Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
AUDREY
Describe and name as many people as you can that she interacted with before you lost her. The Man’s going to be annoyed, sugar. Take your time and do it right. —S to Celia
La’Angi Keep
On the other side of the room, Sandra hummed under her breath as she tallied the bottles we had in storage.
I tried to ignore the noise. I liked Sandra’s company.
She had a similar method of problem-solving as Bernadette, as if she could see all the pieces and the way they fit together was obvious.
I’d found explaining small problems to her—like how laundry was being rotated and the shortage of iron for brackets to make new barrels—led to surprisingly ingenious solutions.
But she hummed.
I drew in a deep breath, reminding myself how much longer this task would take were it just I. Steward Daniel had done me the honor of dropping dead, but it did mean I was back to plague numbers when it came to support from the Stewards’ wing.
Sandra’s chalk scraped agonizingly against the slate. I couldn’t help but make a noise of pain at the sound.
She looked up, her eyes wide with horror. “I’m sorry! I didn’a know it’d do that! Are your ears well, m’lady?”
“My ears are fine.” The noise had made my belly roll, but that wasn’t her fault.
“Good,” she sighed. “I think we’ve got enough of the simple large bottles. I’m still hoping to find more fancy ones! With a pretty ribbon, or an elegant wax seal, they’d be more desirable.”
“If the knappchs are the same, I doubt I can price them differently,” I said, squeezing my eyes shut. My heart was racing. Why? Nothing was wrong.
“Oh, but you’ll have the flavored knappchs. You had the peaches mashed up, didn’t you? I’m sure I recall hearing Bernadette talk of it. And our blueberries—you bought them all to mash, didn’a you?”
I started. Had I ordered that?
She laughed nervously and I quickly rearranged my features. Value was based on perception, at least somewhat. “I just assumed, m’lady, my apologies. I know the berries are good for Stitchers’ dyes, too, I forgot y’now have a mage. From the capital, no less!”
I knew I’d bought the berries, but I couldn’t recall what for. And she was right. If I had small amounts of flavors, I could fancy them up and sell them for more. “I—I don’t know.” I hadn’t known they were a necessary item for Stitchers, either.
“I’ll ask Bernie later, if you like.” She scratched something else on the board.
“Can you check with the Stitcher, too?” I asked.
“Oh. Stitcher Amber is an important person for the likes of me.” There was color in her cheeks. “Mayhap you ought to send mistress Isolde, or…”
The idea hit me with such clarity that I wondered how I hadn’t seen it earlier. “Sandra, would you be agreeable to training as my steward? It isn’t as desirable as formal etiquette, but—”
“You’d teach me how to run a whole keep?” she squeaked. “If I can help run La’Angi, I could run anything!”
She wasn’t wrong. Still, I had to say, “In terms of social status, Sandra, marrying into the noble class has expectations.”
“If I get to steward, I can learn from Inker Apprentice Allison, and Stitcher Amber, and Bernadette, and you, and—” She frowned at me. “Do I have to marry a nobleman now? Truly, there’s no other option?”
I thought of my own long, and now broken, betrothal.
“In terms of maintaining your financial stability, you should. Your little brother will inherit your father’s lands.
He might have you live on as steward, or you could earn a living here working in La’Angi.
” Guilt twisted through me at that promise I may not be able to keep.
The moons between me and my father’s arrival were so few.
“To protect your status…you should,” I added. “But I don’t think you have to, unless your liege lord or king indicates you must.”
She propped the slate on her hip, staring at me intently.
“So, if I just got a good income, and helped my little sisters make good marriages, put by a bit of coin and lived simply, that’d be okay?
I could make sure they had somewhere safe to go if they didn’t make a good match, or if their luck went sour? That’d be okay, yes?”
Tears burned my eyes. More promises I might not be able to keep jammed up in my mouth. Your family will always be looked after so long as I am here. All families will be looked after so long as I am here. But how long would that be?
“Technically, no one except my father or the king can order you to wed,” I told her. I couldn’t imagine Thomas forcing a wedding on her. “Have you discussed this with your parents?”
She tossed her hair. “No. They’re scared of change, but also scared to not change.
We’re stuck between. No offence, m’lady, but I don’t want to spend all my time learning to dance.
I like learning about different size bottles and ways we can stopper them and how the Inker makes labels.
