Chapter 3

Chapter 3

While cleaning the annex office, tenacious gazes ran over Sally’s body. It felt like a cheap nylon brush was running through her body. The gaze became stinging for a moment as if she felt itchy from time to time.

Without realizing it, she shuddered.

“Captain, if I’m getting in the way, should I clean up later?”

She turned back and asked politely. Winston had just turned his gaze to the papers on his desk.

The tip of a cigar, sandwiched between his fingers, was chewed. He had a golden lighter in his other hand as though he had forgotten to light it.

“No, go ahead. I do my job, you do yours.”

Saying so, he looked down at the paperwork, spitting out the answer from the script in Sally’s head. She shouldn’t leave anyway, so she turned her back and moved the mop. The end of the chewed-up cigar kept running through her mind.

‘Did he imagine chewing something while looking at me?’

Suddenly, the tip of her chest hidden in the thin bra stung and tingled.

Dirty monarchy pig…

Even though she wanted to leave right away, she couldn’t. It was because there was an important task left. What was reassuring was the fact that the two soldiers standing in front of the door were like statues.

She got up on the low chair and slowly wiped the bookshelf. Her calf, which got closer to his eye level, kept tickling.

‘Should I rather get rid of carpet stains on the back of the sofa?’

While she was thinking, someone knocked on the door.

With Winston’s permission, the door opened and Lieutenant Campbell walked in and saluted.

“Captain, the convoy to Govurn is said to be arriving at three o’clock.”

At the sound of a convoy coming to the camp, Sally was relieved. The uncle didn’t turn away. It was also her job to identify the spies in advance.

“Well… There’s still time. We shouldn’t make our guest bored.”

‘Blood-crazed devil. May you fall down to the hell worthy of you.’

As she heard that there would be another torture, Sally cursed herself.

“Yes, I will prepare right away.”

As Campbell left, Sally walked over to Winston’s desk. It was an excuse to empty the ashtray, though that damn bastard still hadn’t lit his cigar. He just raised his gaze with his head still to the paperwork.

Sally smiled and picked up the tray of empty sparkling water bottles. On the way to the door with a bucket and a tray of cleaning tools, her heart stung once again.

The screams that had leaked out through the crack in the torture chamber’s door stopped. Then, Fred came out with a pale, blue face. He was clenching his teeth as if he was putting up with nausea. He took the prison uniform from Sally and went inside.

As she pulled a piece of cotton from her ear and put it in her pocket, the letter in the pocket rustled.

When the door opened again, she held a bucket full of cleaning tools in her hands. A group of soldiers poured out and bowed their heads to her. In the middle of it, there was an old man who was more emaciated than at lunch.

In the prison uniform, he was being dragged like cattle with shackles around his limp hands and feet.

Reading the horror in his trembling eyes, Sally gave a determined look on her face without a smile.

‘The rescue team will definitely come.’

When she saw the hem of the gray coat, she immediately drew her attention. Out of the torture chamber, Winston exuded the energy of a man coming out of a brothel or cabaret.

He had a fresh face, relieved of the accumulated desires.

“Then, I look forward to your cooperation today.”

As he tapped Sally on the shoulder and disappeared beyond the hallway, she immediately began cleaning the torture chamber.

The mattress had to be replaced every time a ‘guest’ left. Messed with blood and dirt, she put the mattress out in the hallway and whimpered while taking out a new mattress from the warehouse and putting it on the bed.

Managing the torture chamber was the most arduous and disgusting job in the mansion. Because of that, everyone was reluctant.

However, the weekly wage was also high.

For that reason, it was originally a middle-aged maid with a gambler husband, Ethel, who had been in charge of it for several years.

When Sally first infiltrated this mansion as the maid, she was assigned to attend to Mrs. Winston. Dress shopping, ladies’ refreshments, and Mrs. Winston’s whims and gossip… Truly, as an agent, it had no beneficial value at all.

So, by the time she built her credibility as an excellent working child amongst the employees, she pretended to run out of money because of her ill mother.

