The Maid Under the Stairs - Chapter 53

< Chapter 53 >

“Um, what….”

Mabel looked puzzled. 

Mabel Birdie, the Mabel Birdie that had been written on her abandoned baby basket, and now William was referring to the Birdie surname.

“After summer vacation, when you mentioned not knowing if you wanted to see your family, I vaguely thought I could help you sometime. And after the hearing, I actually had people search for you.”

“Why, Mr. Edmundstone… Why?”

Mabel still couldn’t understand William’s words, but she managed to ask with a puzzled expression, and William, looking embarrassed, answered as if at a loss, sweeping his hand over his neck.

“Mabel, I speak at the pulpit of Westminster that we must break down the walls of social status. Names written on pieces of paper or titles should not define a person’s worth, they should be ignored.”

William’s voice faltered, and he leaned back, putting his hand on his waist while pressing his temples with the other hand, showing his distress.

“But when I see you struggling, thinking that a mere piece of paper, a document proving your lineage, could be the solution to all your problems… I feel like pouring out all the power and wealth of my household just to buy that piece of paper. Even if it’s a false lineage, if it could make you happy!”

William said as if he understood Mabel’s reluctance to push him away again after the hearing. Mabel, reflected in William’s eyes, seemed like someone who could leave everything behind at any moment. Just like when she pushed him away, even refusing to reply to his letters before spending summer vacation together.

“….”

Mabel, taken aback by the unexpected shocking news and William’s sharpness, couldn’t find words to say. Then William, calming his breath and speaking with a polite tone, continued.

“So, I’ve found your roots, Mabel. Despite it being an intrusive act. So from now on, it’s entirely up to your choice. What I can tell you is that I found someone with the Birdie surname near Oxford. Your age, the location of the orphanage you were abandoned at… considering all of that, someone who could be your blood relative.”

William’s expression was filled with traces of his struggle between his faith and the harsh reality. But in the end, selfish or not, he had no choice but to decide to keep her close to him, more than his beliefs.

“Mabel, listen carefully. I’ll do anything if it means you’ll be a little less anxious and more confident. The ideals and beliefs I’ve upheld so far don’t matter at all to me now. Do you understand what I mean?”

Mabel, with a pale expression, simply stared straight into William’s eyes as he spoke, as if his words were piercing her.

* * *

There was a place near Oxford where an elderly person with the surname Birdie lived.

It was about an hour’s carriage ride from the Oxford orphanage where Mabel was abandoned, and not too far from the school next to the orphanage she attended.

The person William found was named Geofford Birdie, and there was a strong possibility that he was Mabel’s grandfather. He had maintained the title of his ancestor who luckily married into a noble family during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, but due to losing his only son who would inherit his title, he was in a precarious financial situation, having to convert his house into a restaurant and inn.

“Welcome.”

Mabel and William, pretending to be guests, settled in the ground floor restaurant of the building, where several maids were busy welcoming guests. Near them, a man with a faintly gray head, who seemed to be Geofford Birdie, sat in a rocking chair smoking a pipe.

Confirming Geofford Birdie’s face from the messenger, William nodded slightly to Mabel.

‘Is he really my grandfather?’

Mabel swallowed her saliva and glanced at Geofford Birdie.

When William said he found someone with the Birdie surname, Mabel was very surprised, but she could make up her mind more easily than she thought.

It was because rather than several people maintaining the unusual surname Birdie and living in a village, it was just one old man, and also because of William’s words that Geofford Birdie happened to run a restaurant and inn, making it possible for them to come as guests.

While pondering how to find out if Geofford Birdie was her blood relative, the old man, who seemed to be asleep, suddenly spoke to William.

“You seem familiar, but is this your first time here?”

His hoarse voice echoed against the stone wall.

“Yes. Are you the owner?”

Despite the sudden question from Geofford, William replied without any sign of confusion.

“Yes, indeed. I’m Geofford Birdie, the owner of this place, whether it’s a restaurant or an inn.”

