Parnard observed the stranger standing before him. She was tall, clothed in a gray dress, and over this hung a starched white apron. Her hair was a mousy, nondescript brown; wispy tufts stuck out from underneath a linen cap. Her eyebrows were thin and arched severely, like two scrawny cats stretching their backs. Over her shoulder swung a large burlap sack, which clanked every now and again. She seemed to be greatly interested in the interior of his room, and was at the moment running a fingertip along the top of his desk and frowning at what was stuck to it.
"Hello! And who might you be?" he ventured.
"I am Losshell," said the stranger.
Parnard blinked. She acted as if he knew him already. Well, maybe he did. For a moment, he thought someone was playing a prank on him.
"Sogadan sent me," prompted Losshell.
"Oh, yes!" he cried. "What with this business of my lord's, and the goblin problem, and Estarfin coming to stay with me, and whatnot-all-else, I have been very exceeding busy, and forgot all about it,” he said, with an apologetic laugh.
"No doubt you are always very busy," said his visitor, and grunted, cool grey eyes surveying the room.
There was something about her manner that was rather off-putting, but Sogadan had recommended her, and his friend would not steer him wrong, would he? thought Parnard.
"Yes. Ah. Hmm! Tell me a little about yourself," he asked as he carefully maneuvered around the piles of books and papers to get his chair.
"I am Losshell. I came here because Sogadan sent me," she repeated slower, and louder. "Because he said you needed help, and plenty of it."
"He did? Oh, yes, of course he did! - what a good dear friend he is! Yes, yes...but – err, you see, although he mentioned you, once or twice, I think," he said, beaming his whitest smile, the one reserved for dwarves and troublesome people, "Sogadan did not say much. What are your skills?"
Losshell stared at him for several long uncomfortable seconds before answering. "I scour pots, cook meals, scrub and dust, sew clothing, whitewash walls, arrange flowers, mend broken panes, beat carpets, set bones, make soap, weave clothing, tat lace, chop wood, tend chickens, preserve fruit, churn butter, iron clothing, mold candles, pickle cabbage, mix puddings, bake bread, polish silver, make shoes, cut hair, raise livestock, spin wool, dress meats, tend gardens, brew teas -" she stopped. Parnard had raised his hand.
“Enough! I can see the grass growing from here, ha! Ha!” He pushed a sum of money across the desk. "Here are your first week's wages. You seem quite prepared to begin," he said, gesturing at the burden on her shoulder.
Losshell shook her head. "Change of clothing,” she said, and shrugged. Metal scraped against metal.
"Oh. I hoped you could begin immediately – as you can see, there is quite a lot to do..." He pushed a pile of papers over with his toe, sending it crashing down on a stack of books, which, in turn, tottered over and collapsed in a cloud of dust.
Losshell grunted one or two times as she counted out the money slowly, before pocketing it. “I will leave my things here; I will not break my back with straining,” she declared, and dropped the bag on the floor with a clanging thud.
“No, no, we would not wish that to happen -”
“Tomorrow I shall return," she told him. He saw her out. It took him much longer, sweating and swearing, to drag the burlap sack into another room.
