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They must have all been in some drably uniform tunics, orthe like,he
decided.They aren't supposed to stand out  theyshould be invisible. Drab
tunics would do that. No matter thathe didn't know what such a tunic or
what-not should look like any of the seamstresses could deal with that detail.
He'dtake the need to them first thing in the morning, and letthem de-cide how
to make everyone on the manor lands uniformly drab.
As for making people look unhappy...he grinned as an- other idea came
to him.I'll have the field-workers stick a burr or a pin somewhere in their
clothing where it'll irritate them without really hurting them  or put stones
in their shoes, or wear shoes too tight or too big. That'll give them all sour
ex-pressions, should any of Kyndreth's people come snoopingabout.
He yawned, and realized that he'd been up far too long butthey were
all going short on sleep, trying to get themselves ready.Bed, he decided.And
first thing in the morning, themanor seamstresses.
Even though he woke very, very early just at the break of dawn, in
fact when he showed up unannounced at the seam-stress's workrooms, they were
already well into the day'slabors. That surprised him; he'd always known, in a
vague way,that his people began their work early, long before he awoke, but he
hadn't ever given much thought to what that meant.
Here was a large, well-lit room, furnished with comfortablechairs in
which several women were seated, sewing diligently. There was a large table
covered with a piece of fabric at the far side of the room, and a woman with a
wickedly-bladed pair ofscissors made deft cuts in it, folding and laying aside
the pieces she had made as she went along. Bolts of fabric were arrayed ina
rack along one wall, ribbons and other trim were wound around wooden cones on
pegs, and spools of thread werearranged in little racks beside them. He put
his need to the chief of the ladies, a formidable dame with silver-streaked
hair, ex-plaining the effect he wanted, and why. She pursed her lips
andfrowned.
"My lord do you realize what you are asking when you re- quest common
uniform tunics for the entire estate? Aye, we've enough seed-sack material
about, but notime  even a simpletabard with no hems would need side and
shoulder seams, andit'd be so crude it wouldlook makeshift "
"Dye," interrupted one of the women engaged in some mys-terious task
that seemed to involve the edges of a great deal offabric that pooled on
either side of her. "Don't bother withmaking anythingnew, just fire up
dye-pots and have everyone come in and dunk an old tunic and trews, so you get
the look of wear as well as having it look uniform."
"Oh, well-thought!" the older woman exclaimed, her browclearing.
"That might be a problem, mightn't it if it looked as if everyone in the place
had new clothes!"
"For color black'd be best, walnut-black the cheapest, and
we've got plenty of that; soon or late, everybody needs some bitof
black, and that way I doubt there'll be much complainingabout spoiling
something good." The woman was very pleased with her ingenuity, and so were
Kyrtian and her supervisor.
"Aye, that's the way! Thenkee, Margyt!" The head seamstressbeamed and
patted Kyrtian on the shoulder as if he was a smallboy. "Don't worry your head
about it, my young Lord, we'll han-dle this for you; when the day comes,
everybody'U be making a nice depressing background." She actuallypushed
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him gently,but pushed him, nevertheless out the door. He didn't resist;
infact, he was rather amused at the situation. He'd had no idea howthings were
run on the domestic side, but clearly this woman wasas much a "commander" in
her own ranks as Gel was in his!
And he had no doubt that she would get the job done, either.She had
the air about her that said she would ride right overthe top of anyone and
anything to complete whatever she'dpromised.
He went back to his own preparations, calling in each of
thesupervisors of work-parties and explaining to them what he wanted done the
burrs and all and why. He'd discovered avery long time ago that if people [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]