Aiming for perfection

Writers: Eimi, Paula
Date Posted: 28th February 2007

Characters: Benaroy, Zelanka
Description: Benaroy sees how Zelanka keeps her staff in line.
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 2, day 13 of Turn 4

"See what this is?" The headwoman showed the two drudges her white handkerchief, stained grey after she had wiped it on top shelf. "It's dust," she frowned. "This just doesn't do. You two are cleaning this room again, properly this time. I don't want find one single speck of dust, do you understand?"

"But we already cleaned it," the bravest of the drudges insisted. "You did a sloppy work and now you do it again. Learn to do proper job from the start, so you don't have to do it all over again. I want see my reflection in the thread shutters," Zelanka's voice was stern. The drudges were new, and were about to learn how tight she was with the cleaning. The headwoman wasn't all smile and sunshine. When it came to cleaning, you either learned the lesson, or you spent whole day cleaning the same room over and over again. "And don't forget to desinfect the door handles. Diseases spread from them," she said and swept out from the door. "Get to work," she barked at them.

"Scaring the new girls?" Benaroy smiled as she stepped out into the hall.

Zelanka shrugged a bit. "They need to learn who things are done in this hold," she replied.

"As we all have learned the hard way," the Lord Holder sighed theatrically. "I may have the title, but I think everyone knows you are the one who truly Lords over this Hold."

Zelanka laughed. "Oh, you!"

"Ah," he said, holding up a fingerto emphasise his point, "but you see you do not deny it."

"But I thought you did as I ask because you all love me so," she said with her most plaintative voice.

"Well, perhaps some of us," he said with a slight wink, a smile curling up the edges of his lips.

"Well, you can't deny that you have the most cleanest and well-organized hold in whole Pern," Zelanka said after replying to his wink by squeezing his arm warmly.

"Of course, I don't deny it. I _brag_ about how beautifully kept my Hold is. Good headwomen are hard to come by."

"So are good drudges," Zelanka said and glanced backwards at the two she had been scolding. They seemed to be busy and at work.

"You'll have them wiped into shape in record time, no doubt," Benaroy smiled, knowing just how good she was at getting the best out of her staff.

"Practise makes perfection," Zelanka said. "And I have lot of practise in wiping them into a shape."

"Are you saying you've achieved perfection then?" he asked, eyebrow raised slightly in amusement.

"Not yet," Zelanka said. "There's still to improve."

"Isn't that true of all of us." Nearly fifty turns of being a Lord Holder and sometimes Benaroy still wondered if he really knew what he was doing. Even moreso lately. "How are the grandchildren?"

"Just fine, all of them," Zelanka replied with fond tone.

"How many is it now?" Benaroy knew the number. He counted every child born. He just liked to see her smile when she talked about them.

"Seven, with eight on the way. And you know that as well as I do," Zelanka said. Unless he was having memory lapses again.

"How is the eighth coming along?" he asked, ignoring her last comment.

"The usual way. Poor mother is throwing up every morning though, so Pelanka has been helping with their first child."

"Did you experience much morning sickness?" Benaroy couldn't remember anymore.

"Some, but not too much. It was nausea more that actually vomiting," Zelanka said with a shrug.

"Kenzha had terrible morning sickness," Benaroy remembered with a small smile. "It was the smell of bread that really did it to her. And how can you escape the smell of bread baking in the kitchens?"

"You really can't. The smell tends to spread too," Zelanka said.

"No where to hide," Benaroy nodded. "Except outside. Long walks away from the smell helped."

Zelanka nodded. "It's funny how it varies. Some can't stand klah or fish or redfruit," she said.

"The things we put you women through just to be mothers," he said with a rueful shake of his head. "I don't know why you keep having children after all that ordeal."

"Because we love our children," Zelanka said simply.

Benaroy smiled at her fondly. This was the Zela he loved. "They do grow on you."

"Yes. I was so disappointed when the healer told me I can't have any more children," Zela sighed.

"Well, there comes a time in every woman's life, or so I'm told." Besides, something told him he would not have been happy to see her pregnant again with another man's child.

Last updated on the February 28th 2007

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Aiming for perfection