It was much later. Dinner had passed, and Guilia had disappeared already, gone for a short while to see to Rafael's needs. Stare found herself without anything to do, and the kitchen was slightly struggling with the extra organisation of the more formal meal than normal. Thus, after Stare heard enough whispers and heightened shouts she grunted and heaved herself to her feet.
Walking through to the kitchen she found a mound of dishes - far more than if Vitruvion was just eating himself. The kitchen was set out into two sections of a main room, then a small intense coming area around a corner, hidden right now from view. Currently all of the kitchen staff however - Mrs Deerling, the cook, Charlie, the kitchen maid and Timmin, the pot boy - along with Druss were hurriedly arguing about the workload and how they were going to handle organisation across the coming few days.
“I can't possibly be expected to cook three full luxury meals a day!” Mrs Deerling was saying, “The visitor - he barely liked anything. Charlie had to come down three times - three! - for personalised requests.”
“He's awfully fussy,” the boy said, scratching his arse, “He didn't want that gravy, then he wanted to know if we had grainy bread. Then it wasn't the right wine.”
“We either need more staff or need to cook less,” Charlie grunted, her arms folded across her chest. “It's only the first day but it's going to get out of hand.”
Stare let out a sigh and stayed in the doorway before a full minute passed, and they did not notice her. Still, they spoke over each other and Druss mumbled, trying to calm them down. But …
Nothing. Rolling her eyes she gathered up what short sleeves she had and headed right for the washing tub. It was already running with water, and had a large pile of items in it, but an amount that wouldn't be useful for any sort of cleaning of them. Without any room on the worktops nearby she ended up shoving them on the floor with a loud clatter.
Quiet fell as the noise finally caught the attention of the arguing staff.
“Druss, I suggest you send Agathe or Kira over to Lady Heysan’s place and see if we can borrow one of their staff as extra until the Maester leaves.”
There was a pause before:
“Miss Stare!” The butler gasped, “You shouldn't be doing that!”
Stare grunted and grabbed her first plate and scrubbing brush. “Charlie, if you could dry, Timmin organise the things needed to be washed. Mrs Deerling, why don't you take time to write a more simple menu for the next few days, using what ingredients you have.”
Voices began again.
“But Miss …”
“Miss Stare, you honestly shouldn't-”
“No way, my menu is certainly fine as it is-”
“For Ansaldo's balls sake!” Stare shouted, twisting around to glare to each of them. “You arguing is simply making the problem worse. Now, my suggestions are just those - suggestions, but if you want to get anything done over the next few days then I would suggest helping me. Please.”
Surely, but not responding to any particular emotion just yet, she stared from one to the other. They looked back at her in wordlessness … then to each other. Back to her again. Then to one another. It took Druss to break the cycle and nod to Stare.
“I will take the fastest horse I can, Miss.”
On that Timmin and Charlie sucked in their breath and moved quickly to respond to Stare's instruction. It left Mrs Deerling to watch all with uncertainty.
But the kitchen was already in full motion. With a sigh the cook grabbed her meal planner book from the worktop and turned to slunk back into the mess.
The kitchen was cleaned that night and all the other times. With help from Marjie, a loaned kitchen girl from Lady Heysan's - aka Vitruvion's sister Ventrua - they had no more trouble for the rest of the time Maester Rafael was there. Stare was able to continue with her normal duties, and called upon by Druss to settle any further disputes.
