“What think you?” Iliana held up the hat she had been working on for the other women to inspect. She had tried to fashion the item in the manner of her mother’s cook’s hat, one he had brought from Paris with him. But this one did not seem to stand up as his did, merely flopping about the wide band that sat on the head.

“Mayhap some starch would do the trick,” Ebba suggested from her seat a few feet away, the makings of the apron in her lap.

Iliana perked up at once. “Aye. That may do it,” she agreed, then paused as Janna walked into the room, her hair still damp from its washing and a lovely new plaid fastened around her body. Janna had decided to wait till the end of the day to take her turn in the tub, thinking it made more sense to bathe after work than to bathe and return to the gardens in her new plaid. Iliana’d had to agree with her, but promised she would place her at the start of a fresh batch of bathwater. They had been changing the water after every third bather.

The bathers had been waiting in line patiently as one person after another rushed through the tub, then donned their new plaids. Now, almost all were through. Iliana’s original fear that it would take days to bathe everyone had been quite wrong. It had helped that Elgin had suggested they set up the tub in a corner of the kitchen, with dirty linens used as curtains to partition off the section. That had sped up the changing of the water somewhat, speeding up the whole process altogether. Now there were two or three dozen children chasing each other about in fresh plaids, their hair shiny and clean and their cheeks pink. Their mothers, meantime, were assisting in the cleaning of the hall tapestries as they chatted by the fire, their hair drying as they worked.

That had been a pleasant surprise for Iliana. Her morning had been taken up with arranging for the plaids and tending to her husband’s injury, but she had intended on returning to her work in the gardens that afternoon. In fact, after the nooning meal, she had checked with Elgin to see that all went well with arranging the baths, then headed for the door that led from the kitchens out into the garden. Elgin had immediately hurtled past her, throwing his round little body in front of the door, his arms and legs spread wide to bar the way as he shook his head frantically. He would not see her return to her labor of the day before. She was to rest.