Chapter 338: Escaping Politics
Dominic let the maid do the introductions, and then excused himself with the flimsiest of excuses, claiming that he was going to check on the remainder of their guests.
The two sets of Royal Guards were technically Nobles, Dominic assud. There was only a slim chance that soone who was from common breeding would ever reach such a position, and even then, they were likely to have at least been given the title of Knight to dignify them.
"Gentlen, have you all settled in well enough? Was there anything that you needed?" Dominic asked when he saw two soldiers, one from each detachnt, standing at the bottom of the stairs.
"We are quite well, your Grace. Protocol demands that we guard the stairs to the sleeping quarters." The Axbridge guard explained.
And that ant they had to be ready at all tis, so it was pointless to offer them a chair.
"Let
or one of the maids know if there is anything." Dominic agreed, then headed for the kitchen to see how Beth and Liz were doing.
There were six other won in the room when he arrived, all in Maid’s uniforms, but not veiled maids. That must have been arranged when Alexis realized that they were going to need even more staff for dinner service, but once the house was expanded, they would need them full-ti anyhow.
"Chef, do you have everything that you need? I just wanted to check on dinner arrangents."
Beth waved a towel at him. "Shoo, we’re fine. The ladies will put out the extra tables in a bit. Now, go do whatever it is that you need to finish before dinner."
Dominic sighed and the aging cook laughed. "You’re hiding from the political etings with the Royals, aren’t you?"
Dominic winked at the cook, then looked out the back door. "I think I hear Farrier Jasmine calling for help. See you at dinner."
The cook laughed as he raced out the back door, and then laughed harder when she realized that the Farrier really was in trouble again. Only, for once it was not the goats that were giving her a hard ti.
A valve on the tractor had stuck open, and no matter what she did, it simply refused to release.
Dominic laughed as he hopped up on the moving tractor and grabbed a rubber mallet.
"Here we go, nice and gentle."
The hit that he landed on the front of the valve was neither nice, nor gentle. But it shook the valve enough that when he grabbed the lever, the valve had co unstuck and pressure started to vent from the overflow.
"Ah, I see the issue. Too much pressure caused the internals to bend. Just don’t open it up all the way for a bit, and you’ll be able to finish out the day." He explained.
"What brings you outside?" The farrier asked curiously.
"I’m terrible at hiding my intentions, aren’t I? Trying to keep up all the polite and courteous stresses
out, so I ran away for a bit to get so fresh air." Dominic replied.
"Well, you’ve got lots of ti to practice now. Who knows, they might make a proper Duke of you eventually." Jasmine joked.
"True. We’ve got a lot of new arrivals coming, enough to make Wistover into a proper city, so we’re going to be upgrading and expanding everything. But on that note, I will go check on the new building before I go back in."
Dominic made another escape, headed into town. The new construction was already rapidly underway, with the three teams spread out through town, all working on separate projects, while the existing Architect and the mages of the Purity Sect focused on the convention centre.
With an entire team to assist them, the building was already beginning to look like a proper structure, even if it was just a shell.
Unfortunately for Dominic, that ant that he really didn’t have a good excuse to continue to be out of the house. Everything was in order, the new buildings were well ahead of schedule, and even from here he could see that the camps had been set with proper military precision, and that there had been a produce delivery to them from the market.
It was good to be surrounded by competent people, but when you really didn’t want to be stuck indoors talking about complex political issues, they didn’t leave you much to do.
So, all that was left was for Dominic to wave hello to Pops, who was out in front of the forge with ad, altering the clothes line, so that two short people could more easily work it.
The sight was rather amusing, but they had a most excellent system designed, with a wrought iron ladder and platform, so they could hang the clothes on the sunnier south side of the forge high enough that they weren’t behind the fence.
Most of the ti, Pops would dry his laundry in the forge, but it seed that getting it so fresh air had won the argunt today for one reason or another.
Possibly, so that the clean clothes didn’t sll like soot and soap.
That wasn’t sothing that Pops had ever been too concerned about, and Dominic thought that the new apprentice might be a good influence on him. If he was worried about slling clean, then he was thinking about going outside the forge.
That was a rare thought for the old Dwarf.
Could it be that he found soone he wanted to impress? Or was he just thinking of his apprentice’s reputation?
ad was too young for marriage, but she would need to start building a good reputation for when she was old enough. The world would run out of Dwarves if they were all as devoted to bachelorhood as Pops.
Though, looking at him now, he almost looked like a fatherly figure.
Dominic waved at the pair on his way past, then finished his loop of town with a stop at the market where Betty and Captain Brass were stopped at the bakery, picking up a load of fresh bread and a cake.
"An Axbridge Airship Commander’s birthday is today. They wanted a second run made so that they could surprise him with a birthday cake. It would be too obvious if they sent soone into town while the rest of the unit was setting up camp." The Captain explained.
"But nobody will question a shipnt of fresh bread. They’ll just think that it’s a gift from the Commanders. Good work, just let
know if they give you any trouble."
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