Chapter 51 - City Women
----------------------------------------
When we returned to Dulsalies, a large crowd was awaiting for us at the docks, probably curious about the frozen pausolian being dragged by ropes behind the ship.
“Well, this is where we part,” I said to the captain, giving him my hand.
“Yes, it has been a pleasure.” He shook my hand. “I will send one of my men to the guild with the payment after we finish unloading the cargo. It might take a while, so I suggest you go tomorrow to receive your reward. I would not want to waste your time by making you going back and forth from the guild.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
With the mission over, I went down the gangway, already savoring a lunch of delicacies from the stalls of the city.
My expectations for lunch were immediately crushed when a group of guards moved through the crowd to approach me.
“Are you Baroness Fortuna Tullius?” one of them said as soon as he was in front of me.
I frowned, which immediately made the guards flinch. “Yes. Is there something wrong?”
“Absolutely not, my lady,” the same guard said, now visibly nervous. “Lord Lamar would like to invite you for lunch.”
“Oh, you should have just said so from the beginning,” I said, smiling. “May my slaves come with me?”
“Of course, my lady.”
“Very well. I will gladly accept the invitation. I only ask that you wait for me to make myself presentable. One hour should suffice.”
“Of course, my lady. May I ask where you are lodging?”
“Sure. We are currently staying at the White Petal of Madam Valerie.”
The guard’s eyes immediately became wide as saucers, while some of the other guards behind him started whispering to each other.
“The bro-” he caught himself before finishing the phrase. “The one in Street of the Lantern?”
“Yes, the brothel.”
He coughed, embarrassed by my frankness. “Very well, I will send some of my men to inform Lord Lamar of your time of arrival. I and my men will escort you to your… Inn.”
“Thank you.”
The walk from the port to the brothel took only ten minutes. It was not uncommon, after all, for the sailors to want to find some rest in the arms of a woman after days at sea, and the red light district had developed close to the port to cater to those needs, but still far enough to not have to deal with the smell from the fishing boats.
As soon as I entered the brothel, excited screams came from around the hall as the girls who weren't busy with a client rushed towards me. Some girls started showering me with questions about the trip, how I was doing, how long I was going to stay from then on, et cetera; while others were just happy about me being back.
Before I could answer to their attention, a woman clapped behind the small crowd, making the girls stop immediately. “Do not bother our hero and get back to work.”
That was enough to make the girls leave me to go back to what they were doing before I entered, revealing a slightly plump woman over sixty who barely reached a meter and a half in height. She was wearing a long maroon dress with a split on her left thigh and a fox fur around her neck.
She walked towards me with wide arms and I bent down to hug her, letting her plant two kisses on my cheeks.
“Hero Fortuna, I am so glad you are finally back,” she said, smiling at me.
“I am happy to see you too. Has everything been fine while I was away?”
“Oh yes. Most people know better than to mess with the White Petal,” she said with a wink. She then looked at the guard who had spoken to me. “Captain Murien, I haven't seen you in a while. How is your son?”
He sighed. “He's a brat who thinks he's more mature than he is, just like most kids his age. It wouldn't surprise me if one if these days I'll have to come here to bring him back home by a ear.” He looked first at me, the at the girls around the room who were still glancing towards me now and then. “By the way, madam, I have rarely seen your girls so excited.”
“Oh, Hero Fortuna here helped my girls the other day when some unruly sailors wanted much more than what they paid for.”
“That explains the recent shipment to our jails. Though… It surely seems a pretty large welcome for something like that. Should I remind you that -”
“Captain,” she cut him off, “I am sure that if there was something wrong with my establishment our dear cardinal would immediately let you know himself.” Her eyes were now a lot less gentle than they were when we first entered, and the guard captain seemed to freeze under the gaze of the short woman.
He bowed. “I am sorry madam, I don't know what I was thinking.”
He waved him off. “It's already in the past. Now, you still haven't told me why you are here together.”
“Lord Lamar asked me to accompany Lady Fortuna to his manor for lunch.”
