The White Horse Inn, Act II

[Manardariel]

"...As it is, now, with so many staff away at market, we have few enough on hand to do the work. There is much to do to prepare for dinner and to attend to the rooms and laundry. The Inn cannot spare you now."

Mia stared at Bethberry, blind to her sympathetic eyes, and deaf to her apologizing voice. Her first impulse was to hit Bethberry over the head with a large frying pan and run; her second to cry. She decided against both, hanging her head and blinking furiously. She wouldn´t cry, that would only make things worse.

“Yes, yes, ma´am I understand....” Her voice trailed off. What was she doing? Half of her was telling her to apologize and go back to work. Apologize? What have I done? The other half argued. Mia just stood there for a moment. Then she regained power of herself. Calm. A massacer with a pan wouldn´t do anybody any good, neither would a major argument with her boss. “I´ll just....go back to work then, I guess....” And she walked into the kitchens.

Making wheatbread was a boring business, and Mia had never liked it. But now, she was fine with whatever Froma wanted her to do. And the dough was actually rather good for agression purposes. Her fists crushed the soft dough as if she was trying to crush herself, for her stupidity. Why couldn´t I keep my big mouth closed? What if Misstress Bethberry thinks I don´t want to work at the Inn anymore. What if I loose my job? Father´ll beat the hell out of me, he´s done it before. And the kids, they´ll go hungry. The bakery doesn´t earn enough to feed five hungry mouths, not in these times. Oh Mia, you are such an oaf!

“Watch out with that bread, girl!” Froma called. Mia shot him a murderous look and formed the ripped, punched lump of dough into something that looked remotly like a loaf of bread. Ignoring Froma´s accusing glances, she shoved it into the oven, getting started on the next one.

The oven´s heat made her angry. Why didn´t Bethberry understand?! What did she think she was, the secret queen of Edoras, superior to all of them? Her Inn was probably the second-most-important place in Rohan, but did that make her so special? Maybe she was influencial, and wise, and whatever else people said. But Mia didn´t care about what Bethberry was, or what her Inn did. She cared about her siblings, and about the sadness in Fianna´s eyes.

[ August 29, 2003: Message edited by: Manardariel ]