Monsters, p.4
Monsters, page 4
part #2 of Gwen Farris Series
“Oh? Um, well, guys, you know that I don’t care about either of those things, right? My whole world doesn’t have magic like you do here at all. I’ve lived my whole life without it. It’s not something to be ashamed of. Not in my mind at least. Stuttering… I might know some tricks that could help him with that. Just stuff I saw on television, and read about, but even if not, it’s hardly something to be concerned over.” Gwen smiled and spread her hands, palms up. The local version of a shrug, thought he shoulders didn’t move at all.
“Not that this means we’ll get along instantly, of course. I should meet him though. It’s probably a bigger deal that I’m so much older than him than anything else.”
Her blond Westmorland friend tilted her head to the left and shook it just a bit.
“Five years isn’t that much. A lot of people marry with ten year gaps, especially nobles. Sometimes more.” Bethany glanced at the others who all nodded, as if considering something.
Gwen had to stop herself from rolling her eyes then. It was a simple enough mistake to make, but one she didn’t expect from Beth, who knew her better than anyone else in the whole world. Literally.
“Eighteen years. I’m thirty-five, remember? Katherine is only twenty-three though, so that’s not so bad… I can make it based on looks I think. But age wise it would be like Heather moving in on the guy, nearly at least. Not that I can afford to be that picky.” The words were a reflex and so natural to her that she didn’t even really notice saying them. The others did though, but no one mentioned it to her. For most of her life no one had even looked at her with anything kinder than pity.
It was hard to remember that she didn’t look like that anymore.
Not that it mattered much in this case, Gwen shrugged, sighed and then corrected the gesture to one that these people would get. They didn’t have shrugging here for some reason.
“But I’m not actually marrying him. Not right away at least, and certainly not until we find out what’s going on with his father. That wouldn’t be cool at all. Still, if he wants to meet, I’m willing and can even take it fairly seriously. Do we need to use some kind of trick or something? I’m… not really sure I can sweet talk him into anything. I don’t even know how to flirt, except for what I used to see on television and your rules for that are way different here. So… yeah, there’s that. The actually talking to a guy part. Worse, Katherine is supposed to be good at that kind of thing, so it’s going to be a little obvious, isn’t it?” It was a real concern but Darrick smiled, this time his face looked pleasantly genuine, which probably meant he was contemplating someone’s death or at the very least , destruction.
Gwen just hoped it wasn’t hers.
“I’m certain that if you present yourself to him, the boy will be happy enough to entertain the idea. I’ve already had to tell the rest of the men here to leave you alone for the duration. Half of them were bickering about who got to try to “entertain” you first. They all know about your true identity however, so that’s less of a risk than one of the other men on the grounds, if you feel the need for company. Please keep that in mind?” This was said straight faced, but not unkindly.
“Um…” It wasn’t what Gwen had come to expect of this world, but the Westmorlands weren’t exactly a chaste bunch, were they?
No one laughed at her this time as she blushed and stopped talking, but Darrick did let them go about a minute later, so that the first exercise session could be arranged. It was just going to be a single circuit of the perimeter trail and some light calisthenics, she decided, since she didn’t know what kind of shape anyone else was in. They all looked hard and lean, even Beth did now, but that didn’t mean they were ready for twenty mile runs or massive fighting drills. Better to go a little slow and build up to that, so she could get a feel for what she had to work within each section.
That turned out to be a good thing, since three of the four men in the first group she was going out with had trouble with the length of the run. They didn’t complain, but it was clearly hard for them.
“Sorry… Ma’am.” One of them said, his voice a bit ragged. “We’re trained to sprint for short distances, not run very long ones. Some of us at least. Marco is our long range man.” He pointed at the lean and small Westmorland that was pacing beside her easily. The trail was big enough for them to all run side by side and the one speaking had moved up alongside her, since running in formation didn’t make any sense to her.
“Oh? OK. We'll do those too then, I could use work there myself. We’re almost back around I think. Can everyone make it without walking? Let me know if you can’t.”
No one dignified that with a response, but they did make it, in pain or not. Without dying or anything. Gwen could have run a few more laps herself, she thought, but wasn’t really sure. One more at least. Instead she led them through the same exercises that Charles the butler had taught her over the last few months. They all did fine with them, as she kind of figured they would. It was just the high level repetitive things that threw them off then? Good to know, in case she ever had to outrun them.
After that she just needed to return to her room, use the shower facility again and get dressed for dinner. It was pretty clear that she was in for a lot of showering on this job. Her clothing was just the same plain blue outfit they’d all worn earlier, nearly at least, hers not being official was tailored to her better, fitting her in a way that accentuated her curves a bit.
When she got to the dining room she was in for another surprise. Not a pleasant one either.
The food was horrible. Not just a little bit either. Half of it was burned and the other half was so dry that it took a serrated knife to cut it. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but if they had spices, no one had bothered to use them at all. Not even salt.
