[Translator/Editor: otwentyfirst]
[Host: justreads.net]
[May 9th, 2019]
... “Let’s not focus on that right now. First we have to find Mr. Wenda and Ms. Dusha.” Wolf was a professional and he knew his priorities.
The three of them kept moving. First they would try to find Ms. Dusha. A great number of strange things had happened since her arrival at Rime-Frost, yet they knew next to nothing about her background. Jier felt she was the most suspicious person.
Just as they were about to open the gate, it was pulled open from the other side by a girl. It looked like she was a maid based on her uniform.
Her first instinct, faced with three strangers in the middle of the night clearly sneaking around the manor, was to scream.
Fortunately Wolf covered her mouth in time. “Don’t scream. We’re not bad people. Take us someplace private. We have to ask you something.” Wolf had one hand clamped over her mouth and his other hand wrapped around her body, immobilizing her.
The maid nodded and led them to a storage room filled with odds and ends. It was unlikely anyone would interrupt them there.
“We won’t hurt you. We just have some questions we want to ask. I’m going to let you go now. OK?”
After being released the first thing the maid did was take a deep breath in, then she looked at the three people surrounding her.
“You, you people are investigating Master Wenda and Mistress Dusha right?” Her voice was excited and she was clearly expecting them to reply in the affirmative.
This took them by surprise. Who knew a simple maid would be so clever? Wouldn’t the normal reaction be to think they were burglars?
Jier asked, “How did you know?”
A little embarra.s.sed she admitted it was a guess.
“Tell us everything you know.” Wolf could tell from a glance there was something she wanted to say.
“I’ll tell you what I know, but please, you must promise to save Mistress Dusha from Master Wenda! As long as you promise I’ll tell you everything I know.”
She reached out wanting to grab onto Wolf’s sleeve for rea.s.surance, but Wolf was not obliging. He didn’t like strangers touching him. He’d only touched her earlier to keep her from screaming.
She dropped her hand and stopped trying to reach out. Instead she grabbed her own skirt with an overwhelmed expression on her face.
“Who are you and why do you want to save Ms. Dusha?” Jier reevaluated the maid, thinking that her ident.i.ty was more important now after her comment. Maybe she was Ms. Dusha’s confidante?
Jier was spot on. She was Dusha’s personal maid.
She hesitated a moment before saying, “My name is Sheila. I’m Mistress Dusha’s personal maid.”
Jier and Wolf exchanged glances. What luck, to pick up such a good lead.
“As far as I know, Mr. Wenda is very fond of Ms. Dusha. Why would she need saving?”
“If it was Master Wenda then I wouldn’t be so worried, but this man... this man hasn’t been Master Wenda in a long time.” Sheila burst into tears after speaking. They were hearty sobs and clearly not faked.
Jier was confused. “What the h.e.l.l is going on? Can you start from the beginning? How did the two of them meet?” He thought Ms. Dusha was the instigator; everything, the disappearances and murders, started when she appeared. But now this maid was saying it had nothing to do with her, that it was in fact Mr. Wenda! That Mr. Wenda was not himself was the biggest shocker. An imposter Wenda was not something any of them had considered.
Although the news shocked both Jier and Wolf, Feng Wu was completely unaffected. Her face had the same blank expression she normally wore.
“Actually Mistress Dusha and Master Wenda have known each other for a long time. Her sister was Master Wenda’s first love. He proposed to her sister, but at the time my mistress’s family situation was not good. The old master and old mistress rejected the suit and had her sister marry another rich young aristocrat instead.
Unfortunately that young n.o.bleman fell into some trouble and brought his entire family down with him. Even my mistress’s family was affected by the fall out. She was only ten, a mere child at the time, but she had to watch as the members of her family succ.u.mbed one by one. In the end she was the only one left. She was so desolate she was thinking about ending it all. That’s when Master Wenda appeared. He’d heard something had happened to the family so he came to check in on us.
He was happily married to Mrs. Malin. Miss Clara was three I think. Anyways by the time Master Wenda arrived, the only person left was my mistress. Everyone else had pa.s.sed on already.
Master Wenda was very kind. He wanted to help, but because of my mistress’s ident.i.ty, he couldn’t very well bring her home with him. So instead he bought her a house outside the city and left several servants to help take care of things. He would stop by every now and again to check in on us and make sure everything was OK.
My mistress is a very virtuous lady. Most of the servants in the house were wretched people my lady took in. I’m one of them! She saved me! Eventually she even made me her personal maid.
When I became her personal maid I realized she was in love with Master Wenda. But she was too young. Plus Master Wenda was happily married to Mrs. Malin. My mistress tried to keep her feelings for Mr. Wenda a secret, but I could tell! She’s been keeping it secret for the past twelve years now! My poor mistress!
Anyways when my mistress was twenty-two she came upon a young man with a grievous head injury. He was bleeding something awful! She had never seen him around the city before but nevertheless, she still saved him. It turned out he was an orphan with no family or home. Since this was the case, my mistress, as virtuous as she is, offered to have him stay on at the house!
He was pleasant and a diligent worker. Everyone liked him. Some of the maids were even in love with him. Me included. We were all trying to get his favor, trying to win the position of his missus and raise a family together.
I was confident I could win him over. After all I was in the best position of all the other maids. But but…”
“Wait! Stop! We want to hear about Ms. Dusha and Mr. Wenda. Not about your love life.” Jier was getting impatient.
“This is about my mistress. Please listen. You’ll understand once we reach the ending.” Sheila was embarra.s.sed but stood her ground.
“Jier, let her finish the story. It should be relevant.” Wolf was far more patient than Jier.