the Leathermines

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There had been a fairly full harvest so far.  Being forced to go afield to find replacements for that which had been destroyed made the household more aware of the land and what it produced.  It was not going to be a meagre winter, but it was going to be a slightly lopsided one.

The amount of drying herbs overflowed the usual places and staves with bundles of herbs drying on them were placed anywhere there was good airflow.  The laundry, which smelt of lemon balm.  The stairway in the tower which smelt of savory and rosemary.  And the Great Hall, which had heather and sweet grass drying for the fall bedding changeover.

The leaves had not started changing colors, but everyone knew that it was coming.  The nobles took charge one morning at meeting by announcing that the bird sounds in the night meant that the ducks and geese were starting to migrate.  That meant a hunt.  The best archers came forward, the nets used for fishing were brought out for repair and the energy of the nobles doubled at the prospect.  Orgia looked forward to something new for the season, and the feathers would be useful in many ways in the household.

Edgar and Fount paired up for the hunt and scouted out to a marshy area towards the old volcano. Yes, the nobles had heard right, the waterfowl had started to gather in the reeds, resting as they went south in front of the cold.

It seemed as though there was a gender split for the hunt.  Most of the women who were not active other places had declined the offer to assist and were sitting under trees, mending linens and clothes for the household.  A table and a few benches had been carried out for the project, easier than sitting on the ground.  The very domestic scene had the women chattering about many things to pass the time as the needles pulled thread through the cloth.

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It was the hardest thing yet that Laun had to decide.  The merchant had completely killed any trust he may have had with his confession of his slavery plans.  He had broken an oath to Marie taken under the smuggler’s code.  If not been called out, his deception may have cost not just the child’s life if they had just let him go on his way the next morning, cart, horse and child with him.  Calling him out had not been the only option, but it was the expedient one that Laun had gone with.  And then she had to decide.

Dreng was astonished at her request.  Geralk had never heard of such a thing before.  And Laun saw it as a third option to the two that were obvious.

It took the smithy an hour to create what Laun wanted.  Geralk took longer with the scroll.  It was a moment for Dreng’s signature and the scream that went through the keep silenced all.

The brand on Gyrip’s arm sent him into a fever that night.  Laun sat next to him, cooling him and giving him elixirs that Pillar or Lucaris would bring her.  She cried when she thought no one would see, though some did and only a few understood.  Protectors stood just outside the firelight, watching their Lady as she watched over the merchant.  She did not sleep.

The morning was bright through the high windows into the Great Hall.  The household gathered, quiet.  The merchant was awake, had been fed and had a package with more food in it handed to him.  The scroll was wrapped in an oilcloth and was in Laun’s hand. »Read More

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The rain continued for several days, forcing those working on repairing the roofs and outer shelters to do so in the cold and wet.  The carpenters took as many people as they could to help with the work and it was done in two days.  One accident involving a beam and an arm stopped work for several hours, but there was no loss of life and the work continued.

Unaccustomed to actually working in their own households, five of the nobles found it refreshing and novel to put in work.  Blisters formed on some hands, sore backs and arms for some.  The one noble who did not work alongside the household was told not to after it was found that he was inept and unable to perform any sort of manual labour.  He had always thought that he had a way with a saw, but when he slipped and had to have Lucaris bandage him up, he was banned from the woodshop.  Pots and pans burned his arms as he tried to show Orgia his nonexistent skills in her kitchens, more bandages and a ban from the kitchen soon followed.  He finally just sat and talked to anyone who would come near, even that soon causing friction with the nature of his droning.

The nobles, including Dreng, still did not understand how the household kept running without the layers of caste they were used to.  The King would pull Laun to the side and try to point out ways that she should be doing things, traditional ways, and ask when she would release men to go back out with him.  Laun would listen to him, smile and thank him for his time and wisdom and then ask him to help with another menial job.  Most mornings, the nobles were not even up before Laun would stand and ask her people what should be done for the day.  They understood more when Dreng dragged them out of the apartments they were in one morning and saw the meeting.

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The nooning meal had been drawn out as people came in, ate and left to go back to their jobs of the day.  As the benches and tables were brought back into the Great Hall from Lady Hellon’s Hill, the formality of the room became more pronounced.  The chatelaine did not entirely approve.

She had been able to leave the kitchens for about an hour and take a nap, well deserved she thought.  The boar was stuck on a spit over the main hearth, it’s hide already skinned, scraped and being salted for tanning later.  The sundries that were to go with it were minor compared to the hassle it had been to get the spit up again.

Orgia swore under her breath at the raiders that had come into her kitchen and broken many of the things she needed to keep the household fed.  This was just the last one they had found, and having been interrupted by the wardsman in the middle of the night at the King’s approach had just driven the point deeper in her heart.

The kitchens were not her only domain.  She ran the whole house.  Had for years.  But no true noble household was run without great kitchens.  She was feeling too old to start collecting more of the things that had made her kitchen the envy of all but the King’s.  But she still had the King to feed.  At least that night, they were to feast.

As she had woken from her nap, an arrangement of the tables occurred to her that might satisfy the King and his men and still allow the freedom that she had seen grow in the household. »Read More

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It was as if a test had been created by their Lady.  The men and women training together to protect the household were sent to find and watch her.  They were told not to disturb her, not to approach her.  If possible, not to let her know they were there at all.

It took time to go through the land and see where she had been.  It took a little more time and they found her sitting next to a stream thick with ancient ash from the dead volcano.  To get there, places they did not know existed were passed, little nooks and crannies in the land and woods.  Bushes ripe with berries, an old apple orchard and a husk of a building long since burned were now known.  Deep ditches and natural pitfalls were discovered and marked for later investigation.

