Chapter 10: Sea Salt and First Sight

The city of Seacroft was a maritime success story that should have made the people who lived there happier. There seemed to be a permanent chip on the shoulder of every citizen I met, and I wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was the isolation. For such a successful place, it seemed stuck out in the middle of nowhere, the single jewel in the thorny crown that was the Sparine Peninsula.

I had settled into an uneasy truce with the local criminals and the local busybodies too. As long as I was able to hunt and bring in game to sell, I could afford a room at one of the local boarding houses. They were a regular industry here, as anyone coming out onto the far reaches as the locals called it — when they weren't calling it 'the ass end of nowhere', had to spend more than a few days if they had real business, and that got expensive if you stayed at an inn.

'Flutter Bockoroy's Cozy Cottages' was my residence of choice. They were near the back edge of town, which meant I had fewer streets to pass through during the early morning hours before sunrise when I began my hunting trips. It was no big deal during the light of day to venture in to the market to sell my wares. Not that there still wasn't some danger, as Flutter Bockoroy loved to point out, 'a pretty young woman would draw eyes and interest, and not all of it wholesome'. I practiced not drawing eyes, and made it clear I was the hunter, not the hunted.

Still, I had buyers coming to me now, and I spent less and less time at the market haggling. I specialized in the exotic and hard to come by game that wasn't readily available from others in the market. I had a market for pretty much all the shipwing pheasant I could bring in, and I did try to bring in a large haul once a week, but I didn't want to make my product so common that the prices went down. My buyers were paying a premium for most of what I offered. Today was no exception.

"River what have you got here?"

"A Shale snake, Master Argoun." I told the chef. "I heard it was considered a delicacy, and hard to come by this time of year."

"Hard to come by any time of year!" He answered.

Master Argoun was head chef for Callous Hanethin, the head of the local miner's guild, and a man with expensive and rare tastes that had made him one of my best customers. He was always willing to pay extra for the unusual.

"This is a particularly large specimen too." Master Argoun said with some admiration. He had already become something of an ally in my efforts to get large amounts of coin from his master's purse. "He will want to host a special dinner for the leading lights of Seacroft society with something like this. Can you guarantee no other Shale snakes sold for at least six tendays?"

"I can guarantee I will not be selling any more for that long. There are other game hunters out there."

"But none who can match you. If you do not bring one in, no one else will." The chef looked serious now, rubbing his chin and thinking. "Are those marsh plovers I see in the basket beside you?"

"Yes sir." I answered. "Eight of them."

"Will you keep the snake and the plovers aside for me for a half hour? I need to run back to the house and make a proposal to Master Henethin. If he agrees, you may well be in for a rather large bit of coin, because I won't let him buy this cheaply."

"Of course." I said. He took off, practically at a run. I could feel a thick purse in my hand already. I smiled and thought of what I could buy if the purse was as thick as I thought it might be.

"Is that a Doe Nose?" Someone asked, and I was back in salesman mode again.

"Yes Ma'am." I said, looking at the older woman who was staring at the carcass I had hung from the tent pole behind me.

"I used to love Doe Nose when I was young. My Da used to hunt them up around the Glennon Hills."

"This is fresh caught this morning, and I came across him stuffing himself with char weed, looking fat and sassy."

"Hedge!" The woman called to a nearby man.

"Yes Ma'am?" He asked.

"I am buying this Doe Nose for dinner tomorrow night. You take it back to the house, but tell cook to leave it for me. I want to cook it myself, the way we did them when I was a girl."

"Yes Ma'am." He said, then looked at me. I had a good feeling about it, so I just nodded, not waiting to haggle with the woman over the price. He grabbed it up and threw it over a shoulder, quickly disappearing into the crowd.

"No haggling?" She asked.

"Ma'am..." I started.

"Please call me Pleasant." I am Pleasant Kilber."

"Yes... Pleasant." I answered, with a curtsy. "I am River Dambro. I sell here regularly these days. Everyone knows the game I bring in is the stuff that's hard to get. You know what a Doe Nose is, so you know that I had to go quite a ways back into the hills to get it. I trust you to pay me a fair price for my efforts. If you want to throw in something extra for helping you freshen up some childhood memories, well I won't object."

