Try Begging Novel - Chapter 18

As the dancers stepped onto the stage, the men’s whistles drowned out the music. The female dancers wore nothing but short skirts adorned with flamboyant tassels and beads, and layers of imitation pearl necklaces around their necks.

Leon watched the women dancing with their chests exposed, his eyes indifferent. Why did they rave so much about mere flesh? It was no different from cuts of meat hanging in a butcher shop.

Among the five officers seated at the table, Leon was the only one who looked bored.

Unable to bear the tedium, he cast a light glance at Lieutenant Colonel Humphrey, who sat beside him. His superior was drooling over women young enough to be his daughters, oblivious to his cigar turning to ash.

The Lieutenant Colonel, who had worn a grim expression like a Doberman in Governor’s Peak, had started grinning like a monkey the moment they left that place. Not only that, he had led the intelligence officers to a cabaret for a farewell party for the commander, who would soon return to civilian life.

A party without the guest of honor.

To Leon, that contradiction was the only amusing thing.

He leaned his chin on his hand, slowly swirling the nearly empty glass, when the Lieutenant Colonel tilted a whiskey bottle over Leon’s glass.

“Not enjoying yourself?”

“I merely have particular tastes, sir.”

At Leon’s blunt reply, the Lieutenant Colonel chuckled, a low rumble in his throat.

“Hey, what about that woman over there?”

The Lieutenant Colonel pointed the tip of his cigar at the dancer standing center stage. The beauty, who smiled dazzlingly and blew kisses to the audience, was the most popular woman in Winsford’s red-light district. Which also meant she commanded the highest price for a night.

“Kitty Hayes. She’s not for just anyone.”

A middle-aged man put his arm around Leon’s shoulder and whispered as if imparting valuable information.

“You’re lucky today, son. The owner of this cabaret owes me a favor.”

And here I thought he warned me to be careful with women. Leon took a sip of whiskey and twisted the corner of his mouth.

“Thank you, but I’m not inclined. I’ll decline.”

“Come on, one dirty roll in the hay and your fastidiousness will be cured. Everyone starts that way, don’t they, Johnson?”

Major Johnson, seated opposite Leon, shrugged.

“The Lieutenant Colonel has a point, but it wouldn’t be so bad to marry without ever knowing that pleasure. It would be troublesome to fall too deeply later, wouldn’t it?”

The Major winked slightly at Leon. It was always his job to dissuade the Lieutenant Colonel, who tried to push Leon into a hotel room every time they came to the cabaret. The Major was higher in military rank than Leon, but lower in social standing than the great landowners of the Camden region, including Winsford.

“Ah… right. The esteemed Grand Duchess. How is she? Is she to your taste?”

“One doesn’t marry for taste.”

The Lieutenant Colonel let out a booming laugh that hurt the ears.

“That’s true.”

The Lieutenant Colonel patted Leon’s back with a thick hand, as if he had spoken a profound truth, then murmured softly.

“But know this.”

“……”

“A passionate night doesn’t always end badly.”

Leon merely smiled wryly. The Lieutenant Colonel thought he avoided strange women out of fear of meeting a miserable end like his father.

The Lieutenant Colonel continued to annoy Leon, pointing out dancers on stage one by one. Leon gave vague replies when a woman wearing a black, elegant tray strapped around her neck approached their table. Lieutenant Campbell, seated next to him, had motioned her over.

As Campbell selected a pack of cigarettes and a few sticks of gum from the tray and paid, Leon quietly observed the woman.

A humble woman selling cigarettes.

A woman as humble as that maid.

Soon, a crooked smile formed on his face.

A woman who, even dressed in a revealing uniform that exposed her cleavage and thighs, couldn’t shed her plainness.

Like the prostitutes on stage, she sold forced smiles to men, but had no intention of seducing them… No, she was a novice who didn’t even know how to seduce.

Without a trace of makeup, not even the scent of perfume, she was a country bumpkin fresh from the countryside.

Just like Sally Bristol.

