“Heh, Sorlee will like that, this practically gives her the day off. I’ll have to find something for her to do or she’ll get in trouble.”
Before Tor could ask who Sorlee was a young woman walked into the room. She was cute in a young, un- made up way, tending towards very small and thin, making her look pretty youthful compared to what he guessed her actual age was. Maybe fifteen or so? She barely came up to Tor’s chin. The girl smiled when she saw him and the head cook, walking over like she owned the place.
“S’hey ‘on, tought baky m’job. Y’sir’da baky pro’per n’like?” The girl put her hand out to shake with him, so he grinned and returned the move.
“Sorry, Sorlee here doesn’t speak standard very well yet. She can read it well enough, so I just put the information about what we need on the board there, which you obviously saw already. She’s a good girl, got brought in as a prostitute by mistake, seemed to think she’d hired on as a cleaning girl or something? No one can really understand her, so she ended up in here.” The man just shrugged and gave the girl a grin.
Tor looked at her and pointed at the rolls. Speaking in a dialect that, if not exactly like hers was close enough to make her eyes go wide, he told her that the rolls needed to go in the oven as soon as the eggs were done.
“Wow! Someone that can actually talk properly! Are you the new baker? I’ve just been coming in here and working every day for the last two weeks, hoping I wouldn’t be beaten into being a whore. I mean, I knew what I was being hired on for, but when I got here, all the men were so big… I kind of knew they would be, but their mainly that big all over, and it hurt, because I was a virgin when I got here, you know? I feel bad about going back on my word to work for them, leaving them a girl short like that, but until I get used to it I don’t think I can do what they want really. I guess if they’ve got you, I better start training up though. That bread really does smell good too. Better than what I’ve been making. Hey, do you need an assistant or something for a while?”
Tor tilted his head, which made her face fall. It took him a second to realize that she thought he hadn’t understood her. That or that he was going to send her back to being a prostitute right away. She seemed a little young for the job to his mind, but if she needed the work, things were probably pretty dire back home.
“I’m not the new baker, just helping out for a couple of days while I have time off. Not a lot else to do around here and it’s good to keep the skills up you know. Oh, I’m Tor Baker by the way.”
“I’m Sara-lee Farmer. So you’re a for real baker?”
“By birth, however, I can’t leave the job I’m doing for the military right now, making magic devices, what I can do, is help you learn baking well enough to get along here pretty easily and maybe understand standard well enough that no one will make you do anything you don’t want to. If you don’t want to work at the… ladies house here, you don’t have too. No one will force you to. I won’t let them.” He straightened and gave her a matter of fact nod. He was responsible for the women coming here in the first place, so it was his duty to make sure none of the girls were ever abused or made to do anything they didn’t want to. Obviously.
The head cook just looked at him amazed, so Tor explained what they’d been talking about. The man’s eyes bulged a bit when he learned that Sara-lee, Tor corrected the name carefully, but told him that he’d been saying it correctly for her ear as Sorlee, seemed to be intent to continue on as a whore, just as soon as she could practice a bit and get used to it. It was, she told them, a matter of honor. She’d contracted to do it and even if it flew in the face of everything she’d been taught at home, it was what she’d do.
For now though, she really was needed more as a baker, the cook told her which he confirmed with Tor, and offered to go make it right with the mistress of the bases little house.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go later and deal with it. Probably closer to my job than yours anyway, since it was my idea to bring the ladies in the first place.”
“You’re idea?” The man seemed skeptical again. Well at least he wasn’t calling him a child. The beard was really helping in that department.
“Yeah, that and getting the cargo haulers for people so that the men can get into town. I haven’t seen one in operation yet, do they have them working do you know? I made enough plates for ten of them but I’ve been so busy on a project for a while…”
The man gave him a pained look and suggested that he go and see Godfry about those, if he wanted to see one working. Tor had to get directions to the right place, and decided to go look in the afternoon, in the mean time they needed to get to work on the cookies. He decided on a crisp walnut with dried apple chunks in as well, for flavor. They turned out pretty well and Sorlee wrote down the recipe so that she could repeat it later, which Tor took as a compliment to his work. By ten they had all the rolls and cookies out and cooling, ready to be put to use for lunch and dinner.
Since it was part of her normal duties Sorlee was given food to take to Tor’s house. Cook told Tor that no one else wanted the job, because the Prince was staying there and no one wanted to risk ticking him off, afraid he’d fly into a combat rage and kill them, or give them permanent kitchen duty for looking at one of the women there funny or something. No one had been able to explain to Sorlee who he was yet, so she didn’t mind running errands there at all. Before they got to the door she tidied her skirt, brushing out any flour or wrinkles and patted at her hair a little. It was cute the way she primped, her face very serious about the whole thing. The skirt she wore was a plain gray thing and her blouse a color that he’d probably describe as “blah”, one popular in the regions they both came from. It was clearly country village clothing, but worked well enough for her current position as kitchen help.
The girl dimpled at him warmly.
“I don’t understand much of what people around here are saying, but this is the important place, I know that. Most of the men are afraid to come here, even though the red haired giant boy is always nice to me when I make deliveries. The pretty blond woman is really nice too. I think there are some other people here too, because this is the place the magic comes from, unless the red giant is the magic fellow? I don’t think so though, because he always comes to the door right away when I call out. So maybe he’s the magic guys brother, or son, or something?”
Tor debated keeping Rolph’s title from her, but figured that would be mean. It wasn’t a secret or anything. Not here.
“No, the red haired giant boy is Prince Alphonse Cordes, heir to the throne of Noram. He’s a good guy though, so try not to hold that against him. He’s not here right now, off in the Capital. Some important people were poisoned and he has to help clear that up, I think. The blond woman is the daughter of a big merchant house called Debri. Her name’s Sara, like yours, but she pronounces it all funny. “Sah-ra” not correctly like you do. But she’s OK too. Nice enough. Both friends of mine, though I kind of had a fight with Sara, when one of her best friends said mean things about me which caused us to break off our engagement. Her friend, I mean, Trice. I wasn’t engaged to Sara. We seem to be getting along better now.”
Sorlee stared at him.
“Someone broke up with you? Why? Do you drink or something? Beat on her? You don’t seem like that type.” The girl eyed him suspiciously for a few seconds then smiled. “You’re good looking and can bake, so you have a good career and all. She must be silly if she thinks she’s going to do better.”
Tor grinned.
“Ah now, see, I should have gotten you to talk to her first then. She’s a royal though, Trice, so different standards for things I guess. That was months ago, so I need to move past it, right?”
Tor walked in without stopping so Sorlee did the same her eyes going wide when they got inside.
“Wow this place is… This must be the nicest place in the whole world!”
A few months before, less than a year at least, he would have thought the very same thing himself. It was decorated pretty well, which had nothing to do with him, or if he had it right, Rolph either. Sara maybe? He’d have to ask.
Both the women sat at the shiny black table, a dark red cloth had been put over the top, which made it warmer and a little less oppressive looking. The legs still showed and looked like highly polished stone. Ursala smiled at him when he walked in and Sara waved at Sorlee. That made sense, the entire compound having only a few women. Tor doubted that any of the rest of them were as short as the girl at his side making her easy to identify too.
They put the food on the table carefully, unpacking the high sided tray things that the food was being carried in. Neither of them had eaten in the kitchen, so Tor gestured for the girl to sit next to him. He gave her the small chair and took one of the large ones, because she was a guest. It was important to make guests feel comfortable, right? Even the Queen had gone out of her way when he was a guest and the difference in real position between him and a farm girl, who was also a baker and a prostitute in training, was a lot closer socially if you counted it up
