07: NORMAL NOBLE GIRL
I do things for myself. This was natural for me, so I didn’t mind doing work that maids do.
But I didn’t want to take care of someone like maids did… I didn’t think I could work for nobles because I didn’t have a good impression of them. No matter how high the wages were. Well, if it was all business and only for a short amount of time then I might be able to do it for money. Hmm.
On the contrary, I couldn’t image being thoroughly taken care of by someone as a noble lady… It’s impossible. Disgusting.
I didn’t have a problem living as a seamstress like my mother… Even if I was poor. As long as I could secure a place to live. I didn’t have enough savings for that.
Why do I have to think of the future now?
Well, before they reached adulthood, most people dream that they would be appointed in the Royal Castle as a Civil Official, where they would get a promotion, or they would dream of falling in love with a wonderful gentlemen. Stories with plots like that were written for young adults.
Hmm.
I think I want a friend my age before any of that.
I’ve never experienced friendship, deception or had any rivals like those depicted in books…
The people around me were like… Walls? Mountains?
Love? Now that I think about it, I liked the young man from the butcher, that I occasionally visited, who gave me extra meat. It was more like I was happy to be fed than first love. But he has already become an uncle with a belly.
When I saw Ms. Dolcie in the estate corridors after a long time she also recommended me a book to read. It was also aimed at young adults.
The book was published a while ago, but I went to the library to borrow what my sisters have probably read and somehow managed to make time to finish reading.
Those were my impressions from a while ago.
As I thought, I don’t have the same feelings as a normal noble girl.
Did Ms. Dolcie want me to learn the dreams of young people? I’ll just memorise it for information.
My life didn’t change for the better, so the book became good motivation.
One day, the head maid took notice of the maid clothes that I had embroidered.
To prevent my skills from rusting, I had embroidered the hem with a cloth of the same colour, so it wouldn’t stand out. I entwined leaves and flowers together like an ivy plant.
“The hem would roll up and you could see my feet.” Was something I couldn’t say out loud. The head maid stared silently at the stitches and traced the embroidery with her fingers. The embroidery was small and it was stitched in navy blue, which was the same colour as the cloth, so I thought it wouldn’t stand out. There wasn’t enough space so I also embroidered at the back of the hem, it seemed that she noticed this as well.
“Did you stitch this embroidery?”
You saw it, didn’t you? You know I did, don’t you? I wanted to say but resisted and nodded instead.
From then on, I stitched more dresses with embroidery. If this was a job then I would receive money for it… I received the materials to stitch with, but of course I couldn’t refuse when Furore-sama or my sisters asked me to stitch for them. It was a relief that they didn’t order me to finish it faster.
Why did the head maid, who should be by Furore-sama’s side, encounter me on this day? God only knows.
But I was able to work at the gardener’s work cabin, where I lived with my mother, using embroidering as a pretext. My mother had left plenty of embroidery designs there. Because we needed the flowers sketches to make new designs.
Dust had piled up in the cabin so I cleaned, then I boiled some water on a portable stove.
I picked some mint from the field that had been left to run wild and brewed some mint tea.
“Ah.”
My voice leaked out. It’s been awhile since I haven’t been under the gazes of others in the daytime on estate ground.
I moved my hand against the table and drew an embroidery design. I loitered around the estate a lot with sketching paper, so I could sneak out of the estate and go to town more often. My father also helped with my outings.
Even though I could go more often, at most it was once every ten days.
The number of shops selling handicraft items increased. I planned to buy plain handkerchiefs to stitch in my spare time and then I’ll sell it at the western clothing store for income.
I stare at the people on the streets and confirmed the current trends, the colours and patterns. Nobles loved fashionable things and the people on the streets mimicked them. I didn’t see any nobles on the streets so how do they know what nobles liked?
Even I love pretty and beautiful things, but I don’t think about wearing them myself.
They might have found out that I’ve been to town. But I didn’t feel guilty maybe because I could stitch embroidery that others can’t mimic, or because I could accurately do the work my father assigned me or because I just didn’t care.
It turned out all right in the end.
Translator: Blushy
Editors: Readers