At first Gwen wondered if they were doing their own cooking, but Bethany shook her head, having picked up the thought from her. She could do that, if she focused hard enough, even if she wasn’t in the correct conditioned working state for it. Looking at her left arm, Gwen noticed that she’d accidently touched and held her left temple, which was their signal that Gwen had something she wanted to share with Beth. The mind reading was kind of cool, but doing that by accident was just sloppy on her part.
Oops.
Her friend smiled, which wasn’t pleasant at all.
“No… I think that one of the stable boys is being forced to work double duty. He isn’t very good at it. We aren’t exactly used to the highest level of care when we’re in the field. The expense would have to come out of centrals coffers, if the Duke doesn’t wish to provide someone for us, which he isn’t inclined too, it seems. It isn’t his responsibility. Since we came unbidden, we can’t really expect much. Plus the boy is honestly trying hard and I really doubt any of the rest of us would fare much better in the kitchen.” She didn’t explain what she was talking about to anyone else, but Heather nodded.
“Can’t cook to save my life. I can make eggs, but I burn them half the time too. Anyone else?” She looked around the table but no one volunteered some hidden skill in that realm.
Gwen wasn’t any great shakes at it either, to tell the truth. She did all right opening cans of things and was a wizard with a microwave, but the way things got done here were a lot different. She’d done a little though, hadn’t she? Feeding herself and Beth for a while and helping out in a soup kitchen with Ethyl over the holidays. She was just about to volunteer her services, as poor as they were, when the guy that had chatted with her while they ran, Kent, piped up with his own idea.
“We could hire someone. Or, well, maybe not, since they might not work with us directly given the family name and all that, but Gwen could do it. She has all that money too, so it wouldn’t even be a hardship for her. Fly in her personal chef or something.” His voice was playful and he looked at her with a look on his face that was so genuine and earnest that Gwen couldn’t take offense at it. Even if it was meant to make fun of her.
He had really pretty blue eyes and interesting short cropped black hair that was curly enough to show that somewhere in his ancestry he had some African heritage. That part of things was pretty cool here. Literally no one cared what race you were. That kind of prejudice just didn’t exist at all. Instead they segregated based on magical ability, or lack of it. That didn’t show for the most part, not externally, but basically it worked out so that the lower your ability, the poorer you were. Gwen stopped, her breath catching, realizing she’d just been staring at the man, who was smiling at her.
She probably didn’t seem happy about the whole thing either, forgetting to smile like she should. She did it then, which got a gentle sigh from the man next to Kent, Marco the distance runner. He wasn’t as good looking, but wasn’t too bad, in a thin way. He shook his head sadly.
“And there we go. Kent turns on the charm and now none of the rest of us will have a shot at all, until she figures out that Kent only likes men…” Everyone laughed, but it was clearly directed at the joke, not her part in it. That was weird, but nicer than being the butt of things.
“Oh? Actually I was just thinking about his idea.” She looked at Beth, since she was kind of responsible for keeping her out of trouble.
“I mean, if it’s not out of place… Because, well, that sounds exactly like what Katherine Vernor would do, doesn’t it? Throw money at the problem of a minor inconvenience? I don’t know what it would cost to hire some people like that, or get in some nicer furniture, but…” The hand flip was far more natural seeming this time, done with one hand. If she got the idea right it basically meant that she just didn’t know, or care overly, about a topic. In this case price.
“I can send for a few mets to cover it. Possibly arrange for someone to be brought in?” How, she had no clue, but she kind of knew who to ask about that part of things. She had an expert on tap for that sort of thing, didn’t she?
Her new mother, Ethyl Vernor. The woman knew her way around doing things like hiring the right people for her staff. Maybe she’d let Gwen bribe a few of her people to come out for a month or two? They were top notch, and they didn’t seem to have a vast problem with either military types or serving Westmorlands something to eat. Some people did have trouble with that. Mostly those that weren’t very high magic users. They got stuck in the lower class jobs and kind of resented people that weren’t. Not all of them, of course, but a lot. More so than seemed reasonable since the issue was basically about a group of enslaved and tortured orphans as far as Gwen could tell.
Everyone was staring at her then, which was really uncomfortable. It set her nerves on edge and she wondered for a second if she was about to be attacked. Her eyes narrowed a bit as she got ready to fight. No one seemed to get the idea, except, oddly Darrick, who scooted away from the table just a bit, but kept his hands in plain sight.
Kent spoke softly.
“I wasn’t… I was just joking with you. We’ll be fine. I’ve eaten a lot worse than this and will again, no doubt.” He took a bite of overly dried steak with a bit of blackened potato to illustrate the point. He made a face when he swallowed though. The food just wasn’t good. Nearly inedible for all that everyone at the table made themselves chew and swallow mechanically as if in support of Kent’s words. They had to eat, even if it wasn’t good, so they did.
The topic got changed to the duty roster, which, naturally, Gwen wasn’t really on to start with, not on guard watches or anything like that. Most of them really weren’t there to do anything, except when a threat was going to present itself, or if the Duke wanted to travel. His forces weren’t horrible in the main, Darrick shared with them, just not that wonderful at doing more than keeping the odd boy from plucking all the fruit from the trees in summer. For the most part the man didn’t need a lot more than that. Even the King didn’t worry about assassination much and the Duke was so far from that level of things it almost wasn’t funny. The Special Service was there just in case, but it didn’t have the feeling of importance she was used to for such things. Almost like it was an afterthought.
