Episode 5: Celly’s Temptation
Ella hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to wake the duke who was sleeping peacefully, but then quietly slipped out of the bedroom and headed toward the laundry room.
“Aunt Rula, are the towels and the robe ready for the duke?”
Rula, who was tidying up laundry that had dried in the sun in the small kitchen, handed Ella a neatly folded pile of towels and a bathrobe from a corner.
“Preparing for the duke’s bath?”
“Yes.”
“Oh dear, usually it takes two or three people to attend to the duke, but you’re doing it all by yourself? Taking care of the bath alone too, Ella?”
“Yes, I have no choice.”
When Ella smiled and replied, Rula, feeling sorry for her, placed an apple in Ella’s apron pocket and patted her shoulder.
Celly, who had been folding clothes and listening to the conversation, suddenly interrupted. Although she was just folding laundry in the laundry room now, she was sure that the duke would immediately assign her as his personal maid once he saw her beauty. To achieve that, she needed to encounter the duke.
“Bath duty? I’ll do it!”
Rula, unable to tolerate Celly’s sudden claim that she would serve the duke despite not even being able to handle laundry properly, lost her temper.
“Celly! Are you out of your mind? You can’t even handle the laundry properly, and you think you can serve the duke? There are more than ten maids who’ve been dismissed for displeasing the duke! Someone like you, clumsy and tactless, will get fired the moment you step in!”
Celly had been grumbling all morning while half-heartedly learning the laundry work. Kind-hearted Rula had been tolerating her poor attitude until finally exploding in anger.
Startled by Rula’s outburst, Celly widened her eyes, then ran out of the laundry room on the verge of tears.
“Honestly! I don’t understand how someone like her got a recommendation,” Rula muttered, glancing at the messily folded clothes. Even though she was short-staffed, she’d rather work alone than with someone like Celly.
“Shall I go get her?”
Ella asked, just in case, but Rula shook her head, stopping her.
“No, I’ll talk to the head maid tomorrow and have her sent somewhere else. No matter how busy I am, I can’t work with someone like her.”
“Are you sure?”
Ella asked, concerned for Rula, who worked alone in the laundry room. But Rula nodded firmly, insisting she would send Celly away.
“I’m fine, so you go quickly. You’re the only one by the duke’s side.”
“Yes, then thank you.”
Ella greeted Rula, then carried the towels and bathrobe she had received from the laundry room toward the duke’s bathroom. Carrying so many towels alone, her view was obstructed, so she carefully ascended the stairs.
What Ella didn’t see was Celly, crouched in a corner of the hallway after running out of the laundry room, watching Ella climb the stairs.
“If only she weren’t here, I wouldn’t have been humiliated in the laundry room, and I would’ve become the duke’s personal maid. If only she weren’t here…”
Blaming all her misfortune on Ella, Celly hesitated, then impulsively pushed Ella down the stairs.
Caught off guard, Ella lost her balance and tumbled down. Though the stairs weren’t very high, she hit her head and lost consciousness.
“It’s not a high fall, so I probably didn’t get hurt much,” Celly muttered to herself, trying to reassure herself. Picking up some towels that had fallen in the hallway, she then proceeded to the duke’s bathroom.
“When the duke sees me, he’ll make me his personal maid immediately. And since he’s unmarried and I’m beautiful, maybe… if I serve him in bed too, this miserable maid life will finally be over!”
Celly imagined herself as the duke’s concubine, filled the bathtub with water, and poured in her favorite strong fragrance.
As the overpowering scent filled the bathroom, she let her luscious blonde hair flow down her back and checked her reflection in the mirror.
“A little lacking to seduce the duke…”
Looking at her fully buttoned maid uniform, she unfastened a few buttons to accentuate her full chest and smiled with satisfaction.
“Ha, this miserable maid life ends today.”
Satisfied with her appearance, Celly waited for the duke to enter. Soon, the bathroom door opened, revealing the duke she had been eagerly anticipating.
The duke woke from a rare, sweet nap due to the noisy sounds from the bathroom.
The room, once filled with the fresh scent of herbs that lingered on Ella’s fingertips, was now silent and lonely. Seeing that Ella was not in the room, he headed to the bathroom.
Usually, Ella would finish preparing the bath and leave since the duke disliked showing his body to others. But today, she remained in the bathroom, which felt strange, and he called out her name.
“Ella?”
But the maid in the bathroom was not Ella. Seeing a new maid in his bath without permission, the duke frowned.
Moreover, the room reeked of cheap, nauseating fragrance, causing a throbbing headache and irritation.
“Good day, Duke. I’m the new maid, Celly. Today, I’ll be attending your bath,” she said, smiling lecherously and reaching out to touch the duke without permission. He recoiled, shivering at the creepiness of her touch.
“You don’t need to be shy, Duke. Now, please take off your coat.”
Celly, thinking the duke was embarrassed by her beauty due to the steamy haze in the room, pressed closer and started unbuttoning his shirt.
Feeling his firm muscles through the fabric, she quickly unfastened the buttons with a mischievous smile.
However, instead of the anticipated reaction, she saw horrifying scars where clothing had hidden them—burn marks, slash wounds, and arrow punctures. She let out a small scream in shock.
“Gross… ugh.”
She hurriedly covered her mouth but had already revealed her thoughts. Nervously, she tried to explain herself.
“Ah, I… that’s not…”
Before she could finish, the duke pulled her forcefully out of the bathroom with a cold, sinister smile.
“Ahhh!”
Celly screamed as he grabbed her arm roughly and threw her into the hallway.
“Thud!”
“Ahhh!”
She touched her nose in pain and blood poured out. Raising her head in shock at her reflection, she met the duke’s cold gaze. Feeling his contempt, she trembled in fear, forgetting her pain.
“What… what is this… he’s scary…”
Unlike other men who had always admired her, she saw no trace of kindness in his eyes.
At last, she realized the rumors of the duke’s cruelty were true.
“I-I’m sorry…”
She knelt and begged, realizing she had overstepped. Without a word, the duke entered his room and took a sword from the wall.
The sound of the dragging sword made her scream. Remembering rumors of him laughing while piling enemy heads on battlefields, she fell to her knees, begging.
“Ahhh! Please spare me!”
The butler, head maid, and household staff, who had been eating, heard her screams and rushed to the duke’s room.
“What’s going on? Did someone offend the duke again?”
“Who is it? Everyone was in the dining hall.”
“They’ve been quiet for a while, what now?”
Arriving at the bedroom, they saw Celly begging for mercy with a bloody nose.
“Isn’t that Celly?”
“Oh my, why is she doing that?”
The household staff, infatuated with her pretty face, turned away, too afraid of the duke’s murderous expression to help.
The butler and head maid trembled, unable to intervene.
Meanwhile, Ella, dusting off her soiled apron, calmly walked into the bedroom.
She greeted the staff lightly and approached the duke, who still held the sword.
“Give me the sword. I’ll sharpen it and put it back properly.”
The staff held their breath as Ella approached naturally, and the duke handed her the sword without resistance.
