Vixen's Mistress Chapter 48: Messy Desk

Dinner was fast approaching for the Hayward family and though Rayne should be spending time with Margret, there were just a few things she needed to take care of in her study. Mainly some letters that she had been putting off. Normally Rayne wasn’t one to put things off but she wasn’t too fond of the men on the other side of the letters and their business with her wasn’t important compared to the rest of things. Even so, she had a few moments to spare and thought getting those off of her plate would be relieving. Relieving it may have been to get too, but hearing a knock at the door didn’t worry her.

“Come in.” To Rayne’s surprise it was Mr. Williams at her door. Normally at this time of day if anyone was to ‘disturb’ her it would have been Eda. “Mr. Williams. I hope it’s not time for dinner yet.”

“No, my lady.” With care the gentleman closed the door behind him before starting on his way over to Rayne. “I wanted to see if I could have a word with you before I get distracted with showing Damian how we go about dinner here.”

“Certainly.” Though Rayne had been to dozens, if not hundreds, of different noble houses for dinners she wasn’t too aware of the intricacies of how dinner is set about by staff. At least what happened behind doors in the servant halls. That did bring to question whether Mr. Williams had planned on having Damian act as another footman in the dining hall for just family dinners. She was certain he would be properly utilized when there were more than just the four of the family at dinner.

“I would assume by now the incident between Hannah and Damian has made its way to your ears.”

Rayne had wondered if Mr. Williams would say something to her. She had only expected him to leave all that up to Eda, and it did make her happy that he wanted to talk to her personally about interpersonal staff drama. That wasn’t something he did very often. “I believe by now every member of this household, both staff and family, have heard of what happened.” There was no way for her to be certain, but drama shockingly spread more rapidly through staff than it even did nobility.

“I fear the staff dinner tonight might host some unpleasant moments because of that. Not that it wasn’t going to before with another beastkin eating at the table.”

It was hard to tell from his tone whether he himself felt uncomfortable by having another beastkin eat with them. For now Rayne elected to believe that he was talking more about other members of staff, like Anna. “I’m sure you will be able to handle any moments like that with great care.”

“Thank you, my lady.” He gave a gentle nod of thanks as well. “What I want to talk about actually pertains to the moments before that at the very beginning of their introduction.”

“That part of the story I am a little unfamiliar with, at least I believe so.”

“When I brought Damian into the staff dining area Hannah was with two maids, Neila and Jain. We had run into Jain earlier so he had already been introduced to her. When I introduced Hannah as our librarian and Neila as a maid, Damian greeted them as if Neila was Hannah and vice versa.”

“I was right, I hadn’t heard that specific part. I assume that confusion is what you wish to talk about.”

“It is. When I talked with Hannah after everything it became apparent that both her and I are under the impression that similar mistakes and assumptions are going to be made quite regularly when we start hosting this season.”

Rayne gave a gentle nod in thought. “I would agree. At this point in the noble drama sphere Hannah’s presence has only been talked about in gossip rags. I’m certain that there are quite a few who won’t believe it till they actually see it and many more that won’t know anything about it.”

Mr. Williams gave his own nod. “Because of that I worried some might not treat her with the respect her position deserves. Especially when it comes to those who find their way into the library as a pair.”

Understanding what the butler was trying to say without saying was easy for Rayne to grasp. Every year there would be a great number of guests who sneaked off to some room whilst a gathering was going on. Libraries appeared to be the place couples like that romanticized a great deal. “I see. That is an interesting thought.”

“I’m glad you see it that way too. I realized that one reason why Damian mistook Hannah for a maid was because of her uniform.”

Oh no. Eda was going to hate where this led Rayne, but she was already so looking forward to it.

“Hannah does serve as a maid in the early morning and I would assume once the inventory of the library is done that she will take on more maid roles to fill the time. Though that day is still far away with how expansive the Hayward collection is.”

“It will take quite a while.” Rayne also hoped that between now and then that more people would ask for lessons so that she wouldn’t have to return to maid duties as much.

Stewart nodded. “A maid’s uniform is not inappropriate for her. That being said, it might be fitting for Hannah to have an outfit that more reflects her status as the librarian rather than maid. At least for her to wear when we are hosting.”

“I hadn’t considered that at all.” She really hadn’t. Honestly, Rayne was still waiting to see how Hannah’s six outfits turned out and she wasn’t brave enough to face Eda at the idea of more. However, Stewart did actually make a good point. “If I recall, our previous librarian had no real uniform.”

“No, my lady. Since he was not a full time member of staff it was considered fitting for him to dress how he saw fit. Within reason of course.”

Rayne nodded. “I will admit off of the top of my head I can’t think of many other houses that employ full time librarians so I am uncertain of what a librarian uniform may look like.” Maybe Rayne could lead this conversation down the route of having Hannah just have clothes fitting of her station that weren’t all the same uniform.

