Now the guests are starting to arrive. Most of them are assorted merchants and what passes for the wealthy of White Fang, but they are mostly filler to provide the correct ambiance to impress the VIPs.
They appear to be more than willing to play that part. I think many of them will be happy to wish the army goodbye and see the back of them for a while.
The troops themselves have been enjoying their sendoff party since their parade this morning. Despite the festivities happening in the town square at the bottom of the hill, they are loud enough to be heard outside the manor.
By the volume, I’m judging that party to be a raging success or maybe just a rager. Either way, I hope the formal party goes half as well.
I’ve been outfitted in layers of finely embroidered silk and a pair of shoes so tight I can no longer feel my toes (but, I was assured that they are the height of fashion). A glittering necklace of jade and gold hangs around my neck like a millstone.
Then there’s my hair. The maids took one close look at it a few days ago and decided a wig was the way to go. Today is my first day wearing it and I have to say I hate it.
It might have an accident in the fireplace similar to the gifted lingerie. It feels like someone is pulling my hair, piercing my scalp with a dozen needles and then tied a ten pound weight on top.
All for the sake of being able to hold up way too many dangling hair pins. There’s at least a dozen up there and I know that’s more than I’ve ever seen Lady Yan wearing.
But I know I’m eagerly waiting to see what she and Lady Deng turn up in. I’m hoping for accidental twinsies.
As hostess, my first task of the evening is to greet the guests as they arrive. Normally, the host and hostess do this together under the assumption that they both invited people to actually see them.
However, since most of those attending are the social equivalent of movie extras I’m greeting them alone and Jun will arrive when he arrives. Then I just have to survive through dinner, kick everyone out, and anyone invited to the after dinner drinks schmooze fest are Jun’s problem.
As usual, the first to arrive is Lady Yan complete with the accompanying husband. I don’t know what I was expecting, but he’s basically a male version of Lady Yan in both dress and personality. Overall, meeting him feels really weird.
She is wearing a grey dress embroidered with some sort of bird, which is certainly very symbolic and meaningful to people who care about those sorts of things. I’m hazarding a guess, but I think the hubby has the male of the same bird on his clothes.
Her hair contains the usual amount of pins, but today it’s more than just hairpins. A stylized broach with the same bird has somehow been attached into a six inch tall updo that appears to defy gravity.
Luckily, I don’t have to talk with them long, before more guests start arriving. Lady Deng also arrives fairly early with her family. She has one of those surplus eligible daughters, who has been dolled up to perform tonight.
The poor girl has to shuffle along in her sparkly, but very tiny, shoes. Her hair is even taller than Lady Yan’s and has a bunny broach for reasons that smell of desperation.
Lady Deng is wearing a grey dress that’s a very similar style to Lady Yan, but the bird’s embroidered are different, I think. Not sure if I would put money on that bet. All I can say for sure is that the eyes are different colors. But the lack of exciting reaction when they see each other indicates that no faux pas has occurred.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Most of the guests are well into their first drink when Jun and Co. arrive fashionably late. I’m chatting in a far corner of the hall with a couple who have twin surplus daughters who they assure me are very eligible.
The locals all have a visceral response to his presence. A hush falls as he enters the banquet hall. They all stiffen as they step closer to their loved ones and keep their eyes to the floor.
Jun strides into the hall straight towards me not bothering to look or greet anyone already here. The rest of his squad follows in his wake and the guests cannot get out of his way fast enough giving him a good ten foot berth.
When he reaches me, I give him the standard formal bow that I secretly practiced for over an hour in the mirror last night. He has me rise as soon as etiquette allows. Then he stands next to me like he had been greeting visitors with me the whole time.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m a bit too American, but I lack the instinctual deference to my social betters that all these people seem to have instilled at birth. Since he doesn’t call for the banquet to start we start mingling together.
The couple who wants me to help them do heaven knows what with their daughters turn from boastful to meek. I introduce them saying, “Lord White Fang, please allow me to introduce Guild Master Bei and his wife, Lady Bei. Guild Master Bei leads the local Guild of Brewers. They have been most helpful to me in arranging the troops sendoff party this evening.”
Even showering them with praise causes them to shrink more in Jun’s presence. Jun gives them each a polite nod and then we move onto the next couple. The small talk does not improve as we slowly circle the room.
But I do my best to paint the locals in the best light. After the sixth set, I notice that Jun is always angling us to keep Baron Huang in view. He was the last of the VIPs so arrive, despite being the closest physically.
He is some distant relative of the royal family, who they found to be such a pain that they gave him the title to a tiny backwater territory. Like five generations ago before the empire conquered the Golden Bamboo kingdom and broke it up, Huang’s Bear Barony was known for furs.
But over hunting has caused the animal population to shrink and the fur trade has all but stopped. Now Baron Huang wants permission to hunt and trap in White Fang and Jun wants Baron Huang’s actually important relatives to at least promise to stay out of his family squabble if they won’t personally help him.
When we reach him, Jun formally introduces me as Lady Ellen and the Baron looks me up and down as if he’s undressing me with his eyes. His wife is apparently used to this behavior and just pretends it isn’t happening. I’m sure the little flask I saw her sneak a sip from earlier is helping.
She is a beautiful woman around Baron Huang’s age. I would guess 40s, but since they are nobility they are probably minor cultivators; therefore, I lack the means to guess their ages.
Jun and the Baron make small talk about the weather or lack there of during his stay, while I try to make eye contact with the Baroness. I fail.
Luckily, the Baron has no tact and brings up hunting around White Fang. To avoid having to tell him no for the umpteenth time, Jun says, “How about we head to our seats for dinner?”
The Baron agrees without prompting. The rest of the room was discretely eavesdropping and moves as one to the little table circled around the stage before the butler can even make a formal announcement.
These little tables are so strange to me. Basically, there is one table per married couple. If you are flying solo, I had to assign you a maid. And if you are an adult child too poor to be worth Jun’s attention, you sit out of the way at kid’s table set a row back from those circling the stage.
Despite no name place cards, everyone’s seat is assigned via etiquette pecking order whose nuisances I grasp as far as this guest list. I arranged a solo table for myself, but Jun shepherds me to his table and all I can do about it is frantically stare at the nearest butler.
Luckily, they get the message and go whisper to the head butler, who does a good job of discretely upgrading a useless child so there are no gaps. Jun does not appear to notice my small freakout.
We sit down first and the pecking order follows like it was rehearsed. Jun squad is the closest each sitting with their own maid. Then the VIPs. Everyone one else does a good job of filling in the room to make the important people look important.