The silent signals that had started with the dancers were used to pass information back through the teams that had found her, and back to the others who were still searching.  Information was passed, strengthening the training they were giving each other.

Laun’s need to be alone had been useful, if not to her, then to the household.

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The smell of fresh bread mingled with a lingering burnt boar’s hair scent in the Great Hall.  The waking members of the household took advantage of the kitchens having been working through the storm.  Talents had been found over the last fortnight in people as the household shifted and settled, including one young wardsman who had a talent to bake the most delicious breads.  He had woken with the others at the quiet alarm.  When he knew the keep was secure, he had been at Orgia’s side starting on the makings of a feast in the middle of the night.  He was tired and wished to lie down to sleep, but he waited for the other members of the household to gather for morning meal.

It was not the earliest the household had ever gathered, but the excitement the night before had many sleeping lightly.  Groups formed in the Great Hall, some for companionship, some for information.  Geralk was at one of the tables with his lists, pages stacked and sorted.  Several of the servants were seated with him discussing the supplies they had been able to find or produce the day before.  The Dance Master had a blanket pulled around him as he paced out some footsteps with several of the household, dancers and wardsmen together.  Bundles of wood were hauled in on backs and stacked at the ends of the Great Hall as the fires were coaxed back into life.  Ashes were scooped into metal buckets and taken back into the kitchens where animal fat was being rendered down for cooking, soaps and candles.  One of the nobles was awake and warming his hands on the mug of tea that had appeared there, Pillar carefully looking at the scrapes he had not attended to the night before.  Lucaris was still asleep on the other side of the nobles, the apprentice she had taken sitting up and rubbing her eyes one place further down on the hard floor.

Laun had gone to the privy and then outside to see what damage had been done in the night.  From what she could see, part of one side of the tower roof was off and had landed on top of a wagon in the inner courtyard.  The smithy was indeed damaged, though she was not sure, other than a wall and roof pole, what may be needed.  She stepped around shards of wood in the muddy ground and saw part of a chain caught in the mud.  She pulled it out and found it was part of a necklace.  She recognized it as one of her Lady’s giftings from her Lord.  Laun kept it in her hand and went on looking at the damage she could see until her feet were completely coated with mud.

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The morning light that came through the window made streaks across the bedding, lighting faces and hands that were not covered.  Laun was becoming aware that she was looking at a strand of brown hair lying across her own hand, but not from her own head.  She moved slightly to see who it was and a familiar arm clasped her to him.  A warm, soft breath was at the back of her neck, sending tremors down her back.  She involuntarily took in a breath and found she was arching away from the man at her back.  He stirred and she found that more than his arm seemed insistent.

Edgar had taken his place sometime in the night, Fount rolling over to make room.  Disa was already up and Laun had a small concern as the situation that morning seemed to have changed from others.  The walk in the night at the Inn had tempted her, but she recognized it was a need to feel comfort and warmth right then.  Now that comfort and safety seemed to have settled around her, the temptation was there again.

There was still a voice that told her that it was not the right time.  She needed to know her own intentions, not just his.  The future was still uncertain.

Laun had another shiver go down her back, making her push back into Edgar and the hardness that was held in check with his breeches.  His arm held her tighter and she could feel his face moving slightly at the nape of her neck.  The feelings she had go through her were wonderful and terrifying.  A part of her mind stepped back and thought of the reactions she had seen in some of the men she had danced for in the last few years.  A sigh escaped with the next shiver and she understood some of what she must have done to the men, nobles and servants alike, when she danced.

Edgar’s hand came up her body and cupped her breast.  Another reaction went through her as he brushed her nipple.  His warm hand sent more shivers down her body and she knew she had to wake him.   It was pleasant and she now wished it to continue, but she wanted them both to be awake.  Laun almost felt like she was taking advantage of her swornman as he lay behind her.

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The work that the household had ahead was not particularly hard or uncommon, just much more than most summers.  From the hold dug into the woods, the household was working on putting the castle to rights, the tilled land was checked and animals that had not been killed were found and corralled.  The household staff cleaned and sorted.  The wardsmen were training each other, the Dance Master helping by the request of Edgar.  Repairs were done as needed to windows and gates and other things damaged by the raid.  Food was gathered, some processed for the larder, some for the day’s meals.

The household was running better every day.  And each night, more people moved back into the castle after the common meal.  Laun was not one of them.

During the day, Laun would help where she could.  She helped to process rabbits as they came into the summer kitchen one day, the skins going into vats of boiled oak leaves as the meat was cooked and smoked.  The day of washing all the linens and clothes they could, ropes hung between trees to provide enough drying space, used up everybody’s backs and shoulders.  Orgia gleaned what she could from the trampled enclosed gardens and sent the kitchen staff out into the woods and fields to find more resources.  A day of clearing out more farmers’ huts was a low day, but needed as a few of the servants asked if they could go back to the land, become the farmers for the household.  The fruit that was gathered and the honey that was scraped to make ciders and meads for the winter scented the hands and clothes of everyone for several days after.

Noon meal would be under the trees of the outdoor Great Hall each day.  The plans that were discussed were open to all, ideas were exchanged, but Laun found that she was the one to yea or nay for the household.  She found council with most every one of her people on at least one subject.  They would eat, talk and then continue with that day’s needs.

And each night, Laun would sleep under the stars, surrounded by others on the same sleeping mat.  More of the household paired up and within two weeks, the day activities on Lady Hellon’s Hill became split from the night activities.  More of the bedding was brought back into the keep and castle with the people to sleep on them.  The summer dryness was good for sleeping at night, but the dryness also concerned those who watched the skies and the fields. »Read More