Quinn

After a good hot shower, I put on comfortable clothing, a pair of formfitting trousers, a white blouse with frills about the waist and sleeves, and a fancy vest. Back in the bedroom and sitting in front of the dressing table, I started with my makeup, since I needed it today to cover the dark circles under my eyes. As I was doing so, Jane said, "You're so wonderfully good at the makeup, my lady. I can never get it right."

Applying a good amount of BB cream, I said, "It comes with practice. You're in the cosmetology course, aren't you?"

"Oh yes, my lady, as are the other maids," she said. "Our dream is to become lady's maids and serve noble ladies, so learning makeup and styling hair is ever so important."

"Ah, yes, of course," I said. "I see, so noble ladies like Eden and Sara and Frances."

"And you, my lady, as well as Lady Elizabeth and Lady Maria."

"Hmm?" I turned to look at her, my eyes wide. Lady Elizabeth and Lady Maria? When did my mother and cousin had the title Lady attached to their names?

"They're just so noble, Lady Elizabeth and Lady Maria, and of course, Lord Liam as well."

Oh wow! Liam was a lord now, too?

"That first day when you all arrived," Jane said. "We all thought, or rather we talked among ourselves as we servants do, that you'd be running back to Bedford the moment you saw the horror of the manor, the people, and the living conditions. But we were shocked to see what happened next with our very own eyes. You went right ahead and fixed things. Yes, you did, my lady, just like a saint of a noble lady blessed by the deities that you are, and the way Lady Elizabeth helped and assured the mothers with infants and very young children and the way Lady Maria aided the elderly and Lord Liam helped the soldiers with chores, we've never seen any noble do anything like that before."

I was, naturally, quite dumbfounded at hearing all that. Gosh, I didn't know the servants were observing us to that degree.

I asked, "You said you've never seen any noble do anything like that before? Apart from the Templetons as nobles, you've seen a few others, too?"

Jane nodded. "Oh, yes. I grew up living in the manor, as Mother and Father are both servants of the Templetons, as their parents had been. I became a maid as soon as I came of age at thirteen, and I, we, us servants, have seen a few nobles come and go, especially those we called neighbors of Norsewood."

Neighbors of Norsewood, eh? I said, "Like St. Clair, Norfolk, and Devon?"

"Aye," she said. "Like the nobles from St. Clair, Norfolk, and Devon as well as Durham, Bulwell, Chilton, and Bridport, though Bridport is a bit far compared to the rest, at least a few weeks' journey on a horse and cart. We'd have to cross the alps and then either Devon and Chilton or Devon and Bulwell to get there."

"It does sound a bit far," I said. Although it wouldn't be if there were proper roads and vehicles like a car or even a train. I asked, "So those nobles, they don't act like us Fairchilds?"

Jane shook her head. "Nay, my lady. It's typical for the upper class to not lower themselves to the level of the commoners or even be present in the same space as them. If they were generous enough, which they rarely were, then their kindness was through the servants who'd act on their behalf, usually with a donation or charity of sort."

I chuckled and said, "So you're saying it's unusual for us Fairchilds to do what we do? Are we lowering ourselves and that's a bad look? Goodness, have I ruined Aldric's image by doing that?"

Jane widened her eyes and her cheeks turned crimson. She shook her head furiously and said, "No, that's not what I mean, my lady. I think it's very refreshing to see nobles such as your family do what you are doing, going so far as to..."

She turned to look around her. "Lord Norsewood is very generous to us servants, but despite his kindness, we still used to live in squalor simply because Norsewood is so poor. I heard the only reason why he even considered leading the troop and going to war against the Tasal's army at Forddon on King Henry's behest was because he needed the promised rewards to revive Norsewood, to give us servants and the citizens better living conditions."

