out of nerves, Ariel managed to bring the bucket back to the attic.
The water-filled bucket had been heavy, but Ariel felt relieved to be able to cleanse her body. As she changed into the clothes she’d brought with her from the Roussel state, she thought, I live in an attic and bathing is a little inconvenient, but this might actually be fairly comfortable. At least I don’t have to put up with mother taking her anger out on me.
Ariel thought about Leila, who’d always been raging over Jeanette. As she recalled the way her mother had sold her off, a stab of pain went through her heart, but she quickly shook her head. There was no point thinking about that now. Instead, she grabbed the feather duster that Jeanette had given her.
“All right! Time to clean whatever I didn’t get to yesterday! Once I’m done, maybe I’ll take a walk? Surely they won’t be mad at me just for walking around?”
And with that, Ariel’s modest new life had begun.
“Good work, Tabitha. I’ll be taking some hot water today as well,” Ariel said, picking up her bucket as swiftly as she had for the past couple of days.
Tabitha was the middle-aged woman Ariel had spoken to during her first visit to the servants’ building, and she seemed to be in charge of running the laundry room. She and the other staff were stealing glances at Ariel, but the girl didn’t mind.
Right as Ariel was about to reach for a towel, she remembered something. “Ah, I’ve been meaning to give this to you. I got it from my sister. Feel free to use it.”
“Wh-What is this...?” Tabitha inquired, looking even more perplexed than before as she gazed at the object Ariel was holding. It was a strange wooden frame with a large number of clothespins. The rectangular frame had a hook affixed to it, and the clothespins were spaced apart along its length at equal intervals.
“My sister calls this the clothespin hanger,” Ariel explained.
“Clothespin hanger...?” Tabitha repeated, squinting at the unfamiliar item.
Ariel put the bucket down and approached a nearby clothesline. “First, you hang this on the clothesline.” She did so, then picked up a pair of wet socks. “And then you use the clothespins to hang the small pieces of laundry. Like this...”
Snap. Snap. Snap.
“Oh...?!” Tabitha’s eyes widened in surprise as she watched Ariel hang up the laundry.
“See? With this tool, you can dry all the socks!” Ariel said proudly. In front of her, the socks were all neatly hung up in a row while occupying a minimal amount of space.
“Incredible! There’s so many socks, but they all fit on here!”
“And given the frame’s size... We could use it inside on rainy days, right?!”
“Oh, could I hang my own clothes in the empty space? I got mud on them yesterday, and I was just thinking of giving them a wash!”
The female staff swarmed the clothespin hanger, talking excitedly among each other. Ariel watched them proudly from the side, her arms crossed. Hee hee! It’s very useful, isn’t it? Sister sent it to me after I told her in a letter that I do my own laundry. Based on the women’s reactions, it seemed they liked it too. In that case, giving it to them had been the right choice. Concluding as much in her mind, Ariel turned away to get her towel.
“Your Ladyship!”
“Wah!” Ariel shrieked when someone suddenly called out to her. She turned around, only to find Tabitha with her hands on her hips, glaring at her. The woman had always treated Ariel curtly, but this was the first time she had glowered at her like that. Oh no... Did I do something wrong? Maybe I hurt her pride? Intimidated, Ariel felt a cold sweat grip her.
Tabitha held out her hand, as if demanding Ariel to hand something over. “Humph!”
“Huh...? D-Do you want another hanger? I’m sorry, I only had one.”
“That’s not it!” the woman responded vexedly, stomping over to Ariel.
“Ah!” Ariel exclaimed as Tabitha snatched the bucket from her hands. “H-Huh...?”
While Ariel stood there blankly, Tabitha skillfully filled the bucket with just the right amounts of cold and hot water to create the perfect temperature. Then, she once again threatened Ariel. “Don’t just stand there! If you don’t hurry back to your room, the water will go cold. Or are you telling me you don’t want a hot bath?!”
“N-No, I do!”
“Then follow me!” Tabitha instructed, and began walking away gruffly.
Ariel had no clue what was going on, but she chased after the woman.
The other staff giggled as they watched them, and one of the younger girls whispered to Ariel, “Ms. Tabitha is saying that she’ll prepare hot baths for you from now on, Your Ladyship.”
“R-Really...?”
“And you over there!” Tabitha exclaimed, whipping around and pointing toward the servant who’d mentioned she wanted to dry her own clothes earlier. “You can use the free space to dry your things, but only for today. From tomorrow onward, that spot’s reserved for Her Ladyship’s clothes!”
“And that’s her saying we’re going to do your laundry starting tomorrow,” the young girl once again explained to Ariel.
“Really...?” Ariel could only blink at this sudden development. “But is it really fine for her to treat me so nicely just because I gave her a new tool...?”
The girl giggled. “What are you saying? You’re the lady of the house. Well...to be honest, we heard that some terribly wicked woman was coming, and that the maids in the main residence hated her, so we kept our distance from you...”
It shouldn’t have been surprising at this stage, but it turned out that the staff really did hate Ariel.
“But the staff at House Balladur aren’t so ungrateful as to treat a kind person coldly,” the girl finished with a friendly smile.
It was the first time anyone had smiled at Ariel since she’d arrived at the Balladur manor.