Chapter 25 - A sisters promise

The last one remaining was Gabrielle who just smiled and turned to the tailor to give her a package of neatly folded papers. "These are the designs that I had in mind. Please create at least one prototype for each of us if possible, within the next week. The gowns for the evening have priority and must be finished within 3 weeks, 2 and half would be preferred but I know that 3 is already cutting it short. After that the most important one is the dukes uniform of course. If it is not possible in that short timeframe the priorities are. First our dear duke. Then Suha's then mine and then the others. Do you need new measurements of me?" The tailor nodded and got to work. These two did not exchange much beyond discussing the finer details of Gabrielle's plans. I took a peak and all I saw were detailed sketches of different shapes that she wanted to archive as well as some cut patterns apparently. She clearly had spent a lot of time on it and the tailor seemed to be exited to get started.

After listening for a while, I had a small idea. "Say ... is your former apprentice skilled with uniforms?" She looked at me confused for a second but then nodded. "Yes she has learned from me after all." I smiled gently. "Do you think she could create a uniform for my head of the guard and for another of my closest assistance that show that they belong in a high position to my house?" She nodded without hesitation. "If you wish. I can arrange for an appointment with her. I think she will be able to visit later today or early tomorrow whenever it is convenient for you, your grace." I hesitated for a short moment. "I think tomorrow morning will be enough. I will leave it to madam Laferin to plan the details." The tailor smiled and bowed to me before she and Gabrielle continued their small detail plans.

In the end she went trough the planned dresses for everybody one more time with Gabrielle and me just to doublecheck our and her notes. When that was done, I noticed that the madam had joined us quietly and took over to care for the contract and similar work. The maid that had been there quietly taking notes remained as well while Gabrielle offered me the arm and guided us out of the door.

We had walked a bit towards the Harmen before I asked her carefully. "So what happened with your sister, if I can be so curious to ask?" She chuckled for some reason and nodded. "You can be my duke but the report we got was misleading. She was crying yes but it was because she was extremely happy. Apparently, her nanny has a young daughter of just two years old and named her Viola." I tilted my head slightly while we walked through the long halls. "How old is her nanny?" Gabrielle shrugged her shoulders amused. "How should I know? I never have met the woman." I paused and looked at her a bit confused. "But isn't Viola your sister?"

She laughed loudly and nodded. "Yes and the gods may help anybody who dares to doubt that. But we didn't grew up as sisters." Her voice was full of amusement she clearly knew that her answers where not stratifying and enjoyed the puzzled look on my face. "... You only meet her as an adult?" I could see the amused glint in her eyes. "Nope I knew about her my whole life and we meet at least twice every year." I could see how she was challenge me to guess this so I continued as best as could. "Your father ..." She shook her head with a smile. "We both have two separated set of parents who are all decent folk, and at no time got together in such manner." She said without offence. "Um ... one of you was adopted?" She nodded for a moment but then shook her head. "Not quite. Both of our families are alive and well, but it is something similar."

She eyed me and apparently decided that I got close enough. "You see in our culture when a young gal or guy gets overwhelmed, or feels lonely, or needs help in life and there is nobody in their own family that can really help, they can go to the elder. And the elder will search and suggest a potential sibling for them. Someone who is usually older and maybe someone the seeking person already know. Someone they know will be there to help. And if accepted from that day on they become part of these sibling's family. Their siblings become each other's step siblings or something close to it and well the parents ... gain the right that you would grant to parents. Of course with adults there are limits especially about inherence among nobles, but .... for all intense and purposes, we are sisters. We became sisters the day it became clear that two separated noble families had been engaged to the same man. Violas mother had married an outsider but he respects our customs so she still would visit her home for the two important celebrations each year. And because of that the elder did know about how sensitive dear viola was and asked me to watch over her. And that's what I do ... and no regrets there at all."

She delivered the whole speech with a light tone clearly knowing that most cultures never heard of that concept. But suddenly she got a whole lot more serious. "So let me be clear here for a moment. I think you are a big improvement compared to before and so far you are doing great, but if you ever dare to harm my dear Viola in any way or form, I will rip your fluffy tail off and feed it to you. Am I clear?" I gulped. I nodded again remembering how I had faced many dangers before in my life but nothing has scared me as much as the narrowed eyes of my dear wives. She focused on me for a while longer then nodded once and continued her way as if nothing happened. "Now then ... lets talk about your plans for the next days."

It took me a moment to refocus myself but she waited patiently. "I don't have many plans myself beyond taking care of the slaves tomorrow and well learning a bit more about how a duke should behave, most likely from the books we have here." She shook her head slightly. "I don't think so ... first you will join us for the evening meal tonight ... which should be in one or two hours from now ... then you will be free what ever you want to do but tomorrow morning after talking to the groups I think we should start teaching you how to behave at a royal dinner party. You and Neile I think will both need some attention there." She looked me straight into the eyes with a mischievous glint. "Any complains?"

My head almost moved in automatic. "If you think that would be the best way to improve milady." I said with a slight bow. She chuckled. A warm gentle voice with a hint of tease. "Good, good. Now I will go and join Suha and explain my dress choices and plans to her. You may want to visit our honored guest and ask a bit more about the teachers and when they are planned to arrive here." I shook my head amused and nodded. "As you wish madam. I will see you later then." I tried the hand kiss thing I saw the king do towards the queen, but I must have looked just awkward because Gabrielle looked like she was trying hard not to burst out laughing for some reason. "We will train that tomorrow too." She said with a calm gentle voice before nodding to me and leaving me out in the empty corridor.

