Trouble Brews

Back at the Dandridge manor, things were not going so smoothly despite all the lady's precautions, and Renard soon got a taste of this when a voice interrupted him from his work.

"Renard, I need your help."

Looking up from the plants that he was in the process of trimming, he raised an eyebrow to see Dessi standing out in the garden. She hardly ever left the house aside from to occasionally go to the market with Isaac, and he couldn't help wondering if the help she was seeking was more on the indulgent side. Even though the expression on her face seemed to suggest not, he couldn't help a little bit of propositioning.

"Help, huh? It must be urgent if you've come out to see me here."

Renard gave her a suggestive smile at that, but Dessi only returned it half-heartedly.

"I see what you're doing, but no, it's not that. What I need help with is a bit more serious."

Gesturing for Renard to follow her, Renard simply shrugged before putting his tool down and getting up.

"Well, I hope you'll have some time afterwards, perhaps even as a reward for this mysterious help?"

"Maybe, but likely not. We're going to be spending the afternoon at the marketplace because someone from the Deveris household tried to poison Lady Dandridge today."

This was definitely not what he had expected Dessi to say. She had so smoothly said it too. So smoothly, in fact, that Renard almost felt like he'd heard her wrong. His mouth opened in a bit of surprise as her words slowly began to sink in. In the time that Mae had been 'gone,' the supplies for the week had been coming in from the Dominion instead of them going out for them at the marketplace. It was just more convenient to do it that way with both Isaac and the lady gone. But to hear that this food had been tainted...

His whole demeanor darkened a little bit. He tried not to show when he was upset to the women in the house, but it was hard to choke back the smoldering anger he was beginning to feel the more he thought about the fact that poison had come from the Deveris household.

"Is she ok?"

Dessi turned to look back at Renard: the smile he'd had just seconds prior was no longer there, leaving a more neutral look on Renard's face. Honestly, it came off as rather intimidating since his default face was usually a smile or a smirk.

"Don't you think I'd be a bit more concerned if she wasn't?"

"Just because you're not panicking doesn't mean you're not concerned."

Dessi couldn't help cracking a smile from that retort. As unreliable as Renard might seem to be, he was an incredibly useful person to have around in a crisis. He was a force of determination and action, but he also put a lot of effort into remaining calm even if he wasn't. It was more of an act than he'd like to admit, honestly, but he tried to channel Isaac's relative zen in situations like these so that the women of the house wouldn't have to be subject to the more unsightly feelings in his mind: namely, his anger at what had been done to their lady right under their noses.

"I suppose I can't argue with that."

Dessi stopped in front of Lady Dandridge's cart then, and Renard could see now that it was fully loaded up with food. He'd helped Dessi take it all off earlier, so she must've spent a bit of time putting it all back on before approaching him. He couldn't help wondering why it was that she hadn't just gotten him immediately once she knew the food was poisoned, but he supposed maybe she'd needed to unwind alone after learning of the attempted poisoning.

"We need to get rid of all this. The poison may not have worked on Lady Dandridge but she's not the only one who'd normally be eating this food. We don't know what all of this is poisoned so I'm afraid it all has to go."

"Wait… The poison didn't work on Lady Dandridge? Then how did she know it was poisoned?"

Dessi shrugged at that.

"All I know is she went to sip her tea, got a weird look on her face and then commanded me to get rid of all the food from the latest shipment."

Renard let out a soft hum in response to that as he looked up at the food. The lady wasn't affected by poison…? How did that work? In addition to thinking about how the lady had managed that, Renard also began to ponder just how they'd get rid of all this. Tossing it in the nearby river seemed like the easiest thing to do; they could burn it, sure, but they didn't know if potentially hazardous fumes were going to be put off somehow. They might be poisoning some fish by throwing it in the river but that wouldn't last too long, right?

"How about we toss it in the river?"

Dessi gave a slight nod to Renard's proposal.

"That was the solution I came to. You know how to hitch up the horses, right?"

"I can do at least that much."

Renard chuckled a little at that before disappearing into the stables; even though he wasn't the one that usually worked with the horses, he knew enough to be able to take care of them when Isaac was away and he also knew enough to be able to handle the carriages in case Isaac was indisposed. As he hitched up a few of the horses though, he couldn't help but worry about all this. He and Dessi may be acting fine on the surface, but he was positive that Dessi was both outraged and furious, much like he was. Someone had attempted to poison their lady... and someone from the Deveris household, of all places! The house of Mae's best friend... Surely Jiera couldn't possibly have had a hand in this poisoning attempt? She would be truly despicable if she had: she and Mae had been friends for years and that was all their friendship amounted to? An attempted poisoning way down the line? That was just insulting. Insulting and... Sad that the friendship meant so little.

