No Time to Waste

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 2nd November 2007

Characters: Swift
Description: Swift realises he will need to move when he marries.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 6, day 4 of Turn 4

"See you in the morning," one of the crowd of kitchen workers called as the group broke up leaving only the young man on overnight duty to tidy up their late-night klah mugs.

Swift waved a hand in acknowledgement and farewell, already heading for the stairs up to the accommodation levels.

"You think you'll move when you marry?" an older woman asked as she puffed up the stairs in his wake.

"If you'd seen the size of my room you wouldn't be asking," Swift said, grinning and slowing down so that he didn't get too far ahead of the woman.

"If you'd ever seen fit to show me your room you wouldn't be wasting your time with that skinny journeywoman."

He couldn't help but laugh at the woman's amused suggestion. "Is that so?" He turned on the landing and waited for her to catch up, though it was his level and she had another flight of stairs to go though the extra distance never seemed to help keep her weight down.

"You don't believe me?" she demanded as she reached the landing. "When have I ever lied to you?" she asked with a laugh, slapping him on the shoulder. "Make sure they give the pair of you a good room. No point in getting one for a pair of drudges when you've managed to marry a crafter. Good night, Swift."

"Good night," he called after her, watching her waddle from side to side as she ascended the stairs in her uneven gait. He lifted a hand to his shoulder and rubbed it as he headed down the corridor to his room.

It was a small room, he realised as he entered it. Adequate for his needs, of course, and since he spent as much time outdoors as he could it had never been a problem. And, though the bed might be just wide enough for two there wasn't really space for more than one.

A smile crossed his sun-browned features as he thought of the difficulties he and Kateena would encounter both trying to start their day in such a small space. And, as he had just been reminded, she _was_
a journeywoman.

She hadn't moved from the quarters she had been given as a visitor to the Hall, probably because their intention to marry was already announced by the time her transfer to the Hall was confirmed. It wasn't likely that they would be given those quarters. They were lovely and spacious and quite rightly kept for guests.

He tried to remember what he had seen of the rooms the resident journey ranked dolphineers occupied, but he had had little call to visit that area of the converted SeaHold. Did the families even live near where the single journeymen and women lived? Would a married couple be regarded as a family at all?

When he had married Belevi in their home Hall it hadn't been simpler.
There had been a spare room in the cot his parents occupied and they had started out in that. By the time Belevi was pregnant and they might have moved out her illness had been noticed, and moving away from the support his parents provided hadn't even been considered.

Then his wife was gone and he was the father of an infant son. His mother had taken over much of the responsibility for Race and he had been relieved that she was willing to do so. Once Race moved into the apprentice dormitories Swift had moved into the Hall accommodation, and then later off on his great adventure to the Southern Continent and the Hall at Topaz Sea Hold.

Swift looked around the room. It was useful but that was all. He would be happy to move to a new room to start his life with Kateena and wondered if organising that was something he ought to be undertaking.
It possibly was, since he undoubtedly saw the Headwoman more often than Kateena did. And there was no time to waste as they were marrying in a little over two sevendays.

He would speak to the Headwoman tomorrow.

Last updated on the November 3rd 2007

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No Time to Waste