Just as expected. The maid chief, Mrs. Bellmore, assigned her to the annex in a hurry. A maid who did her job well was precious, though a maid whose money was scarce was dangerous since Mrs. Winston’s dressing room was full of expensive things.

So, she got along with Ethel and took over the torture chamber, but Ethel started to get suspicious of Sally’s frequent sniffing.

[ “If you’re trying to win the Captain’s favor like that, then stop. Do you know how many children have been kicked out for arguing with the Captain so far?” ]

Fortunately, her original intention was completely undiscovered, though it was bothering the mission. Consequently, she used her head a bit and drove her away.

[ “My distant relative, an uncle, became crazy rich with it. How envious. Occasionally, when he comes to my hometown to play, he pays for my mother’s hospital bills, but I wondered where the old miser went. From the head to the toes, he was so dazzling…” ]

Ethel, who lived on endless debt due to her gambler husband, eyes widened when she heard the story of a gold mine in the New World.

She wasn’t making it up very much. It was the truth that her aunt’s family got rich by the developing gold mining in the New World. She now lived in a big city over the ocean. Her aunt would occasionally send letters to Sally, asking her to live with her, but Sally refused each time.

Step on the weaker and climb higher and higher… Accumulating blood-stained wealth, wears smooth clothes, and eats lavishly.

In a class made of money, they looked no different from the pigs of the monarchy.

The world that Sally’s deceased parents and moreover, the comrades whom she considered family dreamed of were not like that.

[ “The utopia will grow on the blood of the revolutionary army and bear fruit.” ]

Sally recalled the slogan, which she had chanted frequently since childhood. Literally, the blood of the revolutionary army was stuck between the black stone floors.

As she scraped it off with the brush, the letters in her pocket were rustling.

[ “I want Sally to be my daughter.” ]

Mrs. Appleby used to lament to Sally, who waited for her at 5 pm every day.

[ “My daughter only sends letters on Easter and Christmas.” ]

When the mail carriage came to the Winston mansion, she rushed to the door and held out a piece of letter. Mrs. Appleby thought it was a letter to her mother in the hospital. Only she and the postman, Peter, knew that the secret code to her comrade was actually hidden in the sweet and imaginative text.

Hidden in today’s letter was the message that the Uncle was moving to the Govurn camp.

The convoy has already left. Although she thought she should call the branch right away, the mansion’s phone could be tapped. The phone would be placed as soon as Peter returned to town.

It was a five-hour drive from here to the Govurn camp. In the meantime, there was enough time for the rescue team near Govurn to set up a rescue operation and wait. Perhaps, the uncle would return to the arms of his comrades before he even arrived in downtown Govurn.

Eventually, she came out of the torture chamber, which smelled of disinfectant and bleach.

Entering the hallway and turning the corner, there was a laundry chute that led up to the top floor of the annex. She opened the drawer and filled the basket with blood-soaked laundry.

As she was on her way to the laundry room in the main building with a full basket—

“Miss Bristol.”

At the sound of the voice suddenly pouring over her head, Sally missed the basket and the willow basket fell to the floor.

“…Captain?”

When did he come? She couldn’t hear any footsteps.

She turned her head up, and the hot breath touched the back of her exposed neck.

Goosebumps welled up on Sally’s forearm.

The tip of his nose dug under the sparsely fine hair. Her legs trembled as Winston inhaled with his nose buried in her skin. She wanted to escape, but she was blocked by cold walls and the hot walls of blood and flesh.

“Sally, you smell good.”

All that came from her was the smell of blood and disinfectant.

He then took one step closer.

Sally’s heart, trapped between the wall in her mouth and between Winston’s chest, pounded in a thump.

‘Dangerous… This is dangerous.’

A hard object pierced between her hips as she pushed the wall with her hands. It was easy to tell that it wasn’t a pistol. The heat that could not be stopped even with several layers of cloth warmed Sally’s delicate skin at will.