Even the way her eyes, weary of the debauchery unfolding before her, looked at him resembled Sally’s eyes.

Leon approached the woman standing idly against the wall. Noticing his presence, the woman’s deep blue eyes widened as she looked up at him.

“W-what do you need?”

He couldn’t tell why she stammered. Was she intimidated, or had she sensed an impure intent from him?

Leon picked up a random candy box from her tray, put it in the inner pocket of his officer’s jacket, and handed her a banknote. When the woman tried to give him change, he shook his head and asked,

“First time?”

“Pardon?”

The woman’s eyes widened even further.

“Why… why do you… ask that?”

She was acting like a frightened mouse, so she must have misunderstood his question.

“Is this your first day on the job?”

Her face flushed crimson, confirming his suspicion that she had misunderstood. She dropped her gaze, gave an awkward laugh, and then asked,

“How did you know?”

“It shows.”

He watched her silently, arms crossed, and she again acted like a frightened mouse, glancing at him.

“Do you… need anything else?”

That’s what the maid often says.

This might work.

“Do you have a lover?”

The woman raised her eyes, then lowered them, gauging his reaction, before answering in a tiny voice, like a squeaking mouse.

“…Yes.”

In that instant, the smile that appeared on Leon’s perfectly sculpted face was more twisted than ever.

On the swamp of poverty, one cannot firmly build conviction and love. It crumbles easily at the slightest breeze of a few coins.

For a paltry sum, less than half of what he had given that maid a few days ago, the woman betrayed her fiancé and docilely followed him to the hotel. When Leon opened the door, the woman clutched the hem of her short skirt and hesitated.

“Are you really… going to do it with me?”

The woman asked, her face flushed. Leon merely let out a hollow laugh.

Foolish woman. What is she so excited about? Nothing you’re hoping for will happen in here.

She seemed to be deluding herself into thinking that something out of a third-rate romance novel would happen to her—a young, wealthy, handsome man spending a night with a poor, plain woman and falling in love.

“Get in.”

He commanded stiffly, and only then did the woman flinch and step inside. Leon followed immediately, roughly closing the door behind him, and an ominous aura began to emanate from him.

The woman seemed to grasp her situation somewhat, pacing nervously in front of the bed, unsure what to do. Leon didn’t approach her, but leaned against the wall opposite the bed.

“Take it off.”

He loosened the knot of his suffocating tie and commanded.

“No time.”

The woman, frozen in place and merely glancing at him, finally removed her old trench coat only after Leon tapped his wrist-watch. Leon’s gaze as he watched her untie the ribbon and unbutton her cabaret uniform one by one was no different from when he had watched the naked dancers on stage.

“Take all of that off too. Oh, leave the stockings on.”

The woman removed her bra and bloomers, then got onto the bed wearing only cheap rayon stockings, but the man didn’t approach.

Clutching her naked body with her hands, the woman glanced at him, oblivious. She had no idea that in the mind of this young officer, who looked like a movie star, another woman was undressing.

Was it because there was no smell of blood?

Leon gazed at the woman, who sat on the bed like a slab of meat, with uninspired eyes, then reached for the small table.

“Gasp!”

The sharp tip of the wine opener mercilessly dug into Leon’s thumb, and the woman made a jarring sound. Leon, whose thumb was now bleeding, didn’t even flinch.

He slowly licked the blood that ran down his palm towards his wrist and approached the bed. The woman’s pale eyes trembled as she recoiled into the corner of the bed.

Leon roughly seized the woman’s chin, which tried to escape him, and crushed his thumb against her trembling, pale lips. The woman’s lips were stained entirely red with his blood.

This might work.

His taste might not be that maid after all. He might be aroused by nothing more than the smell of blood and the contempt in a woman’s eyes.

‘Yes, despise me like that. You’re doing very well so far.’

Leon smiled confidently at the woman, who glared at him as if he were a monster, then lowered his head. His blood-soaked lips rapidly drew near.

The smell of blood.

And a woman who despises me.

It will work.

It must work.

