The First Female Duke

Chapter 5

Polina left just as Mary returned, having just gone to the kitchen to fetch Edith her daily dose of blueberry creme brulee.

Edith was a little glad that Mary wasn't there just now, or the girl would have turned white with fear if her mother had said something to her face about getting another maid.

However, Edith envisioned this scenario afterward, and felt that it couldn't possibly happen, because her mother's noble upbringing wouldn't allow her to commit such an act - even if the person she was dealing with was just a maid.

Edith didn't enjoy her sweetheart as happily as she usually did, and the polished silver spoon squeezed in her hand for a moment before letting it go.

Mary was puzzled, "Miss?"

Edith leaned her body back in the chair behind her, tilting her head as she pondered the wording, and after half a day's thought she decided to say it politely, because as far as she knew, Mary was a bit of a glassy-eyed girl.

"Ahem ...... that, Mary ah, how have you been lately back in Tagmart, did anyone give you trouble?"

Trouble? It was of course impossible to have, as she was the only personal maid of the lady in plain sight, the castle's servants wouldn't be stupid enough to give her trouble to her face. So Mary shook her head honestly.

Edith trailed off with an oh-so-long voice, "In that case, that's good, I suppose there's something I need to tell you, mother says I'm required by rule to have at least two personal maids around me, and as it stands right now, there's still an empty seat." Edith looked up at Mary's expression, "So, you understand, right?"

Mary did freeze for a moment, but not in the panic Edith had expected, she nodded with a slow reaction, "Oh! In that case, in a young lady's position, that's as it should be, as it should be."

This was of course not very good news, but Mary had been prepared for it, like she said before, it was true that she didn't have anyone to give her any trouble in Tagmart, but Mary wasn't stupid, she could feel the servants in the castle looking at her in a different way.

It was as if they were saying, "You, a person who didn't even go to the housekeeping academy, who are you to serve Miss Edith? Who are you to serve the future heir of the castle?

Mary had grown up with herself since she was a child, Edith could still see her emotions, she knew that this girl was very scared right now, Edith thought about it, reached out her hand and patted her arm, and said seriously:

"Mary, you don't have to worry, without my permission, no one in this castle can replace you."

Perhaps from the perspective of business ability, many servants in the castle were better than Mary, but Mary was different in Edith's mind, she grew up with herself, Edith could see that there was always a sincere fear and timidity in this girl's heart.

Just like when she first came to this world, she was terrified and cautious.

There were no words more reassuring to Mary, and she mused in her mind that Mademoiselle was the best aristocrat in the world.

With Edith's words as a primer, Mary did indeed not panic, and after she calmed down and thought about it, she still felt that she needed to talk to her aunt about it.

Mrs. Mowgli always seems to have a way to achieve the results she wants, for example, this time, she smoothly mixed into the Taggart's kitchen, there is even a special stove, she played the reason is very simple, Miss Edith's favorite desserts she made, coincidentally the day Miss Edith really asked her to make it by name, of course, the kitchen steward is a discerning, and without saying anything, gave her a share of a cooker, but also set aside a maid to give her a hand. and allocated a maid to help her.

Mrs. Mowgli was more at ease with all this than the worried Mary.

"You mean, Madame means that she intends to find another personal maid for the young lady." Mrs. Mowgli spoke in a calm tone.

Mary nodded, at the moment they were standing in a corner, the good thing about a big castle was that in some places you wouldn't even see much of anyone all day.

"It's not a bad thing." Perhaps sensing that her niece was not in a good mood, Mrs. Mowgli said in a light-hearted manner, "Mary, you need to know that in a noble family like this, with a lady's status, it's not possible to have only one personal maid."

"Normally, you are all supposed to be replaced, but the current situation is no, madam just added another maid for the young lady, you should feel thankful."

Mary hung her head, "It was Mademoiselle who saved me."

"So what are you worried about?"

"I... I'm afraid that the new maid is too good and I don't even have a housekeeping academy ......"

Mrs. Mowgli interrupted her with a wave of her hand, her tone calm and even a little cruel, "That maid will inevitably be better than you, there's no doubt about it, and this castle is full of people who want to take your place." Mary opened her mouth, struck by Mrs. Mowgli's bluntness.

Ignoring her niece's face, Mrs. Mowgli lifted her chin, "But so what? Just think about it, those people have things that other people don't necessarily have, but you have things that those people definitely don't have."

"Mary, my silly child, you've got to figure out what your strengths are."

"As long as you can keep your strengths, no one can replace you."

Mrs. Mowgli's words were like opening the door to a new world for Mary, she always used to feel inferior that she didn't go to the housekeeping academy, and that she wasn't shrewd and capable enough, but she forgot that almost every servant in the castle had received special training, and these conditions were nothing special or considered as advantages in the eyes of the masters.

All she needed to do was find what made her special, then magnify it and keep it.

"Auntie, if only I could be as smart as you." Mary said emotionally.

As a result, Mrs. Mowgli shook her head as she said quaintly and regretfully, "Perhaps it is precisely because of the way you are now that you will be seen by Miss Edith."

