have to be to make a Count grovel just with a hard look and some gestures? Makes me shiver just to think of.”
Tor nodded. It did sound pretty bad, when put that way. It wasn’t that he’d just pointed at the man, he’d had weapons in his hands, they were just all on copper tubes, and smaller than the normal ones, so that they’d be cheaper. That could have looked a bit like he was just pointing to some of the rich people that had been watching, used to seeing large silver weapons as they were.
Further down, in what must have been the last tub; a more familiar voice spoke quietly.
“S’Tor’s n’s hi’s… Tor… is… nice. He baky, baked… with me yesterday.”
Sorlee.
Well, that made it even more important that he keep his eyes closed, didn’t it? He’d see her in a little while off in the kitchen, and have to be able to look her in the eye. He’d already probably blush.
One of the women in his tub spoke then.
“What’s that Sorlee? You baked with him? Is that a country euphemism for fucked? I guess I can see it, the whole “bun in the oven” thing, baking… I kind of like it!”
The girl down on the far end chuckled.
“Na… real baking. Making the meal bread and desserts. I didn’t know it was… Master Tor. It is why the food was better. The master is also a real baker, not just a wizard. He went later to house and lady bow and lower to him. Set it up so I do both now, practice up like last night an larn… And learn to take a large man without pain. The nice women wot d’Prince… The ladies of the Prince? They came and gave me hints for sex.”
Sorlee spoke slowly and had to get some help with words every now and then, but the other women were certainly being kind to her about it, even taking pains to help her learn it seemed.
“And… then the big woman told me about using oil so I won’t hurt too much. I don’t know her name…”
“Ursala. Countess Thorgood.” Tor spoke, keeping his eyes closed tightly and head tilted towards the ceiling, in case his eyes opened by accident or something.
“Hey, you speak! I thought you might be being all hoity and saying you were too good for us, refusing to even look our way and all even. Didn’t jump out like were tainted at least, so that’s something. Some get like that around whores.” This came from the woman to his right. Her voice didn’t sound angry about the perceived slight. Sighing he figured he’d better explain so he wouldn’t offend them by not looking at them. Moving to a cave suddenly started to make sense to him; all these social rules were hard.
And annoying.
“It’s not that. Nothing like that at all. I just have to keep my eyes closed so that I won’t give offense, looking at you naked. I didn’t realize that you all used the bath house this time of day and was just getting ready for work myself. So, I figured that I’d just sit here with my eyes shut so that, you know, we preserve your dignity and all that.”
The room went silent.
After a few seconds everyone laughed. It wasn’t an upset sound at least. His right arm was suddenly nudged a little from the right.
“You’d worry about preserving the dignity of a bunch of whores?” At least the voice was amused sounding.
The question baffled him at first. He thought about it for a few seconds and then felt even more confused. Tor tried to explain, knowing he’d probably sound like a hick again. At least he could get the accent right, he figured, so made an effort to sound quick proper about it all.
“Well, you aren’t at work right now… Why shouldn’t your dignity be as important as anyone else’s?” He said quietly. Suddenly something warm and soft pressed up against his arm and he felt a kiss on his cheek.
“That’s about the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. Acting like were actually people still and all, instead of just something warm to stick a cock into. Well, keep that up and I’ll just have to do you for free.” Her voice sounded bubbly and a little sexy in that saucy kind of way that the street walkers in the Capital had used the one time he’d had any of them speak to him.
He heard a soft padding of feet come towards him.
The words that came were slow again, but this time very near his ear.
“You’d do him anyway Farra… Lady said. This be’sert… I mean this is… Master Tor.” Suddenly in a great rush she spoke in their normal regional dialect.
“Didn’t know you were in here Master Lord Tor! You coming to bake with me today again then? I didn’t know who you were yesterday, I hope it… didn’t offend you or anything?”
He answered the same way, a small smile on his lips.
“Yeah, I’ll be in as soon as I can vacate the tub here. I don’t want to be staring at everyone, it wouldn’t be correct, you know? But I don’t know how long everyone will want to soak, so it could be a bit. Unless you could hand me my clothing? I know that I’ll look like a moron, and probably be laughed at, but as long as everyone else is fine with it? I mean, if they won’t be offended… And we work together and all, so you know, call me Tor. I’m not a master yet, and certainly not a lord of anything.”
Sorlee, slowly but with good humor, made an effort to explain all this to the women in the room, who went silent again. Finally a voice from a few tubs down chuckled.
“Girls, we need to pack it in early today it seems. It’s the only way we can leave the gentleman his own dignity I think, which would be worth doing even if he wasn’t the owner, no? Preserve our dignity? I… honestly, I think I may just break down. In the last five years, I’ve been doing this no one has ever done something like that for me, being concerned with my feelings…” There was a lot of splashing for a while, and then the sounds of drying and dressing, at the door a few of them called out their goodbyes. The last one that spoke said something a little strange, but polite enough, he figured.
“Thank you for your kindness sir.” It was a voice he hadn’t heard speaking in the room before, soft, and almost shy. The woman sounded awfully familiar from somewhere, but he couldn’t place it at all. Maybe one of the girls from the city then?
When he was sure they were all gone he called out just to check. No one said anything at least, so he hazarded opening his eyes. He was, it turned out, alone.
Good. Now he could just start blushing and stroke out in peace from it. That had been incredibly awkward.
As he dried off quickly, Tor decided that he needed to get the women their own bath house pretty soon. What would have happened if he hadn’t been as polite, or even if he hadn’t had his eyes closed at first? Sure, he knew what they did for a living and from what they said they wouldn’t have cared if he saw them, but it was his job to make sure their dignity and even their honor, was taken care of, wasn’t it?
They were, more or less, his guests.
That being the case he really hadn’t done much for them yet at all had he? He lacked time to get to know them and see to their persona comfort individually. That was just a fact. Still, that didn’t mean he shouldn’t try to do right by them…
The baking went well enough, so he had Sorlee start her own loaves of bread, a small batch of ten, when she got in about eleven, looking sleepy and puffy eyed. She needed to get the recipe down as well as the baking times. The young woman did a pretty good job, but the large batches seemed a little overwhelming to her. It was, he knew, just a matter of getting used to it, like most things in life it would be easy to her after a while of doing it. Then he set her to making pies for the afternoon.
Her idea of a pie crust made Tor want to cry.
Seriously just sit on the kitchen floor and sob. It was basically just bread with a little extra sugar in it. It could work, but it had almost no relationship to what most people here would think of as pie at all. He had to walk her through how to use butter, flour and salt, cut with a knife, because they didn’t have a pastry cutter, to make the dough, then she had to learn how to roll it out, not just spread an uneven lumpy mass in the pans.
They ended up working until about one in the afternoon just to get the fifteen pies they needed. They had a mix of apple, pear and berry at least, so there was variety. She did alright, he told her, for her first time, but he expected her to improve a lot in speed, once she knew what she was doing.
He crossed his arms at her for a few seconds, tapped his right foot, and then smiled.
“Right. Tomorrow you do all the pies and bread. Can you get here a little earlier? I know that you’re up late…”
“Same kind of thing there really. If I do up a bunch of costumers quick like at the beginning I can get into my
