“So you sleep upstairs?”
They were in the servant's hall, where a long table with simple chairs stood. It was a room just off from the sizeable kitchen, where Mrs Deerling the cook and Druss the butler reigned supreme as lord and lady of the table. This night, however, Druss had vacated his seat to allow Stare to sit at the end, as was practise when she wasn't dining with Vitruvion. Instead now he sat to the side and Guilia opposite him, with the three of them gathered into a small conversation of their own.
“Miss Stare acts as Sir Elssmith's business manager and steward when he is out of town, Miss Guilia,” Druss replied, the small mouse-like man smiling appropriately.
Guilia's eyebrows went high. She opened her mouth as if to start saying something, then stopped, remembering what she had been told about the situation of the relationship between master and steward in this household. Slowly she closed her mouth and nodded.
“When Sir Elssmith first met me I came to live here more or less to live as a guest of the house,” Stare said quietly, cutting up the flesh of the animal on her plate. “Once I begun under his employ formally he made the decision for me to have my own formal room.”
“The house is so big and Sir Elssmith just a single man,” Druss agreed. “Though you serve as housekeeper, you - Miss Stare,” he looked at Guilia, “Miss Stare is his representative in many aspects.”
“What if he required the room for a wife?” Guilia asked, “Or a family?”
Awkward silence fell for a moment. The question of Vitruvion's potential marriage one day had always been a point of discussion, and for some in the household, a point of contention.
“Well, Miss Mer would lose her room first, of course,” Druss said quickly.
“... Mer?”
Stare grunted, “My assistant. She is also of noble birth, so it is right she be treated well.”
“But she would lose her room first,” the butler reiterated.
The kenku sighed, “If Sir Elssmith ever got married, had a family, invited someone into his household who needed the room more than I, then I would move down here, of course.” She stabbed a sprout. “At the moment that is not the situation, but as soon as it happens, I'll move when he asks.”
Druss nodded, and Guilia blinked, knowing she had said something that that had caused some tension. She bit her lip, and looked between the butler and Stare before smiling.
“I see.”
Stare ate, and was subject to a moment of fascination from the Hernsfordan, but then Guilia smiled more.
“So you serve really as Sir Elssmith's right hand woman.”
Stare immediately shook her head. “Not right hand. That is Raevin … He's an elf, currently working in Corone at the brewery.”
Once who he was was explained Guilia nodded. “I see. So you are his left hand?”
The kenku was caught off guard by the expression, and furrowed her brow slightly, trying to think about it. A short silence fell, interrupted by Druss.
“That … Would be rather accurate.” He grinned. “Yes. Left hand.”
