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Chapter 17
Come to think of it, the young ladies of the Flanagan estate had, on several occasions, talked with Ian, taken walks with him, or had tea together.
But I had never paid any particular attention to such things. It was only natural for a guest invited to the estate to drink tea with the host family. In fact, it would have been stranger if he hadn’t.
Above all, according to the customs of the Flanagan family, the women of the estate were never alone with a male guest. Even Lady Melissa, who was over seventy, never once had tea with Ian by herself.
Aside from that, I had never once imagined that Ian would meet women for romantic reasons. It was partly because we had grown up as close childhood friends, but more than anything, we had come to the Flanagan estate with a purpose—and Ian, who always carried out his duties faithfully, would never let himself get distracted.
Of course, Eugenia hadn’t openly flirted with Ian or expressed any obvious feelings. She had simply done what the Flanagan family forbade—speaking with a male guest alone.
Still, as I watched the two of them, I felt something heavy lodged in my throat. It was hard to describe exactly what it was, but it was an unpleasant feeling that refused to go away.
More than anything, I couldn’t forget the way Ian had smiled gently at Eugenia.
‘That idiot Ian. A girl talks to him and he grins like a fool….’
In truth, Ian hadn’t been staring at Eugenia in a daze with his mouth hanging open, and smiling politely while talking to people was something he did all the time. Yet I couldn’t calm the boiling feeling inside me.
Grumbling, I went down to the laundry room. As I headed toward the basket, my foot caught on a box of soap, and I fell forward. I had been careless, unable to see properly because of the blanket I was carrying.
Rubbing my knee, which had hit the floor hard, I muttered under my breath.
“What a mess….”
When Eugenia had said to me, as if shooing away an annoying pest, “Isn’t that heavy?” it might have felt satisfying if I had snapped back, “Not at all. More importantly, aren’t you a relative of the Flanagan family? Is it really proper for you to be laughing alone with a male guest?”
But even then, I didn’t forget what I had to do. I had to remain a maid at the Flanagan estate and uncover the truth behind Aileen’s death. To do that, I couldn’t afford to cause trouble and get myself thrown out.
Moreover, Eugenia would be staying on the second floor of the east wing. That meant I would be the one attending to her. And above all, I knew that Eugenia hadn’t actually done anything wrong.
‘They just exchanged a few words while greeting each other. It’s none of my concern. Get a grip, Elizabeth Whittington!’
I tried to steady myself like that. If I was going to keep up this maid act, I would have to endure far more frustrating things than this.
At least one relief was that Eugenia didn’t seem intent on sticking close to Ian. Perhaps that uneasy feeling I had when they first met was nothing more than my imagination.
Eugenia, in fact, was busy with other matters. And from what I could see, those matters clearly looked like an attempt to defy the Flanagan family’s traditions.
The first of these was her attire.
“Eugenia, can’t you do something about those clothes of yours?!”
At least once a day, shouts like this echoed through the estate. But Eugenia didn’t bat an eye as she walked around wearing trousers.
“Eugenia, how can a woman dress like that?!”
“Oh my, Uncle Thomas. Am I walking around naked? Everything that should be covered is covered, isn’t it?”
“H-how can a woman say something so shameless?!”
“What’s so shameful about being naked? Uncle, it seems you’ve never heard truly shameful words before. Shall I teach you a few?”
“S-silence! Go back to your room at once!”
The members of the Flanagan family tried in every way to control Eugenia’s behavior, but she remained completely unfazed.
This was partly because Eugenia was a Jenkins, not a Flanagan. Whenever the family brought up their traditions, she would coldly reply, “I’m not a Flanagan,” leaving them with nothing to say.
“Miss Eugenia came to this estate with Madam Jenkins when she first entered. She was fourteen at the time.”
That was what Carol told us after hearing it from other maids.
“They say she was stubborn even back then. Though not as much as she is now.”
“They say she found this place too stifling, so after a few years she went back to the Jenkins estate and lived with her aunt.”
Amy added what she had heard.
“And when she became an adult, she wrote a single letter saying she’d earn her own living and left home. That caused an uproar not just in the Jenkins estate, but here at the Flanagan estate too. After all, she’s still related to the Flanagans. A woman leaving home to work—it was bound to cause chaos.”