They were devastatingly good at their jobs, and in the armor they were nearly unbeatable, but for the most part they just hung around trying to stay sharp and ready in case something ever did happen. From what little information she had, Gwen was putting together a very different picture of this world than she’d been thinking of originally. It was a much safer place overall than back home was.
It had a smaller population and a lot less crime, for one thing. They hadn’t even trashed it yet. No global warming to speak of for instance, and they built things to last, meaning that while most things were a bit more expensive, you didn’t have to get them again nearly as often. On top of that, a lot of people just didn’t have the things that she would have thought they would.
Most people didn’t have a Telestator for instance, which was basically a telephone. Some people didn’t even have access to one. Lorries were so expensive that just riding in a private one marked you as wealthy or very well connected, and owning one was out of the reach of most people altogether. Thinking of that reminded her of James, who was the driver that the Vernor’s had for their daughter. A great guy that showed up to take her places at need, when she was back in Gollingston. That got her thinking about his wife and kids. They were all too young to go to school… Stevie was still only five and he was the oldest.
Smiling she looked directly at Beth.
“Do you think that James and Ella would be willing to come for a while? I mean if I can bribe everyone correctly for it? No one minds having kids underfoot, do they?” She was serious, but willing to drop it if anyone did, or even thought it would be a problem. The Westmorlands were all sterilized as children, so she didn’t know if they’d hate little ones as a reminder of that or not. Beth didn’t, but that was only one person.
Oddly no one thought it would be all that big a deal at all. The one thing they did have was space, and while they’d need a few other people for all the other work, the general mood improved greatly. Enough so that Gwen didn’t wait to start making calls to people on the Telestator that night. It took longer than it should have, because she had to make extra calls to find all the right numbers, and then wait for Ella to come to the unit in her neighbor’s place, since she and James didn’t have one of their own. She brought her husband along with her and from the sound of it her youngest, Veronica.
The Telesar unit the Westmorlands had was a lot nicer than anything else they were provided with, probably because it was issued by the government, not the Duke himself. It was on a decently polished wooden table and had the normal five dull silver spheres sitting on polished wooden dowels. The voice quality was superb, compared to a cell phone, but the size made it hard to carry around. This was a portable too, she saw, having wheels on the end of the legs. She had her right hand on the correct sphere, the center one, which wasn’t marked in any way, and waited patiently for everyone to get in place.
The voice that came across the air in front of her was tentative and polite, just the way Gwen remembered it.
“Ma’am? I… This is Ella Hollister, is, did you want to speak with James ma’am? He’s right here…” The woman was a bit shy around her for some reason. Possibly because the Vernor’s were loaded and Gwen was supposed to be one of them. It was a little overdone, since she and James were practically her best friends here, after Bethany. Meaning they’d gone on a single outing together.
That counted though, didn’t it? That made them just about the best friends she’d ever had. She wanted to feel shy and awkward suddenly, but didn’t let herself, since Katherine wouldn’t have been that way. Gwen didn’t know if Ella knew about the whole body switching thing or not. James knew, having figured it out from mistakes she’d made, but he might not have told his wife. Then again, he might have shared the news freely. They were married after all. People told their spouses stuff, right?
“Call me Katherine, please. Especially since I’m calling to beg for your help. James’ too. Would you be willing to come here and work with us for a while? It’s on the Duke of Aubrey’s estate, but we need a cook and some cleaning people. I’ve arranged for a Lorrie to be brought in from there, since shipping isn’t a problem, but we need a dedicated driver. There are twelve of us here, so you might need some helpers. They’ll be paid well enough for the work, but we aren’t able to find them here, since it’s a bit isolated. Is that doable? Right now all we have is an overworked stable boy and he doesn’t know how to cook at all.” She held her breath, then realized that wouldn’t help anything, so tried not to let it out in a gust.
“Um, ma’am? I mean, Katherine? Is the “we” you’re speaking of… Um, are any of them Westmorlands?” The voice was odd, but not cold or anything. Strained, maybe a little scared, but not angry or prejudiced sounding.
“Oh, yes. All of this lot is, except me. I know what you’re probably thinking… you don’t want to get helpers in, only to have these louts try to take liberties with them, but I assure you, if anyone tries anything, the man in charge, Darrick, will have them up on charges, or possibly beaten, before they do more than tell anyone they have pretty eyes. He can do that, and will if needed, he’s a tough man who doesn’t let his people get away with anything out of turn. They’re actually all good people though and wouldn’t do that, but if it did come up, Darrick would treat it as if they’d tried to seduce his own daughter, I guarantee it.” It was close to being too blunt, and sounded worse with her fake British sounding accent, but it got a sigh of relief from the woman anyway, as if that really had been the issue, not the fact that they were all highly trained super-soldiers that might explode like nuclear bombs. Gwen was just going to ignore that part of things. It wasn’t a real issue, was it? These Westmorlands didn’t blow up.
