Chapter 25

Chapter 25
Rory had determined that the best way to prevent Mr. Lewis from suspecting them was to keep entering the scanning room to check on the result before figuring out how to drop it in the mail without being seen by any of the maids.

Dinner last night almost went horribly wrong, and Mr. Lewis might have suspected something was wrong if Eren hadn't intervened.

She had also been about to fall the previous night when Eren saved her. And for the first time ever, his request had made her melt after his bath.

“Could you please help me dry my hair?” He hated it when she touched his hair, but yesterday he wanted her to do it. At that precise moment, Rory had imagined the most romantic scenarios that take place in movies between couples when they dry each other's hair with towels after a bath.

“Sure.” She grabbed the towel, dried him off, and helped him with applying oil to massage his scalp when he complained of headaches. To her, it was merely retaliation for the way he had prevented her from falling. Or was it something more? She took her time with him, and after he eventually fell asleep on her lap, she properly placed him on the bed, tucked him in, and turned off the lights before going to her own room.

Sitting cross legged on her bed, Rory recounted her conversation with Eren. She turned her attention to Caroline, who was laughing as she read the chapter. Rory felt her heart tighten at that precise moment. Before, she had never kept anything from her friend, but right now, she was hiding a big secret—most importantly, the fact that she melted every time she saw the young master. Was she unknowingly falling for him already? He wasn't a cruel man after all, but he was also off limits. She belonged to a different social class. Even Eren wouldn't look her in the eye or be cordial to her if he had his vision.

"Are you alright?" When Caroline called, her thoughts were interrupted. She’d been done with her chores for about half an hour now and came into Rory’s room to spend some time with her friend. As usual, Eren was having his two-hours-after-breakfast nap.

"Yes, I'm good,"

Caroline exhaled with relief. "Good, for a moment there I thought your mind had strayed."

“Why would they?” Rory laughed nervously.

Caroline laughed. “I don’t know. You tell me. Why would they?”

As much as she could, Rory made an effort to sidestep her query. She got to her feet and headed for her cabinet. She opened it, pulled out her face wash and mask, and gave Caroline the items.

It was difficult to miss Caroline's enthusiasm as she received them. She could tell they were the products they had discussed with just one glance. “Cool. I am glad we had a conversation about these products. Unless we wouldn't have known that you actually had them with you.” She gave an eye-roll. “Now, I don’t have a reason to approach Debby.”

“Who is Debby?” As Rory prepared to sit down on the chair she had pulled out, Caroline yanked her back to the bed.

“She is the girl who smuggled all of these items into the mansion without being discovered. I heard she is one of the oldest maids in the mansion and has her own group of bullies. Since Eren was unaware of her existence, he didn't chase her away.”

While unpacking the mask from its pack, Caroline briefly examined Rory's face. "You still have some dark circles, but they are not as obvious as they were before. You obviously slept, as I can tell.” How could she not? Ever since Eren saved her and put his head on her lap for the massage, she has been on cloud nine.

Rory felt the wet mask on her face as Caroline adjusted the wet mask and then gently drew her to the pillow to lay her head. “While the mask is working, you should take some time to relax. It won't work if you're aimlessly wandering.”

"And whose rules are these? " As Caroline put the mask over her own face, Rory stood back up. Caroline pushed her friend once more onto the pillow.

She said, "Everyone is aware of that." She fumbled around for a pillow and laid her head down. Caroline patted the mask onto her face so that it would adhere better while looking up at the ceiling. "Remember our previous conversation?"

“Which one?” Rory had been contemplating a variety of ideas. Except for the romantic scenes she had imagined in her head, she hardly remembered anything else.

“The one about maid’s day.”

“What about it?” She was at least relieved that her friend was talking about normal things now rather than masks she knew nothing about.

"Pretend the young master decided to give that to us. I'd have a chance to look for a boy outside of this mansion.” Again, Rory was happy to see that her friend had moved on from her abusive ex-boyfriend and was now considering finding a new boy. “What would you do, Rory?”