There was good in being silly. Too clever and too thoughtful, and the masters are rather afraid to be reassured.

Therefore, Mary could become the personal maid of a great nobleman by mistake, while she could only be in the kitchen.

That was probably fate.

Old Steward Conde's mobility was first-rate, and almost as soon as Paulina had given this order, he was already mentally sifting through suitable candidates.

First of all, it must be a worldly servant of the Willey family, otherwise it is not assured. Attended the butler's academy, excellent business ability this is the base manipulation, not more to say.

On that day, all the servants up and down the castle knew that Miss Edith was going to choose a new maid.

-- It was certainly sooner rather than later, and the crowd was only anxious that the day had come too late.

From the day Her Ladyship returned to Tagmart with Miss Edith, an unknown number of people had their eyes on the position. Originally they had thought there would be two vacancies, for they had heard that Miss Edith's original personal maid brought back from outside, yes the one called Mary, had not even attended housekeeping academy, and the crowd had thought that she was surely to be replaced, but it turned out that she was not.

It wasn't good news for them, because one less vacancy meant more pressure on them to compete.

Edith wasn't aware of how the maids in the castle were pulling out all the stops, it wasn't something that should bother her. Even when Polina asked her if she wanted to pick her own, Edith shook her head no, she was thinking that picking her own wouldn't be much different from her mother picking for her.

Polina had no problem with her choice, so everything went very smoothly, and on the very next day, Edith met her new maid.

Old Steward Conde led her to Edith in person, with a straight back and a shrewd gaze; Edith had always felt that Conde had the most style out of all these servants, which, come to think of it, was probably what a steward would look like.

Conde bowed slightly, gently and respectfully:

"How does she look to you, miss?"

He beckoned, and a tall, thin young girl came up behind him, and what was side-splitting was that the girl had black hair, and black hair could be a bit of a rarity in this world.

It surprised and endeared Edith.

"Honorable Miss Willey, I am Leaving West and would like to offer you all my loyalty." She curtsied toward Edith.

Lexi was able to be brought to her by Kant, so obviously her mother's side had already seen her, and now, with a nod from Edith, she would officially become her personal maid.

If Edith didn't want it - that was of course fine, just get another one.

Naturally she couldn't tell much from just looking at each other, Edith wasn't much of a demanding person to begin with, and the person her mother had picked for her was certainly trustworthy in every way anyway, so with that in mind she flashed a grin at Lexi.

"Lexi is it, nice to meet you, then from now on, you'll be my personal maid, I hope you'll get along well with Mary."

Soon it would be time for the governess to teach a lesson for Edith, so she couldn't stay here for too long.

Kant excused himself very much with a wink, and Lexi came out to see him off, and when he reached the door, Kant still couldn't resist a reminder:

"You and the other personal maid beside Miss, get along or be more amicable."

Conde's tone was sincere, because in his opinion, there was no benefit for Li Xi to go up against Mary, and if it got ugly, it would even cause her to lose this hard-earned position, and Li Xi was picked by him, so when the time came, even he would be disgraced.

Li Xi nodded and said sincerely, "Steward Conde, I know."

Of course she couldn't be stupid enough to go up against Mary, Lexi knew very well in her heart, no matter what reason Mary hadn't been replaced, it was also an indisputable fact that she came from the outside without professional training, and the person didn't look as if she was very shrewd, so that was fine, otherwise, what if she was squeezed out, and then there was another one that was smarter and competed with herself?

She wasn't that stupid.

Edith was unaware of the servants' private little thoughts; she was currently thinking about what her mother had just said to her.

Before the governess had given her lesson, her mother had walked in, and the usual mild-mannered magic-based female teacher had wisely retreated to the door.

Polina gently stroked Edith's hair and told her:

"Remember what I told you earlier about school?"

Edith nodded stiffly, one of the more embarrassing things was that she was eight years old, and to this day she had never been to school, all of her knowledge was done through her tutor, which for a while made Edith think that nobles in this world didn't have to go to school.

But now looking at the situation it seemed like they weren't.

"I've contacted Violet Junior Academy for you, it's the best magical noble school in Nobia City." It was still customary for Polina to ask for Edith's opinion, "Do you want to go? You can meet a lot of new friends at the academy."

Polina had always owed Edith something, because of her, Edith had grown up without even a decent playmate her own age.

Edith was surprised at first, but she didn't have a problem with it. Have you ever seen a child who doesn't go to school? It's normal to go to school, it's not normal not to go to school, she nodded her head in a very well-adjusted way.

So, in two days, Edith will end her idleness at home and become a school child.

She could sense that her mother had sent her to school just so she could meet some playmates, not to "study hard."

Her mother told her that she had two years to prepare herself between now and the time she turned ten, and that after two years, she would have her magic awakened. And only when her magic awakens will everything truly begin.

Edith automatically translated her mother's words in her head to the effect that-

You still have two years to have fun now, after two years, it's ......

It's such a sad story.