Chapter 77 - Trapping and Turning Tables

Cassidy called for Cecile before dinner and asked her for something that she didn't quite expect.

The redhead is sitting in front of her vanity mirror at the moment. Box after box full of precious gems is piled up on top of the table. 

The head maid enters her bedroom to find this scene. Right then, she gets the impression that she is about to look through the jewelry.

"Hi there again, Cecilia~!" Cassidy greeted with a bubbly smile, catching her off guard.

"It's Cecile... Ma'am," Cecile found herself replying a little hesitantly, not sure if she's acting friendly or mocking her. 

"Right, well... You see, I want to take a shower now so I can have dinner already, but I also want to finish arranging everything I bought today before my husband arrives. He may not like it when the room's this messy. It's a pain doing everything by myself 'cause there is a lot, though... So, can I ask for your help?"

"I don't mind, Ma'am."

"Thanks...! Leave the jewelry, though, okay? I still haven't looked through them yet, and I wasn't sure if the store got all my orders right. I have to figure out if there's something wrong as soon as possible so I can contact the manager." 

"Didn't you check them earlier back there?"

"Only the employees did, but since it was my first time shopping for jewelry and I was all alone, I didn't find it comfortable staying in such a crowded place for too long. That's why I took off in a hurry without checking them myself."

"What if there's indeed wrong with the orders? Would the store allow to make changes?"

"Sure, they would! I guess...? The manager is very accommodating, and he already knows who I am. I think he'll properly deal with my complaints if I learn that they made a mistake. They wouldn't want to leave a bad impression on a Millicent anyway, right?"

"I see..."

Cassidy takes a moment to scan her inscrutable expression, narrowing her eyes a little. 

Try as Cecile might, but she can no longer hide her interest in her ornaments since it's already leaking through her questioning alone. Had she only known that she caught her sneaking around earlier, she would probably figure out that she's trying to bait a trap here.

But since that's not the case, Cecile wasn't on her guard at all.

Cassidy lied about not checking the jewels since she wanted her to think that she wouldn't be able to realize it if she went and stole some for herself. If she ended up learning that her orders were lacking in number, the blames would fall on the store instead.

What's more, there's a reason why Cassidy chose to buy a lot of gems with different sizes. That's because she knew that Cecile would go after them while thinking that with how many they were, she wouldn't even probably notice that some would go missing.

"I'll be going, then. Again, thanks for the help," the redhead chimed in once more before standing up from her seat and making her way to the bathroom.

With that, Cecile is left all on her own in her bedroom.

Instead of starting her work, she only remains standing by the doorway for a moment longer. Her eyes are glued on the direction of the vanity mirror - on the pile of jewelry chests there, to be exact.

That's when one end of her lips curved into a smirk.

"Really, just how naive could she get...? Here I thought she's gonna confront me for that lock, but it ended up that she just chose to look at the bright side of things - just like how she always used to before...!" Cecile scoffed before snorting in derision and mockery. 

"Well, maybe she just knew that she couldn't do anything about it anyway - no evidence, and no one to back her up. But even then, she could've been more on guard and distrustful. Just how stupid is she to let me touch her belongings like this?" 

The sound of the running water from the shower is her cue to stir her stumps at last.

Cecile needs something like this to figure out if it's already safe to move or not. It's an indication that Cassidy will not be coming out any time soon.

With that, she makes her way to her vanity mirror and starts rummaging through her jewelry boxes. 

"This is fine... I already checked earlier, and apparently, there's no CCTV inside here. I also often do this whenever Ma'am Irish is away or occupied by something in another room. With how many there are to steal, she doesn't figure out that something's missing. At times when she did, I just framed the other maids..." she mused silently as she opened the lid of one of the chests.

"This time, the jewelry store where that dumb woman got this from would be the one catching the fall." 

As soon as Cecile lays eyes on the pool of gems of various colors and sizes, she can't help but smirk even wider. They are all beaming back at her, shedding light on her unveiling greed that she's long been hiding in the dark.

"Fortunately, there's a lot of small ones. Even the tiniest piece of this can worth tens of thousands!"

At this point, Cecile is so thrilled to do her evil bidding that she doesn't even bother hiding that excitement anymore. She pores over the jewels and begins putting some of them inside her pocket.

With that, she makes haste to finish stealing everything she finds safe to steal for the meantime.

"I believe that they'll be here for three more days or so, which means I still have time to steal more..." she murmured to herself before she finally took the last jewel and closed the lid of the box.

"That woman is a lot dumber than Ma'am Irish, so there might be no need to contact the store since she will not notice a single thing-"

"Oh, already done?"

Then, she froze.

At that very second, she went stiff.

Much to her nonplus and disbelief, Cassidy opened the door of the bathroom out of nowhere, wearing an amused and mischievous look all the while. She went out as soon as she heard the lid of the chest closing.

Cecile slowly turns her head to her direction - only to find that the redhead is still fully clothed. However, the shower is still running, which then gives her an impression that she has plotted this.

For a moment, she could only stay unmoving with her eyes looking as wide as an owl's and her mouth agape. She is thunderstruck all over. It's her first time getting caught by someone, after all.

"I'll go straight to the point. I'm aware of your dirty little habit, you know. You thought that all I did was escape when I sneaked out earlier? Unfortunately for you, I also happened to stumble upon a certain sneaky little thief at one of the guest rooms..." Cassidy started before tilting her head at the side as if thinking deeply.

"What was the dialogue again...? I think you said that Irish sending you here would help you hit two birds with one stone. Aside from locking me up in my room as part of that dirty job she wanted you to do, you could also search around the mansion to find something to steal... Say, just how long had you been stealing from your mistress-" 

"You conceited little bitch!"

As Cecile cursed and cut her off all of the sudden, Cassidy piped down for a moment.

That's when the head maid began her mad rant. Though she's already caught, she was still so brazen that she didn't even deny her claims about stealing from the family and just gushed about how much she pushed her buttons today. 

"So what if you knew, anyway?! You thought that catching me red-handed would do anything?! You're just a parasite here, and no one would believe you even if you told them that I'd been stealing for years!" Cecile bolted out audaciously, clearly ticked off by the cunning aura she's emanating.

"Oh, is that so...?" Cassidy trailed off and stayed quiet for a moment before approaching her all of the sudden, making her take a few steps back.

"But I really didn't do this to expose you. I just wanted to confirm it."

"H-H-Huh...? What nonsense are you spouting out now?"

"You see, my dear Cecilia... I bought these jewels for you, not for me. It's an offer - a deal. I wanted to have you on my side." 

"Huh...?!"

Once again, Cecile is completely thrown off guard.

Cassidy just keeps saying and doing the least expected. She never thought that she felt smug enough to win over her by using her own weakness. But then, she had already been fooled once.

The redhead already proved herself to be a schemer by setting up this trap, so she's not going to make a deal with her so easily. Besides, continuing to work for Irish is much safer since her secret hasn't been revealed yet. 

With that in mind, Cecile only scowls and glares at Cassidy. 

"I refuse."