“I am not aware of any either, though I have not spent much time at other houses' libraries.”

“I'll ask around. Maybe I’ll even go to the capital library and see what kind of outfits the librarians there wear.” There was a large national library in the Dewathian capital and Rayne hadn’t actually been there much. Maybe she could take Hannah. Would Hannah like that? Would they even allow Hannah in? If they did it was doubtable that they would let her check out books. Then again Rayne loved the idea of buying Hannah the books she wanted to have her own shelf full of books. Still Hannah might appreciate going to the library and Rayne wasn’t above giving money to the right people to insure there wasn’t a problem with a beastkin coming in. “At the very least some proper clothes that fit with the family’s colors would be in order.”

Mr. Williams gave a nod. “I’ll do some asking around myself, but as you said some clothes of the appropriate colors will hopefully work as well.”

“Very good.” There was no way Eda was going to like this, but it was far too late to get this idea out of Rayne’s head. That being said, Rayne did need to be mindful of not crossing into the territory of people thinking that Rayne used Hannah like a dress up doll. The clothes would have to look professional and not just fancy outfits. Then again if there were specific outfits Hannah liked… These thoughts were going to plague Rayne throughout dinner. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I fear this would have been something I entirely overlooked till it became a persistent problem.”

“It was not something I had considered either till I was directly faced with it, but I am very glad it was something I caught before the start of the season.”

“I am glad of that as well. I can’t help but wonder what difference it might make in having a full time librarian whilst hosting.”

“Hopefully it will hinder anyone from making scandalous decisions in the library.”

That would be helpful, though even if there was such an occurrence it wouldn’t necessarily be blamed on the staff and family unless they were the ones involved. A scandal was the last thing the Hayward family needed, but now Rayne couldn’t help but feel her own desire to do such a thing with Hannah in the library. “I hope so too. Was there anything else?”

“Not at the moment, my lady. I will, however, continue to give thought into ways to minimize such occurrences.”

“As will I. Thank you, again, for being so thoughtful in this new aspect to our lives here.” Ten days ago Rayne would not have thought Stewart would put this much thought into a beastkin being shown the respect they deserved. She was ever so grateful that it had changed.

He gave her a nod of acknowledgement before saying, “My lady.”

