A New Maid

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 2nd July 2017

Characters: Zelah, Ranni, Balan
Description: Xeladrie gets a new maid.
Location: Sunstone Seahold
Date: month 12, day 4 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Bryvin, Morin

Zelah

Ranni

"This is her," a hand gave Ranni a little shove into Xeladrie's
parlor, causing her to stumble a bit. Ranni shot a withering glare
over her shoulder at Balan, a drudge who frequently served the Lord
and Lady, and flaunted it with arrogance around the other drudges who
scrubbed floors or worked in the kitchens.

Ranni straightened herself, adjusting her work-worn, slate gray tunic
made of rough, sturdy material. Her hands were red from where Balan
had scrubbed them with a course brush. He had insisted that she use
redwort to make sure all of that "filth" had been removed from beneath
her fingernails and cuticles.

"Milady," Ranni said in her low voice, eyes averted as she gave a bow
rather than a curtsy.

"This is the one that can do your hair, ma'am." Balan inclined his
head to Xeladrie, his tone much greasier than it had been when he'd
been jerking Ranni through the corridors.

Xeladrie looked up and smiled at the new girl. She was looking forward
to meeting the new maid for her hair. "Ah, hello there," she said.
"What's your name?"

"Ranni," she said, allowing herself the smallest glance up at the Lady
of Sunstone. She'd seen her several times from afair, of course, but
never so close. The Lady wore a garment made with fine cloth, and
there wasn't a dirty blemish to be seen on her tan skin. She was
beautiful, Ranni decided.

"Ranni," Xeladrie said, trying to make the name-face mental connection
so she'd remember. "And they said you're great with doing people's
hair?"

Hers was held back in a plain runner's-tail right now. Her last maid
had gotten reassigned for some reason - something scandalous she
assumed, though it could have been something mundane like family
trouble - and since then she'd been wearing her hair plain. Being
heavily pregnant she wans't going to many functions where she had to
look fancy either.

Ranni nodded, earning her an elbow in the back from Balan. "Yes,
ma'am." At least, that's what people said. Ranni had never considered
it to be anything unusual, she just braided a few drudges hair and
then people had begun to notice.

"Mine's been a bit of a mess," Xeladrie said. "So I'm looking forward
to having your help."

The drudge's eyes assessed Xeladrie's hair, "Looks dry. You should
probably moisturize it more."

Balan jabbed her underneath the ribs with one of his knuckles.

"Ow!" She hissed, smacking at the man's hand.

The male drudge gave her a sharp look and tilted his head at Lady Xeladrie.

"My apologies, ma'am." Ranni murmured, although there was a sulky tone
to her voice.

"It's all right," Xeladrie said to Ranni. She looked at Balan. "If
you're going to be bored by girl talk, you can leave us," she said,
phrasing it like an invitation.

Balan seemed torn between staying to make sure Ranni was on her best
behavior, and leaving, because he honestly did not care to watch the
Lady have her hair done. In the end, he settled on leaving, but not
without giving Ranni a parting look.

When the door closed behind the man, Ranni rolled her eyes in its
direction. **Stupid oaf.** She was surprised that Xeladrie had not had
a sharper reprimand for her comment about the Lady's hair.

"He doesn't seem very nice," Xeladrie said conspiratorially to Ranni.

"Nice? No, he typically has his head up his arse." Ranni spat, and
then seemed to realize that she had cussed in front of the Lady. "I
mean, um, his bottom." Was that the proper way to refer to a man's
butt? Ranni wasn't sure, they used even cruder terms in the kitchens.

"I can see why you don't like him, and I'm glad that that got rid of
him," Xeladrie said.

The Lady snorted out a laugh in a way that sounded more like a runner
than a Lady. Ranni wasn't at all what she was used to in a drudge. She
spoke rather frankly to Xeladrie. None of her ladies in waiting were
quite this frank!

