I Will Work Hard Ch. 04

The women were nearly devastated, crying, uncertain of reality. The two younger brothers, and Johnan, were mostly quiet, listening to Yann explain a strange and unbelievable fact.

That man who took all the money ... that important man ... he was known as Ivar Lindbell. He just sold his house and land to Ehlov, and the family was going to move there.

And, of course, that meant that Ehlov would be the new master of the family, with Yann being directly under him.

Ehlov's purchasing of property for the family wasn't necessarily why there was such a panic in the house. The problem was, most of the family didn't even know what this location looked like. For all they knew, their new home could have been a pit lined with dead grass.

In the midst of the arguing voices bouncing all around the common room, Ehlov pulled a stunned Hulda aside, and he bent down to murmur in her ear, "I need you, Hulda. I need you to support me. If you don't, this family will fall apart when we go to the house."

"The ... the house?" Hulda was still struggling with the fact that her husband had been crouching over a metaphorical egg worth more than six hundred thousand Tekans. She blinked up at his face, and she asked, "How did you get all that money?"

That wonderful, beautiful smile was on his face again. "Years of hard work, Starlight. I was too young to touch any pretty ladies' flowers when I became a Carriage Man. I saved my money for years, and I've finally spent it." One of his arms went around her shoulders. Hulda felt rather cradled. As she continued to look up into his tender brown eyes, he said with his thrilling voice, "We're going to go to a brick house with many doors, a tiled roof, and windows with strong shutters."

"But ... but, Ehlov! How are you going to afford the taxes and stuff on this house?" It was apparently so expensive that Hulda couldn't really imagine how the upkeep would work.

"That's another surprise, Starlight." He tapped her round nose with his fingertips as if he was playing a tiny tune. "You'll be comfy there. I promise. So please, please help me."

An excited, dreamy cloud floated above her head. She wanted to believe, dared to believe, that she really was going to live in a fancy house of bricks. "Are there flowers? I've always wanted to have a flower garden all my own!"

"If there isn't, I'll have to buy some seeds and plant the flowers for you."

How sweet! Hulda took his hand from her shoulder and kissed his knuckles.

***

The females had to go inside one of Ivar's carriages. The seats had soft cushions. They weren't put in chains, as Hulda had half expected them to be. Their belongings were put in a few cloth bags at their feet. Their sun darkened faces were seemingly glued to the metal grates that served as windows. The ride seemed to take hours and hours. Despite the cushions, the women were shifting about and complaining about soreness.

It was probably after the midday when a village came into view. It was similar to what Hulda had been living in, except it was much, much, smaller. Even the fields reserved for crops were smaller.

Then, past the village, Hulda saw the house. It was the biggest, most lavish building she had ever seen. It was made of pale bricks, and the roof was indeed tiled. Not only that, but it was at least twice as tall as the house her new family had lived in. Plus, there was a winding staircase all around the outside of the building.

There were cows, so many damn cows, grazing on the right, being looked after by many centaurs. A little to the left, and a bit behind the house, there was a very organized looking grove of pear trees.

Hulda rubbed her eyelids with her finger joints, then her knuckles.

There was no way ... no way that Ehlov had purchased a cattle ranch with a pear grove.

No way!!

When they were told to exit the carriage one at a time, getting onto their husband's backs, they found that Ivar Lindbell was waiting on them. Dobromil put his baby daughter in a sling that kept her against his humanoid chest. The most noticeable, frightening thing of all, was when Ehlov turned to them all and said, "You don't have to put harnesses on. We're going inside the house."

Placidus looked at Ehlov with a furrowed brow and folded arms. "This can't possibly be the house you've purchased."

But, Ivar Lindbell revealed a large, black metal ring with odd looking things of matching metal dangling from it. He handed the ring to Ehlov, who seemed absolutely giddy to have it. If Hulda wasn't on his second back, he probably would have bucked around and ran in circles. He looked back at Hulda and said, "These things are keys, the circle is a key ring. They open up some locks." He held the key ring up and waved the thing about. The keys clanged and chimed like a poorly played instrument. "But where you'll sleep, the locks won't need keys, like the lock on our old house's door."

