Quoted By:
With the Guards having retreated back to the Guardhouse, the working Lepers gone for the day, and Exempted Lepers rotting away in bed, as far as you can tell there is no one around to witness you slide back into that well for the third time today. Of course, you are not going to take any chances, you are just thinking that this is an excellent time to move in and out of the Midden unseen. Practically before you know it, you wearing your spare dress again, with Hide-Eyes active, as you emerge from the bulkhead of the last of the connected basements. You want to start right away with securing some sort of carriage or wagon to haul all of father’s work, but you know that if you show up dressed as you are this and try to buy something as expensive as that, then you will get thrown out – in the best possible scenario.
So before you can do that, you are going to need one of your new dresses. If you had more time – like another day, you might actually wait until you could get your hands on the riding dress you had ordered from the dressmaker that was … well, you were going to say ‘nicer’, but the only person who deigned to talk you your entire time in there was a bit of a bitch.
They were more expensive, certainly. On that point, there can be no contention.
Anyway, that dress was going to take longer than the other three to be finished. You will need to be there at the end of business hours today to pick it up, or you might end up having to break into the fabricians, or just abandoned the dress, as presumably they are not going to be open on Titheday tomorrow either.
Your way to Spinster’s Street is uneventful – in fact, it is almost too uneventful. You passed by three different criers, hoping to hear some news about the Refinery, but the first was on break, and all you got from the other two were an earful of advertisements. You even slowed down a bit as you passed them too. Besides that failed bit of information gathering, the only thing worth noting is that Stickport is really trying to earn its nickname today. No doubt at least some of the smell is coming from the mess down at the Oiler’s Wharf.
With everything else on your mind, you practically forgot about it, but you did mess around with the Master Discharge Whatever. Considering that the Refinery did not burn down or explode as you snuck your way out of it, you sort of assume that you made the right choice … but you want to actually hear someone say it. With everything that you did last night, the knowledge that you at least did this one thing right would … it would go a long way. But unfortunately, it seems that this is just one of many things that is going to remain hanging over your head for the foreseeable future.
You arrive outside of Hortingea’s shop, but before you go in, you make sure to take the order slip she gave you out. As important as it is to not be seen reading, it is equally important to not hand them a slip from another, pricier store.
