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Stories from the Verse
In Verse Proportion
Chapter 97: Kondor 207
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 225
Kondor eventually met Zilpah. At the time she seemed to be flitting through, making sure the room was properly neatened but trying to stay out of the way. Leah caught her.
“Zil? You should meet Mister Kondor.”
The woman stopped, and walked toward them in a slow manner that seemed somehow to reflect respect.
“Welcome, my lord.”
“Oh, please don’t call me that.”
“What should I call you, my lord?”
“Call me Kondor. That’s what most people call me.”
“Oh, no, my lord. That would be presump, presume--it wouldn’t be right.”
“Well, I’m not comfortable with ‘my lord’. We’ll have to find something else.”
“Perhaps I should call you ‘sir’?”
“I can live with ‘sir’,” he agreed.
“Very good, my lord,” she incongruously said. “Sir. May I go now, sir?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a bit of a smile, and she left.
Leah was giving him a strange look.
“What?” he asked.
“Why did you call her, what was it, ‘mam’?”
He shrugged. “Always treat people with respect. They will think better of you. You call her ‘Zil’?”
“Oh, it used to be ‘Zilly’ when I was little. I don’t often call her ‘Zilpah’.”
“Probably only when you’re angry.”
“Oh! Well, no, not only then. I guess when I’m entertaining guests. It’s more formal.”
“She’s been your maid for a long time.”
“As long as I can remember, really. She was probably very young when she took over responsibilities for my nursery.” The serving girl was probably in her mid thirties, Kondor guessed. That seemed a long time to be a personal servant, but then, in a world like this it was probably a very good job for a commoner.
“Is she happy?”
“Happy? I would think so.”
But you wouldn’t really, know, he thought. After all, she’s only a servant. Of course, he wasn’t going to change the world any time soon, but at least he wanted to be aware of its problems.
Settling in, they set up the room across the hall from their bedroom, where Zeke had stayed, as their new self-defense practice room. Leah requested extra cushions for the floor, and they kept the bed but pushed it against one of the walls. Their workouts didn’t always end as that first one had, but here they had a greater level of privacy, and that was the outcome probably more often than not. They also enjoyed the more private bath. Certainly the world had problems, but he seemed to be in one of the more comfortable spaces within it.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #448: Inventive Versers. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