Renard's stewing only stopped once he'd led the cart outside and helped Dessi up into it. Now that he was back in her presence, he had to act more in control, because that was the main method he had to cope with his emotions when in the presence of others.

"I take it we'll be heading into town to get more food after dumping the goods?"

Initially Dessi had been the one calling the shots and taking control of this situation, but she seemed to know at an instinctual level that Renard would feel better if he was the one to start taking the lead here. As a result, she rather willingly let him.

"If you would be so kind."

Dessi really was a fascinating woman: it was as if she was able to morph her personality and body language to be whatever was best for the current situation. Even if Renard knew that this was a bit different from how she'd been acting just minutes prior, she was still able to make it feel like that's just how she'd always been. So often she would laugh or joke about her vast experiences with lovers or people in general, but it was only in rare moments like these that the experience she had truly reared its head. There wasn't really a need to have to continually change herself to appease the masters in Mae's house, so the other people that lived here got to see that Dessi had a personality that she favored, one that was probably more of the true Dessi. Even despite that though, it was clear now that Dessi hadn't lost her previous skills.

Snapping the reins to get the horses to go forward, for the first few minutes the two of them were silent. Soon though, Dessi was resting a gentle hand on Renard's arm and leaning in a bit. Even though Dessi was at least 10 years older than him, maybe even 15 (she purposely changed the number around all the time), she still managed to look vulnerable as she leaned on him.

"Thank you, Renard. I know I kind of sprung all this on you, but I appreciate how quick to help you've been."

Renard simply scoffed a bit, reaching an arm around the small of Dessi's waist; Dessi had a much fuller figure than Vivian did, but Renard still had no problems with this action. Giving Dessi's head a brief kiss, he couldn't help a roguish smile from rising to his features.

"You know I'd drop everything for one of my lovely ladies. I'd even drop everything for Isaac despite him not having a form nearly as nice to touch."

His words were accompanied by a little squeeze on Dessi's soft body, and she made a small sound before fully using him as a brace. Looking to the side to check on her, Renard could see that she had her eyes closed as she leaned on him. He watched her effectively begin to doze off, and a part of him couldn't help but wonder how much of this was an act and how much of it was genuine.

At the very least, her exhaustion had to be real. Not only had she helped unload all the food once and then loaded it again on her own, but she'd also had to deal with the stress of finding out that someone had tried to poison Mae. Renard couldn't imagine that she'd remained stress-free for the entire time she'd been dealing with the aftermath of that news. Yet... He also knew that Dessi wasn't usually one to share the burden like this. Or at least, he'd never seen her do it before. It was possible that there just wasn't any drama in Dessi's life for her to speak of (Vivian may hate Dessi, but Dessi had never once returned that hate), and so the occasion for her to share had never come up. Still, Renard couldn't help but feel like how much she was relying on Renard wouldn't be her default if left to her own devices.

It was possible that she was acting the way she was because she knew it would help Renard feel better. If that was the case then it was definitely working. Having Dessi's warm body pressed against his, almost relying on him to be an anchor made him feel much more in control, and subsequently much calmer. It was still an outrage that someone had tried to poison Mae, but he had shifted to be more contemplative about it rather than angry.

Why would someone from the Deveris household want to poison Mae anyway? There was just... No real reason for it, especially because Jiera was such good friends with her. Whatever the Deveris family wanted Jiera could just ask it of Mae and it would likely be granted. If it wasn't Jiera though then who was it? And how much knowledge did Jiera have about the whole thing?

Honestly, he hated pondering things that had to do with his masters: he never actually learned anything from thinking it over, it was just an endless circle of wondering until he got frustrated and gave up. Renard just didn't really understand how Isaac could enjoy thinking about the never-ending circles of politics.

With a soft sigh, Renard decided that putting it all out of his mind was the best course of action here. Time to focus on the now rather than the why behind it. So when they made it to the edge of the river, he leaned down to give Dessi's face a light kiss.

"Rise and shine, Dessi. We've made it to the river. Though if you'd like you can stay in the cart while I do the hard labor."

There was an almost teasing quality to Renard's voice as he said this, but the sentiment was still genuine. Dessi picked up on this, because as she straightened up from her slumber she also leaned back in her seat, evidently settling in.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer. It gives me a chance to just admire you as you work."

Renard chuckled at that before hopping down from his seat, and without further ado he began the lengthy process of throwing the boxes and sacks of food in the river. It really did feel like such a waste, but they just couldn't afford to be more selective about it.

True to her word, Dessi silently watched Renard as he moved, and he couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking about. He was pretty sure that it wasn't him, because even though her eyes were indeed on him, they had a faraway look. She wasn't just solely fixed on him either, occasionally she looked around to see if anyone else was here, but every time she did this there wasn't anyone to see: Renard had chosen an isolated spot so that there would be no questions about them throwing all this food away. When Renard had thrown the last of the food into the river, Dessi didn't really acknowledge it at all in the expression on her face, and it was only when Renard hopped back up into the cart that she finally shifted a bit, almost in surprise.