"Aren't you something then." Pleasant said with a laugh. "Very well. You are right that I know what you had to do to get that lovely creature here to the market, and you are exactly right that I think there is something worthwhile in my memories."

She held out her hand and dropped six crowns in my hand. That was what I had hoped to get for the Shale snake, which I knew was much rarer here than the Doe Nose.

"Thank you Ma'am." I said, curtsying again.

"Pleasant, I told you." She said with a laugh. "Where would I get in touch with you again, if I was of a mind to, away from the marketplace?"

"I am renting one of Flutter Bockoroy's cozy cottages. I said. The bluebell cottage."

"Really? They seem a bit beneath someone with so much energy and talent."

"They are right at the back edge of town, so they are close to my work, so to speak."

"And your day starts well before sunrise, I imagine? I remember when my Da would leave the house to go hunting. It was always well before dawn."

"Yes, it does." I answered.

"Fewer darkened streets to travel so early in the morning?"

"Exactly." I answered with a grin.

"Trust me young lady, I was once beautiful and in the full bloom of womanhood too, as you are now. I understand the dangers of a woman on her own.

She actually hugged me before she left, and I sat blinking in amazement as she too disappeared into the crowd.

I sold two Spar Hens, the last of my haul for the day before Master Argoun returned. He grinned to see my empty table and the Doe Nose no longer hanging behind me.

"A quick day's work, eh?" He knew as well as I did that my day started well before his.

"Yes, and regardless of the purse you offer me for the snake and plovers it is already been a good day."

"Oh? A generous customer besides me then?"

"I sold the Doe Nose to someone named Pleasant Kilber." She said it was something she'd had often as a child, and she gave me six crowns for it!"

"Excellent, and even more excellent that Pleasant knows of you now. She is a good person to know."

A purse dropped onto the table, a very fat purse.

"These lovely ingredients, along with the others I will have to hustle to find, shall be transformed, within two tendays, into the Seacroft social event of the year. The social elite of Seacroft will experience a feast that they will talk about for years to come."

The way he said it, with a grandiose wave of a hand and his nose in the air made me snicker. Argoun joined me, laughing loudly.

"Yes, that was exactly the way it went with Master Henethin. I hadn't so much as crushed the first pod of sweet savory bud into the pot and already I could see the triumph in his eyes."

"Well, as grandiose as his machinations are Master Argoun, I suspect your talents are up to the challenge."

"Thank you my dear." He snapped a finger and a man came wherever he had been dutifully lurking and I pulled the basket with the Shale Snake up onto the table for him. Argoun held out his hand and I slid the clutch of Marsh plovers into it.

I didn't count the purse until I got home. Fifty Crowns! This was an amazing day indeed.

With the sudden influx of so many crowns into my savings, I began to think about buying a horse. A horse wasn't a possibility in Oereia, and the horses of the Zadaru were hauntingly unavailable in the way I had wanted them. The Sparine Peninsula wasn't exactly known for the availability of prime horse flesh, but even a serviceable mount that I could ride now and trade up from later held some appeal.

There were several dealers in horse flesh in town, neither had a reputation that left me with hope, but after spending a long four days out hunting, and doing another large day's business selling the game I'd brought back, I wandered over to the nearest one.

Seacroft Stables was at least clean and prosperous looking, but Copper Indra, the man who ran it, made me uneasy. His eyes always lingered in places I preferred they hadn't, and for longer than was comfortable. This was always followed by eye contact and a smile that left me feeling queasy.

"Ah, young miss Dambro. It seems you cannot stay away." He said as soon as I had come to rest beside the pen that held his merchandise.

"It has been almost two months since I came by here last." I answered. "You have little but this poor selection of horses to interest me, and they just barely."

He took the insult as I intended it, and while he sulked, I gave his horses a quick look. There were a couple here that would be acceptable for the short term, but nothing I could get excited about. I said so, and loudly.

"As always, nothing here to excite me." I didn't wait for a rejoinder. Copper was not clever or quick enough.

