Chapter 17 - A relaxing bath

I turned towards from where the voice was coming from and saw a small white creature sprinting right at us. In its mouth it had a writing feather that was half the size of its entire body. It was a white squirrel. They were native in the mountains to the east but fetched a high price as pets too because they loved to cuddle and play and tended to be realtivly loyal. Animals like these usually tended to avoid my kind because we had a bit more smell of a predator but this squirrel sprinted straight at me then up my cloth to finally come to rest on my shoulder looking back the direction it came from. Its tiny heart pumping quickly.

"Uru!" A teenager climbed up the stairs she was thin and frail and had thin round glasses on her nose. She was completely out of breath and dropped down as soon as she reached the top. In her left hand she was carrying two books. She was wearing a tight yellow dress with a belt around her hip. Attached to that belt was a leather pouch that most likely contained a glas ink bottle by the sound of it. "Uru ..." she mumbled and looked around then noticed us and got a bit pale especially once she noticed where Uru was sitting at.

I carefully extended my hand and caressed the little bugger who began to do a kind of purring and press his tiny head deeply between my fingers. "Hello young lady. I assume this runaway is yours?" I said with a gentle voice. She nodded but you could clearly see the fear of being caught in her eyes. "Are you a new servant? I havent seen you around before." I shook my head slightly but Eva spoke up. "No young lady she Is not a servant but the new Lord of the house."

You could see the gears turning quickly her mouth slightly opened and closed when she asked and answered questions in her own mind. "But ... you are a woman. I always thought that a lord needs to be a guy." I chuckled and nodded. "That is correct well mostly, but if she said that I am the new lady of the house you might think that I would replace Suha." I smiled to her and offered a hand to help her up. "Why where you carrying these bags, I thought only servants are supposed to do so?" Her voice was fully of curiosity but the fear did slowly fade.

"Because today I decided to help to get to know my house a bit better. For example, I would never have known that this all is up here. Or that we have little runaway white squirrels up in the attic." She took my hand and I pulled her up way to easy. She was light like a feather. "Uru is usually only on my shoulders, but she likes to run to Eva because she tends to have cuddles and sweets for her. So I think when she heard her up in the attic she sprinted here. She never has run to anybodys elses shoulders nor letting them cuddle her."

I shrugged slightly. Then picked up the tiny critter from my shoulder and handed it to her. "Well she seemed to be fine. But please let me introduce myself properly. I am Misra Siderim De Juras and well I am the new Duke of Laris, can I ask who are you?" I asked with a smile. "I am Lizbeth, shouldnt you be a Duchess?" I smirked. "If I inherited the title normally I bet it would be but it seems everybody keeps refering to me with his old title so ..." I shrugged, it didnt matter to me and it told everybody that I was indeed the head of the house so it might be helpful.

She hesitated before asking the next question. "I was officially married to the old Duke ... what will happen to me now? Will you send me back to St Maris like he did?" I shook my head. "Well you are to young to be married to me, my moma would have my head if I even would just think about that. But I not going to send you anywhere against your will. Unless you want to return to your family, I more then willing to adopt you as mine and Suhas daughter or just as Suhas if thats what you wish for. But we will talk about that more after lunch today I think."

She nodded carefully. "What is St Maris?" You could see fear in her bright eyes for a second. Whatever that place was it scared her a lot. "It is a Boarding school in Laris." She said her voice was a bit to heavy for just that but I didnt dig deeper. "Well from what I understand Gabrielle is teaching you now?" She nodded with a smile. "Yes she ..."

Suddenly we heared another calm voice that sounded only slightly out of breath. "Lizbeth are you up there?" It was another woman hat I had not meet yet, and Lizbeth looked a tiny bit guilty. "Yes I will be right there!" She yelled down. For someone as frail she definitely had an excellent voice. "I will see you later at lunch?" She asked turned to me. "I have so many questions!" I chuckled and nodded. "Yes dearie I will see you at lunch now go before whoever is waiting on you gets impatient." She smiled and took off. She still looked way to thin for my liking but at least she seems to be fully of energy.

We continued to hang up all the remaining bags after our visitor had left. Eva told me a bit about how Uru usually was sneaking to her to beg for nuts. In fact she was carrying a small bag of them with her all the time to be able to help out with feeding her. I shook my head slightly with a smile but then good a bit more serious. "Do you know why Lizbeth is so thin? She looks like she hasnt eaten anything for days." Eva looked a bit sad and sighed. "When she arrived here a year ago she had a more healthy weight but after her visit to St. Maris she was just a thin stick. That place did her no good the old duke had send her there to make a proper lady out of her but instead it made her not want to eat at all. If Lady Niele had not visit her and brought her back after a few months, who know what would have happend?"

"She has hardly gained any weight since then. I think it was the fear of going back as well as her husband. She is a bright mind that little one ... she easily can find things to be afraid of. So please milady do her good." I had a serious expression when I nodded. "Of course. No daughter of mine will suffer if I have any say in it. But it seems like I should really look into that school once I will visit my dukedom." I gave her the pack i was carrying and we continued to hang them up.

Once that was finished Madam Laferin informed me that I had around 2 hours left till the launch would be served so I asked her were I could take a bath. "You can either go back to your chambers or use the main family bathhouse milady. The family bathhouse is always prepared while your own we would need a moment to prepare your bath." I smiled. "The family it is I will just grab an outfit for dinner later on then head there."

