🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 21
After finishing the cleaning that day, I was dragging my exhausted body back to my room on the first floor of the east wing.
As I turned the corner of the hallway, lightly pounding my sore shoulders and heading down the stairs, something pitch-black suddenly popped out in front of my eyes.
“Eek!”
Startled, I let out a short scream and jumped on the spot.
It was already late—almost one in the morning. Since the cleaning had taken longer than expected, Mrs. Pierce had postponed checking the results until the next day. The other maids in charge of the east wing had already returned to their rooms in the annex to rest.
Naturally, I had assumed no one would be in the corridor. So when something suddenly appeared out of nowhere, anyone would have been frightened.
“Where do you think you’re wandering around at this hour, you shameless girl?!”
The thunderous voice that followed startled me again. When I came to my senses, I realized it was Lady Melissa, one of the elders of the household.
“My lady, what brings you here at this hour…?”
“The Flanagan family is finished! Women behaving without a shred of modesty! In my day, discipline was never this lax! How am I supposed to face Great-Grandmother Alice with this disgrace?!”
Melissa pointed at me furiously, as if she had caught me committing some terrible crime.
Though she was in her seventies, she was remarkably vigorous, and her voice still carried great force.
Instead of saying, “I’m not even a member of the Flanagan family, so please don’t impose your ridiculous traditions on me,” I quietly lowered my head.
“My lady, it’s late. Let me escort you back to your room.”
“A punishment will come! Great-Grandmother Alice’s ghost will punish this household!”
Melissa shook off my hand and shouted again. At this point, irritation began to rise within me.
“Oh my, my lady! At this hour…!”
At the voice coming from below, I turned my head to see Mrs. Pierce hurrying up the stairs, clutching her skirt in both hands. We were standing at the junction between the second-floor corridor and the staircase. She must have been nearby and heard Melissa’s shouting.
“Did you come to look at the painting again? My lady, it’s late now. Please return to your room. I’ll escort you back to the west wing.”
“It’s a sign of the family’s downfall… Great-Grandmother Alice’s ghost is wandering…”
Still muttering incoherently, Melissa allowed Mrs. Pierce to guide her downstairs. As she did, Mrs. Pierce gestured for me to go back to my room.
Melissa is part of the family, so her room must be in the west wing, I thought as I watched them leave.
But wandering around the east wing alone at this hour…
It wasn’t hard to guess why she had come. Mrs. Pierce had just said, “You came to look at the painting again, didn’t you?”
Melissa, who strictly upheld the suffocating traditions of the Flanagan family, must have come to the east wing study to gaze at Great-Grandmother Alice’s portrait—perhaps to steel her resolve as a proper woman of the family, or to lament the disgraceful behavior of her descendants.
Suddenly, Aileen came to mind—the one who had been found hanging in that very study.
Why had Aileen come to the east wing that day?
Whether her death had been suicide or murder, it was most likely that she had died in the east wing study where her body was discovered. It was unreasonable to assume she had died in her room in the west wing and that someone had secretly moved her body all the way to the second-floor study in the east wing.
That meant Aileen had come to the east wing herself.
She could have come to find a book… but…
I recalled that Melissa had come to look at the painting in the study. That detail kept nagging at me.
As luck would have it, the next day I got a chance to examine the room Aileen had used.
After her death, the household had left her room untouched for some time. But now that Anne had also passed away, it was decided to clear out both rooms together.
The maid originally responsible for cleaning Aileen’s room had taken leave due to her younger sibling falling ill. Hearing this from Carol, I volunteered to Mrs. Pierce to clean the room in her place.
“Elly, aren’t you scared?”
Carol asked quietly.
“Some of the maids won’t even go near Miss Aileen’s or Miss Anne’s rooms. Since they’re dead, it just feels… unsettling, they say.”
“What’s unsettling about it? It’s just a room.”
I snapped back, feeling a sudden surge of irritation. Not understanding why I was upset, Carol glanced around before lowering her voice.
“But they didn’t just die normally, did they? Everyone’s afraid they might be cursed by a ghost. Even if they say they don’t believe in ghosts, deep down it still creeps them out. Even the masters think that way—that’s why the rooms were left untouched until now.”
