"UUGGHH WHAT WAS I THINKING?!"
I groaned, throwing myself lazily back onto the sofa while Wolf wheeled in a small cart to gather the tea and cookies.
"How am I ever going to pull this off?" I whined, hugging a small floral cushion against my chest.
Wolf smiled with only his lips while placing a fresh cup of tea in front of me.
"I have full confidence in your abilities, My Lady," he responded politely.
"You.."
I growled, slowly rising from my corpse-like position.
"You're no help at all, Wolf!! Why did you verify those documents ahead of time?!"
My lackey continued to play 'butler', pretending to be completely oblivious to my complaining.
"I think it's good to challenge yourself every now and then, Miss Scandal Maker."
"Ha! As if that's the case!" I shouted, throwing the pillow squarely at Wolf's face. "You're just waiting for the day I break down and beg for your help!"
Wolf effortlessly caught the pillow and gently set it back down on the sofa, all the while maintaining his fake butler smile.
"Well keep dreaming," I mumbled, sinking back against the sofa, "because I can handle this on my own and way better than you ever could!"
"Of course. I have no doubts, My Lady," Wolf bowed. "I'm just here to serve cookies and dust the shelves."
"I don't even pay you for that stuff," I rolled my eyes, reaching for the teacup. "You didn't brew this yourself, did you?"
Wolf's lower lip protruded as he nodded his head.
"I'm offended you have such a low opinion of my tea-brewing skills, My Lady."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," I snorted. "Aside from tea and cookies, you know what you actually need to do now, right?"
The half-hearted smile that graced only the man's lips suddenly stretched into a devilish grin, his eyes lighting up with excitement.
Eagerly, he stripped the pair of white gloves off his hands, throwing them carelessly onto the cart.
"Count Graye? Illegitimate child?" he winked. "Just leave it to me."
In a flash, he had disappeared out the window, leaving a small gust of wind in his wake that gently rustled the stack of documents on the table.
"Why can't that man use doors like the rest of us?" Marissa, an adorable red-haired child who'd been serving as my maid for the past two years, grunted, stomping into the room to retrieve her tea cart.
As she tidied up the table and replaced the cup of Wolf's tainted tea, she grumbled to herself about the annoying Marquess Wulfstan.
Poor girl. I probably owed her another two weeks of vacation time just for dealing with Wolf's rowdiness alone.
"I'll leave you to it now, Madam Opaline," Marissa bowed politely when she'd finished, wheeling the cart back out of the room.
She was a short girl with a loud voice and few manners, but I was incredibly fond of her. In fact, I think she was the first pro bono case I took on.
As the eldest of five daughters, the responsibility to take care of her family rested upon her shoulders. A malicious merchant became aware of her predicament and promptly chased off all other job offers made to Marissa aside from his own.
What was his offer, you ask? Well, just an ordinary maid in his home.. with 'extracurricular' nightly duties.
Marissa never actually came to me about her situation, but I caught wind of it through another case I'd been working on. Besides, taking down the merchant turned out to be as simple as sinking his ship.
Literally.
But, that's a story for another day.
Anyway, after it was all said and done, I promptly hired Marissa as my own maid. She's clever, diligent, and bakes incredible cookies.
Oh, and the only 'extracurricular' nightly activities she has to worry about that take place in my household involve undercover intel gathering.. and occasionally sabotaging ships.
Speaking of undercover intel gathering, I imagined I would have to get some primary data on Count Graye myself. Which meant I had to observe him discreetly and possibly make contact.
If the reports Madam Graye had given me were true, I needed to watch for signs of disruption in his otherwise flawless character. After all, the actions of the man described in the report and the man I knew about had a large rift between them.
This didn't mean I suspected Madam Graye of falsifying her testimony. Rather, it meant there had to be an utter demon, carefully sealed away behind Count Graye's smooth exterior. If I could find the smallest hole in his disguise—one tiny slip up—then I could begin my scandal making.
Unfortunately, that also meant that it might take months or even a whole year to pull off the Count Graye job adequately. In the meantime, I would need to take on several smaller jobs to fill the gaps in my schedule (and paycheck), but the ultimate goal was Count Auden Graye.
Sorry, Baron Lister. It seems a new #1 Most Wanted has just entered the picture.
And I won't be satisfied until he kneels before me in chains. (Metaphorically speaking, of course.)
-One Week Later-
I hummed quietly to myself as I shuffled through documents at my desk.
"Let's see…" I mumbled, pulling a paper from the stack. "Lady Abigail was with Viscount Winthrop Sunday afternoon.. which means…"
Scanning the lines of scribbles on the paper, I finally located the date I was looking for.
"Aha! Winthrop must have visited the docks early Saturday morning!"
A light tap against the door startled me from my work.
"What is it, Marissa?" I responded, scrawling 'docks?' along the side of the paper.
Immediately, the door swung open, revealing a tall man with silver hair and emerald eyes, dressed entirely in shades of black.
"Ah, Wolf," I smirked. "I believe this is the longest you've ever left me alone."
Behind him, I could see Marissa frowning with her small hands planted squarely on her hips.
Evidently, the young maid had finally confronted the man about using the door instead of the window.
"You love to scratch at me," Wolf snorted, stomping into the room. "But I have bad news for you this time, Jer."
Smack!!
"I mean, My Lady," Wolf corrected, rubbing his shoulder where Marissa had slapped him. (It was as close to his face as the petite girl could reach.)
After a final glare, the feisty maid bowed and left us alone while Wolf began explaining the difficulty in finding any information on the Count Graye case.
"Even with the lead Madam Graye gave us," Wolf sighed, scratching his head, "it seems this man has covered his tracks with exceptional skill."
"It's fine. I expected this," I shook my head, placing my quill back in its stand.
If it were easy to take down Count Auden Graye, I'm sure it would have been done long ago. I mean, this man had broken the beloved daughters' hearts of countless powerful men.
But nothing is impossible for the Scandal Maker, even if it means I have to get my hands dirty!
(After all, that's my slogan, and I don't plan on discrediting it just because of one measly job.)
I quickly reached for the lacy brown bonnet hung next to my desk and pulled it over my head.
"Let's get to work."