Eva spoke up suddenly. "Please let us take care of that for you milady. It will be ready and waiting for you once you get out." It felt strang for me but since she offerd i hardly could descline. "Thats fine if you wish. Just the one you had prepared for me earlier this morning. Oh and I am afraid we have to visit a tailor. One outfit used to be enough for me on my own but judging by the masses we just moved a Duke needs to have multiple outfits to choose from and I dont want to misrepresent my people."

Madam Laferin nodded. "I already made arrangement for a visit of the tailor for this evening your grace. Milady Gabrielle had requested so. Do you wish a separated appointment, or would you be fine to share with your" She hesitated a brief second. "wifes?" I really need to find out if they mind if i call them that for the next year. I certainly hope so else the people around us are going to be even more confused then they already are. "That is fine at least I can get their inputs then on what I need. If they still want to talk to me after the meal that is." I shook my head slightly. "Well then can you describe me the way to the bath or guide me there?" I saw madam Laferin make a small hand sign towards Ina who had stood behind the two but steeped forward now.

"If you would be so kind and follow me milady?" the young one said with a soft smile and a bow. The other two returned to their work while I followed Ina trough the large palace. The Family bath was a side building but it was connected with a short corridor. A wall was next to it coming from the palace. I bet that behind that were the harem quarters and their way towards the family bath. "So is that bath shared with the Harem or do they have their own parts?" Ina hesitated a moment before answering. "It is both milady. They can be shared altrough the mistress ordered that for now they are seperated betwen those for the master and thoe that are exclusive for the women of the Harem. Even trough nobody can of course stop the master of the house the silent agreement so far was that they did not intermix much milady."

I nodded brooding a bit about the strange situation that had existed here. It was unthinkable for me to have to separated areas with the same functions back at home. But we didnt had that much room in the houses anyway, since every bit of extra area needed to be heated in the winter. So if you would double that just so to follow this custom it would cause a lot of trouble. Still here in Turgal your biggest problem was not, being cold. It was more to try and stay cold in the summer. At least one advantage that I had in my prison. Because it was build out of stone and bricks it tended to stay relatively cool during the summer. Still if I had not gotten water regularly from Marie I would have been in a lot of trouble.

Ina opened the ornamented door to the bath and behind it was a seating area as well as a young woman that wore a lighter uniform of the maid outfit. She was not exactly nude but the thin cloth did not hide her well-shaped body. She bowed infront of us and saying with a soft voice. "Welcome to the bathhouse milady. Can we be off assistance with an bath or an massage?" I hesitated for a moment. I had a message before in one of the houses of ill reputation that my fellow caravan guards had took me to. It was a wonderful way to spend the time and not have yourself questioned by the rather crude company, who might be offended if you chose to leave said house because you didnt want to sleep with the woman there, but while it was extremely relaxing it could make walking after it a bit hard.

"I think a bath would be enough for now. Thank you." She nodded and pulled away a curtain on her left revealing a large changing area with places to put your cloth for safe keeping. "Do you wish assistance milady or rather have your bath uninterrupted?" I just shook my head slightly. "I dont mind a short tour and explanation, but I think I can manage to take a bath on my own." She smiled and nodded. I turned to Ina who looked like she was torn between curiosity and the desire to leave. "Thank you for guiding me here dear I will see you around later." She blushed and bowed. "Always at your service milady."

After Ina had left the gurdians over my new family bath gave me a short overview off the bathhouse. It had multiple chambers and had warm and cold water pools all year round. It was only for my family and invited guests. There was a large outdoor pool that was keept at a decent temperature. On the question how they heated all of this she explained to me that an architect found a way to heat water with the firehearts. This pool was one of three that had that feature in the whole Kingdom.

It required to have them heated over a specific amount of charcoal every months and was in general quit unpractical for large scale use but for this bath it worked nicely. So my thoughts were racing when I was laying in my heated bath. I wanted more people to share this awesome experience. Maybe I could build a bathing house similar to this in the spa town on my land. I lost completely track of time in there until one of the servant girls did come in with her head lowered. "Milady? Madam Laferin did send me to remind you that it is time for the lunch soon."

I went from being relaxed to full blown panic in a short amount of time. I tough I had more time! Sure I had met three members of my new family already but how would they react to me when they were all together was an unknown. They could hate me or like me there was simple no way of knowing. The only thing I knew for at least the next year they where depending on me. It didnt took me long to get dressed in the new dress that Eva had most likely brought to me. But I was mostly doing it on autopilot deep in thought and worry. One of the bathing servants gently corrected something on my dress then they bowed and opened the door for me.

Outside of the door was Ina already waiting patiently to guide me to meet my full family. I tried my best to collect myself and calm down, but it was hard mostly because there was not enough time before we stood for yet another ornamented door. Ina knocked and opened it while steeping beside it to enter on my own. Even before I entered, I could hear that not everything was perfect inside. A small child was crying loudly while someon was trying their best to calm said Child down. I took a deep breath for a short moment then steeped trough. The first thing I noticed was a metal plate coming directly towards my head.

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This chapter ... is one of the most heavly eddited with lot of stuff cut away. So its "only" 2400 words xD a bit shorter then the last. I was really thinking about haveing something happing in the bath. But it all felt forced. To early or without reason. For example finding one of the women crying in the bath? What reason would she have? I mean meeting a new duke is scary sure but then how would Misra aproach that? And lets not even talk about an action sequence ... so instead it got a bit shorter less focused on that and a bit more time spend on the little cutie called Lizbeth. I am curious what you all think about her.

Till next time ^^