The Laundry Room

Keera wrinkled her nose as her senses were assaulted with the smell of lye soap and steam. She looked over at Mallory. "Still think this isn't going to be too bad?" Lumiere smiled at them and bid them a good morning then tossed them each a bundle of dirty linens to wash. The girls took one whiff and realized they were holding bundles laced with the dreaded bar rags. Lumiere smiled to himself as they turned a bit green then directed them each to a washtub filled with hot water and a washboard attached. With determination they walked over and began scrubbing, working hard, ignoring the burning sensations of the lye on their hands and the sweat dripping from their foreheads. After an hour or so Lumiere came back to check on them, bringing two more bundles. Keera frowned at the smiling barkeep and as he turned to leave she picked up a freshly washed bar rag to toss at him. Mallory put her hand on Keera's arm "Keera! No! We are in enough trouble as it is, besides... if you want to throw one at him, DON’T throw one we have already washed." Keera nodded with a sigh and went back to work. Soon Mallory looked over at her, "Keera... I think I'm doing something wrong?" "What is it?" Mallory held up some of the laundry she had finished and Keera's eyes grew wide as she looked at the linens now filled with holes. "Ummmm Mallory, either you are using too much lye or scrubbing to hard. Look at mine." She proudly held up a rag from the pile of clean on her left. No holes but they were half the size as normal. "Funny they seemed bigger when I was washing them." "Ohhhh Keera, they have shrunk." "That's why the squires breeches look like they will fit Samantha" She holds up a pair of the little breeches. Mallory looked at Keera, her eyes wide. "Ian is going to kill us" "We didn’t do it on purpose Mallory" "Since when has that mattered when it comes to Ian?" Keera frowned and they turned back to their work, the silence almost more stifling than the steam. Finally Lumiere called for a lunch break. Keera looked over at Mallory and said "Well at least they aren't purple" and the two of them giggled as they went upstairs for lunch.