Filed To Story: Finding the Secret Daddy for My Baby Novel
It was then that Sophia remembered Arthur asking her to act like a well behaved servant, so she quickly answered, “Oh, of course. I’ll have these bags brought into your room right away!”
She proceeded to drag the two mammoth bags toward the stairwell, but when she tried to lift them, she realized they were firmly weighed down on the floor. Those two maids who came with Emily must come from professional weightlifting backgrounds! Sophia thought in dark amusement as her slender arms faltered.
Emily crossed her arms as she watched Sophia struggle to lift the bags. “Be careful with those. I have tons of valuable stuff in there; you break them, you pay, but I doubt you could afford it.”
Several attempts later, Sophia was sure that she had no way of lifting them.
Panting, she said, “Miss Jennings, these bags are far too heavy for me to lift.”
“So hard to find good help these days, it seems,” Emily mocked with a cruel smirk.
Ignoring this, Sophia called out for the only man in the living room to aid her. “A little help please, Mr. Weiss?”
“How dare you ask Artie to carry out a servant’s duty, you little-” Before Emily could continue the rest of her scolding, Arthur brushed past her to the stairwell and grabbed the two bags, then easily carried them up the stairs in a display of incredible arm strength while asking Sophia to hurry along.
Emily’s eyes widened at this. She couldn’t believe that Arthur had actually lent the maid a helping hand by carrying the bags up the stairs. It was the most bizarre thing she had ever witnessed. We’re talking about the young master of a prestigious family, for heaven’s sake!
She headed up the stairs as well, and much to her surprise, he had brought the bags into the guest room instead of leaving them on the second-floor landing.
Sophia did not expect Arthur to oh-so charitably bring the bags into Emily’s designated room either, and when she got to the top of the stairs, she quickly said, “Thank you, Young Master Weiss.”
“You shouldn’t have, Artie,” Emily interjected, then grabbed his hand to inspect his palm with a pained expression. “I would have asked the bodyguards to help, you know. Look at how red your palm is!”
Sophia came over to peer at his palm as well, and sure enough, the skin was chaffed red. The bags had a combined weight of more than a hundred pounds, after all.
“It’s fine,” Arthur said dismissively as he pulled away from Emily.
“How-How useless can you be? I cannot believe you had your master do your work for you. You’re fired! Go, get out of our sights!” Emily barked commandingly at Sophia, terminating her services right there and then.
Sophia blinked, then her eyes lit up as she asked. “Really? I can go now?” “Who said you could? In case you forgot,
I’ve given you a one-year advancement on your wages,” Arthur piped up suddenly, glowering at her.
She searched his face for an explanation. As if she would forget about receiving wages from him! But she quickly grasped the situation and realized that this man was determined to keep her here.
Going along with his act, she said, “I believe you’re the one forgetting things here, Young Master Weiss. Remember how you said you would pay me the last time and then something came up to conveniently distract you from it? Well, with all due respect, you’ll have to cough up the two hundred and forty grand you promised that’s twenty grand for each calendar month that you owe me.”
Arthur scoffed, rendered speechless by her audacity.
“You’re not actually going back on your word, are you, Young Master Weiss? I’ve gone without a month’s salary now!” she added, feigning panic.
Unaware of what was going on, Emily snorted and said contemptuously, “Artie’s fortune is far more than anything you could ever imagine, so he wouldn’t go back on his word to pay you the pittance you’re asking for. Don’t delude yourself.”
Seizing this chance, Sophia nodded earnestly and said with implication,
“That’s what I think too. I know a gentleman of nobility such as him would never go back on his promise or mistreat his staff. Right, Young Master Weiss?” Then, she flashed him a meaningful smile as she added brightly, “If it helps, you can always do it over PayPal.”
The man was at a loss for words.
Emily suddenly realized that her presence was completely overshadowed by the maid, and she grew infuriated as she snapped, “Okay, fine, he’ll pay you what he owes you, so get back to work!
I want all the clothes in these bags ironed and hung in the wardrobe, and I mean every single piece of clothing, got it? If I see so much as a wrinkle, you’re done for!” she emphasized the last part of her command and sprinkled malice on top of it, too. “The password for the bags is 2345.”
Having said that, she linked arms with Arthur and said cheerily, “Come on, Artie, let’s leave her to her work. Let’s catch up on all the latest details of your life.”
Sophia heaved a sigh in relief when Emily and Arthur finally left the room, but she couldn’s help wondering why the latter was so intent on keeping her here.
Sighing, she opened up one of the bags only to stop and stare at the contents for a full three seconds. Then, she picked up the black lace negligée from the very top of the pile of clothes. The fabric, or rather the lack thereof. had her stumped.
Miss Jennings might as well be naked in this! Who’s she going to wear this for? Arthur? Does he have a fetish for stuff like this?
When she proceeded to iron Emily’s questionable wardrobe, Sophia began to panic, for she became acutely aware of the fact that she had no idea how to operate a clothing iron. Her parents had raised her like a princess all her life, and they had never once let her go near house chores, much less do them.
However, she was supposedly Arthur’s maid right now, and she had no choice but to hunker down on these menial household tasks, which were not so much menial to her as they were challenges.
Downstairs, Arthur looked distracted as he listened to Emily prattle on about the latest details of her undoubtedly jet setting lifestyle.
She stopped talking at some point when she realized that he seemed miles away, then asked dejectedly, “Is my presence here bothering you, Artie?”
“No, of course not!” He looked at her with narrowed eyes. He knew exactly why Martha had asked Emily to come here. Knowing the old lady, she was most likely playing matchmaker, and this was just her way of setting him up with Emily.
“Then why do you look like you aren’t happy to see me?” Emily accused, biting down on her lip.
“I’m happy to see you. I was just thinking about something else, that’s all.” He had only just said this when a loud cry sounded from the second floor.
“Ow!”
The next second, Arthur rose from the couch and headed up the stairs with Emily in his wake. When they reached the guest room, they saw Sophia standing by the ironing board holding her hand, and the clothing iron was still hissing away.
“What’s wrong?” Arthur asked urgently. He reached out to grab her hand and immediately saw the red streak burn on her palm.
“Sorry, I accidentally burned myself earlier. I’ll be fine,” Sophia said. She had instinctively cried out in alarm when she made contact with the hot iron, but she didn’t think she would draw the couple upstairs.
She wanted to pull away from Arthur, but he tightened his grip on her and led her to the bathroom, then turned on the tap to run her red, angry palm under cold water. While doing so, he chided, “You should always pay attention when you’re ironing!”
Meanwhile, Emily’s heart leaped to her throat when she saw this scene. She remembered how much Arthur hated physical contact, but here he was holding the maid’s hand with an unsettling familiarity.
Sophia leaned closer to him and whispered in retort, “It’s not my fault I’ve never been made to iron anything!”
Arthur knew that she had been raised as a young lady of nobility as well, so he did not continue berating her. After turning off the tap water and drying her hand, they walked out of the bathroom together. Then, he glanced at Emily and said, “Have your maids do the ironing, Emily. I’m afraid Sophia’s a little too clumsy for her own good.”
“If she’s so clumsy, why don’t you just fire her?” Emily assessed Sophia belittingly and added, “We can’t pay someone who doesn’t do their job well.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.