Saying all that meant that he had to explain to the ladies what had been said, which lead to an explanation of why he was working in the kitchen and what Sorlee had said earlier as well as the request from the cook that she stay on as the baker, since they didn’t have anyone else yet. The madam seemed satisfied with that arrangement as long as Sorlee took lessons in the evenings, learning the trade.
Apparently they really did need the extra girl and being so small, Sorlee would be in demand. A lot of men preferred small women for sex, it seemed.
Since the job was mainly one that could be learned by demonstration, Tor wouldn’t need to be around to translate at least, thank god, not for those parts. But Madame Clarissa wanted to make sure that Sorlee understood some of the broader points, such as using her mouth and hands on a man and the names for such acts in standard so that clients could make specific requests of her. That led to descriptions of things that Tor had never even heard of. Wasn’t sex just… sex? He said as much which had everyone but Sorlee laughing at him. She told them to stop rather forcefully, in fairly good standard, which got everyone’s attention.
“It’s, he’s from near where I’m from and people don’t talk about things like this. It’s not funny, just… right, just proper, for a good man where we’re from. His wife would have told him about some of this, if she was interested in doing any of it. Making fun of him for not knowing it is… mean.”
That got their attention and earned Tor some strange looks from all the older women when he finished translating. They probably thought he was incurably retarded. Maybe that was just the truth? He didn’t understand half of what they were talking about. Use your mouth on someone… Did that mean kissing? He asked out loud, knowing he’d sound dumb, but not wanting to be ignorant forever either. Sara grinned and looked away, but Ursala told him they’d talk about it later. This got a knowing look and a nod from the madam.
“And of course… Tor, if you ever want a demonstration of anything, please remember that my girls and myself are here at your disposal twenty-four hours a day. For you we’ll even make house calls… obviously without charge. One of the privileges of ownership.”
Tor had a strong feeling that the woman was trying to needle him about his lack of looks and skill with women. Well, she was right, he didn’t have those things, but that didn’t mean that he deserved to be mocked about it, did he? Maybe it was just her way of being playful? Then again, maybe she was just being honest? Maybe the only women he could ever hope to have were those he hired for the purpose. The idea left him feeling a little sad, but what could he do about it? Tor knew he should just accept himself for what he was and get on with living. It was a hard thought, but the world, the universe, was what it was. It was too big to be concerned with someone like him anyway. That was true no matter who you were at least.
King or baker, the universe didn’t notice.
After that, with him still blushing fiercely he was sure, Ursala, Sara and Tor all walked over to the area that held the people moving cargo container things. They turned out to look a lot different than he’d thought they would. For one thing Tor had pictured boxes the whole time, big, but roughly square. Instead they were all rectangular, but only vaguely, the front rounded and the whole thing enclosed in back, with sturdy doors that folded out so that passengers could load and unload easily from the side. Inside were benches rather than chairs, big enough to hold four large people sitting side by side. The back held ten benches, meaning there was room for forty people, not including the driver. More if they were normal sized like him, fewer if they were royal giants like the King and Count Thomson.
One of them would have held most of the compounds personnel when he’d come up with the idea, but now there were a lot more people. He counted six vehicles including the one that they looked at, which would mean that there was enough for, two-hundred and forty people to go places all at once? That should be enough, if they all took turns. That plus the women that had come to help out at the base should take a lot of the stress off the men working there.
A voice came from behind him, male and vaguely familiar. Godfrey.
“There’s two more stationed here and two that have been sent to the Capital full time. Their parked at the palace itself. Would you all like to go up? We don’t have any other trips scheduled for today, but it won’t hurt anything to let you see how well they work.”
The ride was smooth, even when they went fast. Faster than a person could fly outside of the craft apparently. In the time it took for Godfrey to point out how the controls worked they were almost at the Capital. There was a hand held device, that you activated and wore on the back of your left hand just like with flying the regular way, and showed them how the set-point control worked, a clever physical device that let you clip the hand control in place quickly and easily so that the pilot could do other things as long as they were flying in a straight line.
“Oooh, can we land? I’d love an update on the whole situation.” Ursala sounded grim as she spoke, so Godfrey, not hesitating, took them in for a landing, a slow and drifting thing over the palace complex itself, taking about ten minutes to settle in next to one of the people moving crafts on the ground.
“Sorry about the wait, we can land nearly as fast as a flyer could, but I don’t want to spook the guards here. Going very slow is kind of the only way we have to communicate our peaceful intentions with the ground at all. Not that anyone else in the world has craft like these yet, but the Royal Guard tends towards careful at all times.” The man sounded apologetic enough at least, even though it wasn’t his fault. Tor didn’t really want to test the crafts shields against explosive weapons with him inside anyway, so taking a bit of extra time worked for him.
None of them were dressed for a state dinner, but all of them were presentable enough for a staff session, so of course, nature and politics being what it was, they’d probably be expected to go to a high court function immediately. Instead a cute Princess, Varley, came out to get them running up to give Tor a hug, causing their shields to bump. Tor laughed a little, but Varley didn’t demand he let go of the shield until they got inside the door at least. Then, as soon as he got it turned off she kissed him. Hard. She didn’t stop until Ursala cleared her throat, several times.
“Hey, Princess… he came with us you know, until you find out if one of us has a claim don’t you think…” The large woman looked at the girl with a fake scowl on her face for a second, but Varley just shook her head and grinned up at her.
“Nope. Sara Debri hasn’t been sleeping with Tor; she’s been bedding my brother. Not that she couldn’t do both of them, but she hasn’t been. I asked Alphie already. You… well, it wouldn’t shock me to learn that you have been and really, given everything, I think you should be sleeping with Tor, for now at least, since it would be good for both of you, but if that was the case you would have corrected me much sooner than you did, if you cared about me doing it at least. Besides, for Tor-centric relationships, as far as I know I have the first position right now, since this is the second time I got him to drop his shield to make out with me and we have an actual agreement in place for it. So really, I think I should be wondering what you two been doing with my Tor up there in the wilderness…” She crossed her arms and raised her chin high in a look that was mock haughty. She spoiled it after about ten seconds with a pretty smile.
Ursala shrugged and told her that mainly they were watching him work off in a corner, though they had taken him to a whore house earlier that day, which functionally Tor owned, it being his compound and all, as well as his idea to put it in.