When I got back to my cottage there was a note on the door from Flutter, asking me to stop in and see her. I walked the four doors down to her house and knocked on the door.

"Oh River. Just a moment dear." The door closed for a moment and then reopened again. "There was a messenger came for you today. He left this note for you."

"Thank you Flutter." I said, turning to head back to my cottage. I know she wanted to know what the messenger had left me, but if she had wanted to know, she could have invited me into her house.

The note was from Pleasant Kilber, inviting me to join her and her family for dinner a tenday from now. It gave the address, which was up on the hill near the city center, in what was called the society district. I turned right back around, note in hand and walked back to Flutter's door. She must've been watching my progress from her window, because she opened the door before I could knock.

"Flutter, can I come in? I think I need your help."

"Of course my dear, of course!" She said, opening the door wide to me this time. Her house was a neat and tidy parody of an old woman's house. There were little knit covers on everything that wasn't nailed down, and a few of the things that were. Little glass figurines decorated every flat surface and there were small pillows, also with knit covers, on every chair, on the parlor bench and the sofa in the sitting room where she led me. I was curious to see if there were knit pillows on the chairs in her dining room as well, but didn't have the nerve to ask. Eccentric perhaps, but it was clean and cozy.

"What is it dear?" She asked once she had me sat beside her with a cup of tea in front of me.

"I've been invited to dinner." I said, handing her the invitation.

She gasped as she read it, and her eyes went wide.

"Oh my! Lady Kilber." She said in hushed tones. "Remarkable my dear. However did you come to the attention of such a lady?"

"She bought a Doe Nose at the market four days ago, and we had a nice chat. She seems very nice, and she paid me far more for the Doe Nose than I had expected to sell it for."

"And now she's invited you to dinner?"

"Yes Ma'am. I have nothing to wear. I don't own a dress, and I haven't worn one since I was very young. I have the social graces of a hunter, not a lady."

Suddenly Flutter looked panic stricken.

"River, you cannot depend on me to help you select a dress. I discovered a long time ago that I do not fit in with the society set, and I am likely to steer you wrong."

I laughed and gave her a hug.

"Flutter, I could see by your home that you have a unique sense of style that others might not appreciate."

"That certainly is true." She said, laughing at herself a little.

"But I have listened to you speak of these ladies of Seacroft, so I know you at least have an appreciation for what they do and how they do it. You can guide me to someone who will sell me the kind of dress I need, and warn me if I am paying too much?"

"Oh yes! I can do exactly that!" This time I was on the receiving end of the hug.

"How much should I expect to pay for a dress suitable for this kind of dinner." I asked.

"As much as five or six crowns." Flutter said. "Can you afford that?"

"Yes." I said, with obvious relief in my voice.

"Very good, then tomorrow you sleep in, and come here for morning meal. Wear something beside your leathers, if you have it. Something that will be easier to get in and out of. You will need to be measured and fitted at the least."

Morning meal was a lovely spice toast, battered and fried in butter with orange preserves as a topping. We had Cintosara and 'pomegranate splash' which was mostly a Korellian green with a shot of pomegranate juice for color and flavor. We rode in Flutter's buggy, which was scandalous enough, she said. Ladies should be driven in a covered carriage, with liveried coachmen and criers to ride out front. We both laughed at that image and Flutter hugged me again.

"We will be going to Shadow Crisine's dress shop. She is somewhat under-appreciated by the ladies in Pleasant Kilber's circle, but is quite capable of delivering a dress suitable for such an occasion. She is a bit young, but she apprenticed with Mourn Gladesto for ten years, and has only recently gone out on her own."

A bell chimed on the door as we entered, and the shop washed over me with a smell of pressed linen and candlewax. I had never been in a dress shop before in my life, I realized. I had no idea what to expect, including what one should smell like.

"Can I help you?"

"Good morning Shadow. We are certainly hoping so."

"Good morning Flutter, miss." The woman who had come from the back of the store said. She looked to be in her early thirties, round and pale, with large brown eyes and a button nose.

