"My lady?" Shelly called out in a soft voice, barely audible through the sturdy wooden door.
"Oh, thank the heavens it's you, Shelly," she responded relieved, tension flooding from her body all at once. "Please come in!"
"I just wanted to say that- Oh!" she exclaimed in surprise at the sight of Raiva out of her mourning clothes.
Before she could say anything further, Raiva hushed her and quietly said, "Close the door, please."
Shelly immediately shut it soundlessly and approached her cautiously.
"Is everything all right, my lady?"
Her face was one of genuine concern, as she was not sure what to make of the current situation. She knew that her employer was not one for impulsive decisions like this, and silently concluded that listening would be more beneficial than needless inquiries.
"Could you help me with the cuff links?" Raiva murmured, clearly still in a state of minor agitation.
She rushed to her side, doing her best to soothe her, "Of course, no problem. These are beautiful, by the way. A gift?"
"On loan, I'm afraid. By Miss Octavia," her voice was almost a whisper by now. "Did you know, Shelly? About the ribbon?"
Her face flushed a little when she replied, "Yes, my lady. But it is good manners to pretend not to notice."
It took her a moment until she realized why Raiva asked her this, and the outfit change, the matching yellow cuff links.
"You did not know?" she half shrieked in a hushed whisper. "Oh my word. My lady! I thought you -knew-, after all that -time- around nobles!"
"There weren't exactly a lot of -widows- that Tristan socialized with and he never told me!" she whisper yelled back. "Anyway! Miss Octavia told me how to solve the misunderstanding."
"How did she know that you didn't know?"
"I don't know!"
"Who gave you the ribbon?"
"Sir Victor."
"That -libertine-. Do you think he thought that you knew?"
"I believe so, after all he knows about me and that I sometimes attended events."
"The audacity of youngsters these days. Scandalous, really. Not even making a verbal confirmation, despite occurring in a private setting," Shelly shook her head in disbelief and began speaking in a normal, but still low tone of voice. "Well, my lady, miss Octavia is absolutely correct, if you would like my opinion.
"I am afraid 'casually' discarding your mourning attire and pretending one thinks of it as just a pretty ribbon would be the most practical thing to do. It enables you to feign ignorance and sir Victor need not think of his advances being harshly rejected after the fact, and when the opportunity arises, can simply communicate with his words like a proper gentleman."
It was left implied that Shelly would not presume to suggest her lady either accept or decline, though she was personally certain that Raiva would not fancy such a person. She also knew, however, that it would not be the first nor the last time a widow fancied a younger man's advances to distract herself. She quietly made a note to herself, to make Frederick promise to die after her.
The two emerged from Raiva's rooms and made their way to finish setting and arranging the table. Shelly had seemed to soften her resolve a little in the course of the day, as she did not raise any complaints regarding her lady performing menial tasks.
Glancing at the clock, and seeing there were only a few minutes left until seven, the two hurried in bringing in pitchers of water and wine to be had with the meal, which would have all dishes served on shared platters in the middle of the table. This was both to lessen the strain on Raiva and Shelly, and enable everyone in the house to eat while the food was still warm.
One by one, Frederick began bringing out platters of salads, stew, cuts of meat and baked vegetables, as well as two neatly arranged bread baskets.
"If anyone is still hungry after this, you might have to increase rent," he chuckled in Raiva's direction.
She laughed warmly in response.
The first meal of the boarding house wasn't too extravagant for families of middling wealth, but not quite up the standards of nobility. This was intentional however, as she found the food habits of noble houses overindulgent and this variety would more than enough for most regular people.
Finishing up their preparations, they gave the table a final appraisal.
Raiva once again had to commend Shelly on finding marvelous furniture, since the dining table didn't so much as creak under the copious portions of foodstuffs, Frederick had somehow produced in this short amount of time.
The vast amount of food was also explained by it being a trial meal. He had explained to her that the first week of meals or so is often used to gauge how much the residents actually ate on a regular basis, to ensure one doesn't make too much or too little for meals. This included an estimate on which foods were overall more well liked, as some people eat heaps of bread, but not much salad, or mostly meat, while holding off on soups, and so on.
/I suppose we'll find out their appetites soon enough.
At seven on the mark, they were in position and could hear the doors upstairs being opened, polite greetings being exchanged and footsteps on the stairs. One by one, the residents entered by dining room, nodding politely towards the three.
Though they weren't making it obvious, the men were clearly surprised by seeing Raiva out of her mourning clothes, with a somewhat bewildered Victor in particular having to manage his expression. Octavia on the other hand simply nodded a bit to herself, clearly thinking she made good choices, though her intensely studious gaze made Raiva feel a little embarrassed again, remembering her delicate looking hands glide all over the fabric on her skirt. She fought blushing, as the four were getting seated.
/If a table is worth 20.000, and a chair is worth 3.000, then the table is worth just under 7 chairs, which means 6 chairs and 2.000 left over, which can be used on half the cutlery needed to…
Once the four had fallen silent, Frederick introduced himself and began presenting the dishes in front of them. Then, Shelly likewise introduced herself and her role in the boarding house, adding "And should you need anything at all during your meal, please feel free call for me."
Raiva only just missed the timing with finishing the math in her head, but pretended to be unbothered and went into a shallow curtsy.