“When Miss Aileen went off to university on her own, people brought up Miss Eugenia as well.”
At Carol’s words, my ears perked up.
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, it wasn’t much.”
Completely unaware of my interest, Carol answered lazily.
“They said Miss Eugenia had put ideas into Miss Aileen’s head, leading her to shamelessly disgrace the family name by going to university. They clicked their tongues and said it was because she had blood from another family mixed in. When Madam Jenkins wasn’t around, they would all criticize Miss Eugenia, saying that if she had been of pure Flanagan blood, she would never have behaved so improperly.”
“Pure blood? But when people marry, other families’ blood mixes in anyway.”
I asked in disbelief.
“It’s not like they’re royalty from some ancient tale marrying siblings to preserve their bloodline.”
“That’s exactly what I said. Oh, speaking of the Flanagan bloodline….”
Carol looked around before lowering her voice.
“Did you know? Lord Edward and Lord Thomas both have women hidden away!”
“What?”
Amy looked shocked—it was clearly her first time hearing this too.
“Women? Wait, Lord Edward is unmarried, so he could have a lover. But Lord Thomas has Lady Catherine—are you saying he’s having an affair?”
“Well, it’s actually more absurd than that.”
Carol lowered her voice even further.
“There are no sons in the Flanagan estate right now.”
“Huh? Lord Edward and Lord Thomas are sons.”
“No, I mean in the next generation. Lord William passed away leaving only four daughters. Lord Edward is unmarried, and Lord Thomas has been married for years without children.”
“There’s Patrick, the acting steward.”
I said, but both Carol and Amy ignored that.
“Anyway, at this rate, the next head of the Flanagan family will be one of Lord William’s daughters. Most likely Miss Jane.”
“So what’s wrong with that?”
I asked, but Carol shook her head in frustration.
“The Flanagans discriminate against women. And if Miss Jane marries, it means her husband would inherit the family’s entire fortune. The Flanagans can’t accept that.”
“But they have no choice, do they?”
“Since they can’t accept it, Lady Melissa gave her sons strict orders—to find women outside and produce sons first. She even told them to pick daughters of tenant farmers from the family lands, since everything could be handled with money!”
“Ugh, that’s disgusting!”
Amy made a face, and I couldn’t help but feel the same.
“Lady Melissa suffered because the previous lord had an affair, didn’t she? And now she’s telling her sons to do the same? And as for Lord Edward, since he’s unmarried, couldn’t he just marry properly?”
“They’ve told him to marry many times, but he refuses. Apparently, he gets timid around women. Isn’t that ridiculous? He talks big about women inside the estate but can’t say a word outside.
And since he’s the head of the family, he can’t just marry anyone—it has to be someone from a suitable family. That makes it harder.”
“So… they really have women hidden away? Both of them?”
Amy asked, and Carol shrugged.
“That’s what I heard from the other maids. But it seems neither of them has had a child yet. I didn’t hear the details.”
“If a son is born that way… would he become the next head of the Flanagan family?”
“Probably. That’s why they’re so desperate to have sons, even like that.”
“What ‘pure bloodline’? I really can’t understand the thinking of these so-called noble families.”
Amy shook her head.
Since it wasn’t a pleasant topic, we moved on—to Eugenia again.
“I heard Miss Eugenia works with a theater troupe.”
“A troupe? Is she an actress?”
“That explains the clothes,” I thought, asking, but Carol shook her head.
“No, she writes plays.”
“So she’s a writer?”
“Yeah. She travels all over the country with the troupe. I was attending when she talked about it on her first day here. Madam Jenkins was in tears, saying her daughter was associating with such lowly people.
Lord Edward first asked whether she had told anyone that her maternal family was the Flanagans. When she said she had no intention of revealing it, he looked relieved.”
“As expected of the Flanagans.”
Amy said sarcastically.
Suddenly, something occurred to me, and I asked Carol,
“Then why did Miss Eugenia come here?”
“Madam Jenkins asked her the same thing—whether the troupe had gone bankrupt. Eugenia just smiled and said no. She said that as she traveled and met all kinds of people, she could feel the world changing.”
“The world is changing?”
“Yeah. And then she added this.”
Carol lowered her voice and spoke solemnly.
“‘That’s why I believe the Flanagan estate can change too. I came here to completely transform this house.’”