She clapped her hands while smiling. “Oh my, what are you doing here then?”
“I wanted to change first, madam,” I said.
“Of course, of course.” She snapped her fingers. “Girl, bring our hero, Akiko, and Holiés to the changing rooms, we can't have our dear lord wait.”
A few girls immediately shot up to take me to the small rooms behind the main hall, where they changed clothes at the start and at the end of their shifts.
As I walked towards the back, I heard Valerie ask the guard captain if he wanted some entertainment while he waited, and the captain refuse.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I came out of the changing rooms after about fifteen minutes. I had used air and water magic to clean ourselves up fast, as there wasn't time for a full bath, and now we were ready to go to the Lord's place.
Akiko was back in her yukata-like dress, coupled with her parasol.
Holiés was now sporting a dark brown pair of trousers with a white dress shirt and a brown jacket over it. It wasn't the most elegant attire in the kingdom, but more than enough for a slave to attend to their master in the house of a noble.
He was the first to finish changing, and went back to the entrance while he waited for Akiko to wear her yukata, and for the girls to dress me, as I decided to go with formal attire.
As with the dresses I had to wear in the castle a few times, a tight corset was needed underneath it, as well as the open underwear typical of the attire. The dress itself was white, with a wide skirt that reached all the way down to the ground and short sleeves that reached only halfway to the elbow. Frills and embroidery decorated it, to break the monotony of the fully white dress. A white floppy hat completed the summer attire.
Finally ready, we made our way to the lord's place.
The mansion sat on the western side of Dulsalies on a small hill. While nowhere near the size of the royal palace, the mansion was still three stories tall and over two hundred meters wide. A balcony was right over the main entrance, supported by columns. Just like most buildings in the city, the palace too was built from a light grey stone.
In front of the palace was a rectangular garden, slightly wider than the palace itself and a hundred meters long from the outer gates to the doors of the palace.
The guards accompanied us up to the open doors, where a slightly tanned man who looked to be in his early fifties and a woman with skin white as snow who barely looked over thirty were waiting for us, surrounded by a small entourage of servants. When we arrived, the guards bowed to their lord and left us.
Under the shade of the balcony over our heads, the lord and lady stepped forward to meet us. The lord was wearing a dark blue suit with a double breasted jacket which slightly reminded of a navy officer, along with a white foulard around his neck that was tucked inside the jacket on the front. The lady, on the other hand, was wearing a yellow dress not dissimilar to mine, if it wasn't for a lack of a hat and the long sleeves that reached past her wrists.
“Welcome to my home, I am Lamar, Count of Fiebuche and Lord of Dulsalies.” He motioned to the woman at his left. “This is my wife, Veta.”
I bowed slightly to the two. “It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Baroness Fortuna Tullius. The ones with me are my slaves, Akiko and Holiés.”
“Please, please, enter. Our chef is eager to have the hero taste his cuisine,” he said, moving a bit to the side.
He lead us through the ground floor of the mansion until we reached a room where a long table, able to fit over twenty people, was prepared for three people.
The lord of the house sat at the head of the table, while his wife sat as his right. A maid moved the chair on the lord's left for me, and I set in front if his wife, giving the maid my hat.
“Lord Laram, my slaves have not eaten since this morning, may I ask of you to provide for them too?”
“Certainly,” he said, before motioning for a maid to lead them elsewhere, probably the servants’ common room or the kitchens.
Soon after the first course of the meal, a salad made with boiled mackerel, broad beans, green beans, and the tuber known as soldier's bread. Along with the dish, came a serving of vilam, which was unusually pink compared to the bright red I had grown accustomed to.
Lord Lamar began to eat and I and his wife soon followed.
After we ate the first dish in silence, he said, “Lady Fortuna, I see our cuisine is of your liking.”
“Yes, I am glad I came to Dulsalies. The rest of my experience in this world has seen a severe lack of seafood until now.”
He laughed a bit. “That does not surprise me. Many of those who grow far from the sea are not used to the taste of its fruits. I am glad that you appreciate it.”