"It's normal for servants in any manor or castle, even the Grand Palace in the capital where King Henry and his family reside, to be living in squalor. Usually, the servants' quarters are cold and damp with hard stone floors and straw as bedding. Now we here in Norsewood, unlike those in the rest of Athol, live like we ourselves are the nobles or the very wealthy merchants. Our beds are large and soft and very comfortable. Our rooms, which we have never had before, because a small chamber in the lower ground floor of the manor would be shared among at least ten of us, are warm and luxurious with closets where we can put our clothing and personal belongings in, and the bathroom..."

Her eyes sparkled with delight. "We've never had anything like a bathroom before, my lady. For us women, it was hard taking care of our needs. But with the bathroom in our units, it changed our lives. We can wash and clean and there's no need to worry about prying eyes or being chanced upon during such private moments. There's no need to run back and forth fetching buckets of water from the well and then boiling them. At most, we got to clean ourselves once a week since it was such hard work and it took a lot of time, which we didn't have as our chores took all day from dawn until late into the night. Now, we can clean ourselves every day and it only takes at most twenty minutes, and we can have the space all to ourselves. It's a blessing, my lady."

I see. The bathroom was indeed a lifesaver for the women, eh? Of course, having to share a washing space with many others like that washroom in the manor, there was indeed no privacy.

I said, "I'm glad to hear you and the others like our new living environment."

"Yes, very much so, my lady," Jane said. "Not to mention our chores now are so light compared to before. We simply couldn't believe such magical devices existed with the likes of washing and cleaning. We complete the chores even before the midday meal, and in the afternoon, we attend our lessons. Apart from the odd jobs here and there, we usually review our lessons or practice with our makeup and hair styling on each other after dinner or even watch the television. Plus, we get two of the seven days off as with the new work policy."

Ah, I see that the servants like the five days' work policy instead of the seven days a week which they had been used to. I just didn't know how they did it, working all day every day like that. It was no wonder they died early, from extreme exhaustion, no doubt.

Yes, indeed, the so-called magical devices I've created, which were basically the vacuum cleaners and washing machines and such did make the servants' jobs a hell of a lot easier and took a lot less time to complete, too, which was a plus. They could instead use their time to study and become literate and proficient in a more specialized area, such as a beautician. After all, a future luxury hotel targeted toward the nobles and the wealthy couldn't be a luxury hotel without a spa, and a spa needed beauticians.

I could just imagine those noble ladies would be very shocked and stunned to see just how amazing our maids would be, once they graduated the course. I had no doubt there'd be some underhanded recruiting once they had experienced a spa treatment by the likes of Jane or Patricia, Rosie, Emma, and Vanessa. During the banquet, I saw for myself how well they were doing with makeup, even though they had only started the course a week ago. They were already on par with that of a highly trained makeup artist back on Earth. But I guessed it was to be expected when they were blessed by Mitia, the Goddess of Beauty, and indeed, these girls were themselves very pretty. I did not miss the young men eyeing them with interest last night either.

I was done with my makeup a few minutes later and headed out the door, telling Jane to go down and have her breakfast with the others and that I'd request her again if I needed aid with anything. She was grinning in delight as she left.

As I paced outside along the colonnade walkway, my eyes drifted to the sky across the horizon. I saw dark clouds, and I knew a snowstorm was brewing. Suddenly, I felt just a little bit uneasy. Dismissing the perturbed feelings from my mind, I made haste toward the watchtower next to the military building.

Uncle Colt and Mark were already there, as well as Chris and the soldiers on the rosters for the day. I asked, "Any news?"

By that I meant was there anything important, like an accident or an encounter with the monsters or have they found Juan or any of the soldiers yet, anything that I needed to know.

Uncle Colt shook his head. "They just arrived at the border, lassie."

I nodded in understanding. I guess requesting a bit of a chat with Aldric via the earpiece was out of the question. Besides, I didn't want to distract him from such an important operation, especially when the environment was so dangerous as it were out there in the wilderness of Norsewood. Not to mention a snowstorm brewing.