Mostly, it was work at his desk, with occasional need to consult with one or another of the household officers over some small matter or, more rarely, with Lady Jacquetta herself. He avoided doing the latter when he could, wary of being drawn into anything about the play that seemed to have taken over her chambers and her demoiselles’ lives. Twice when he went to her, both parlor and bedchamber were over-filled by the necessities of the Sins’ bright gowns, the sempster there with scissors and pins, and Perrette on her knees, basting the hem of Ydoine’s gown the first time and Marie’s gown the next. Each of the ladies now had her Sin, while the youths chosen from both households to be Virtues seemed to have been let off most of their other duties so they might learn their parts, which seemed to require they keep close company with Lady Jacquetta’s demoiselles. At least they certainly were one afternoon when Joliffe went with a question about a plan to drain some Northamptonshire acreage, wondering how Lady Jacquetta was expected to make sensible decisions about land she knew nothing about—although he understood why her steward in England was hesitant to make them completely on his own—and found Sins and Virtues sitting in their pairs around the parlor, heads close together as they supposedly memorized their speeches with each other under M’dame’s sharply watchful gaze from the bedchamber doorway.
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