Hulda's fingernails tapped and scratched at the buckle of the belt around her waist. Her black eyebrows lowered. "Husband? What about all the cattle and the pear trees? Who owns all of that?"

Ivar Lindbell was the one who gave an answer to the question, lacing his creaky, old fingers together before himself. "Such a humble little woman you have there, Ehlov." His teeth were oddly straight. "The pear grove and the cattle are now the property of your husband, and all of my employees are now his to command. He also owns the land that the little village is on, and so, he's now a landlord who can collect rent."

***

It was on that first day in the beautiful, odd house that everyone learned a new secret.

Ehlov had taught himself how to read.

He didn't read at the same level as someone who had been taught at a young age, and he read a little bit slowly, but he could read. He could fucking read! Nobody else in his family, and likely nobody in all of Korelanda Village, knew how to read anything.

And one of the things he had been reading was a small scroll he had purchased years ago about this thing called etiquette. Etiquette was a fancy way of saying manners, and apparently, manners in a fancy house like this brick one were different than manners in a peasant's house.

"I'm the master of this house," Ehlov had said to everyone in the family, his first shoulders so high and mighty that Hulda thought of what she imagined a king would look like. "And the woman on my back is the mistress. You're all going to live in a comfortable house, and you'll all eat good food, including cow. You'll even have some servants to help you! And all you need to do in return for all this is accept my wife and I as the highest ranks here."

Johnan fiddled with his fingers, nervously looking from one adult to the next, and he asked with an unusually frightened voice, "What does cow meat taste like?"

"Depends on how you cook it," Ivar said, giving the boy a gentle, fatherly look. "I think you'll do well with the food here."

Ehlov nodded at the old man, and then he continued addressing his family. "The first thing we need to do is wash our women, because they are going to live and sleep here."

He walked to a peculiar, wooden wall that seemed to stretch across half of the building. The wall was on a floor that was held up off of the dirt floor by X-shaped supports. Then, he made everyone else aside from Ivar gasp from surprise, because he actually pushed aside a section of that wall to reveal a completely different sort of living quarters inside. It seemed that it didn't have only a single wall after all! Rather, several panels of walls and wooden sleeves were there! Hulda had never heard of such a thing before, and apparently, neither did this family.

Ehlov went on explaining. "The floors here are for women. They're made of wood, and they're lined with soft mats. Men aren't meant to go there at all, unless there's an emergency. Only the littlest of boys are allowed there, because they still need their mothers to care for them." Hulda looked into the open hole that her husband had created. She saw the finest, absolute finest furniture she had ever laid eyes on, ever. Some of them even had decorative carvings in their structures!

And the floor ... the floor really was covered with mats. They were made of straw, but they were very shiny, and decorative white fabric was on their edges. Those strips of fabric had beautiful, if simple, blue designs of flowers painted onto them.

"We should wash their feet once every day until they're like snow," Ehlov said, his fingers drumming on the edge of the wall he had slid away. "We can't expect to have their feet as clean as a newborn's in one day. They might bleed if we try that." He closed the wall very slowly. The sound of the wall against its track was alarmingly quiet. "We should use wine to rub away their calluses, and when they're all clean, I'll personally seek out a fine cream or oil to soften their skin with."

Ehlov might as well have been telling the men that they needed to paint all the females' faces an inky black. The men of the family stared at Ehlov. The women's eyes were generally lowered, their lips scrunching as they seemed to puzzle and wonder about Ehlov's instructions.

And Ivar oh so kindly smiled at them all, as if he was watching a group of puppies staring up at snowfall with frightened, yet curious whines. "Hurry up and tell them of the naughty thing you did, so I can announce my departure to the workers."

Ehlov nodded at him, and then he said to the rest of the men, "I opened a wall that covers the women's side of the house. Men aren't supposed to do that unless there's a damn good reason, or if a woman gives you permission."

Sasha spoke up, leaning slightly on one side, gripping the belt around her. "Why, though?"

