The trip from her family's home in Dover to Londinium took a little over two days.   Since Celes was moving a little slow after her first night reconnecting with Miss Eva they didn't leave until almost noon on the day after her meeting with her father.  The goodbyes were emotional, but with high spirits.  Her father gave Celes the keys to the Vynar estate in Londinium and let her know that the house was still furnished, and he paid a woman to clean it once a month, so it should be fairly ready for her arrival<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The trip was fairly uneventful and much of it was spent with Miss Eva reminding Celes of the various players in the politics of Londinium nobles.  However she did admit that being in Dover meant that any news she received was several days old, and being so far removed her information could be wrong.  Still there was a lot of valuable information that Celes gleaned from her servant.  There was House Wynt, an old and honorable house, not especially strong in resources or troops, but well respected and with a voice that carried weight.   There was House Dale, a young house, recently raised to nobility only two generations ago, wealthy because of their personal naval fleet of merchant ships, but rumors abounded about their shady business practices and do anything attitude.   There was House Raes, a house with many troops and large swaths of land in Northern Britannia, they held the distinction of being able to often field the largest army for the queen or king, but Eva knew not where their loyalties lay.  House Ferenhel was one of the more rare houses made up of non humans.  Lord Siliw Tes ir'Ferenhel was an ancient elven man who'd been granted the honor of a house some centuries ago.  Unlike many elderly elves, he'd chosen to stay active in the world instead of retiring to the wilds to live out his remaining years.  House Ravos was another demi human house that might be amicable to the cause.  Made up entirely of halflings who's skill as powerful outriders astride their well trained wardogs, they could field a powerful calvary.  In addition a halfling's stereotype about skill with slings was earned for a reason.  Miss Eva suggested that Celes might have luck with House Saari for several factors.  House Saari was hit hard by the new King's misogynistic ways as well as the Church's persecution.  That house was made up primarily of strong women, and they often propagated their house by adopting women of skill and strength as opposed to simply breeding new heirs.  Not all members of house Saari were lesbian though, and there were children born into the house.  Still they may respect Celes's strength, and their naval fleet, while not as large as House Dale was still quite sizeable.  House Tudor was probably going to be out, while it was technically Celes's blood house, it was also too carefully scrutinized.  There were several distant cousins of Celes as well as the current King James that had all been ready to seize power from Queen Elizabeth.  Allying with House Tudor would be holding deadly serpents and hoping they didn't bite you before you could throw them at your enemy.<br/><br/>There were of course, many other houses, but Eva had to admit that her skill in keeping an ear to the ground did not translate to a deep knowledge of court politics.  She apologized for not knowing more, but hoped that Celes would be able to get a good start with this knowledge.  She also suggested that Celes attend court and introduce herself, as a Vaynr of course, to the king and the court.  One never knew when an ally might approach her.  She warned that officially appearing in court may be seen as a sign of acknowledging King James's legitimacy as the ruler of the land, but the alternative, not appearing would be political suicide.  No noble would take her seriously if she did not play the game of the courts.<br/><br/>The final piece of advice that Eva had was one of a more personal nature.  While Eva was more than pleased to tie Celes down and dominate the firey redhead in the bedroom, she made it quite clear that such a relationship should only continue in the privacy of the bedsheets.  That while Eva would be happy to be in charge of the house, and command any day servants, Celes must be in charge of Eva.  It would not stand for a noblewoman to let a servant boss her around.  While it did happen, it would hurt her standing, and if other nobles saw a servant dominating Celes, they would take her less seriously.<br/><br/>That being said, Eva had a nice collection of leather garments, straps, bindings, as well as toys and other implements and was more than happy to make the two day trip to Londinium quite pleasurable.<br/><br/><hr/><div class="floatright">(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/besrikarie/dnd/housevynarmanse01.jpg)</div><br/><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Month of Juno<br/>Day the 12th<br/>Tew's day<br/>493rd Year of the Empire<br/>Capital City of Londinium</span></strong><br/><br/><br/>It took Celes and Eva several days to get the house back in order.  It wasn't that it wasn't in good shape, but there were many little things that took time to take care of.  A once a month maid couldn't keep mice from the larder, even though it was empty.  There were walls that needed re-liming.  The floors were re-polished to mirror shine, especially the tile mosaic in the foyer.  The bedrooms were set up and a heavy duty lock was put on the spare room next to the master bedroom.  Eva explained how this was two fold.  First if they were ever robbed, burglars would assume that anything of value would be in that locked room, and not in the vault that was in a hidden room concealed by secret doors.  Next it would give a much more secure place to store items that were valuable or dangerous but that she would need common access too, her weapons, for example.<br/><br/>The bathroom contained a huge bath tub large enough for two people made of carved stone, with a drain that would allow the water to drain out the back wall of the house to the sewers below.  There was a privy that did likewise.  But the bathroom it self was large and left plenty of room for ablutions as well as simply relaxing near the large stove that was used to heat the water.  Eva was even able to figure out how to boil water on the stove in a way that would create a thin fog of hot steam in the room.  Celes couldn't help but think such a thing would be excellent for her father's joints if he had a set up like that.<br/><br/>The courtyard was smallish, but there was a covered set of stalls on the east half so Maximus could be stored inside the home's walls, and outside of the rain, but also be outside where there was grass.<br/><br/>Overall the house was smallish, especially for a noble woman of Britannia.  But it was paid for and it cost Celes nothing to live there.  Ultimately it would be her home base, her place on which to launch an assault on the pretender, King James.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>So it was that on this Tew's day Celes was awoken by her servant, Miss Eva, with a tray of steaming porridge, a bowl of fresh fruit, and fresh squeezed juice.<br/><br/>"Good morning Mistress Celes," Eva said, a smirk on her face as she now used a term that Celes quite often called her in the throes of passion.  "I have not yet hired a chef, so I'm afraid it's another morning of porridge, I'm just not that good a cook.  I'll be interviewing day servants today though, something that I can do myself.  I think the house is in order and there's no reason for you to avoid going out and starting your tasks.   Do you have any special requests or instructions for me today or shall I go draw your bath for this morning?"<br/><br/>Celes knew that Eva would be able to pick out an outfit for her, but she had to decide what she was going to do today first.<br/>