"I will take the list into town." One of the guards insisted, and two others stood to join him.
"Be back in two hours. If you can’t get what we need before then, we will get it at one of the other cities." Alexis instructed.
"Of course, Your Highness. All of these things are domestic wares. If we were in the Capital, we would go to Pops to order them, so there should be someone who has them in stock." He replied.
Pops chuckled around a spoonful of oatmeal.
"The lad has a point. I can make most of those items myself once we arrive. But if the cook wants them right away, just go buy them. I will make new ones that fit the kitchen properly once we know how much space she has to work with." Pops instructed.
The matronly cook smiled as she realized that they had a willing master smith with them to help with the essentials.
The camp was quickly packed, and the trio of guardsmen who went into the city came back much faster than expected, which Dominic mistook as a good sign at first.
"Don’t bother. The whole city is overrun with refugees. There is no stock of anything anywhere, and you can hardly walk in the streets. We might as well move on if we’re not looking to take in some waifs to run the manor." The guard who had volunteered for the trip explained.
"We’ve got two major cities left to move through today. Do you think that they will be better or worse?" Alexis asked.
"Castle City was under attack, so it’s likely to be where many of these refugees came from. But if they made it this far, then Darden is likely so overrun with refugees that they’re turning people away." Colonel Wilkes guessed.
"In that case, these are either the troublemakers who were run out of Darden, or the motivated, who are making their way to better chances of work.
I know that you wanted locals for the kitchen, Beth. But we could grab a few domestic staff for cleaning here." Alexis decided.
The cook bowed in acceptance, and Dominic stood up from the folding camp stool.
"Alright, why don’t I take Pops, and we will go look for maids? Or did you want to come and choose them in person?" He asked.
"Take Liz with you. She will have a better eye for which candidates are likely to try to cause drama or sneak into beds not their own."
Dominic nodded, and waited for Pops to rinse off his plate so that he could join them.
"I will keep my eye out for a few skilled craftsman as well. They’re harder to come by, but they might be among the refugees. If we can recruit them here, it will be much easier than after we’re settled.
Maids and labourers you can find anywhere. Hell, you can buy debt contracts in any major city. But skilled tradesman are another thing, and we’re going to need carpenters to rebuild the village, even with the magic Dominic has." The old Dwarf explained.
"Alright. We can make space for a half dozen or more. Get who you need, you’ve read the budget that we’re working with. It’s the same one Dominic wrote for the King’s trials." Alexis agreed.
Dominic nodded, and led the way to the city.
The presence of the three of them, even though none of them were dressed in a particularly flashy way, was enough to draw the immediate attention of hundreds of refugees.
Some wanting to get an update on the events of the war, others desperate for some way out of the refugee camps that had taken over the slums.
Dominic noticed a group of women in household servant outfits, somewhat worn, but clean. But when he looked at Liz, she shook her head.
"Those are not servants." She whispered.
"I might not be the most worldly man, but they didn’t look like prostitutes to me." Dominic replied, which made both Pops and Liz laugh.
Liz smirked as she replied. "Oh, they’d slap you for even suggesting that. Those are all Noble daughters. Either they lost their family, were run off by their husbands, or fled when their family turned traitor.
It’s the only way that they would have escaped being executed along with the rest of their household.
But while they might look like they want work, what they really want is to climb back up the social ladder. If you took even one in, you would never have a day of peace in your household again."
Pops nodded. "If you want to keep your wife happy, pick cleaners too old to be looking for a husband, but too young for their bodies to be complaining about the work. And pick the ugly ones. The ugly ones are always less trouble with the Lord, but more trouble with the guards and stable hands."
Liz giggled and shrugged. "I won’t deny that. The fewer teeth they have, the more likely you are to find them in the stables when they’re late for work."
Then Pops stepped aside, and grabbed something that was hidden behind a wooden shipping pallet.
It turned out to be a woman in her mid-thirties, with a veil over her face and a patched coat over a simple dress.
Definitely a farm wife, Dominic decided. He would recognize that particularly muscular build anywhere. You didn’t get that cleaning a manor, you got that build tossing hay and carrying sacks of grain.
"Woman, are you looking for work? My Lord is looking for reliable staff for the Manor and yard." The old Dwarf demanded in a gruff tone.
The woman gave him an assessing look, then spat at his feet and nodded.
"I won’t object to working a Nobleman’s Garden, so long as he’s not a handsy sort." She agreed.
Liz smiled at Dominic. "I one."
"Then we’ve found ourselves a gardener. Now, we just need a few reliable cleaners." Dominic agreed.
The woman looked Dominic up and down, then paused at his horns.
"A Dragonkin Lord?" She asked.
"The new Duke of Wistover." Dominic agreed.
He could see that she was calculating how far that was from where she started by the way that she drew a mental map in the air before she nodded in satisfaction.
Whether it was close enough or far enough from where she had started, he did not know. But it didn’t change her mind.