There’s something satisfying about making it all orderly. ”
Why that made my tears burn even more, I didn’t know. “I can’t promise your family will be happy, or that the Duke won’t order you marry someone, but I’d love to have your help running the keep, Sandra.”
“Well, if I’m forced to marry, it won’t matter that I don’t know all the dances or how to address the third son of a lord who looks after a large fief.
” She looked back at her slate. “You can go on your ride if you want, m’lady.
I’ll finish this room, then chase up those blueberries.
Should we prioritize the Stitcher’s dyes or knappchs, if we have to choose? ”
I played with the string of weighted coins dangling from my belt.
Dyes were a luxury, but I didn’t know if they were also required for uniforms, which were a necessity, unlike knappchs.
“Prioritize filling the fancy bottles,” I decided.
I could always buy dyes if they were needed.
“See if Stitcher Amber can make some ribbons and Inker Allison can make a simple, classy label. We’ve got a lot of black sealing wax that’ll look striking.
See what Stitcher Amber wants, and whether we could make enough blueberry mash to flavor the gift bottles, too. ”
Her eyes widened. “If you give them a small taste…”
“Mayhap.” I’d have to mark up the special bottles to account for the loss of profit from giving away that many small bottles of spirits. Most years we just kept the cider flowing, but I didn’t have limitless liquor.
They could always buy it, though.
“Prioritize limited run bottles,” she said. “Then see what’s needed. I’ll check what Stitcher Amber wants and what she needs and see where we go from there.”
I looked at the big, dusty crates full of different bottles.
The boxes had all been neatly marked, but some of them had been opened, and a few times someone must’ve grabbed the wrong ones because some had been returned and not always to the correct crate.
Mostly it wasn’t such a hard job, but we didn’t have a Crafter mage on staff, so if the count was done incorrectly and I couldn’t bottle what we’d produced, it would mean losses I didn’t want.
She’d started to hum again. It was a happy noise, really, when I wasn’t trying to concentrate. She walked on, blowing dust off the markings on another crate, giving it a quick once-over to see if it’d been opened, and made another note.
She could do this. It was a lot safer for her and her family if she learned a profession. She was right. The income would be protective for her little sisters—and also, for her parents.
“Thanking you, Sandra,” I said. “I’ll be back this afternoon.”
She glanced up, a smile splitting her face. A lock of her light brown hair had come free from her simple, sensible plait and curled at her temple, but it didn’t make her look young, just distracted. “Thanking you, my lady.”
I was going to need to get her a proper mentor. Not for etiquette—I’d already done that. If she was going to take over a lot of the menial little day-to-day jobs I was doing…
If only Daniel hadn’t taken all his knowledge into his early grave with him, just his vitriol.
Rather than search the extent of the keep, I asked everyone as I went by if they saw my companions to send them to the stables. Thomas was training up new recruits, Isolde was attempting to source a bundle of feathers to rebuild our arrow supply, and Chay hadn’t told me where he’d gone.
It felt strange to think of that brief time we’d been so inseparable during the final weeks of the plague and the winter that followed.
I’d had such hopes for him.
Beneath my hands, Storm butted me, and I laughed at her excitement. “We can go out, girl. You’ve been so bored, haven’t you?” She nudged me again and I scratched her in the hard-to-reach places she loved, breathing in the smell of her.
I still didn’t know what had gone wrong with Chay or what I’d done that had been so terrible. I tried not to think about it. It wasn’t useful.
“I hear we’re going riding.”
I glanced up at Isolde, my heart swelling with joy. “We are. Sandra’s got my chores covered for the day.”
“May her drinks be cool and her meat hot,” Isolde said, fervently. “Have you got her saddle yet?” She clucked her tongue, already knowing the answer.
Together we readied the horses. I’d already decided if neither Thomas nor Chay arrived before it was time to leave, we’d go without them. I’d tried to stick to my father’s rules, but we were so short-handed. It just wasn’t feasible to have three people sitting around watching me.
Also, it was irritating.
But Chay arrived. We waited for him to ready Bliksem, though it made less sense for the two people who were moving about the keep to have been found first.
“I could just go and fetch Thomas,” I acknowledged, knowing the older man didn’t enjoy time in the saddle and would be content with his role helping the up-and-coming guards.
“He’s headed in,” Chay told me. “They wrapped up training already. He mentioned he needed to go to the cobbler today.”