"Shadow Crisine, this is River Dambro." Flutter introduced. "River has been invited to dinner a tenday from yesterday, and has nothing to wear."

"I see. Well, what were you thinking of?" She asked me.

"The last time I wore a dress was when I was ten. I have no idea, and this is the first dress shop I've been in in my life."

"Really!" She said with some amusement. Her eyes went to Flutter then.

"Spirits no! I am the last person on Arbor who should be looked to for fashion advice. I brought her here, but you will have to be her advisor as well as her dressmaker. We both know it is beyond me."

"Well, you are certainly lovely enough." Shadow said. "You are far too tall to fit into anything I've got on hand without some serious alterations, but I may be able to add a frill or lace trim at the bottom if I have to. Lets get you measured first.

Shadow took me into another room. With mirrors on every wall and a soft padded bench.

"You can change here." She said, then hesitated. "Did Flutter tell you about me?"

"About just starting out?" I asked.

"No dear. She should have told you that I am a lover of women. I have a wonderful partner that I love, but Flutter knows I would prefer the women who are going to be undressing in front of me are aware of my preferences."

"I'm not bothered." I answered. "I spent several years living among the Sisters of the Weeping Road. I've been the object of a few women's attention, good and bad."

Shadow said it was fine, I said it was fine. I still heard her intake of breath when I dropped my cotton sweater onto the bench alongside my cotton pants.

"My lord you are lovely. Damned good thing I'm twice your age and happy with the woman who loves me."

The measurements went quickly. Shadow was reluctant to linger, or afraid to perhaps. People were always telling me I was so beautiful, and I didn't see it. I was too tall, too thin, my skin was too pale everywhere the sun didn't shine. I did like my feet though. I thought my toes were pretty cute.

"That's a lovely necklace. Is that Skystone? It must be expensive!"

I had been stroking the stone unconsciously as I stared into the mirror.

"I've had it since I was a baby. My mother says it is magic, and it protects me somehow. She doesn't know how it came to be around my neck, it was just there one day."

"Well it is as lovely as you are." Shadow said.

There were four dresses in the shop that Shadow could alter sufficiently to fit me, and I saw nothing to recommend or reject any of them.

"Don't get this one dear." Flutter said, pointing to one.

"I thought you didn't trust your sense of style?" I asked.

"Yeah, what's this then?" Shadow echoed.

"This is the exact dress I would pick for myself. That has to mean it is totally wrong."

"Well, you are right." Shadow said with a giggle. "That dress is far too loud for Pleasant Kilber's company."

The dress I bought was a glistening light blue dress that shimmered a little in the light. It was square cut on top, crossing just beneath my collar bones, showing just the beginning of my cleavage, and the matching blue of my Skystone. The sleeves were long and form-fitting, the waist was tight, but the dress billowed out from there, though not so dramatically as a ball gown or formal might, I was told. It cost me 3 Crowns.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Flutter told me to expect to pay five or six."

"Yes dear, and you would have paid five or six if I'd have had to make you a dress from scratch in a tenday."

"Now!" Flutter said. "Shoes!"

The Kilber house was formidable, or it might have been if I hadn't been used to a variety of formidable structures during my time with the Sisters. The atmosphere inside the house, now that was formidable. Until Pleasant and Trip Kilber appeared in the sitting room, and suddenly, it was as if I was home.

"My dear what a lovely dress! Wherever did you get it?"

"From Shadow Crisine's dress shop." I answered. "Flutter took me to her."

"Well that was nice of her." Mister Kilber said.

"I had to show her your invitation." I said. "I didn't know what to do. I'd never been invited to dine with someone by messenger before."

"See I told you that might be too much Trip!"

"No!" I said. "It turned out to be very nice, and Flutter has become a friend now, where she was just a landlady before."

"Well, Flutter has always been unique. She has done well for herself despite having put off most of the other ladies of Seacroft."

"Oh but she doesn't see herself as one of the ladies. She sees herself as having failed to make the grade, so she is merely an admirer of the true ladies of Seacroft, such as yourself."

"That's utter nonsense!" Pleasant said. "She is as much a lady of Seacroft as I am."