"If you watch me so intently, Dessi, it's going to give me the wrong idea."

She gave him a playful smile in response.

"Maybe I'm trying to do that."

"Oh? Changed your mind about lingering with me, have you?"

Dessi only let out a soft hum at that before snapping the reins for him. If they wanted to do anything before Dessi started preparing dinner then they had to move quickly, and Renard knew it. With a bit more of a fire lighting his step now, he took the reins from Dessi and they headed into town.

When they stopped off at their first vendor though, the woman at the stall immediately ruined any kind of levity that the two of them had.

The instant she recognized Dessi, her eyes lit up with mischief while she waved the other woman over. No doubt Dessi had worked with her a number of times, and if Renard had to guess she'd potentially gotten some new goods in that Dessi would be interested in. Ready to just tune things out, Renard sat back in the cart while Dessi got down and greeted the other woman.

"Dessi! It's been a while since I've seen you! … And who's this man...?"

Renard gave the woman a winning smile now that he was under scrutiny, and the woman was effectively awed while Dessi responded.

"This is Renard, another one of the slaves from the manor. Isaac's gone to the Dominion with the lady so we'll likely be the ones in the market until they get back."

"Ooo... Well I must say this new man is much easier on the eyes. He should come into town more often."

The two women laughed together a bit, and Renard puffed up with pride to be complimented like this. Soon the other woman was lowering her voice though, speaking almost conspiratorially to Dessi so that Renard had to really strain to hear what she was saying.

"Before we get down to business I just have to ask... Are the rumors true?"

"The rumors?"

The confusion on Dessi's features was clear, and while Renard kept his expression rather cool as well, a sinking feeling had appeared in his stomach.

"Oh don't play with me! The rumors about Lady Dandridge! I've heard talk around town that she went to the Dominion to have a baby! Surely you must have some inkling? I mean, you can't hide a baby from the slaves working in your own house, can you?"

If Renard could give Dessi an award for her acting he would've done so right there. Instead of looking panicked to hear that the news was out, she was instead completely shocked, as if hearing this for the very first time right now.

"What?! How could those be true? Who would she have even lain with?"

"That's what I said!"

At this last statement the other woman's voice went back to a regular volume, and the two women laughed together again while Dessi chastised the vendor for falling for such cheap rumors.

"Where did you even hear that, anyway?"

"Oh just around. I can't say Lady Dandridge gets talked about that much but it was something I heard one of the other merchants repeating. Ilya the... the jewelry merchant that comes by every so often, I think it was. You know how these things go though, he'd of course heard it from someone else who had heard it from another."

Dessi just shook her head in exasperation.

"My goodness. You people just have too much time on your hands, don't you? Perhaps you should work a little harder."

The merchant playfully scoffed at this and the two women pretty quickly moved into the actual trade of goods and money. Thankfully no attention was particularly on Renard right now though, because he just wasn't sure what his expression was as his brain tried to process this new bit of information. The information had gotten out... How had the information gotten out?! He knew that Isaac would never be the one to let it slip, and Dessi also... She had far too much loyalty to the lady for something like that to happen! None of the slaves would've done it purposely, and Vivian and Renard, who may be the only ones to let something like that slip accidentally, hadn't gone anywhere! Was there a spy in the house then? One of the guards that were like silent statues most of the time...?

Dessi calling out his name both softened his expression and drew him out of his thoughts.

"Renard! Come help me with this."

"Of course!"

Happy to oblige and rather eager to get his brain off the subject, the fact that Dessi looked completely fine helped him to feel a little better, like things were actually fine instead of potentially disastrous. Loading up the cart with all the goods that they needed, the two of them stopped at a few other merchants along the way. It seemed like Dessi was trying to get a sampling of the different vendors, to see just how widespread this rumor was among those that recognized who she worked for. Thankfully, none of them repeated the question about the rumor that the first one had, but the fact that it had even been asked once was more than a little concerning.

On the drive back home, it was only when they were completely sure that they were out of sight from other people that they let the seriousness of the situation finally begin to set in.

"Well... That certainly ruined the mood."

Dessi looked over at Renard, but before she could try to say something Renard continued on.

"I suppose we won't be getting that time together now, huh?"

He was trying to inject a bit of levity into all this, and it worked a little from the half-hearted smile that Dessi gave him.

"I suppose not."

When the cart stopped back at the manor, Dessi went straight to Lady Dandridge while Renard unloaded the supplies. Something was afoot here… Something that none of them could quite understand, and Renard didn't like it one bit.