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If there was one thing learned from staying in Vaucluse it was that it was the kind of town that people settled in because they gave up. Nothing about it stood out architecturally, culturally, or even socially. If ever there was the perfect example of a stopgap town, Vaucluse was it. Which, of course, made it all the more bitter that Sabine was all but stuck here for far longer than she would've liked. While she had no actual destination in mind, other than the opposite direction of where she had come from, a town like Vaucluse offered her little other than overpriced piss masquerading as liquor and beds that gave you an itch in the morning. How anyone could live here Sabine didn't know, there wasn't even a good brothel that she could find - and that had been a thing she sought on the first night. 

How long had she been in town? By a rough estimate it was somewhere around too long. Truth be told if she hadn't needed a few extra silvers she would have been long gone by now. The worst part about keeping her head down was having to hide the pouch of gold coins hidden on her waist. Even forgetting the cutpurses who were a bit on the bold end of things, a lone woman walking with gold raised suspicions no matter what the reasoning. While Sabine was surely no helpless wench, somehow she doubted a story of "I killed the attempted thieves" would lead to anything other than more questions and a trip to the block. 

So rather than offer gold pieces for a room and food, Sabine negotiated as best she could. It wasn't exactly easy to find work that was both honest and not already attended to by the men, but Alden wasn't about to turn down someone willing to bring in wood for the fire or someone to serve the slop of stew from the pot in exchange for meager coin and a room in the cellar. Sabine wasn't picky, she'd slept in worse. For the past month or so - though gods if it didn't feel longer - Sabine chopped wood at dawn and acted a bar maid at eve. It only took one instance of a drunken hand having a mind of its own for the regulars to know that Sabine had little patience and a strong backhand. 

Was this how the normal folk of the land lived? Working mindless jobs by day and drowning their lives in pisswater ale by night? Seeing the same sorry sorts night in and night out was sobering, if nothing else. Often she would lay awake in the tavern cellar and wonder if she had made the right choice or if that was simply the banality talking. But the sloppy spittle of drunks was a poor replacement for the salty spray of the sea at dawn. Still, when weighed against the other option of being put to death, this life had its advantages. 

Today was no exception to the cycle that her life had fallen into. While she was certain she could never enjoy living such a routine the fact that it was starting to feel normal was alarming. In her time working the routine she hadn't even earned enough silver to purchase a full meal let alone a single night; the wages were hardly fair to begin with but given the lack of return and the fact that she knew damn well how much the regulars drank she was starting to think Alden was cheating her. What could she do? Bring it up to him? Then she'd be out of a place to stay and eat - which she was doing free of charge. 

As the morning sun rose and the axe was brought down to cleave the wood in two, Sabine knew she had to get out of this town before she started looking to be someone's wife just to no longer have to deal with a routine. That she was even thinking that that was her inevitable outcome, a life of being some sort of unhappy marm for someone similar to the lushes that kept Alden afloat, further proved to her that Vaculuse was a town for people that had given up. 

When Sabine brought in the morning's firewood she wasn't afforded a break. She had to peel potatoes, stoke the flames, stir the pot, and make sure the stew didn't bubble over and burn until the chef arrived to ruin Sabine's effort, and then she shifted to making beds and disposing of chamber pots. How Alden survived without a proper barmaid for so long Sabine didn't know, though she suspected her predecessors had far less patience than she did. 

By the time night was about to fall, Sabine had typically been exhausted long before the regulars came in, but whenever she took a moment to sit down and rest Alden grunted rather dismissively. Tonight, however, she got away with it thanks to the timely arrival of a boy and his basket of beef. No amount of meat could salvage what was being boiled and bubbled in the back but the man was certainly welcome to try. While she was thankful for the moment's respite, the conversation about payment served only to annoy Alden which meant, of course, that that would get turned to Sabine in time. Already she could hear the angered grunts as he observed Sabine doing next to nothing. 

In her defense, though, the tavern was somewhat empty. The stories of thieves and criminals and worse elements prowling the streets at night wasn't generally enough to stave off the truly dependent, so why then were the regulars not yet arrived. The answer was as easy as Sabine poking her head outside - on request of Alden of course. Some kind of gathering was taking place, unsanctioned, and technically it was happening on property that wasn't theirs. 

[color=ADFF2F][b]"Oi, you two, piss off will yeh? No loiterin'."[/b][/color] Sabine couldn't hide the brogue in her voice though she could tone down the vulgarity to which she had so grown accustomed to. [color=ADFF2F][b]"And you there, with the oversized capon, if that thing takes a shite anywhere near the street yeh best no' let me find it there in the morn."[/b][/color] Well, she had [i]mostly[/i] cut back on the vulgarity.[/center]