The Guests Have Arrived

Writers: Eimi, Heather
Date Posted: 6th December 2017

Characters: Sanora, Capwick
Description: Sanora and Capwick chat as they prepare for guests at the opening of the Vintner Hall Gather.
Location: Vintner Hall
Date: month 1, day 6 of Turn 9

Sanora picked at her gloved hands as she looked around the the parlor
that had been decorated to receive the Hall's more important guests.
She had to admit that the Headwoman had done a decent job in
decorating. **But was all the greenery necessary?** She wondered,
eyeing the chain of fronds that had been hung above the entrance.

She'd spent the past sevenday frantically weaving together enough
baskets to hold different fruits and cheeses to go with the wines that
would be on display. Sanora generally liked basket weaving, but
putting so many together in such a short amount of time had left her
fingers and palms red and blistered.

Which led to her next problem, she hated gloves. They were stifling
and made the sores on her palms itch, but they were a necessary evil
for the evening. **Why couldn't Capwick have been a normal vintner?**
She wondered again, thinking it would be nice to be reclining at home
already instead of standing on attention to receive guests.

Speaking of her husband, "Wait," she reached up and smoothed out his
collar, "there. Wouldn't want the guests to think the Hallsecond
cannot dress himself." She winked.

"Get a few drinks into them and I will be the best dressed man here,"
he said, tolerating his wife's attention, though he hardly thought it
was necessary. It was not him that they were all coming to see.
"What's with the gloves?"

"Don't worry about it," she waved off the question. "I'll show you
later." She looked just beyond her husband. "It looks like the first
guests have arrived."

"Already?" Capwick frowned, turning around to see who might be so rude
to arrive so fashionably early. "Oh... No, they're not guests.
They're parasites." The Hallsecond gave the man and his wife a bit of
a smile and a bow of salutations from across the room. "Good of you
to come and help out, Master Guyst. Why don't you and your lovely
lady just relax for a bit before the guests arrive."

Turning back to his wife he rolled his eyes. "That man cannot miss an
opportunity to rub shoulders with the elites. He 'volunteered' to
come in special to act as a sommelier to the dignitaries. He's known
the Hallmaster since Harper classes, so he couldn't say no. I think
Guyst still imagines that a major Lord will invite him to their Hold.
What a wherry's ass."

Sanora's lips twitched, and she lifted a gloved hand over her mouth to
hide her smile. "He must have been in a twist when you were given the
Hallsecond position then, since he's such good friends with the
Hallmaster."

"The whole Hall would have revolted." Capwick glanced around the
room, and noticed the baskets sitting on the table. It triggered a
memory of what his wife had been up to as of late. "You finished your
project, I see."

The blisters on her hands itched at just the sight of the baskets,
"Yes, they turned out nicely I think." In truth she hadn't minded the
work, basket weaving was one chore that she found rather satisfying.

Capwick nodded his agreement. They certainly did add to the room, he
had to admit. "They look good."

Sanora smiled at the praise from her husband, for he would not have
said it if he didn't mean it. "Thank you."

A smile curled the corners of the Hallsecond's mouth. "Do you
remember when Casana was little, she stole a bucket from behind the
cot, wrapped it with some old piece of rope she had found half buried
in the vineyard and gave it to me as birthday present, insisting that
she had weaved it just like Mama does?"

This smile softened Sanora's features, "Yes, I remember." Casana had
been so incredibly proud of the 'basket' that Sanora hadn't the heart
to scold her for using her best washing bucket. "She's always been
creative."

"She's her mother's daughter." Their second daughter, on the other
hand seemed to take more after her father. It was a good balance
between the two of them. Capran had his father's ambition paired with
his mother's creativity. But just who did Norwick take after, he
wondered. Certainly not himself. That reminded him of his step-son.
"I'm sad Banoran couldn't come."

"I think it's a girl," Sanora said simply. "He's written less and
less." Her eldest son, Banoran, took after his step-father in the
vintner craft, but was currently living at Garnet Valley. "Not that
he's not of an age to be settling down."

"I had already had three kids and been divorced by his age," Capwick
agreed. "I still can't figure out why he left Diamond Springs."

Sanora shook her head, "I have stopped trying to figure him out by
this point. I can't tell if he's just interesting in traveling or
sowing his wild oats... Or both." But then, she recognized his
free-spirited independence, because she'd felt that same way, she just
hadn't had the freedom as a daughter that Banoran enjoyed as a son.

"Maybe so. But he could have had his career set if he had stayed at
Diamond Springs. They loved him here. Shards, they _raised_ him
there." Capwick wondered just how much of his father Banoran had in
him. He had never met the man who was Sanora's first husband as he
had died before they had met. As much as he loved his step-son, he
didn't feel the same amount of responsibility for flaws in his
character as he did for his natural children. But he could see
similar traits in his son Norwick. That boy was just impossible to
understand.

"I know, I try to tell him all of those things, but once he has it in
his mind to do something there is no stopping him." Even as she said
it Sanora realized that she was describing herself in many ways.

Capwick shrugged a shoulder. "What can you do. He's a man and he'll
make his own choices. At least he's still working hard and doing
something _real_."

"And you don't believe Norwick is?" Sanora said, knowing immediately
that Capwick was speaking of their youngest son.

"We were talking about Banoran..." Cap said with an innocent shrug,
but he knew that would not fly far with his wife. "All right, fine.
Norwick works with numbers. That's all he does. Book keeping. He
writes numbers all day. You can't point to a sheet of numbers and say
'Look son, I made that'."

"True," Sanora conceded, "but he can hold out the marks he was paid
and say 'Look son, I earned these'."

"So can a drudge," her husband muttered. "Look, I didn't say the boy
isn't working to earn his marks, I just mean that he doesn't make
anything. He doesn't get his hands dirty. He's not doing..." He
stopped himself before he could finish that sentence the way he wanted
- **a real man's job**. "I just wish he had chosen something
different."

Sanora squeezed his arm, she knew that he found much to criticize in
Norwick simply because they were so different from one another, not
because he loved him any less than their other children. "I know, but
we can hardly change his mind or tell him what to do at his age."

"And I haven't," Cap protested meekly, feeling a little under attack.
"The whole of Turns End, I never once brought the subject up."

"I know," Sanora soothed, "you were quite civil. I was proud."

"Thank you," he said, feeling a bit mollified. Capwick certainly
didn't approve of his son's choices, but he tried not to ruin family
events by showing it. Too much, at least. It was time to return to a
safe subject. "I really do like the baskets."

Sanora's lips were pursed to hide a smile as she looped her arm
through her husband's, "Come on, love, let's go mingle."

He leaned over to give her temple a soft kiss and then sighed. "All
right. Let's get this over with."

Last updated on the December 10th 2017

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The Guests Have Arrived