“More than you think.” I leaned forward as if I was confessing a secret. “When I first arrived here, not an hour had passed before I had to try the delicacies offered by your city.”
He laughed again. “Now I understand why you decided to go fishing in the past few days.”
“It must have been fun to work on a fishing boat,” Lady Veta said, putting a lot of emphasis on the last part of the sentence.
“It was indeed. Sunbathing while being lulled by the waves and refreshed by the breeze of the sea is a quite enjoyable experience. You should try it, Lady Veta.”
“My, my. I would love to, but I fear my skin might suffer from such an activity.”
I smiled at her. “Please, if you ever desire to do so, I would be glad to accompany you, I am sure my healing magic would be able to make it enjoyable for you too. There are things you can experience at sea that you cannot in the walls of a mansion.”
The lord beamed. “So true, so true. Oh, how I miss the days when I was still in the navy. Now I left to my sons the enjoyment of sailing. A city like Dulsalies cannot run itself after all.”
The countess glared to her husband for less than a second, but that alone was more than enough to make him compose himself with a cough.
“I heard you had a small incident while at sea,” the lady said.
“I am sorry but I do not recall any incidents.”
She looked quite surprised for a second but she continued nonetheless, “have you not met a pausiodan?”
I smiled. “Please, that was nothing so grave as to call it incident, on the contrary, it was quite the enjoyable experience. If I have to talk about a downside of the encounter, I would say that I did not expect it to die with a single spell of mine. I hoped such an imposing beast would have served better for my training as the hero.”
I sipped some vilam as the lady of the house glared daggers at me.
“One spell!” her husband shouted, not reading the mood. “You are truly worthy of your title as hero, Lady Fortuna.”
“Please, I am sure you have many tales to tell about your service yourself.”
He leaned forward towards me. “Oh yes, there was this time when -”
“Dear,” she interrupted him, “the next course has arrived, you are making it difficult for our kind maids to serve you.”
“Ah, sure,” he said, straightening himself and letting the servants change the plates.
The next course, a plate of rice with clams, cuts of squid, and peas was again eaten in complete silence, making the atmosphere that tiny bit heavier.
At the end of the dish, when the countess took her glass to drink, her sleeve slipped down, and I noticed a red mark around her wrist that she quickly covered.
“Have you perhaps hurt yourself, Lady Veta?” I asked.
The question made the lord of the house tense up, probably trying to come up with something to say, but the countess answered completely ignoring her husband. “Oh, it is nothing, I was not holding the reins of my horse correctly and they tightened on my wrist when it made a sudden movement.”
“Oh my, I am sorry to hear that. I have been told that I am pretty good at fixing unruly horses, would you like me to try making yours behave better,” I said, shooting a glance at the count, who was becoming more and more nervous by the second.
“No,” her response came hard and decisive. “my horse behaves exactly as I have taught him. I would like you to stop talking about this matter.”
“I am sorry, I will not inquire any more.”
The next course came to heighten the mood a bit. A fillet of a fatty and red fish that had just been seared outside and left practically raw at the center, with a few scallops and a mild green sauce that tasted vaguely of mint to accompany it.
The course once again went away in complete silence. After finishing it, trying to make the conversation start from a different topic, I said, “Lord Lamar, I have not yet complimented you on your city. Since I have arrived I have had nothing but enjoyable experiences, truly a marvelous management.”
“Please, Lady Fortuna, you should not be complimenting me. My talents are in leading ships and men at sea. It is thanks to my dear wife that the city can prosper as it does.”
Now I was honestly surprised. “Oh, I have to give you my honest praises, Lady Veta.”
“Please, you humble me,” she said, obviously happy of having scored a ‘win’.
I was about to talk again, when I suddenly felt the ‘gift’ I had given to Zeina disappear. I unconsciously frowned, which didn't go unnoticed by the two nobles.
“Is something the matter, Lady Fortuna?” the count asked me.
I smiled, putting the matter of the ‘blessing’ aside. “No, sorry, I thought I heard something, but it must have been my imagination.”