Deek wasn't lurking anywhere on the way to the building where Bazie's “laundry” was, but Skif remembered the way back to Bazie's, including the secret passages, perfectly. He suspected that this was his first test, and when he rapped on the door in an approximation of Deek's knock, it was Deek himself who opened it with a grin.
“I tol' ye 'e'd 'member!” Deek crowed, drawing Skif inside.
“An’ I agreed wi' ye,” Bazie said agreeably. “If 'e hadn', 'e wouldn' be much use, would'e?”
There was new laundry festooning the ceiling today — stockings and socks. Only Lyle was with Bazie and Deek; the third boy was nowhere to be seen.
“ 'J'eet yet?” asked Lyle, as Deek drew him inside. At Skif's head shake, the other boy wordlessly gestured at the table, where half of a decent cottage loaf of brown bread waited, with some butter and a knife. Beside it was a pot of tea and mugs. Buttered bread, half eaten, sat on a wooden plate next to Bazie. All in all, it was the sort of luncheon that wouldn't disgrace the table of a retiring spinster of small means.
Not that Skif cared what it looked like — he'd been invited to eat, and eat he surely would. He fell on the food, cutting two nice thick slices of bread and buttered them generously, pouring himself a mug of tea. Bazie watched him with an oddly benevolent look on his face.
“Eat good, but don' eat full afore a job,” he said, in a manner that told Skif this was a rule, and he'd better pay close attention to it. “Nivir touch stuff as makes ye gassy, an' nothin' that'll be on yer breath. Whut if ye has t’ hide? Summun smells onions where no onions shud be, or wuss — ,” He blew a flatulent razz with his lips, and the other boys laughed. “Oh, laugh if ye like, but I heerd boys been caught that way! Aye, an' growed men as shoulda knowed better!”
Skif laughed, too, but he also nodded eagerly. Bazie was no fool; no matter that what his gang purloined was small beer compared with jewels and gold — it was obviously supplying them with a fair living, and at the moment, Skif wouldn't ask for more.
“Nah, good gillyflar tea, tha's the stuff afore a job,” Bazie continued with satisfaction. “Makes ye keen, sharp. Tha's what ye need.” He waited while Skif finished his bread and butter and drank a mug of the faintly acidic, but not unpleasant, tea. He knew gillyflower tea from the Temple, where it occasionally appeared with the morning bread, and it did seem to wake him up when he felt a little foggy or sleepy.
“Nah, t'day Deek, I don' want wipes,” Bazie continued. “I got sum'thin' I been ast for, special. Mun wants napkins. Ye ken napkins?”
Deek shook his head, but Skif, who had, after all, been serving in Lord Orthallen's hall as an ersatz page, nodded. “Bits uv linen — 'bout so big — ,” He measured out a square with his hands. “Thicker nor wipes, kinda towels, but fine, like. Them highborns use 'em t' meals, wipes their han's an' face on 'em so's they ain't all grease an' looks sweetly.”
“Ha!” Bazie slapped his knee with his hand. “Good boy! Deek, where ye think ye kin find this stuff?”
Deek pondered the question for a moment, then suggested a few names that Skif didn't recognize. “We h'aint touched any on 'em for a while.”
“Make a go,” Bazie ordered. “I needs twa dozen, so don' get 'em all in one place, eh?”
“Right. Ye ready?” Deek asked, looking down at Skif, who jumped to his feet. “We're off.”
“Not like that 'e ain't!” Lyle protested. “Glory, Deek, 'e cain't pass i' them rags!”
Bazie concurred with a decided nod. “Gi'e 'im summat on ourn. 'Ere, Lyle — i' the cubberd — ”
Lyle went to the indicated alcove and rummaged around for a moment. “ 'Ere, these're too small fer any on' us — ,”
The boy threw a set of trews and a knitted tunic at Skif who caught them. They were nearly identical to Deek's; the same neat and barely-visible patches, the same dark gray-brown color. Happy to be rid of his rags, Skif stripped off everything but his smallclothes and donned the new clothing.
Now Bazie and Lyle nodded their satisfaction together. “We'll boil up yer ol' thin's an' mend 'em a bit — ye kin 'ave 'em back when ye git back,” Bazie said. “We don' wan' yer nuncle t' wonder where ye got new close.”
“Yessir,” Skif said, bobbing his head. “Thenkee, sir!”
Bazie laughed. “Jest get me napkins, imp.”
Now properly clothed so that his ragged state wouldn't attract attention, Skif was permitted to follow Deek out into the streets.
They walked along as Skif had already learned to, as if, no matter how fine the neighborhood, they belonged
