BXBX NOVEL Chapter 301 - Managing The Fief
Chapter 301 - Managing The Fief
"So you're saying that instead of throwing it away, they should sell it back?" Rutherford asked with skepticism laced in his tone.
In response, Yvonne nodded and rubbed her forehead.
'This was harder than what I had thought it would be.' She groaned as teaching this man about these reforms was tougher than expected.
Earlier, she had used the simplest example she could think of to help him understand.
The basic commodity that was needed in each household, be it commoner or noble was milk.
Milk was sold in glass bottles which would be thrown into the trash after they were emptied.
According to what Yvonne suggested, the distributors of milk in their fief could ask the people to bring the bottles back in proper conditions in exchange for a few coins.
"If they wash the empty bottles clean and return them to the seller, they could earn a little extra each time." She proposed a great way to entice people to reuse and recycle.
A bottle with a liter of milk costs about five copper coins and as per her suggestion, every two bottles that are returned can fetch them one copper coin.
"All they have to do is be careful while handling the bottle and collect two before returning it to the seller who would then clean them again and use them for the next sale." She ended her perfect explanation.
'If you do not understand it now then I might as well bash my head against a wall.' She narrowed her eyes as she stared at him to gauge his reaction.
"They spend ten coins then get one coin back by returning the bottles. Not bad." He approved of her theory as it would also reduce the number of bottles wasted each day.
'Thank God, that he understood!' The little girl let out an exaggerated sigh at his answer.
Rutherford scratched his cheek when he noticed her reaction and realized that he must have been the cause of the sigh.
"Where do you keep getting these ideas from?" He questioned to divert her mind from his slow pace of understanding.
This caused the little girl to freeze for a split second before she looked up at him with a wide smile.
"I have many more ideas, Papa!" She exclaimed, ignoring his question completely.
'I cannot let him know that I am a different soul residing in the body of his daughter and my knowledge comes from the world that I was previously in, now can I?' She sneered at herself but the smile never faded.
The father chuckled while looking at her cheerful demeanor and did not prod further.
"We can also recycle clothes!" She added to pull his mind further away from that question.
Rutherford tilted his head as this was a confusing concept to him.
"Instead of throwing old clothes away, we can give them to someone who needs it." She proposed while glancing at the clothes she was wearing at this moment.
'I would usually auction my clothes then donate the money to charity but the nobles here would never wear clothes worn by someone else.' She sighed as this was a missed opportunity to do some proper charity work.
Therefore, she had come up with the plan of giving the clothes away to the needy instead.
However, Rutherford narrowed his eyes as this did not seem right to him.
"These are noblemen's clothes and cannot be given to the commoners!" He objected as this was against their way of living.
Yvonne blinked at her father as she tried hard to stop the scowl which was itching to appear on her face.
"I will grow out of these clothes soon enough. What will we do with these when that happens?" She interrogated and this time there was annoyance clear in her words.
The Earl raised his brows at her which made her chuckle sheepishly when she realized that she was rude to him.
"Pardon me." She apologized for her excessive enthusiasm which had caused her to forget whom she was talking to.
Rutherford nodded yet remained silent for her to debate her side of the story.
"I won't wear these clothes soon, what happens to them then?" She inquired, this time in a softer tone.
"They will be placed in the storage rooms." His righteous and immediate answer made her lips twitch.
'If they are just going to rot in the storage then why not give them away?' Yvonne growled in her heart while her brows scrunched up together.
"We can-'' She began trying to change his mind but did not have the chance to do so.
"No." Rutherford gave her his resolute answer without any impression of changing it any time soon.
With a loud sigh, the little girl gave up on trying to argue with him as it would take the conversation nowhere when she observed his stubbornness.
'I will just wait long enough till he forgets about it then open a thrift shop with all the dresses that I outgrow.' She lowered her head to hide the smirk that formed due to her scheming mind which was working at full speed.
Rutherford did not notice her evil smile as all he could see was her head full of hair.
Looking up, Yvonne nodded as though she agreed with his ideals and decided to move on.
"So what about my other ideas, Papa?" She inquired to see whether those would also be trashed or accepted.
Her ideas of more clinics, more physicians, better sanitation, and educating people on how to maintain cleanliness had won Rutherford's heart so he did not have any objection towards them.
"I shall give my orders to the Butler back at the Summer Estate and he will do the rest." He announced that the task would be given to the old man who ran the fief under the orders of the Earl.
Weekly reports would be sent to the St. Claire Estate in the Capital and the Earl would also visit the fief to do routine inspections to see whether everything was running according to his instructions.
Yvonne nodded when she heard her father's narration about the smooth operation of the fief and looked at him with approval evident in her eyes.
'Sounds like he has been managing the fief in an orderly fashion.' She praised his competency at allocating the jobs to various people thus reducing the stress on him.
With this last sentence, silence took over the room as the conversation died down.
"Is there anything else you would like to say?" Rutherford questioned and looked out of the window.
They had spent a lot of time inside his office and he could notice how the sun was moving away from its highest position and inching closer to the horizon.
The little girl turned to the window and found a similar scene which caused her to groan out loud.
'There goes my plan for practicing piano before the week began!' She glowered at herself for she had brought this on herself.
If she hadn't initiated this conversation then they wouldn't have stayed in this office for the past few hours.
However, none of that mattered now as they were reaching the end soon.
Rutherford tilted his head when he saw her disheartened expression but before he could inquire about it, he heard her speaking up again.
"I do have one last thing that needs to be discussed concerning the safety of our fief and the people if ever a plague arrived in Rosenhyde." She announced and sat up straight.
The grave look on her face which was unlike the childish smile she often had gave him an ominous feeling, causing him to narrow his eyes while gazing at her.
Since he did not utter anything after her, the little girl decided to continue with her sentence.
"We need to cordon off the borders of our fief to forbid people from entering or exiting during a plague." She enunciated each word in a clear tone to let the gravity of her suggestion sink into his mind.
Rutheford's eyes widened at first but soon they narrowed as he shook his head at her.
Noticing his rejection, Yvonne felt irked that she needed to explain further but that was not the case.
"Sealing the borders of a fief can be done only under the orders of the King." He objected to her idea which also proved that he had understood what she had meant by saying that the borders needed to be cordoned off.
"Going against this would be considered as an act of treason, Yvonne." He reminded her while using her full name, conveying the severity of the situation to her.
Silence overtook them for a few seconds but was broken by the little girl.
"I have a way." She then declared with a confident smile to reassure him.