"I wish to remind you of the fact that while Frederick won't be cooking lunch meals, he will be in the kitchen between noon and half past one, meaning you can feel free to ask for something light, if the need arises. We hope you enjoy you enjoy you first meal here."
The three made their way into the kitchen, closing the door behind them. While it, by design, didn't do much to mask sound, it did give the appearance of not being listened in on while eating. That way one wouldn't have to raise their voice any more than necessary to call for assistance during the meal.
It also made the kitchen feel a lot more cozy and comfortable to have dinner in, since the ambiance from the dining room didn't awkwardly carry over.
Frederick ladled up stew and arranged a small medley of the various dishes on small plates for them to enjoy. Naturally, they were eating the same food as the boarders, with less fuss surrounding it.
They ate and chatted about the house, the food and their days, as they ate, with Shelly only getting up twice, once to replace a spoon that had been dropped by Victor, and once to bring in more pitchers of water.
While conversation was audibly happening in the dining room, it was clearly the polite kind, resulting in dinner being done quite soon as the tenants left quite soon and it became quiet.
Or so they thought. When the three wrapped up their meal and Shelly went into room to see the damage, she gave a startled jump.
"Sir Victor!" she gasped loudly. Raiva perked her head up from wrapping up bread. "My apologies, I thought everyone had finished-"
"Oh, I am quite finished, thank you, Mrs. Shelly. I was looking for Madam Raiva, if she has a moment to spare?" he smiled sweetly and moved his head as if to look for her in the kitchen.
Raiva had the look of a deer in a carriages torchlight on her face, only comforted by the fact that she was currently out of sight.
"My, Sir Victor, I apologize, but she is in the middle of doing inventory of the pantry for Frederick, he isn't very good with numbers, you see, and it really has to be done by tonight, or the whole plan for the meals will go awry! Just last month-"
"I see," he replied hurriedly, clearly not sure how to deal with Shelly and her chatter engine. "That is unfortunate indeed. Thank you for letting me know, Mrs. Shelly."
He did a little bow and found another boyish smile, and retreated to his rooms, as Shelly closed the dining room doors and huffed at him when she was certain he had gotten upstairs.
Raiva came out of the kitchen sheepishly, and smiled at her apologetically, mouthing, "Thank you."
"Nonsense," she replied, gathering up empty cups and plates full of determination. "To think that he would linger around like that when you've made it perfectly clear-"
She stopped herself, and shook her head in disbelief.
Frederick popped his head out, and raised an eyebrow questioningly, looking at Raiva.
"I'm leaving this one to Shelly to explain for once," she shook her head, tired and out of the energy to go through the absurd situation again.
He glanced at Shelly, still fuming with a small tower of dishes balancing in her hands, and decided it could wait.
/Looks like he doesn't know about the ribbon symbolism either.
Tidying and cleaning was fast, thanks to the many years of experience of all three, though they were also all a little taken aback by the fact that only a few breads, most of a goat cheese salad, and scatterings of meat cuts were left over.
"Four people ate six people's worth of food?" Raiva asked incredulously.
/Even taking Sir Griffin's knightly appetite into consideration, there should be far more left!
"A very hungry six people's worth of food," Frederick replied exasperated.
Shelly left the thinking to these two and started packing up what was left of dinner to take home to their daughter and son-in-law, as there weren't good storage options for it outside of the winter season anyhow.
"Do you think we need to increase the food budget? How much, would you estimate?"
He rubbed his temple, as he thought for a moment.
"Oh, don't forget to take some coffee home for Vera and Cornelius," Raiva hastily added, having noticed that Shelly was finishing packing up for the day.
"Oh yes, that's right! Thank you again, my lady."
Finally Frederick continued, "An additional 1.400 a month I'd say, if this isn't just a one time event and we keep the meals similar, but in these quantities."
"An additional 1.400?" she repeated softly. "1.400, 1.400."
/What was the surplus in the budget again? 800?
"All right, Frederick, let's do that for now. I'll look over the accounts and the budgeting paperwork tomorrow, and we can discuss further then."
Raiva glanced over at Shelly, who was standing patiently at the back door, baskets in hand, waiting for the business talk to finish. She smiled.
"Very well, not much to be done about it tonight anyway. Get going, and send my love to Vera," she curtsied deeply, almost sitting on the floor by the end. "And thank you both for this. You don't know how much it means to me."
Shelly reddened at the sight of her lady showing such a grand gesture to her, when really, she thought, they should be bowing to her all day long in thanks. But it was not appropriate to bring up in such a heartfelt moment, and so she stayed silent and signaled Frederick instead.
He in turn, hastened to hold her hand and help her back up.
"Please, Raiva. If anything, we're thankful to be of help. You know how much Tristan meant to us, Shelly especially," he glanced over at his wife, barely holding it together. He chuckled, "You're like our daughter in law, in a way. And even if we're not always good at expressing it, you mean a lot to us too.
"We may have found new jobs after the Tristan and the fire, but it was never the same. This, however, this feels right. We're happy again, and now it's time for you to move on as well, and be happy."
He hugged her tightly, until her shaky hands steadied.
Through held back tears, and with an unsteady voice she replied, "Yes. Maybe it is. Goodnight, you two."
Raiva waved to them as they walked out of the back door, into the dimly lit night, aided by Frederick's lantern. She locked the door, and collapsed down to the floor with her face clasped in her hands.