Of course, that too. How could she have overlooked that Caroline would ask her that question?

She'd given it some thought. Since they had that discussion, she had thought about it. Caroline would want her in her sight, and Eren wouldn't want her out of his sight. In order for it to work out and without raising any suspension, she would need to come up with a lie for it.

Then she didn't even have to be concerned about dividing herself after Caroline's word. “Right. I just realized you were going to be with the young master. I thought he hated you. He hates everybody.”

Not true at all. He was a good person. Rory was thinking those words, and she wanted to shout them to the world, to let everyone know that Mr. Eren Cyrus, whom they all knew as a haughty, spoiled brat, was actually a nice man.

Caroline would then inquire as to how she learned of that, and then after Rory would bring up the incident of him saving her from falling—just like they do in movies—Caroline would then piece everything together and come to the conclusion that her friend is in love.

Who would want that to happen? She wouldn’t want that to happen.

The last thing she’d want them to know was her being in love with the young master. It might damage his reputation. She might also be destroyed by it, in which case all of her efforts would have been in vain and she would be expelled from the mansion.

"I heard his previous maid came close to poisoning him."

Suddenly removing her head from the pillow, Rory gasped. In disgust, she took off the mask covering her face. Why does she not know about it? Right. The only person in the neighborhood who was aware of everything was Caroline.

Right there, Rory had the thought that her friend would make a confident reporter. She had even imagined Caroline in her head, and she had appeared attractive in her stiletto heels, white shirt, and long straight skirt.

Caroline patted the mask once more, still attempting to feel whether it was still wet. "The maids who came after her weren't at all loved after she left. He had issues with them all, so he had each one replaced every week.”

“Wow.”

"Yes, when I heard about it, I was just as shocked as you are now. However, now I'm wondering why he hasn't had a problem with you. Rory, it's been more than a month.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Yes, it is. It is strange. Your name is being mentioned everywhere at the mansion. When working for Eren, no maid has ever managed to last that long. Do you know why each of them wanted to work in the garden? rather than inside the mansion?"

"Because they believe he is a frightening man?"

“Correct! He is a terrifying man.”

Wrong! He isn’t.

Caroline sighed. Rory's head had been back on the pillow a short while ago when she raised her head to look at Rory. “Rory.” Her low voice caused Rory's legs to tremble as she spoke. Even more was conveyed by the low tone in her voice. It wasn't typical of Caroline, but whenever she raises a subject in that tone, Rory knows what to expect. A message about being concerned. “I need to know.”

“Know what, Caroline?”

To get a better look at Rory, Caroline lifted her up. She was the kind of woman who believed that the eyes were windows to the soul.

"Rory, what's going on?"

“What do you mean?”

"Rory, you understand what I mean. We don't keep things from one another, but I feel like since you started working for the young master, you have become more distant from me.”

Rory didn't want to utter anything that would cause Caroline to flee the room in rage. She never received any information about Caroline's smoking habits. She had kept more secrets from Rory than Rory had from her, and now she was talking about distance?

Rory knew that she wasn't the type of girl to genuinely connect with others, but things were different with Caroline. Her closest friend knew her. She at least thought that.

"Caro, I'm not pulling away." Instead, she uttered those words. Caroline wouldn't even be able to visit her in her room to chat with her if she was keeping her distance. Rory wouldn’t even have the time to converse with her friend. “However, I don't believe the young master is as bad as you all make him out to be.”

“You are saying he is a good guy?”

“Yes, Caroline. He is a good guy and…” She paused, took a breath, and then continued. “He is a good guy.”

Caroline snorted. The break in Rory's voice could be read, and if that isn't the voice of a woman in love, she isn't sure what is.

“I know what is going on here, Rory. You have fallen for him.”

Rory's mouth was moving as she sat on the bed with a lot of thoughts going through her head, but she was unable to speak.