“Uh… over here…”

It had to work, but…

He stopped involuntarily just before their lips touched. He remained frozen in the posture of kissing for quite a while, until the woman called him in a trembling voice. Leon pushed her chin away and stood up.

“Get out. Now.”

She had only intended to borrow Winston’s shower stall. But when she came to her senses, Sally was already drawing a hot bath.

Not only that, she had made plenty of foam with a refreshing lemon-scented soap and even lit a scented candle she had found in the corner of the bathroom cabinet, which Winston had never touched.

It was quite a luxurious night for a poor maid, and for a spy constantly short on funds.

But Sally was human, and sometimes she craved such luxuries.

‘A glass of champagne would make it perfect.’

She could easily go to the drawing-room and secretly get a glass, but she only thought of it after she had already undressed and immersed herself in the tub. She would have to remember it next time she ‘borrowed’ the bathroom.

Sally’s ‘home’ didn’t have a bathtub. In fact, it wasn’t a home, but just a room in a boarding house.

Originally, her family of four had lived in a fairly large house. But after her father died, they had received glares from neighbors, implying it was too big for three people. Then, after her mother died and her brother left, Sally had to give her childhood home to another family and move into a boarding house.

It was disappointing, but the house was communal property.

“The leadership must set an example.”

Jimmy’s constant mantra offered some comfort.

“You can use the bathtub at our house anytime. You’re like family, after all.”

Jimmy’s house had a bathtub with hot water facilities. It was a tempting offer, but she had never used it. She could see his ulterior motives behind his smile.

‘No way before our wedding night.’

Sally submerged herself up to her chin and let out a pleasant sigh. The muscles knotted from hard work felt as if they were slowly loosening.

‘Just a little more enjoyment before I get out.’

Closing her eyes in the dim bathroom, immersed in the hot water, she soon felt drowsy. She dozed off without realizing it and buried her nose in the foam. Startled, she lifted her head and blew at the bubbles, sending small soap bubbles floating upwards.

‘I should probably wash myself before the water gets cold.’

She unconsciously reached for the sponge on the golden tray at the edge of the tub, then stopped. That was the object Winston had rubbed all over his naked body.

“Ugh!”

She involuntarily imagined that sponge rubbing that cigar. Sally let out a shriek and plunged her head into the foam.

Please, let the foam wash away all the dirty memories in my head.

“Phew…”

She lifted her head sharply out of the water only when she could no longer hold her breath. Wiping the water and foam from her face with her hand, Sally gasped for air, and then froze the moment she opened her eyes.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Miss Sally Bristol, prouder than Grand Duchess Aldrich and more expensive than Kitty Hayes, in my bathtub, and naked at that.”

Winston was leaning casually against the door opposite the bathtub, smiling. His hands were unbuttoning his officer’s jacket one by one.

‘Damn it. This is impossible. When did he get in?’

She didn’t care ‘how’. Winston had the master key to the annex. Meaning, there were no locked doors to him in this annex.

“Is it my birthday today? Or has Christmas come eight months early?”

He took off his jacket and took two steps towards her.

“I’m truly sorry, Captain.”

Sally quickly wrapped one arm around her chest and leaned towards the foot of the tub. Just as she was about to grab the clothes she had hung on the towel rack, Winston draped his jacket over them, covering her clothes.

Sally looked up at Winston, her eyes narrowed. As he came closer, the wicked smile on his face became even more distinct.

“Captain, what are you doing?”

She knew it was a foolish question, but she couldn’t help but ask. Winston swiftly untied his black tie and tossed it into the laundry basket, then unbuttoned his shirt, answering casually.

“Getting into my bathtub.”

“Could you… just step out for a moment before that?”

“This is my bathroom, shouldn’t you be the one to leave?”

“Yes, I’ll leave. Captain, if you could just give me something to cover myself with…”

For some reason, Winston obligingly reached under his jacket and pulled out Sally’s clothes.

“Thank you…”

The hand she had extended to receive her clothes froze in mid-air.