"Because a woman in such a house is entitled to her privacy," Ehlov said firmly, as if that statement made perfect sense, and it didn't, not really, at least not to the rest of the family. The women had never had privacy all their lives. Why would they need it now?

***

Before Ivar left, he gathered all the servants, and they were all centaurs. He told them about the new master, and then he asked Ehlov to go outside, with Hulda still on his back. Ivar guided Ehlov about, calling out to all the workers that there was a new master, and he had a mistress, and a whole family too. When all that was finished, Ivar finally left, taking one of his carriages, a few guards, and all that money Ehlov had paid him.

Hulda would later learn that Ivar Lindbell was a very sad widower. His wife died after an unusually large tumor had been cut from her. His two sons died in two separate ways, one involving a sharp horn of an angry bull, and the other involving a terrible fight with another man in the village. Ivar did have a daughter, though, and she had been married off long ago. The old man decided that he wanted to spend the rest of his years traveling as much as possible. So, he had asked around the country to find any family in need of a new home. He even gave Ehlov a little bit of a discount, not that the final price seemed any less outrageous in Hulda's mind.

The men all gathered the females outside, at the back of the building, and with the help of some nervous servants, everyone was brushed, combed, and actually ... bathed.

The servants put up a temporary wooden frame covered with sheets so the women could be hidden from them. Then, they heated up several pots of water over an open fire, and put several wooden platforms on the ground so the women didn't have to stand on the grass during the bathing process. When the water was safe to touch, the men of the family went with the women behind the sheets so they could help them wash up, and they washed themselves too.

It was the most intense, most exhausting, most complicated process Hulda had ever experienced. The other women experienced it just as she did, and they seemed every bit as confused about it. Sometimes, they even complained, but the men seemed to believe that this was the best thing in the world to do. They even made proud comments to each other about how perfectly beautiful the females would look after this was done.

The baby did the most complaining, even pitched a fit complete with tears, kicking, screaming. The men didn't care. They only laughed at her while Johnan held her still.

A type of soap with an intoxicating aroma was used. Hulda knew what soap was, but she had never heard of soap smelling sweet before. It was used all over her body, even a bit in her hair and scalp. Then, her hair was soaked in oil, literal oil that smelled just as sweet as the soap. Hulda didn't know what the stuff was called, or even made of, but she imagined it wasn't ever meant for cooking.

There were also brushes that weren't meant for the centaurs, although there were plenty in the new house for them to use. No, these particular brushes Hulda was concerned about were used on her bare flesh. It didn't hurt to be scrubbed down, but it most certainly wasn't something she was used to. She had bathed and washed at times back in the old house, but usually with simple cloths. These brushes were almost ... harsh.

The harshest things, though, were the rough stones and wine the men used to scrub calluses away. Placidus tried to sneak a sip of the wine, but Ehlov caught him and gave a scolding, which was very telling. It wasn't long at all ago when Placidus was higher in rank than Ehlov, and would never have allowed a scolding from the younger brother.

"We'll have some wine later, but we can't drink too much at once," Ehlov said. "It's too fine to drink it like it's ale."

Everyone's fingernails were cleaned too. Small tools were used to gently scrap away dirt. As for the old stains, Ehlov said they would likely fade away as their nails grew, but it wasn't too big of a problem if that didn't happen. He was mostly worried over the females' feet.

"The female's bare feet are to never touch the ground ever again," Ehlov had said. "We lived a good life before this, and I was proud to have a wife with dirt on her feet. We should all be grateful for what we had. But now, we have a chance to live an even better life, and I don't want to see any of these females walking on the men's side, or anywhere with dirt. Soon, we'll order the most beautifully painted wooden clogs so they can walk over to us, but until then, I don't want them leaving the women's side unless they've climbed onto a man's back."

After he had said all of that, he gave Hulda a pleading look. It was so unsettling. His eyes were sad. His lips were rubbing together as if they had been flaking and he wanted to smooth them out. Hulda had looked around at all the other women, and she realized that they were looking right at her face, waiting ... waiting for her to say something.

Well ... this was new ... and weird.