"So you think my hair's dry? I haven't been using oil on it after
sweetsand lately," she admitted. "I'm tired enough after bathing to
want to skip extra steps." And now she gestured at her belly. She was
tired so often.

Ranni looked at the woman's belly. "That looks like a burden," she
said in a tone of agreement. She looked back up at the Lady's hair, "I
can take care of the washing and oiling if you want. My ma used tea in
my hair growing up, it always seemed to help as well." Although, maybe
Lady's were too fancy to pour tea over their hair.

"That would be lovely," Xeladrie said. "I miss feeling pretty, but it
just...fell by the wayside as my waist grew."

"You're the prettiest woman I've ever seen," Ranni said blurted, as if
she couldn't believe that Xeladrie would feel anything _but_
beautiful, causing her to blush to the roots of her hair.

"Really?" If it was her husband, or a man, she would have fluttered
her eyelashes and pretended not to know she was beautiful. They liked
reassuring. But other women could be more judgemental about
appearances.

"Really. Too pretty for old Bryvin." Ranni said bluntly, and without
Balan here to jab her in the ribs, she let the statement stand without
apologizing.

"I thought that when my father said I'd marry him," Xeladrie said in a
completely unplanned moment of honesty.

"So why'd you marry him?" the drudge asked.

Xeladrie paused for a long moment, wondering if Ranni was trying to
get her personal reasons, or was ignorant of how the way things worked
for the Blood. She decided to give the factual answer, and see how the
other woman took it.

"Being from a Blood family means you're like a runner-mare. Women
marry the man their fathers say," she said after a moment.

"After Morin died, the Conclave approved Bryvin but they didn't want
him to be Heir-less. So the condition was he had to marry a Blood
woman. My father's lands neighbor this Hold, and he traded away me and
land. When Bryvin dies, my son will Hold this place, and maybe my
father thinks my son and one of his heir's daughters will marry and
combine them."

Ranni let that sink in, her brow furrowed with thought, "Seems like a
lot of heartache for a bit of land. Well, I guess it's just heartache
for the women isn't it?" Maybe fancy Lady's weren't so different from
drudges after all. Although, Ranni guessed that no one really cared
who she married, or if she never married at all.

"There are some Lords who let their daughters choose who they marry.
Mine just wasn't one of them. So here I am. Though my husband and I
have come to terms," she said.

She and Ranni were alone in the room, so she let slip a hint of truth,
wondering what the drudge would think. "If I'd had a choice in the
matter, there was a young man from Sapphire Meadows who fostered at
Turquoise Bay for a Turn, closer to my age. I could have fallen in
love with him, but I'll never know."
Ranni couldn't imagine ever loving anyone, she barely felt attachment
to her own mother, but what Xeladrie described seemed nice. "I
understand what it is like to feel... stuck." She was a drudge, and
would always be.

"Would that either of us could choose more," Xeladrie said. Then,
after a moment, she added something. "I'd like you to stay around and
help me with my hair. Talk to me sometimes, like my ladies in waiting
won't. But if you wind up not liking the work, I don't want to stick
with me. If you'd rather go back to...what were you doing before?"

"Floor scrubbing and chamber pot emptying." Ranni supplied, her tone
of voice saying just how glamorous those chores had been.

"I've only done the former, when my father was very, very mad,"
Xeladrie said. "We had to scrub down the kitchens if we made too bad
mistakes in Harper lessons."

"I believe I am an expert at it, milady." Ranni said, in the first
hint of humor, which lasted only briefly. "I will do whatever you ask.
I will see to your hair, I can clean your quarters if you want, run
errands for you."

"I'll need the latter while walking's tiring," she admitted.

Ranni nodded, her eyes serious. "Is there anything I can do for you right now?"

"I really would like to see the kinds of things you can do with my hair," Xeladrie said wistfully.

Although she didn't smile, Ranni's voice was softer as she walked over and picked up a hairbrush from Xeladrie's vanity, "Let's get started then."

Last updated on the July 4th 2017

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