Lora of Two Worlds

Gareth hadn’t seen Lora. She was walking back to the tower chamber with Margaret and Lucy, laughing and chatting.

Shawn and Keane hadn’t been reassigned, and two more guards had been added. The General felt that with the Countess away, the rear courtyard was too empty.

”Margaret, Mother’s away. Who manages the house now?”

”Steward Weber handles the outer yard. Mistress Susannah, the Count’s personal maid, handles the inner household. But Susannah lives in the Count’s side room in the outer yard. So even for small things in the inner household, you have to go out.”

Susannah and Laney, the Countess had assigned them to serve the Count. They’d been in his household for over twenty years. Their monthly pay was double the standard, plus frequent gifts. But their status was lower than the Countess’s senior maids.

Because the outer yard, besides the Count, had visiting officers and guards. The women would be seen. So before they entered the Count’s rooms, the Countess, then pregnant with Alvin, had told them: no children.

This was to avoid the question of paternity. And it was standard practice. Grandmother and the Count had agreed.

Later, the Countess had offered to replace them with new women. The Count couldn’t be bothered. They’d stayed.

Lora barely knew them. Women of about forty. When she’d arrived, they’d served ale and withdrawn, like any maid.

As they talked, a black blur bounded toward her, panting, slamming into her legs.

”Good heavens, Chance! Down! You’ll knock the lady over!” Margaret tried to shoo the dog.

Lora crouched, laughing, ruffling its head: ”It’s Chance! Good boy. I brought you bones. You can eat them at home.”

”With Norton in the barracks and you away, Chance spends days at the camp. When Norton patrols, Chance walks alongside the squad. But every night, it comes back to the tower chamber. Not just for its bed. It goes through your room, sniffing everything, checking if you’ve come back.”

Margaret finished. Lucy added: ”At first, Norton tried to shoo it away on patrol. It followed at a distance. A month ago, it caught a thief on patrol. Only then did Lord Gareth give it a military register slot.”

”Don’t exaggerate, it’s not human. How can it be on the register?”

”Lord Gareth said: Norton’s squad gets extra rations. That’s Chance’s pay!”

”Lord Gareth was afraid Norton wasn’t eating enough, the dog was stealing his food.”

”Well, it earns its keep, doesn’t it?” Lucy crouched too, grinning, petting the dog.

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”So Gareth approved? Chance found itself a job, a military dog! Save up enough bones, it can take a wife!”

Thinking of Leon’s Belle, Lora giggled. Chance, praised, wagged harder. Licked Lora and Lucy until their hands were slick.

One wall away, Yewholm. Candles lit. No one inside.

One man sat on the wall. Two stood below.

Green hadn’t returned with them. He’d gone with von Klein to the Lord Regent’s residence, preparing to return to Augustburg tomorrow.

Voss had ordered him: monitor Leon for three or four months. Prevent him from seeing a physician. Once the legs were beyond healing, report back. Now was the time.

Leon watched Lora playing with Chance. He didn’t intrude. He dropped from the wall, sat in the wheelchair.

”My lord, should I fetch Claude Sheffield from the mansion?”

”Tomorrow. Felix isn’t home yet, it’s not convenient.”

Leon patted the armrest. Sighed: So hard to get used to. Sitting in this thing, half a cripple. That day at the garden party, if not for Lora, his temper might have given away the legs.

Inside, Linn asked: ”Our mansion is ready. Shouldn’t we move?”

”Move, and seeing the young lady becomes inconvenient.” Lyle said, quick as ever.

Leon smiled: ”Sharp, aren’t you? I want to wait until Felix returns. If I move out while he’s away, people will think I’ve quarreled with my aunt.”

He had a private reason for staying:

Since Roland had told him that Felix also had feelings for Lora, Leon wanted to be the first to tell Felix about them. Better than letting him hear it from someone else.

Felix was a man of deep feeling. Leon didn’t want this to create awkwardness between them.

”Grind ink. I’ll write to Felix. Tell him Green is heading to court, he and the chief attendant should coordinate from inside and outside. Linn, deliver it yourself tomorrow.”

Removing the King’s suspicion was paramount. Once that was resolved, his brother the King would soon forget him.

As Leon wrote with a quill, Lora, by candlelight, was writing with her swan quill:

”One: toothbrush. Two: toothpaste. Three: toilet paper. Four: soap. Done! These are most urgent. You don’t go out, you don’t know how much suffering hides beneath my elegant exterior...”

Margaret picked up the paper. She recognized every word, but had no idea what they meant.

”My lady, what are these? Do we need to buy them?”

”No, we’re making them ourselves. Since we’re staying long-term, we plan long-term.” Lora narrowed her eyes, grinning:

”I’ll list what we need. What the house has, tomorrow you go to Mistress Susannah and draw from the storehouse.”

”All right. The tower chamber has never bothered her. I haven’t been to the storehouse in ages.”

The young lady was a born tinkerer. Margaret was used to it. She trimmed the candle wick. The table brightened.

Since arriving in this age, with the original body’s adaptation, Lora had adjusted to most things. But personal hygiene, that was her unspoken torment.

A toothbrush was easy. The later-era method: bone, wood, or reed handle, drilled and fitted with boar bristles. Crude, but better than chewing a willow twig and poking your gums with splinters.

Toothpaste: a later era had over a dozen formulas. Example: camphor and frankincense, half a pound each; salt, two ounces. Ground together, mixed with honey into a paste. Scoop a bit for each brushing.

Recorded in a medical text.

Toilet paper wasn’t new, but wouldn’t be used for its modern purpose until a later era. And even then, not widespread.

Because current paper-making was laborious. If she applied simplified modern methods, she’d get softness and mass production.

Soap: not the industrial-lye version from her old world. This was from the great alchemist Valerius’s ”Thousand Golden Prescriptions.” Lora planned an upgrade:

Besides ox, pig, and sheep pancreas and fat, ground with soapberry pod, mineral alkali, and rock sugar, then cooked with flour paste. Add floral scents if desired. The alchemist’s ”bath beans”, upgraded into mass-producible ”pancreas soap.”

Everything so natural. No modern trace.