It was absurd, but thanks to that, I could examine Aileen’s belongings intact—so perhaps it was a good thing.
If Aileen left something like a diary, I might learn what she was thinking before she died.
There weren’t many items in the room. Though it belonged to a wealthy young lady, she had very few clothes. A few decorations, a couple of books on a small desk, and some writing tools—that was all.
I remembered that Aileen had secretly sold her belongings to fund her attempt to attend university. That might explain why so little remained.
While organizing her things, I discreetly searched for anything related to her death. I didn’t find a diary, but when I flipped through one of the books on the desk, I discovered a sheet of paper densely covered in writing tucked between the pages.
Careful not to be noticed by Carol, I quickly pocketed it. I didn’t have time to read everything, but I clearly saw the words written at the top:
“To Beth.”
It was obvious—the Flanagan family hadn’t seriously searched for Aileen’s will. Otherwise, how could something like this be found so easily?
They had only been concerned with hiding her death, not understanding it.
I wanted to rush back to my room and read the letter immediately. But I couldn’t leave until my work was finished.
With my mind elsewhere, the remaining tasks felt unbearably tedious. After packing up Aileen’s belongings and preparing the furniture for removal, we moved on to Anne’s room.
Just like Aileen’s, it was surprisingly simple for a wealthy household. Anne only had slightly more clothes.
Ian’s room was so lavishly decorated…
Guest rooms were one thing, but for the daughters’ rooms to be this plain—it had to be because of the family’s rigid values. After all, one of the paintings in the study depicted Alice being punished for indulging in luxury.
I’d like to see the men’s rooms. If theirs are extravagant, I’ll give them a piece of my mind.
Anne’s room was no different from the unused rooms on the third floor of the east wing. Just a bed, a small wardrobe, and a chest of drawers.
The bedding was still messy, exactly as Anne had left it. No one had touched it since her death.
A strange gloom settled over me.
Most young people don’t think about death. They believe life will go on forever, filled with youth and vitality.
I was no different.
But seeing someone who had been perfectly fine just days ago suddenly gone—it left a hollow feeling.
“She could’ve just waited a little longer. She would’ve inherited everything anyway.”
Carol muttered.
“We’re the ones struggling to survive, not her. Why couldn’t she endure a little scolding from her family instead of jumping?”
She seemed to share the same sense of emptiness. I thought that whether rich or poor, people always feel their own burdens the heaviest—but I didn’t say it aloud.
As soon as I returned to my room, I pulled out the paper I had hidden.
As I had suspected, it was a letter Aileen had been writing to me.
Taking a deep breath to calm my pounding heart, I began to read.
<My dear Beth,
As I mentioned in my last letter, I’m planning to formally invite you to our estate.
But what’s the proper format for inviting someone to a noble house? Should I write something like, “Miss Elizabeth Whittington, it would be our greatest honor if you would grace the humble Flanagan estate with your presence”?
More importantly, I told you before about the ghost said to haunt our family, didn’t I? You might laugh at me for believing in such things, but if you come here and hear my explanation, you’ll admit it sounds plausible.
Among our ancestors, there’s Great-Grandmother Alice. She’s the one who created the ghost of our family.
It’s not a ghost floating around under a bedsheet—but still.
When you come here, you’ll see it in the study.
And I’ve found a way to get rid of it!
I was going to tell you when you arrived, but I can’t keep it to myself. If it’s you, Beth, you might even figure it out the moment you see it. You’re so clever, after all.
It’s gotten quite late. I’ll write the rest tomorrow.>
But the letter ended there.
Aileen never got the chance to continue.
The “ghost” created by Great-Grandmother Alice.
Since she said it was in the study, it was clearly referring to the painting.
She said she found a way to get rid of the Flanagan family’s “ghost.”
Then perhaps, just before her death, Aileen went to the east wing study because of that painting.
Just like Melissa had gone to look at it, perhaps Aileen had gone to confirm something—to test whether the method she had found was correct.
If that’s the case…
I thought carefully.
Could it be that someone who wanted the Flanagan family’s “ghost” to remain… killed Aileen?
