As we walked, I decided to glean some information about the mansion and its inhabitants.
As it turned out, there weren't many nobles left in the manor. Lord Froane, his son and nephew, had gone on a military campaign to the north, across the border, to command the Karcepian legion. His late brother's wife had subsequently returned to her own family estate in Gami, leaving only Lady Elinor, his septuagenarian maternal grandmother, Lady Tcharma, and Sire Falkion with his wife and their one-year-old baby. Falkion was Lord Froane's second cousin. The elf's explanations continued with a few insignificant anecdotes about Grandma Tcharma's senility, but then he moved on to Lady Elinor Froane, and I pricked up my ears, ready to absorb every detail.
Rikas had a very high opinion of her, and seemed pleased with her talent for the druidic arts, in which he had personally trained her. He was also pleased with her intelligence, which was particularly well-developed in every way. She could write poetry, play the harp, albeit imperfectly, ride better than the men in the family, and even shoot a bow. He seemed to spend a lot of time with her and knew her well.
From the steward's explanations, I learned that the sale of woven fabrics was one of the estate's main sources of income, along with milk, cheese, and vineyards. He explained that in the farthest part of the backyard was a huge stable housing over one hundred and fifty sheep. While several weavers worked in the building itself. The servants assisted them, but also worked in the vegetable gardens not far from the manor, in the orchards, tended the trees in the backyard, and raised half a dozen thoroughbred horses to be sold for a handsome sum. As for the rest of the servants, what he told me about them did not shed much light, except for the dwarf Kiro and the officer Delmar.
According to him, the chef-cook was hardworking, good-natured, and especially spiritual with people he liked, but otherwise very strict and irascible. He was not so kind to the guard, warning me to beware of his "boundless deviousness". Although the elf never seemed to lose his inexhaustible phlegm, I felt a strong hostility towards the captain as he spoke. Rikas told me much more about lesser servants and unimportant tasks around the manor, most of which either didn't reach my ears or were promptly forgotten.
I decided to ask the intendant about himself. He gladly answered my questions and told me how he had met Vicente Froane more than twenty years before, when the gentleman was young and unmarried and his father was still alive. It had been during a dangerous military expedition into the Agouaya Mountains, and they had managed to complete it successfully and return safely, thanks only to Froane's daring leadership and Boltaniel's skills as a tracker and in communicating with animals.
Since then, the elf has held the position of general steward of the place, and has devoted himself mainly to this task, especially in the lord's absence. Rikas didn't want to talk about his own druidic talents, but he confided that he had used them exclusively to train Lady Elinor during the last years. He didn't want to talk about his private life; I only understood that he had someone in Karcep. Most elven love affairs were like that: deep, sweet, and secret.