maid chapter 29

A brown lump wriggled between her feet. Startled, Ellie sprang up.

“Eek!”

Realizing the cause, Ellie shrieked and hopped in place. The sudden scream drew everyone’s attention in the dining hall.

“What? What is it?”

Squeak—a brown rat circled Ellie’s feet. Daniel’s face paled. His heels lifted involuntarily.

Agitated, Ellie snatched a dry towel from the dining table.

“Th-this, this rat!”

She swung the towel wildly in the air. The rat darted under the table, dodging the makeshift whip. The maids, finally grasping the situation, screamed and ran about.

“Is that a rat?”

“Eek! Don’t come this way, shoo!”

The dining hall descended into chaos. The rat, having sown discord, casually escaped. Daniel, a headache building, pressed his hand to his forehead.

After the commotion subsided, the entire Stoner household staff gathered in the hall. Mrs. Wise, a new wrinkle etched between her brows, stepped forward.

“As some of you may have already heard, there’s a rat loose in the mansion.”

The maids who had witnessed the rat shuddered.

No matter how grand the mansion, a creature the size of one’s hand wouldn’t know the difference. Rats frequented cities and countrysides, the homes of the rich and the poor alike. However, its appearance inside the mansion, rather than the food-laden kitchen or the damp gardens, was a serious matter.

Mrs. Wise took a deep breath. The staff prayed fervently for good news. But…

“I called the rat catcher, but he said he can’t come until next week.”

Sighs rippled through the room at the disappointing news. The rat catcher couldn’t come. Could they allow the rat to roam freely until next week? Absolutely not.

It would be a disaster if the family, or worse, a guest, encountered it. The entire staff would face trouble, especially Mrs. Wise, the housekeeper.

“The window cleaning scheduled for this week is canceled. We all need to catch this rat.”

A murmur went through the dining hall. A maid voiced a small complaint.

“We… ourselves?”

“We’ll do it together. Speak up now if you have objections.”

Mrs. Wise’s firm response silenced the hall. She continued with detailed instructions.

The footmen would take the exterior. They would team up with the gardeners, thoroughly search the gardens, and check the walls for any openings a rat could use.

The kitchen, already prone to rat infestations, required immediate attention. A rat invasion wouldn’t be surprising. The entire kitchen staff decided to set new traps throughout the annex, including the pantry.

The housemaids were responsible for the mansion’s interior. They would go room to room, repairing any rat holes or cracks in the walls. More thorough cleaning went without saying.

Since the tasks weren’t drastically different from their usual duties, no one protested. However, preventing rats and actively hunting them were different matters. If they saw a rat during their work, they would likely pretend not to notice. The experienced housekeeper had anticipated this and prepared a countermeasure.

“Bring any captured rats to the backyard. You’ll receive a special bonus for each one. Madam has already approved it.”

The silent staff brightened. Ellie, in particular, beamed with delight. Daniel eyed her sparkling eyes with unease.

***

While the staff was merely startled by the rat, the Count’s family was horrified by the mere mention of it. Upon receiving the report, they promptly left the mansion. Unwilling to even glimpse the shadow of a rat, they packed their belongings and declared their intention to stay at a hotel for a while.

The remaining staff began their war against the rat in earnest. Daniel’s uneasy premonition proved correct. On their way to the first room, Ellie marched ahead, armed with a sack and a shovel. Not a small shovel for fireplace ashes, but a proper gardener’s shovel, almost too large for her to handle. Daniel frowned.