Nora smiled at Maril in the vanity mirror’s reflection. Maril’s parents had recently hired Nora to help Vicki in the kitchen and to do other minor chores around the house. In Maril’s opinion, Nora was an inefficient maid, always running around to find things she had forgotten or lost. Maril was reasonably sure it was because Nora was still young and inexperienced. But she was also aware that she wasn’t very good at guessing humans’ ages or converting that to equivalent maturity in gnome years.
Apparently, according to Maril’s parents, preparing Maril’s long dark hair for the brunch meeting with Mister Hinkleton’s son was also a minor chore appropriate for Nora. At the moment, Maril thought it might be more than a minor one.
Maril grimaced as the brush in Nora’s hand snagged again, “Why don’t you go downstairs and bring up my new dress? I will work on brushing my hair until you get back.” Maril rubbed her sore scalp with one hand and rubbed sleep from her eyes with the other. She wished that her mother would have given her a few minutes to get herself out of bed and ready before sending Nora up.
“But miss, we need to hurry. It’s almost time for Mister Hinkleton to arrive.”
“I know Nora, but don’t you think that it will be faster if I stay here and brush my hair while you run downstairs to get the dress? It will save me some time,” Maril said, almost pleading.
“Okay miss, but please hurry with your hair, I’ll be right back.” Nora placed the brush on the polished surface of the vanity and, shuffling around to pick up her basket, hurried out the bedroom door.
Maril stood up from the chair in front of the vanity and slid over to the bedroom door, peaking through it to make sure that Nora had actually left and no one else was there. When she was certain that no one was standing in the hallway she hurried back over to the vanity and pulled open one of the top drawers. From under a few layers of clothes, she drew out another smaller hairbrush.
This brush had a smooth wooden handle and the back of the brush was covered in very tiny runes. Maril smiled grazing her thumb over the small runes. She had enchanted the hairbrush when she was quite young. She had been grounded to her room until she could straighten out her severely neglected hair. Years later, after she had become more competent with magic, she had upgraded the enchantments on the brush even though she had learned more about the consequences of using magic without the proper work permits. But for the most part, it was the same magic that she had put on it so many years ago.
She glanced over her shoulder again to ensure that Nora was not coming back into the room. Starting on her hair, she briskly brushed the ends and quickly moved up the hair with the brush gliding through the hair unhindered, taking the knots with it.
The brush was amazing, never snagging or ripping like the brush Nora had been using. No pain and oh, so much faster. In just a few quick swipes she was able to eliminate the majority of the tangles. She really should have thought to brush her hair before her mother came up and noticed the tangled mat and insisted Nora help her with it.
With untangled and significantly silkier hair lying on her shoulders, she stashed the hairbrush back in the drawer under her clothing and closed the drawer. Just as she was picking up the mundane hairbrush to begin feigning brushing, she heard Nora call from the hallway, “I have the dress miss. I’m almost back. I’ll help you finish your hair.”
Nora bumbled through the doorway, awkwardly holding her basket and bouncing off both the door and the door frame in the process. Nora paused to set the basket on the vanity and Maril wordlessly handed her the hairbrush. Maril watched in the mirror’s reflection as Nora began to brush her hair. The young girl frowned, concentrating on the brush as it easily slid through Maril’s hair.
“Uhh…” Nora stuttered incredulously, staring at the smooth locks, “It looks like you got it all straightened out, miss. Would you like me to braid it and put it up for you?”
“Yes please, Nora,” Maril said calmly, ignoring Nora’s bewilderment.
Nora, shaking off her confusion, put down the brush and nimbly pulled up Maril’s hair, twining it into a couple of braids before coiling the braids together into a bun on the back of her head. “There you go miss, I think your hair is all done.”
Even if Maril didn’t care to have someone else work on her hair, she had to admit that Nora had made an elegant bun and had done it with surprising efficiency.
“Thanks, Nora. I will hurry and get dressed. Could you go and let Vicki know I will be right down?” Maril was hoping that giving Nora something to do would prevent her from feeling she should help Maril get dressed. Maril didn’t need help getting dressed, she did it on her own every day. Well almost every day, the days she slept all day didn’t count.
Nora, already lifting the new dress out of the basket, appeared to be in conflict, “You don’t need me to help you put on the dress?”
Maril reached up to take the glossy blue fabric from the taller girl, “No, I can manage it. Let Vicki know I’ll be right down.” Nora nodded and, taking her now empty basket, headed back down to the kitchen.
After closing the bedroom door, Maril slipped out of her house robe and tossed it on the edge of the bed before holding up the new blue dress. It really was a nice dress, even if she didn’t approve of dresses in general. It was light and soft and had buttons in the front where she could put it on by herself. A few years ago she had had a discussion, a loud and lengthy discussion, with her mother about dresses. The end result of the discussion had been that Maril would wear dresses occasionally. However, Maril had insisted on some stipulations. Any dress she would wear would have to be soft and she had to be able to put the dress on without requiring assistance.
Maybe she hadn’t been strict enough with her requirements because her mother insisted on regularly getting her new dresses in every imaginable color. But at least they were all soft, all could be put on without help, and, amazingly, each one fit perfectly.
Maril frowned towards her closet where she knew there was a row of dresses quite similar to this new blue one, but sometimes it wasn’t worth arguing. She undid the row of tiny pearl-like buttons down the front of the dress and quickly stepped into it. It took longer than she expected to do up all the buttons again. As soon as they were all buttoned she looked at herself in the mirror. It truly was a nice dress, a glossy blue with half-length sleeves, a full skirt, and generously decorated with little pearly beads that matched the long row of buttons up the front.
Closing her eyes and touching the topmost button, she imagined the runes she needed. One for connecting, one for repeating, and one to connect to another rune. Then, concentrating with her eyes still closed, she drew her finger from the top button down the seam of the fabric following the row of buttons all the way to the last button below her waist. Here she imagined the same three runes she placed on the top in the reverse order.
Opening her eyes, she blinked, enabling her magic sight. The magic she had placed was insignificant and faint. But the line stitched through the fabric holding the two layers of cloth together much more securely than the row of delicate buttons did on their own. Looking in the mirror she pulled on the fabric this way and that. No matter how she pulled, the magic held the fabric closed, no stretching at the buttonholes, definitely no gaps between the buttons, and no chance of losing a button today. She had learned from experience that it was worth the tiny drop of magic that it took to magically sew up the front of her dresses. Anyway, she would get the magic back later when she took the dress off. Unlike the much larger amounts of magic she was paid to leave out in the farming districts to dissipate over time.
She spun around in front of the mirror looking at the dress from all angles. It looked pretty good and wasn’t uncomfortable. She was ready to go downstairs.
Maril stepped out of her room into the hallway and almost ran into Nora who was breathing hard, evidently from dashing up the two flights of stairs.
“Oh, Miss Maril,” she huffed trying to catch her breath while fumbling in her basket, “Here, I forgot to give you the slippers.”
Maril took the offered slippers that exactly matched the blue of the dress, “Thanks Nora,” she said unenthusiastically. She really hated wearing shoes inside. But it was too late to make a ruckus about it. She bent down and slid her feet into the delicate slippers, they were surprisingly comfortable. While she was still bent over she briefly touched the back of each heel to place a rune that would stick the slippers to her feet. Tripping and falling down the long staircases was a serious concern.
“All ready. How do I look, Nora?”
“You look like a princess, Miss Maril, perfect,” Nora smiled. Maril, looking up at her, thought it looked like a child’s delighted smile. She really needed to find out how old Nora was and how that compared in gnome years.