It didn't took long for me to find a Maid to guide me to the indoor sparring area. It was part of the eastern side building of the second Indoor garden. I could hear the training weapons hitting each other way before I saw the two sparring partners. Johanna was clearly in the disadvantage since Madam Tersou could dance around her bad leg but she still looked like she was able to stand her ground even with that. The room itself had large open windows to the outside and polished wooden floors. To the sides where racks of training weapons and seating areas from which you could watch the match. The center area meanwhile was empty and marked with a large, lowered oval area. It was just one slight steep down but it was enough to clearly mark it.

The bodyguards back was currently turned towards me so she most likely had not noticed me yet while Johanna had only spared me the briefest of side-glances. I decided to try and see how both would react towards a third person joining their spar and picked up a wooden training spear as quietly as possible. It was a weapon that I was quite familiar with, since I had carried a real one for years, although that had been 8 years ago of course. I was close to join the fray when suddenly the lady did jump backwards straight towards me and engaged me with a ferocity that I had not expected in a training match. I had to be extremely carefully not to get hit while my friend tried her best to quickly cover the distance that the jump had created.

If I couldn't see the smile of amusement on the young ones face I would be worried that my intervention did disturb their training negatively. Once Johanna was closer, we did our best to keep her pinned between us two and we were clearly giving her a hard time but she proved why she was the queens bodyguard by still being able to keep us both at bay. In fact before she was finally defeated she managed to give me a hard whack on the shoulder that would have been a heavy injury with a real sword. After Johanna finally had managed to poke her chest over her heart, forcing a surrender, we all broke down laughing. These two exhausted while I had already started a good sweat from the straining activity.

After a short apology for interrupting the training and friendly greeting she started with my permission to list what we both did right and what went wrong. She found my choice of the spear interesting and not wrong in this situation, but recommended that I would train in the sword as well since I would be wearing one most of the time. Johanna was critiqued in an more detailed assessment. She was complimented that was able to keep a straight face when I was sneaking up but scolded for not trusting me enough to not glancing towards me more then once. What I had done was something most allies would do during a fight although most of them would be hardly as quite as I was so next time when something like that was going on the primary task was it to keep the opponent distracted to make the sneaking up less risky.

She went over the fight in detail for a while longer while maids served some water and towels to clean up some of the sweat until I could get finally to the reason why I had came here. "So a few short things. Johanna tomorrow morning there will be a tailor to get the measurements for a uniform for you and Marie so please don't leave the house before that." She chuckled and nodded. I turned towards the young Bodyguard. "I am sorry that I had not asked before but when will the teacher arrive here and when do you think you can send your butler candidates over?"

She shook her head with a smile "Its ok, the teachers that the royal couple thought about are different nobles and one trader as such they have responsibilities to clear up first before they can finally arrive her. I expect the first to arrive within the next three days and the last next week. They all will carry a letter of invitation signed by me. If anybody carries a letter signed by the queen they are most likely fake and as such be warry and send message via Elaina. Don't arrest them straight away because there is always a chance that there was a mix-up somewhere. About the butler candidate I will approach the two that I have in mind tonight so they should make their appearance here tomorrow. "

"They will be carrying my sigil and approach you in my name. I don't think that anybody will be able to sneak in a butler candidate so quickly but It doesn't hurt to be careful." She pondered for a moment. "If both of them are unable to be of service and cant suggest another candidate I will let you know." I nodded and squeezed her shoulder gently. "Thank you. It will be a great help to have someone in that position for this house again. Especially someone who is most likely not connected to the employer of the assassins." She shrugged slightly. "The likeliest candidate for those are the extended family of the duke. The younger brother or his cousins. And it is quite likely that with the lost of the dukes standing they have already played their hand. The highest among them, his brother is just a baron who just lost his most valuable supporter. And he is potentially involved in the slavery thing too but that will take time to be solved. The one that has more influence is the most unlikely one to have hired them. His sister has married his strongest rival, the duke of Karamhil the one holding the eastern border of the kingdom and well their clashes are legendary."

I raised my eyebrow a bit. I had so far not heard much about the family of the old duke and it sounded like I really should not bother apart from maybe his sister. "She is on her way here by the way. But you should talk with your wives about that they can give you a better picture why she is really not likely to have send the assassins. Apart from the whole distance issue." I raised myself off the seating area and smiled to my two friends. "I will do that ... and I think I will switch my outfit and take a short wash before joining them for the evening meal. So please excuse me for now." She rose and bowed to me. "Until next time milady." I nodded shortly towards Johanna before leaving them to continue their training.

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Finally an finished the update. I had a wonderful case of writer block until i sat down and deleted half of what i had written before. The new version is way better. ^^

I hope that Gabrielle does not sound to crazy or threatening here. If she really would be able to that ... who knows but regardless her relationship with her sister was always something interesting to me. Viola is the one character that is really hard to write good scenes with but i enjoy it non the less. Meanwhile Gabrielle so far is the most easy one xD She is one scary bundle and the only one who has any control over her is suha.

The dukes sister ... is one of thoe chars who existed since chapter 11 or so but never had a good point to be even mentioned. The old dukes family in general will be interesting if and when they apear but in general the other nobles will make their appearance from this point onwards. I recently noticed that basically this is only day 2 in her new home ... so yeah progress is slow xD But its simple a lot happening in such short order.

Sadly my progress is a bit slower then last year simple because i don't have a rhythm. I think i have found one today and will definitely keep writing, but being unemployed is annoying because of the lost structure in my daily life.

So you all stay safe and healthy and i will see you all soon.

P.s: oO its so strange that so many of you enjoy this xD hope i will keep the jorney intresting.