Perhaps he was bored until then, the old man started talking comfortably to Mabel and William without them making any effort. However, somehow he seemed to pay almost no attention to Mabel who was closer to him, and started the conversation looking mostly at William.

“Since you don’t have a ring, you don’t seem like a married couple. Oh, this isn’t a place for unmarried men and women to stay, so what brings you here?”

“I and he are colleagues working together. We had business in this town, so we stopped by here.”

Mabel hurriedly replied. Seeing Geofford Birdie’s hazel eyes similar to hers, there seemed to be an impatience stirring in a corner of her heart that she hadn’t noticed before.

“Ah, typical city folks. Not so ugly that you couldn’t find a fiancé, why would a woman want to work with a man?”

When Geofford got angry at some point and directed his resentment towards Mabel, William managed to extract more information from Geofford, prompting him to speak.

“As you may know if you have children, nowadays it’s not uncommon for people of all genders to have jobs.”

“Oh, I have no children. I had a son from my deceased former wife, but he went to the other world before me. All because of one foolish woman.”

“What do you mean?”

If Geofford was indeed Mabel’s grandfather, then the person he was talking about would likely be her father. Mabel’s ears perked up.

“Even now, I am from the Birdie family, a family with a title. Our son also received a knighthood for his bravery in the colonial war.”

Geofford Birdie boasted proudly, straightening his shoulders.

“But that brave and clever boy ended up having an affair with a maid working in our house. That red-haired maid with a fair face was the daughter of a wanderer from somewhere in Scotland, weak-bodied and always sick… We should have kicked out that maid a long time ago. Who could have guessed that our son would be infatuated with that woman?”

William and Mabel exchanged glances simultaneously. Considering Mabel’s chestnut-colored hair, she might have had parents from the North, as they had thought before.

“In short, while our son was away to receive his knighthood in London, we decided to kick out the maid. Despite her stubborn resistance, when I threatened to disown my son if he ever saw her again, she finally backed off.”

“And you didn’t see that maid again? What about your son?”

Instead of answering William’s question, the old man sucked on his pipe firmly. Just as the smoke covering his face cleared, Geofford Birdie started talking again.

“Do you see those maids’ brettelles there? In those days, they were made to cover both the chest and the belly, so as to conceal the belly, as they called it.”

At the end of Geofford’s gaze, young maids with bretelles covering their chests and bellies hurried back and forth.

“That maid had my son’s child, I didn’t know. Even if I had known, I’m not sure if I would have accepted that child from humble origins. Anyway, despite her being close to my son like a faithful dog, it seems she didn’t become visibly pregnant. My son searched everywhere for her, but it was all in vain.”

Mabel was frozen in astonishment. Could it be that the pregnant maid was her mother, the one who gave her her reddish hair?

“A few months later, when my son found that maid, she had already given birth and died from childbirth fever. According to the innkeeper where she stayed, she gave birth to a girl, who also died shortly after, and he told my son to pay for her funeral and the inn bills she had accumulated during her stay.”

Geofford Birdie still wrinkled his forehead at the thought of the money he had to pay back then.

“And… what does this have to do with your son’s passing?”

Mabel managed to ask the question with great difficulty.

“Oh, outsiders are always curious about everything.”

Geofford waved away the cigarette smoke as if it were bothersome, but contrary to his complaints, he continued speaking.

“Why is there such a demand for maids who secretly get pregnant and then disappear? There was a time when they would give birth in the kitchen even while working. The problem was that the child was frail. However, my son didn’t see it that way. He declared himself estranged from me, claiming that driving away that maid was akin to killing her, and left the house on his own… The news I heard about that child was a notification of death from a battalion deployed to Africa a few years later.”

While talking about the death of his only son, Geofford Birdie didn’t seem particularly sad. William and Mabel remained silent.

“With the sole heir throwing himself into the army, our household ended up like this. All because of that wretched woman with the red hair, wouldn’t you say?”

Geofford gazed emptily at Mabel’s hair with hollow eyes before resuming sucking on his pipe. The pungent and bitter smoke rose over Geofford Birdie’s exposed forehead.