Dreams Made Flesh

holding out the marks.
    He took another step back.
    "Who says it's too much?" He sounded testy. "Besides, I can afford it."
    Marian shook her head. If you can afford it, why don't you have any furniture? "'It's too much."
    "Look," he said, a snarl rising in his voice. "My father suggested that as an acceptable wage for a housekeeper, and he should know. Hell's fire, woman, there are enough servants at the Hall to populate a small village."
    She finally looked at him…and realized he was defensive… and nervous. It suddenly occurred to her that he'd never done this before, never had to decide things like wages or define the duties of household staff. So she folded the silver marks, put them in her skirt pocket, and said, "Thank you, Prince Yaslana."
    He looked as relieved as a man walking off a battlefield. "Fine. That's settled." He took another step back toward the archway. "I'll go out and chop some wood."
    Marian glanced at the dishes on the counter."Don't you want to eat?"
    "Sure. I'll be out there. Just yell when it's ready."
    The man could certainly move, Marian thought as she stared at the empty archway.
    It was rather sweet, the way he got all testy and nervous about giving her wages. And it was considerate of him to realize there were things she would need to buy for herself.
    She pulled the silver marks out of her pocket, fanned them out again…and smiled.
    It was still excessive for a half-month's wages, but if she kept half of it for herself, the other half would give her a good start on buying the basics she needed for the kitchen.
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    EIGHT
    « ^ »
    Marian sipped her coffee, looked around her clean kitchen… and sighed. It was barely midmorning, and she'd already made a casserole, cleaned up the kitchen, stripped the beds and put on fresh linens, had all the laundry washed and hanging in the drying room, dusted the furniture, and swept the floors. There was nothing left to do…and Prince Yaslana would be gone for the next two days.
    She still wasn't sure how service in Lady Angelline's court worked. It all seemed so… casual. She knew Prince Yaslana went back to SaDia-blo Hall one or two days each week for a few hours, but she wasn't sure if he went there for court business or just to visit family. He'd explained that since all the males in the First Circle had other responsibilities, his father, as Steward of the Court, worked out a rotation so that each male fulfilled his obligation to Queen and court by being on duty for two or three days twice a month.
    So he'd left before sunrise, and she had the next two days stretching out in front of her. She could read, but reading was the reward after the day's labor. She'd finished the weaving she'd started on her small hand loom and had made a decorative mat for the kitchen table. She didn't feel like making something just to fill up time. So what…
    Turning to look out the window, she studied the mess of rocks and weeds. It had been a garden a long time ago. She'd found herbs growing
    wild among the weeds and suspected there had been an herb bed and a kitchen garden on this side of the eyrie.
    Why hadn't Yaslana done anything to at least clean it up? For a man who was always aware of his surroundings, he seemed willfully blind to the fact that a natural meadow, which had its own kind of beauty, wasn't the same as the tangled mess she was staring at now.
    Besides, it would be so nice to have a little kitchen garden to tend.
    Marian refilled her coffee mug and took a moment to admire the coffeepot she'd bought with part of her wages. Yaslana hadn't said a word about the pot's sudden appearance in his kitchen, but he'd definitely approved of the taste of the coffee she could brew in it.
    She walked down what she'd labeled the "domestic" corridor, since it provided entry to the pantry and the laundry and drying room…and the small area between the pantry and laundry that had a door to the outside and a purpose she was still puzzling over. Opening the door, she studied the land in front of her.
    The growing season was already well along, and she wasn't sure what kinds of plants might be available. But the women in Riada would know…or she could ask Lady Angelline the next time the Queen stopped by for a brief visit. A few vegetables, a few herbs. Maybe some flowers. Yaslana wouldn't mind if she cleared a little ground. At least, she was almost certain he wouldn't mind.
    He was, and wasn't, what she'd expected, based on the things she'd heard about