Eallair has a request
Eallair walked up the hill admiring the finished structure of the first house built on Mhalwae. It was not a big building but it would be enough to house the Rawtharn’s and his first new subject due to be born in a matter of weeks.
He could see already the soil in front of the house had been tended in preparation for a small garden perhaps. He assumed this had been done by the lady of the house. From what he could tell Engin Rawtharn was not a man who appreciated work. He hoped that Goodwife Rawtharn would turn out to be different.
He raised his hand and knocked confidently on the the carefully crafted hardwood door. It was a relief to him to have some of the peasants moving into houses, the approaching winter and the number of babies due soon were of great concern to him. The space on the ships was limited and having some of the peasants moving to houses would definitely give them more room.
He heard a small groan and movement inside, then footsteps coming towards the door. Darina opened it wide, her large belly poking first through the door-frame.
He saw a flicker of surprise cross her face and then it was replaced by an extremely wide grin. Eallair was sure that he could see almost all of the teeth in her mouth. It was nice to be welcomed like this though. He could tell Goodwife Rawtharn must be a congenial woman if she could smile so broadly at a first meeting.
“Yer Majesty!”, she cried, “Yew’ll be forgivin’ me if I don’t be curtseying fer yew won’t yer… I’m afraid if I get down I won’t be getting back up again till this here baby is being born”.
“Of course, of course”, he grinned, “we would not want that would we, then I could not ask you the favour I have come for. But first of all tell me, how is that little… or should I say big baby of your’s?”
Darina smiled again, looking down at her swollen figure. Eallair thought her smile now seemed somehow warmer. And there were definitely less teeth involved.
“Well I believe it’s being quite fine Yer Majesty, judging by the amount of kicking it be doin’”, she laughed fondly, “the little mite is gettin’ so bad these days I think it wakes up Engin with it’s kicks they’re that hard!”.
Her huge grin came back again, “But I be forgettin’ me manners Yer majesty! Would yew like to come inside this little house of mine… yew said yer had a favour to be askin’ me”.
She opened her arms wide, gesturing to the inside of her small house with obvious pride.
“Yes, yes… I will come in, thank you Goodwife”.
He gazed around the small tidy house. The floor had been neatly packed with clay and it was evident Darina swept it frequently. He spotted the object he had come to enquire about sitting in the corner, next to a barrel with a small candle burning brightly atop it.
“Can I be offerin’ yer somethin’ to drink Yer Majesty, yew can sit down while I fetch yer somethin’”.
“No, no”, he protested, “I am fine. By the looks of it you are the one who needs to be sitting Goodwife. How about we sit at the table and I tell you why I am bothering you on this fine autumn day”.
He winked at her and they went to sit at the table. Darina heaved herself into the chair, barely squeezing her enormous girth under the table.
“Now, the reason I have come, is because I have heard from some of the other folk that you have a talent that I could well make use of, and also the means to apply it”.
He turned to the left and Darina’s eyes followed his gaze to the spinning wheel that stood there, beside a chair with a basket of material and threads neatly tucked beneath.
He saw from her face that Darina was obviously confused about what he wanted.
“I’m not sure I’m completely undestandin’ Yer Majesty here. Are yew wantin’ some tapestries mended? Or perhaps a new outfit… I have not made any of these thins’. I mostly been sewin’ dresses to be honest”.
“And that”, he said triumphantly,”is precisely what I am wanting”.
“You see I have a little secret which will not be a secret for very much longer”, he winked at her conspiratorially, “the Queen will be needing very soon some larger dresses, particularly in the region of her stomach”.
He laughed heartily, “And I can tell you it is not because she has been eating too much candy”.
He saw a look of surprise and then something like gratitude mingled with glee at being the first to know of the approaching addition to the Royal family.
“And yew be wantin’ me to make a new dress fer her”, Darina said slowly.
“That is precisely what I am wanting from you Goodwife Rawtharn! I will provide the material and of course you will be payed a decent sum of money”.
He went on to describe exactly what Madlenka wanted while Darina listened intently wondering how best to exploit this opportunity.
Tailoring to the queen could prove to be quite a profitable business, don’t you think?
But that woman kind of gives me a bad feeling. Is she up to something?
I love your peasants, really.
Those teeth! And the “Yew’ll be forgivin’ me if I don’t be curtseying fer yew won’t yer…” She’s priceless. And already trying to figure out how to turn this already advantageous situation to further advantage. I hope ol’ Engin knows how lucky he is.
Good news about the Queen, too! *cheers*
Ooooh, the Queen is pregnant?? So the dream DID mean that after all.
And I’m with Yicke… that could be very profitable indeed!
Yes hurray about the Queen… she can only make cute babies that I won’t be able to kill (let’s hope so at least… I haven’t decided whether to use your Lothere’s technique of killing the uglies or actually make it random… random might be more interesting… all the pregnancies and miscarriages have been random so far and they have definitely made the story more interesting). And man I am soooo desperate for Darina to have her baby… only a couple more posts now!
Someone is going to move up a class.
I’m planning to kill a non-ugly baby soon, but it is definitely not random. I am not sure I could kill a character randomly. (I suppose killing the uglies counts as random, but when you consider the alternative…)
I have my pregnancy script set up to have a 2% chance of maternal death, but so far I believe I have ignored the results and killed the ladies as I saw fit. I do have random miscarriages, and some ladies have a higher chance, like poor Sigi.
But wow are your miscarriages really random, Verity? I have the feeling there have been quite a few. Perhaps it only seems that way because the full-term babies haven’t had time to be born yet.
Yeah… my miscarriages are random but I have been playing around a bit with the stats because I think there are too many pregnancies in general when I have tested it. But I don’t know… I think the miscarriages are fairly realistic so far. Varda had one on the boat… but that was decided before the story even started. Since then I think there has only been Isaura and Valeriya (and actually Hepsie has had a miscarriage but it was early and I didn’t want it for the story so I decided it was so early that she did not know she was pregnant). Am I missing anyone?
Ooooh if Hepsie had a miscarriage it means she’s not barren, at least not totally. There’s hope for those two yet!
Maybe I am imagining there being many miscarriages… like I said, maybe my perception will change when there are some babies around. I just get so nervous for all the expectant mothers because we don’t know what effect the weirdness of the island is having on them. *does Worry reaction*
Dun dun dun! So exciting! The Queen pregnant, a baby about to be born . . . I love your peasantry. They’re so upfront and colorful with their speech. ^^ And Darina is probably a model wife. Her husband is more than lucky with her.