Deflecting, Justified, or Vindictive

Writers: Cali, Jane
Date Posted: 21st September 2008

Characters: Zandreu, Barthella
Description: Barthella reports to Zandreu about what she's learned from the girls.
Location: Vintner Hall
Date: month 11, day 23 of Turn 4

"Morning," Barthella greeted the tavernmaster as she saw him come down
the stairs. She'd been up before light getting the breads started and
the meats in the slow cookers. "Klah?"

He shook his head. These warmer morning he was less inclined to the hot
drink that was such a standard. "Juice would be good. I'll get it if
you're busy."

"No no," she shoo'd him away from the cooler. "I've got some fresh I
mixed with mint."

"That ought to wake me up," he said with a grin. His gaze traveled
around the expansive kitchen area and his nose twitched with the smells.
"It always smells good in here in the mornings."

"As it should." the cook said as she followed his gaze and handed him a
cup. Since there was on one else about she stood closer to him and
lowered her voice. "I've gotten a chance to talk to all the girls..."

"Ahh. Should we go somewhere else?" he asked, glancing around in case
there was anybody within earshot.

She shook her head, Narella was preparing linen setups in the laundry
room, but otherwise they were alone on the first floor. "I'll start off
by saying that no one admitted anything to me, and no one looked
particularly guilty either."

"That's _good_ news. Isn't it?"

Barthella shrugged, he obviously didn't know women very well. "If you
accept it at face value. Of course as soon as some of the girls guessed
at the source of my line of questions they were very quick to offer up
those they'd had suspicions of on their own."

"Suspicions of -?" He frowned. "Among _our_ workers?"

"Hmm, yes." she replied unhappily herself. "And that's what I'm just
not sure of. Either they're trying to deflect suspicion from
themselves, they have justified concerns, or they're just petty and
vindictive towards certain other workers. I just don't know."

Zandreu looked annoyed. "I don't want them to be petty and vindictive,
either. What's wrong with them? Would men behave this way if we had an
all male staff?"

Barthella shook head and teased, "Probably not, but there would probably
be fist fights every night, burnt bread, and dirty laundry to deal with
instead."

"Fist fights are soon over," Zandreu mused. "A bloody nose and
everything's forgotten. But the burnt bread would be a problem."

"Not to mention all the broken plates and furniture," the cook joined
in his train of thought, "that would get fairly expensive after awhile..."

"Oh, all right. I suppose having women isn't all bad. But these
rumours have got to stop. The women who work here must be above
reproach."

She pursed her lips, remembering a train of thought she'd had earlier.
"I think what we might be having here is a bit of butting heads. We do
have a bit of a mixed group working here, those from the hold with
husbands and children and respectable normal hold upbringings. And then
we also have some women that have fallen on hard times, dead husbands,
no hold affiliations etc. I've got no care to judge what others do on
their own time myself, but others might not feel that way, and that
might be more the cause of these rumours than anything."

"Well you can tell them from me that what they do on their own time _is_
my business if it could bring discredit on the Tavern, the Hall, or the
other staff working here." Reputations - for people or establishments
- were fragile things.

"I'll give the girls a reminder..." Barthella assured him, "we'll just
have to wait and see if they take the hint."

"If they don't they can have their final wages and look for other work,"
Zandreu said with an out of character anger. "Make them understand
_that_."

Last updated on the September 24th 2008

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Deflecting, Justified, or Vindictive