Chapter 105 – The Visitors
The workshops were all fully functional within two weeks.
With everyone sticking strictly to the schedule to manage the new spaces, and Jade completely excluded from the manual labour apart from providing design drafts and aesthetic feedback, the ragged schoolmistress now lived at a far more leisurely pace in spring compared to the winter. It was a complete reversal of the usual rhythm for the locals, who generally experienced a stagnant winter followed by an extremely hectic spring plough.
She spent her free time after lessons reading novels for a few days before diving into drafting plans and recipes for her upcoming position as a private pastry cook. Josh actively contributed to the menu planning, informing Jade about the available local ingredients and the popular treats he had heard wealthy folk were fond of.
“Okay, we can try baking meringue biscuits at the end of the day right after we damp down the oven fire, making use of the residue heat,” Jade nodded, jotting down the concept. The master and apprentice were sitting out in the corridor, soaking in the spring sun while discussing their future enterprise. “These will serve as the daily treats for Milord and the upper servants for now. I’ll need to think of a few other variations to rotate in… Hm?”
Jade lifted her gaze, noticing Brother Benedict showing a fresh group of well-dressed visitors around the courtyard. She leaned in closer and whispered to Josh, keeping her eyes on the newcomers. “This is the fifth group that has come to visit our domus this week, right?”
Josh raised his head and paused his own note-taking. He looked in the direction Jade was gesturing toward with her chin, and slightly tilted his head. “I think it’s actually the eighth group, Sensei.”
“And they’re all coming here to donate?” Jade was astonished. “Is it some kind of trend for people to do charity during spring?”
Josh cast Jade a quick glance. “Sensei, charity is not their main objective. They only started showing up after our domus’s name appeared in the paper.”
Jade raised her brow delightfully. “Oh, the bazaar article? Publicity works!”
“No, no,” Josh lowered his voice. “If their sole intention was to donate, they could simply dispatch a servant to drop off their coins or a cheque.”
Jade blinked. “They came here for another purpose?”
Just as Jade was puzzling it over, she saw Mrs. Whitcombe arrives in the courtyard with Clara following sheepishly a few paces behind her. Realisation immediately dawned on her. “Oh… So this is the purpose. And you said there have already been eight groups of people coming to browse? And Mrs. Whitcombe had welcomed them all?”
“Not all of them. Some were received by Sister Lucy and Miss Arrowot,” Josh nodded, relieved that his master finally caught the hint. “I do not know what Miss Arrowot thinks about the visitors, but Mrs. Whitcombe is very much looking forward to it. Perhaps we may even have a wedding by next spring.”
“That soon?” Jade smacked her lips. None of her friends in her previous life had ever married after only a year of relationship, but then she remembered that this was an era where the situation was very different. Hence she nodded and said, “But I guess that’s appropriate, as long as the guy is a suitable match for Clara.”
Jade brought the matter up to Clara after supper that night, when both of them had gathered in her room to patch the holes in their everyday clothes.
Clara, though still appearing shy, merely shook her head and let out a soft sigh, “Jade, I do not find any of these men suitable at all.”
Both Jade and Josh had completely underestimated the number of arriving visitors. It was, in fact, twelve separate groups who had travelled to the domus since the charity bazaar. Five had come specifically to inquire after Miss Arrowot, one had come purely to donate and personally verify that the domus was putting its newfound fortune to good use, another had come to coordinate a bulk donation of food, and the remaining five were there entirely for Clara.
“And out of those five families?” Jade asked curiously, “not a single one feels right to you?”
Clara pressed her lips together tightly. “Some of them disliked Mama.”
“...What?” Jade thought she had heard Clara wrong at first, before realising Clara was being entirely honest. “They dislike your mom?”
“Perhaps they assumed Mama would bother them if we were to marry,” Clara said, lowering her head. “I know Mama is not strong when it comes to facing hardship. She is fragile, and she needs attention. But she is my Mama; I could never agree to a husband who harbours a dislike for her.”
Jade nodded, wisely deciding not to meddle too deeply in such family matters. “Well, at least she had the sense and courage to bring you here, to safety. She probably did the best she could with what she had… she’s still weeping for your father, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she still misses Papa terribly,” Clara nodded. “I wish to care for her even after I marry. Perhaps I could rent a small cottage for her close to my future house.”
“Then your future husband is going to need plenty of coins in his pockets,” Jade said, easily matching Clara’s train of thought. Privately, she was incredibly pleased by Clara’s evolution. At least the once-naive girl who used to dream of a Prince Charming magically saving the day now possessed a practical sense of arrangement, instead of just filling her brain with vague notions of a fairy-tale “happily ever after”.
“There was one suitor I had actually intended to engage in further conversation,” Clara admitted as she recalled the visits, her brows knitting slightly at the memory of the man. “However, I utterly detested the tone he and his mother used when speaking of our girls. She called our girls ‘poor, wretched creatures’ – how could she!”