Hulda sighed very deeply, and she reluctantly agreed with her husband. "It would be best for us. We don't want to ruin the pretty rooms that we'll get to sleep in. This house has different manners than what we used to have ... so ... uhm ... we don't want anyone to think we don't know how to be mannerly."

The other women shrugged and groaned, but they seemed to agree ... even though they were still in cranky moods.

By the time everyone was clean, a raw pinkness, a new kind of blush, was in their flesh, the centaurs included. The females' feet were the pinkest. They still had years of stains on them, but Ehlov insisted that over time, that would likely change.

Hulda had wanted to grouse as much as all the other women did, but she had made a promise to Ehlov. She was going to be his ally. She had to accept this abrupt change in her life. So, while the other women had fussed, all Hulda did was cringe and tolerate what felt to her like an oddly fragrant punishment.

The servants brought the females plain, but very soft chemises and the men of the family carried them back into the house. As the men walked on the dirt floor of the men's side, they all went to the women's side. Ehlov said, "I think the women should open the walls, unless they think they might fall off. Then, they should ask a man to open the walls."

Hulda certainly didn't feel comfortable turning to reach out, put her fingers in a vertical groove of the smooth, beautiful wood, and pull it aside. She asked Ehlov very softly, "Please, Husband. Would you please open the wall for me? I'm not sure if I'm feeling up for it."

Ehlov nodded to her and opened the wall. Then, he helped her climb into the luxurious women's quarters. Much of the same happened with the other men and women. Dagny was the last female to be placed inside, right into her mother's arms. The poor baby was very tired from all the previous events. Her movements were sluggish, and her eyes closed for long periods.

"A lot of the seating is nothing more than a pillow," Ehlov explained as he looked at Hulda with the proudest, brightest expression on his face. "You'll end up kneeling a lot. Also, most of the interior walls should be movable too. So, you can make rooms bigger or smaller. It's kind of the same over in the men's side. We have sliding walls too." Then he did the weirdest thing in the world. He bowed. He fucking bowed! Nobody had ever bowed to Hulda in her life! She gawked at him.

"If you need anything," Ehlov said, "then open a wall up and call out for someone to help you. Now, it would be good for you to look around and enjoy your new life here."

***

The women explored the women's quarters with awe clear on their faces. Their feet were newly soft, and newly sensitive. Every step on the mats was like walking on a thin pillow. The furniture that Ivar had left behind was much more fantastic up close. There were even mirrors! Mirrors! A typical peasant woman would have to rely on the surface of water to look at her reflection. Hulda thought that being able to see their whole bodies for a change was very ... eerie. She wondered if those mirrors could steal her soul if she looked at her full reflection for too long.

Eventually, The women went upstairs and found two different rooms with two different tables inside. The tables had drawers, and near the tables there were chests and wardrobes. Smaller mirrors shaped like eggs were on the tables too. The chests, wardrobes, and drawers in one room were empty. The other room had a few fine feminine things, some plain but pretty hair ribbons, wooden clasps and pins to hold the hair up, wooden combs, soft leather shoes that probably weren't meant for walking, and clothing.

The amount of clothing was stupefying. Hulda had thought the room was for the previous mistress of the house, but when she saw all the clothes, she balked at the idea.

She said to the women, "I think I'll start handing these gowns out."

So, she started with Sasha, asking her to pick one gown out. Then she asked Lili to pick one, and then Danuta. After that, Hulda chose a gown for herself. This pattern was repeated until all the gowns were chosen. Then, the process was done for the stockings, garters, chemises, and leather shoes. Hulda had seen some higher class women wearing these sorts of shoes. Those women never walked on the grass. So, Hulda believed they were only for decoration and maybe a bit of warmth.

The ribbons, combs, and hair accessories were also divided. Then, Sasha pointed out to Hulda, "You could have taken all those fine things, you know, or you could have given yourself first pick of them."

Hulda only gave a shrug as a response.

The women spent some time trying to style their hair. They had seen upper class women wear hairstyles varying from modest buns, braids, and even loops. It was so odd to have their hair, which had been perfumed by the oils, displayed like hanging garlic.