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 assumed. There was only a slim chance that someone 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.
"Gentlemen, have you all settled in well enough? Was there anything that you needed?" Dominic asked when he saw two soldiers, one from each detachment, 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 meant they had to be ready at all times, so it was pointless to offer them a chair.
"Let me 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 women 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-time anyhow.
"Chef, do you have everything that you need? I just wanted to check on dinner arrangements."
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 meetings 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 time.
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 come 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 me out, so I ran away for a bit to get some fresh air." Dominic replied.
"Well, you’ve got lots of time 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 meant 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 Mead, 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 time, Pops would dry his laundry in the forge, but it seemed that getting it some fresh air had won the argument today for one reason or another.
Possibly, so that the clean clothes didn’t smell like soot and soap.
That wasn’t something 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 smelling 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 someone he wanted to impress? Or was he just thinking of his apprentice’s reputation?
Mead 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 someone into town while the rest of the unit was setting up camp." The Captain explained.
"But nobody will question a shipment of fresh bread. They’ll just think that it’s a gift from the Commanders. Good work, just let me know if they give you any trouble."