Rayne almost stopped him from taking his leave to ask where one might buy pillows, fearing that if she asked Eda that Eda would see right through her. However, Stewart was the butler of the house not the head housekeeper so Rayne wasn’t sure that was his area of work. She was going to have to tell Eda at some point because if Rayne did it all on herself Eda would notice and that might be a bigger problem than asking.

~~~

The library was rather quiet except for the gentle sound of Hannah humming. It wasn’t as loud as one might expect a human to hum, but it was more than loud enough for a kin. The volume was also quiet enough for Hannah to still hear footsteps coming from down the hall. There were no jingling keys, so it wasn’t Eda, which made Hannah nervous. She was going to have to face everyone when dinner came around but that oddly felt more approachable than a single one on one conversation. That was of course if the person was actually coming to see her.

As the hum in Hannah’s mouth died, she looked to the door, waiting for whoever was on the other side. Maybe in a few months she would grow more accustomed to the difference in sound of people’s walking enough to even tell who it was beforehand. Right now she could only discern Eda thanks to the jingling of the strange little clip of chains, keys, and other small items that Eda wore. That did remind Hannah that she needed something to put her own keys on, but she wasn’t sure something like what Eda had was necessary.

To Hannah's surprise the person who came to the door turned out to be Lady Margret. A tightness in Hannah’s chest suddenly grew at being alone when first meeting the new arrival to the house. Mainly because of what she had done earlier. There was a strong sense of comfort knowing that Rayne wouldn’t punish her for telling Damian about Everlial, but she had no such promise from this lady. “Lady Keating,” Hannah said as she took a deep curtsy.

Hannah appeared to be the last thing that the new arrival's eyes took in. First her eyes looked around the room in its whole, taking in what was the same before focusing on what was different. The first was the slate board, currently filled with writing from Derek’s lessons with Hannah earlier in the day. Hannah also knew that the other side of the board which was not facing Margret still had everything from Rayne’s lessons on the other side. 

Then the lady’s eyes glanced over to the main desk. The records tome was open with a number of other books laid out across the table. All were in a specific order, but to people other than Hannah it might look like a bit of a mess. That was just how Hannah worked though and by the end of the day it would be all tidy again.

Finally Margret’s eyes found themselves landing on Hannah and the fox found it a little strange. Not in a bad way of course, Hannah just wasn’t used to humans looking at her directly and not first looking at the large ears sitting atop her head. Though it wasn’t bad, Hannah did have to wonder why the lady did that. Was it because she was used to interacting with kin far more than any other human here, or was it because Hannah being a kin didn’t matter to Margret?

“You’re Hannah the new librarian?” Margret said from across the room.

Again Hannah had a strange appreciation for a human not raising their voice to speak to a kin even at a distance. Not that Hannah would ever fault a human for doing that anyway because she understood why they did it. “I am, as well as the teacher for this estate, my lady.”

“Is that one of your lessons?” Margret nodded towards the board as she stepped deeper into the room.

“Yes.” Hannah started walking up to the board. “This is for Derek’s reading and writing lessons. He already had a good bit of skill with reading before I came here, so I’m mainly helping him progress what he already knows.” He really was far ahead for someone mostly self taught and Hannah couldn’t help but feel proud of him for that.

“So you teach people who already know how to read?” The expression on Margret’s face didn’t change much, but the tone shifted a little.

“I’ll teach anyone at any skill level.” Hannah pushed on the board to spin it around, revealing Rayne’s lessons on the back. “I’m teaching Mistress Everlian from scratch.”

Margret stared wide-eyed at the board. “That’s Elven.”

Hannah shook her head. “It’s actually Everlian. The two languages are extremely similar. The writing system itself is very close to one another, so much so that the only real difference in the symbols themselves is the diacritics.”

“What’s a diacritic?” Margret asked, still looking at the board.

Excitement started to build up inside of Hannah. “Diacritics are the symbols that go around a letter, typically above or below, that indicate a difference in pronunciation. Like here and here.” Hannah pointed out two letters on the board. “These are the same letters just with different diacritics.” Maybe that was a little too much, but Margret did literally ask the question.

There were a few seconds of silence before Margret spoke again. “So you can teach someone who doesn’t know how to read?”

“Of course, my lady.”

“How long would it take you?”

Hannah had to think for a second to find the best way to answer that question. “The answer to that question really depends.”

“On what?”

“Lots of things. Lesson frequency, lesson length, prior knowledge, the student’s determination, how the student handles struggling, and if they practice outside of lessons to just name a few.”

Margret nodded. “So there’s no way to tell?”

“I couldn’t ever give you a concrete answer, but if I had a few lessons with a student I would get a better understanding of just how long it might take.” This was starting to feel a little like when a parent would ask Hannah a whole bunch of questions about their child’s learning. Was that similar to what was happening? Was this about teaching Damian?

“If everything worked right would you be able to teach someone by the end of the season?”

That gave Hannah a little pause. Winter was over in just a few weeks, so maybe she meant by the end of spring. “I would hesitate to make any assumptions, but by the end of spring it would be possible to some degree.”

“I meant the end of the socialite season.”

“Oh.” Was the human ‘mating’ season not just one season? “I’m not fully aware of when that season ends, my lady.”

“Usually around the beginning of the fall.”

That was certainly a good bit longer than Hannah had expected. Did that mean Hannah was going to go half a year without really ever having a full week of nights with Rayne? “I would feel more confident in saying I could teach someone to read and write in that time, though I couldn’t promise for it to reach as high a level as us. That would take a lot more time.”

Again Margret nodded in thought, her eyes still scanning over the Everlian. “Do you teach other things besides reading and writing?”

“Yes, my lady. I can teach maths and history. Though most of my history knowledge revolves around Everlian and Zitean history. I do know a decent amount of Dewathian, but only in relation to the Empire’s constant expansion. I haven’t been able to keep up with the events of the past seven years for anywhere though.” If this was all about teaching Damian Hannah didn’t want to beat around the bush. Then again, maybe she was making too many assumptions. “Does Damian have any sort of education?”

Finally Margret’s eyes turned back to Hannah. Those blue eyes didn’t narrow, but they definitely scrutinized Hannah a little. “Outside of servant duties, nothing I’m aware of.”

“Can he read at all?”

“He can recognize some names, but I don’t know if he actually understands the meaning of the letters that make up the name, or if he has just come to associate the visual of the word with a name.” Strangely the lady’s face turned just the fainted shade more red as her eyes drifted down and away from Hannah. “I tried to show him more but I’m not a good teacher. Papa also got angry at me when he saw.”

“Names are a good start.” Anywhere was a good starting point to learn. As for Margret’s papa… That was the real test of Margret’s views, and the test for Hannah to see what kind of person the new arrival was. “Most humans don’t want kin learning to read and write, but at the same time kin that do have that skill are considered more valuable.” Hannah saw Margret’s mouth twitch at the mention of value. “Regardless of what people like that think, reading and writing is a basic skill everyone deserves.” Then a little quieter she said, “We all deserve to enjoy a good book.”

“When could you start?”

“Whenever you would like.”

[Finally Hannah and Margret meet. Not only that but now Rayne has more of an excuse to buy Hannah pretty clothes. I hope you guys liked this chapter!]