Chapter 164
“Hahaha, Rice Pudding, Rice Pudding. Delicious Rice Pudding. The best Rice Pudding in Yorkshire.”
Noel hummed, closing the ink bottle.
Soon, a young servant entered with a tray. Gleaming silverware without a single fingerprint, steaming hot scones, fluffy tea leaves, and a large raspberry tart on a cake stand.
“Huh? Why isn’t there any Rice Pudding?”
Noel, who was sitting on the sofa in the study with Ian, watching the table being set, asked.
The young servant in white gloves replied.
“The butler gave it all to the stablemen as a snack.”
“……”
Noel’s face turned sour. The servant, having finished his task, bowed and left the room.
Noel muttered as he brewed Ian’s tea.
“If he didn’t want to give it, he could have just said so……”
Ian, who was sitting across from Noel and watching the whole scene, silently raised the corners of his lips.
Ramswick and Noel had not been on good terms since Noel was first hired. Ramswick couldn’t trust Noel, whom the master had hired in a hurry, and Noel, for his part, was uncomfortable with Ramswick, who kept hovering around with suspicious eyes even though he was doing his job properly.
Even after time had passed and Noel had proven to be a decent employee, their relationship remained the same. Ramswick was disgusted by Noel, who kept singing and smoking cigars during the servants’ meals, calling him a vulgar rogue.
Noel, for his part, was annoyed by Ramswick, who nagged him for eating too much. He felt sad that he was being told off for filling his stomach.
It was a clash of temperaments. Ramswick was a dignified and quiet conservative. As ascetic as a monk, he wanted the servants to move in an orderly manner according to their duties, and he ordered them to live upright and neatly so as not to disgrace the Dalton Family.
On the other hand, Noel liked to revel outside of working hours. He loved food, cigars, alcohol, and jokes. People always gathered where he was, and laughter never ceased. The servants would stop what they were doing and giggle whenever he appeared.
The order of the servant world that Ramswick had created was being cracked by Noel.
But with this level of conflict, Ramswick would never have disliked Noel enough for the master to notice. The reason for the servants’ existence was to assist the master and mistress in their comfort. Conflicts between them should be resolved within their own ranks.
However, Ramswick’s admirable belief was shattered when news reached his ears that Noel had seduced Betty Lodge, a laundry maid, and become her lover.
The first principle of the Whitefield Hall servant world was the prohibition of romance between servants.
Upon learning the truth, Ramswick went to Laura with veins popping out on his forehead. This was because the authority over household affairs rested with the young bride, Mrs. Dalton.
“Oh, really?”
Laura, who was sitting in a chair in the study listening to the story, smiled gently.
“Betty is a very lovely girl. Plump and cute face with skin as fair as a newborn baby. Some of the gardeners are lovesick because of her, so Noel seduced Betty, he had unexpected skills.”
“M-Madam. This is a serious matter. Both of them are clearly employees.”
Laura was still smiling brightly.
“Of course, I know that romance between employees is prohibited in our mansion. It’s a principle that every mansion in England adheres to, and Whitefield Hall is no different. But I wonder if there is even one place among those many mansions where the principle is properly observed. Most of the servants are in their teens and twenties. It’s a natural phenomenon for young men and women to develop feelings for each other while working in the same space.”
“That’s right, Madam. Of course. But this is a workplace. If romance is allowed, the servants will not be able to concentrate on their work and will only be focused on flirting.”
“I’m not telling the servants to openly encourage romance. Principles are important. But Ramswick, there are times when flexibility is needed. It is a harsh measure to force abstinence on young people in their prime simply because they are servants. Servants only get to go home once a month, and they work without weekends. If they don’t fall in love here, when will they date and how will they build a family?”
“……I’m sorry, Madam, but Noel is past his prime.”
“Flexibility should be exercised especially for Noel. He is a valuable asset to the head of this family.”
Ramswick’s small shoulders drooped. Laura patted Ramswick’s shoulder.
“I’ll have Ian tell Noel to make sure the servants don’t see them together. Then there will be no trouble.”
With the mistress saying this, what more could the butler do? He bowed and left the Madam’s study.