Jade raised her brows. “Sounds like they’re very high and mighty about their status. Are they nobles?”
“They are an architect’s family,” Clara explained. “The father is a senior architect, and the heir is a junior architect.”
“How much does a junior architect earn?” Jade asked, and received a blink from Clara as a reply. “Anyway, I don’t care how much he earns. I’m just curious if his earning potential could beat yours.”
Clara looked astonished. “Mine?”
“Well, think about it. Using only basic cotton thread and raw blending techniques,” Jade stretched out a finger to remind Clara, “we were already able to set our starting auction bid at £30. Theoretically speaking, a piece like that could easily fetch £40 retail outside of a charity auction. And that was back when none of you were fully accustomed to the techniques, meaning you and the girls spent more time rendering it than actually making the screen.”
Jade set down her sewing needle and thread, completely shifting into her analytical mindset to run the numbers. “Now, with matured skills and high-grade silk thread, I can bravely set the future retail price at £55, all while the production timeframe is shortened… Let’s say you turn out a similar five-fold screen within two months. According to the workshop’s structural wages, you’ll receive a base pay of 15 shillings per week, plus your share of the reward for the £55 screen, which comes to about £3. That makes your total earnings for two months equal £9. Annually, that’s an income of £54!”
Clara’s shoulders winced slightly at the sheer math. “B-but Jade…I do not actually work in the workshop…”
“I know, I know,” Jade rolled her eyes, “You do all this ‘out of a charitable spirit’ because a woman of your status shouldn’t be seen engaging in manual labour. Seriously, I don’t get it. Between having a glorious status that does me nothing apart from starving me*, and being low status but earning a literal mountain of money, I’d definitely go for the money.”
Clara lowered her gaze, quiet.
“Geez, I babbled again,” Jade lightly slapped her own mouth, reminding herself yet again to watch her tongue before releasing a long sigh. Her brows knitted together as she actively held back a massive flood of unspoken thoughts. Alas, she softened her tone. “What I’m trying to say is, find a guy who can actually support both you and your mom. You are worth way more than £54 a year, Clara, so he better earn more than that to deserve your hand in marriage!”
Clara turned to Jade, her eyes turning watery before she suddenly lunged forward to wrap Jade in a tight hug. “Thank you, Jade. None of my acquaintances have ever provided me with such honest advice. I do not agree with all your thoughts, but I know with absolute certainty that you mean me well.”
Jade smiled, lightly stroking her back. “Of course I wish the best for you. You still have plenty of time; choose wisely. I’ll back you up when you need me.”
Time marched on, and Jade continued to observe the stream of visitors, watching as Clara repeatedly disappointed by the potential suitors. Josh, ever the nosy apprentice, had even done some shallow, curious investigation of his own on the side into one of the candidates, eventually coming back to Jade while shaking his head.
“What did you find out?” Jade asked curiously.
Josh frowned, his cheeks instantly flushing as he leaned in to whisper to his Sensei. “He… um, frequently visits a… ahem, a night house.”
Jade blinked, and a slow realisation came to her.
She gasped, immediately grabbing Josh by the shoulders and whispering sternly into his ears. “I don’t care what other men do, but don’t you dare ever step foot into those places for women!”
In an era with absolutely zero medical safety measures for intimate night activities, interacting with professional night entertainers was a massive health hazard. And Jade did not trust the efficacy of any historical safety measurement made out of fish bladders or animal intestines!
“Of course I wouldn’t, Sensei!” Josh exclaimed, looking wronged. “I utterly loathe the men who frequent those places!”
“Hey, hey, listen,” Jade patted her pupil’s shoulder to calm him down. “I pity those ladies. I believe most of them working in those places are desperate, so I’m not judging them for their…um, ‘job’. In fact, if someone is willing to love them, marry them, provide them with protection, I totally support that. The thing is–how should I put this… there are certain diseases that spread only through the, um, bedding. The more partners they have, the higher the chances they catch such a disease, and you could die because of it.”
Josh’s eyes widened as he suddenly absorbed this completely unexpected piece of knowledge. It was blunt, bold, odd, but honest, making it incredibly useful for a teenage boy like him.
He nodded solemnly, quietly vowed right then and there, in front of his Sensei, never to cross the threshold of such places.
Jade let out a sigh, releasing her grip on the boy, and instructed him to go mix some dough. They planned to practice the puff pastry technique today to finalise the menu designed for her future position at the Ashborne estate.
…yeah, it’s kinda awkward to give sex education to your male pupil. Jade – the once-conservative Southeast Asian reincarnator – mused wryly. Say, I wonder how people here get their sex education… Okay, brain, stop thinking already! Focus on the pastry!
Unfortunately, that night, the ragged schoolmistress dreamed vividly of lecturing the entire continent regarding the explicit mechanics of the male and female reproductive systems, ultimately waking up the next morning cursing her own brain while sporting a brand-new pair of heavy eye bags.