Try begging

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A good maid, a cunning spy, a heartbreaking first love, and the daughter of an enemy to kill.

…And, the fugitive who disappeared carrying the child.

The woman had many names for herself.

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The moment she opened the kitchen door, the smell of various ingredients and hot steam hit her. The maids were busy preparing lunch, not even having time to look back at who opened the door.

To be honest, there was no need to look back.

Because it was an ordinary maid who stepped into the kitchen, where the sound of knives and oil sizzled. A black maid’s uniform brushed the tip of her knees, a spotless white apron, and plain dark brown hair. It was a look as common as a crystal chandelier in the Winston mansion.

The maid picked up a wooden tray, a soup plate and a spoon from the cupboard. She went to the cupboard lined with colorful canned goods and picked up a white loaf and two boiled eggs from the basket, when someone spoke to her.

“Are the guests from the annex still there?”

The chef, Mrs. Appleby, clicked her tongue as she took the freshly baked meat pie out of the oven. The young maid, as usual, pretended to be sullen and pouted her lower lip slightly.

“That’s right. Still, I think they might go out today.”

“Tsk, tsk. Sally, you are really having a hard time.”

Mrs. Appleby placed the meat pie on a large table in the middle of the kitchen and held out her empty hand to the maid named Sally.

“Give it to me.”

The woman who took the empty soup bowl opened the large pot next to the stove, and when it had cooled down, she filled it with clam soup and placed it on Sally’s tray. The only thing floating in the bowl was crumpled scraps of ingredients.

“I can’t believe you’re doing that tough job without Ethel alone.”

Ethel was a middle-aged maid who, up until a month ago, was in charge of the ‘private room’ in the basement of the annex with Sally. She now dreamed of making a fortune with her husband, a gambler, and would be boarding on a ship heading to a new continent.

Although she felt sorry for Sally when she was left alone with the disgusting and reluctant job of all the employees of the Winston mansion, she never said she would help. So, Sally was relieved.

“Speak well to Mrs. Belmore—either she gets another person or gives you a higher salary.”

“Yes, I should see it.”

But, Sally was never going to get such a favor from the maid chief.

She then grabbed the tray and walked out the side door to the west of the mansion. A gravel path continued through the neatly mowed green grass. Before long, the annex, which seemed only small, became so close that the sharp barbed wire on the wall was clearly visible.

In the clear spring of cherry blossom leaves, the annex alone exuded the gloomy energy of winter. It was no wonder. It was like a haunted house over there, where screams resounded through the basement.

Sally wet her dry lips and raised the corners of her lips as she saw the soldiers standing guard at the front door of the outhouse.

“Hello, Martin.”

“Hello, Sally.”

The soldier she saw every day opened the iron door straight away without asking anything.