Got to punish myself for carelessness, she thought, buckling on her sword belt and walking down the stairs, left hand automatically on the hilt to keep the chape on the end of the scabbard from bumping on the stone. Besides, I'd just be getting all sweaty again right away.
She'd been right about it being early; things had been put to right a bit the night before, but the morning cleanup in the hall was just getting started. She walked out, blinking at the increasing brightness and returning her own nod and salute to the clank and crash as the gate guards slapped spears against shields.
Note to self; get all the shields repainted, soon. My arms, Quartered with Lady Sandra's.
The day outside was just on the brisk side of cool, with the smell of dew on dusty concrete and dustier gravel still strong, but there were no clouds in the sky and it felt like it would be a perfect spring day when the sun was a little higher and dispelled the shadows within the courtyard. A scent of old smoke from the bonfires lingered, but the scorched circles had been swept up, and the firepits outside the kitchens were being shoveled clear as she watched, the ashes carted away in big plastic trash barrels for leaching into lye and making soap. A train of two-wheeled oxcarts dumped loads of split firewood there- boon-work dues, by the way the drivers turned around at once and got going towards their own affairs-and scullions began to stack the billets against the kitchen walls. Birds pecked at the ground, and flew up in swirls when someone came too close, particularly when it was one of the patrolling cats. She'd given orders that none of those were allowed over the inner drawbridge into the tower, and her sinuses already felt better than they ever had in the Household.
Wielman the steward was bustling towards the Keep gate with a crew, looking nervous as a man herding cats, probably because it was a scratch gang and he was doing two men's jobs; or possibly nervous because he now had a superior resident full-time, and one with enough time to keep a close eye on him. He stopped when she turned towards him, obviously anxious to get to work but unable to dodge a conversation, and his laborers halted behind him in a wave of curtseys and bows.
Delia needed time and distraction to get clear: which was a pain in the ass; nobody except a very strict priest would so much as blink at a tenant-girl slipping out of a male nobleman's room in the morning, except for an admiring chuckle.
"Splendid welcoming feast last night," she said. Then she smiled slightly. "Haven't enjoyed myself so much in months."
"Thank you, my lady. We're all at sixes and sevens, of course, with so little notice of your arrival-you should have a domestic steward or a butler here at the castle, if you're going to take up residence, so I can concentrate on my own work where my offices and the records are. I can move some people up from Montinore and my wife has a young cousin who'd suit."
"Do that," Tiphaine said. "I leave it in your capable hands, Goodman."
Meaning, don't bother me with details, and yes, getting jobs for your relations is a legitimate perk, as long as they don't screw up too badly.
Aloud she went on, lest he get too enthusiastic: "Just enough staff that I can offer suitable hospitality: the cook we had last night will do fine, some assistants, and as many cleaners and maids and such as are needed to keep things tidy. Some of them can commute up from the manor until winter at least, it's only two miles by bicycle. Or you could hire some of the soldiers' wives."
"Very well, my lady, but the Protector and his guests always brought their own body servants on visits," he went on. "Do you have an, ah, valet, or lady's maid who'll be arriving? Or should I find someone suitable from the domain?"
Tiphaine shook her head. "I don't need someone to hand me a towel or comb my hair."
Some people thought that was a status symbol; she considered it a waste of scarce labor. A tenant-in-chief who was a mere baronet could get away with that much informality, though a baron couldn't. She'd need a squire or two eventually, of course, but that was something entirely different. Squires were apprentice knights, and supposed to be of good family. Which so far meant related to someone lucky enough to get into the Association early on. She had Katrina's elder brother's kids in mind for that, particularly since he'd been killed out east last year fighting the cowboys and they didn't have a landed inheritance.
"Ummm-" The steward cleared his throat and seemed, without actually doing it, to glance discreetly aside as he lowered his voice. "But surely you'll at least need someone to look after your wardrobe full-time, my lady? The more since you'll have, ah, two sets. Repairs, replacements, cleaning: I was thinking of the miller's daughter from Montinore village; her name is Delia. She's an excellent needlewoman by hand or sewing machine, she can weave figured work on the loom, and she's used to household ways and manners. She could use the valet's room that gives off the lord's chamber."
Tiphaine gave him a cool, considering glance, tapping her fingers on her sword hilt, head tilted to one side.
Clever. Dangerously so, she decided, her eyes narrowing and lips thinning into an expression that had been the very last thing a number of men ever saw, starting in her fourteenth year. This time it said: I'll know exactly who's responsible for any rumors.
She'd get in trouble if she just had the men-at-arms hang him for no particular reason; fines from the Court of Petition and Redress, penances from the Church: Casual killing had gone out of style since the wild early years, at least where middle-class types like Wielman were concerned. But when you added all that together she wouldn't have nearly as much trouble as he would, dangling from a noose on the gallows down the road and putting on a dinner party for the crows and ravens until his bones dropped off one by one.
One part of taking reasonable precautions was thoroughly intimidating any subordinate who even dreamed of knuckling his way up the greasy pole by a threat of outing her.
So much went by in a flicker as she kept up the stare. A few seconds later a little sweat showed on Wielman's forehead, and he dropped his eyes.
Good, now you know better than to try and blackmail me.
"You're right," she said. "She'd be very suitable. See to it. Deduct an adult's boon-work from her family's dues and put her on the rolls as a free retainer. I'm going to start spinning and and weaving classes for the peon women later this year; she could handle that, and possibly her sisters as well. Set up a loom-room here in the castle or down in Montinore when you get the time, and see about ordering more spinning wheels and equipment-locally if you can, in Forest Grove if you can't, in Portland as a last resort. And in the meantime, send to market for some cloth, and we'll make a start-enough to keep us going until we get production ramped up. I'm not going to have my workers looking like scarecrows. Delia can oversee the sewing, too."
Putting Delia in charge of those projects would be a sensible thing to do even if they didn't get along otherwise.
But I think I'm going to really like that girl, and not just when I'm in a state of lustful, drunken horniness; she's cheeky as a sparrow, she's not afraid of the priests, and she made me want to laugh even when I had a hangover. Plus she's awesome cute, and I think she likes me, not just the career prospects.
As he bowed his head and turned to go with a murmured of course, my lady, Tiphaine contemplated the square of raked, rolled gravel in front of the barracks with less than enthusiasm; it held a dozen upright oak posts six feet tall, resting in metal sleeves set into the ground, and climbing frames, some of them dangling knotted ropes. Then she went into the salle d'armes; Ath wasn't big enough to have separate ones for different ranks. The one it did have occupied the ground floor of part of the barracks block built against the west side of the court, opposite the tower-keep and the gate. Inside was a big, bare room with a wooden floor, rolled mats against the walls, some gymnastic equipment, weights, a few Nautilus machines and mirrors on one wall, with a corkboard on another carrying a map of the castle and the patrol paths around it, and a duty roster.