“Damn good play actin’,” Bazie retorted. “Dunno ’ow long ye kin work it, but whilst ye kin, serve ye better nor runnin’ from beaks.” He set his mending aside and rubbed his hands together. “’Sall right, me boys. ’Oo wants t’fetch dinner?”

“Me,” Raf said. “Don’ wanta stir washin’, an’ don’ wanta sort goods.”

The other two seemed amenable to that arrangement, so Raf got a couple of coins from Bazie and took himself off. The napkins in the cauldron were finally white enough to suit Bazie, so Skif got the job of pulling the white things out and rinsing them in a bucket of fresh water, while Lyle hung them up and Deek sorted through the things that Lyle and Raf had brought back.

Presently he looked up. “Six spoons, two knifes, packet uv needles, three uv pins, empty needlecase, four spinnin’ bobs,” he said. “Reckon thas ’nuf wi’ wot we alriddy got?”

Bazie nodded. “Arter supper ye go out t’ Clave. Ye kin take napkins t’ Dooly at same time. An’ half th’ wipes. Lyle, ye’ll taket’ rest uv th’ goods t’ Jarmin.”

“Kin do,” Lyle replied genially, taking the last of the napkins from Skif. “Young’un, git that pile an’ dunk in wash, eh?”

He pointed to a pile of dingy shirts and smallclothes in the corner with his chin. “Thas ourn,” he added by way of explanation. “Ye kin let fire die a bit, so’s it’s cool ’nuf fer the silks when ourn’s done.”

Skif had wondered—the stuff didn’t seem to be of the same quality as the goods that the boys brought back to Bazie. Obediently, he picked up the pile of laundry and plunged it into the wash cauldron and began stirring.

“Ye moght be a wonderin’ why we does all this washin’ an wimmin stuff,” Bazie said conversationally. “I tell ye. Fust, I tell m’boys allus t’ nobble outa the dirty stuff—’cause thas inna pile, an nobody ain’t counted it yet. See?”

Skif nodded; he did see. It was like playing a page at Lord Orthallen’s meals. Food was checked before it became a dish for a meal, it was checked for pilferage before it was taken to the table, and it was checked when it came back to the kitchen as leftovers. But there was that moment of opportunity while it was in transition from kitchen to table when no one was checking the contents. So, dirty clothing and linen probably wasn’t counted—why should it be? But if you stole something off a wash line, or out of a pile of clean clothing intended for a particular person, it would be missed.