After that, Ramswick no longer said anything about Noel’s love affairs. Instead, he acted mean in various ways. He wouldn’t do his laundry, or he would complain at every meal that Whitefield’s household budget was being swept down his throat, ruining his appetite.
The news that the Rice Pudding was all gone today was also obviously Ramswick’s intention to make Noel suffer. Rice Pudding was Noel’s favorite food.
It was a somewhat petty act, but originally, a person who is strict with himself becomes infinitely mean when he meets a libertine. It’s as if he thinks that the weight of the cross he carries himself should be compensated by those who enjoy freedom.
Ian chuckled, stirring his teacup.
“So why did you seduce the laundry maid and earn Ramswick’s hatred?”
“She is a woman worth enduring the hatred of a white-haired bachelor, sir.”
Noel cut a large piece of tart with a cake knife.
“Men of this age may see a woman who looks like a dishcloth as silk, but I have not yet lost my aesthetic eye for women. She is truly a woman like God’s grace. Even Aphrodite, born from the sea foam, cannot compare to her.”
“Are you going to marry her?”
“There is no marriage in my life.”
Noel said firmly. Ian couldn’t understand.
“If you’re not going to get married, why are you dating?”
“Sir, I have tried marriage before. That experience only served to confirm that God created this Noel Finch solely for the sake of dating. As a kind of gift for women.”
“A gift for women?”
Ian looked at him with a very suspicious expression. The way he was stuffing his mouth full of tart looked more like a gift for bakers than a gift for women.
But it was definitely not a bluff. Betty Lodge, whom the male servants of Whitefield Hall, including the cook and stablemen, were drooling over, was already his lover.
Moreover, he had a splendid track record. Ramswick secretly sent a letter to Noel’s previous workplace to investigate his reputation, and according to it, Noel had previously seduced a twenty-one-year-old deer-like lovely handyman and a twenty-eight-year-old sensual beauty kitchen maid at the mansion where he was a secretary. This comical love triangle ended with the women fighting over Noel and all three of them being kicked out of the workplace together.
“What is it about you that women like so much that they fall for you so easily? Frankly, you seem very far from being a handsome man.”
Noel wiped the jam from his mouth with a napkin.
“Seduction is done with charm, sir. Charm doesn’t come from appearance.”
“Then?”
“It depends on becoming the man the woman wants.”
“Hoo?”
Ian was intrigued. He was already one woman’s man, but the desire to completely steal the heart of that one woman remained even after marriage.
He wanted to be the perfect man for Laura. He wanted her to look only at him, to worship him, and to feel like she would suffocate and die without him.
Just like he did.
“Tell me more.”
Noel took a sip of tea and began to speak.
“There is ambivalence in a woman’s heart about love. The desire to be the Queen of one man. At the same time, the desire to be a slave to that love. When these two emotions are properly filled, the woman is completely captivated by the man in front of her.”
Slave? Queen? Ian couldn’t understand at all.
“Women are wary. It can’t be helped. For women, the world is like a jungle where wolves in heat are lurking 365 days a year. You have to appear to be a completely harmless man to the woman. To do that, you have to figure out the woman’s tendencies and weaken her heart with jokes or tears.”
‘Tears.’
From his courtship days to his recent married life, everything flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern. He felt somewhat embarrassed. He had shown tears in front of her more than once or twice.
‘Did Laura open her heart to my tears?’
“Now, after weakening the woman’s heart like that, you have to build a relationship with her. Build affection, share your heart, and show small and big considerations. Then slowly reveal your heart to her. Say you love her, that your heart is becoming her slave. Every woman has a desire to have her own slave. Also, women are interested in men who have feelings for them, so she thinks about that man quite often.”
“Ah, I see the next step. Once you’ve attracted the woman’s attention, you can start showering her with courtship?”
Noel shook his head.
“Not yet. Then you can’t fulfill another desire in women’s hearts.”
“What desire?”
“The desire to be a slave to love. I just told you? There are ambivalent feelings in a woman.”
Ian didn’t understand at all, but he remained still with the thought of listening for now.
“If you take care of her delicately and court her ticklishly, the woman’s heart will lean towards the man. Emotions will ripen, and the woman will feel something similar to love. But if you stop here, the woman’s emotions will end here as well. The pride of having one’s own vassal. Now, this is the key. You have to become indifferent to the woman.”
