Chapter 3: Time Travel to the Middle Ages 003

Chapter 3: Time Travel to the Middle Ages 003

When Louisa returned to her temporary room, the maid had already prepared the bathwater—of course, it was a temporary room, as the Count had promised Louisa that she would only stay in this room for the time being.

In the living quarters of the castle, this was far from the best room, but the best rooms were already occupied by the Count and Countess, as well as Eva.

The round tower under construction in the southeast corner of the castle's bailey, which had been under construction for four years, would be completed in just over a year. At that time, the entire tower would be at her disposal, allowing her full autonomy... this was also the treatment she deserved as the heir.

"...Miss, everything is ready. I had them use freshly drawn well water, not from the rainwater reservoir," Jeanne, her maid, who had followed Louisa to the court of Brudo, said naturally.

She was aware of Louisa's 'quirks'—Louisa had habits that others didn't understand in many matters. Louisa didn't use water from the reservoir not because she thought it was unclean, but because in the convent, there was a rooftop reservoir used to collect rainwater. This reservoir's water could be piped, using gravity, to several rooms including the kitchen.

It sounded good, almost like the 'tap water' of later times. The only problem was that the most common pipes at this time were 'lead pipes,' which were hazardous due to lead poisoning.

"You did well, Jeanne... By the way, in a few days, I will assign you to the kitchen," Louisa did not explain to Jeanne why she didn't use water from the reservoir... if possible, she naturally preferred safer, cleaner groundwater.

Jeanne had originally been a kitchen maid in the convent, and Louisa got to know her because she couldn't stand the food of this era and went to the kitchen intending to 'cook for herself.' As a result, she didn't manage to cook for herself but ended up nurturing an excellent cook—despite having insights from the future, Louisa was still only an 'armchair chef' when it came to culinary skills. Jeanne, a native, had ideas and practical abilities, and with Louisa's inspiration, she succeeded!

Jeanne nodded deeply grateful, knowing that as a farmer's daughter, moving from the convent's kitchen to the court's kitchen undoubtedly brightened her future. More importantly, she knew that Miss Louisa was different from other nobles. She was a sincere and kind-hearted person, and with Miss Louisa's care, there was nothing to worry about.

Louisa, who was being thanked, also let out a long sigh of relief, ready to take a comfortable bath—although she had bathed during the journey, traveling conditions were less than ideal, with issues like not being able to soak in a tub, only being able to take a seated bath, and the water not being hot enough.

The bathtub was arranged opposite the cozy fireplace, with a white canopy covering the outside of the tub, conical at the top and with a curtain around the bottom. This provided warmth and some privacy for the bather. Louisa could bathe in her own room, but many people in the castle had to bathe in semi-public areas, where such a canopy was very practical.

Louisa took off her clothes and stepped into the bathtub. The tub was large and deep enough, with a stool inside, so even when sitting on the stool, the hot water would reach her chest. Louisa relaxed her body and leaned back in the tub, with thick linen behind her. Due to limited processing techniques at the time, it was almost impossible for wooden boards to be completely free of splinters. Therefore, to prevent the splinters on the inner wall of the tub from scratching the skin, wealthy nobles would line the tub with a layer of fabric.

Contrary to popular belief, the modern myth that people in the Middle Ages didn't bathe is inaccurate. In the vast span of the Middle Ages, there were periods when people didn't like to bathe, but there were also times when bathing habits were normal, with the latter being the majority. Fortunately, the current time was one when people generally bathed normally.

Perhaps from Louisa's modern perspective, people's hygiene habits at this time were still very poor, and the frequency of bathing was still too low. But then again, compared to modern people who enjoy convenient conditions and abundant material wealth, people from any period and any region in ancient times would seem less clean—including the Romans, who built large bathhouses everywhere, and the White Robes, who were famous for their cleanliness due to their doctrine.

Soon, a maid brought the washing supplies. Louisa took a look at them: a large tray with a stack of cloths, a jug of wine, a small bottle of fragrant oil. There was also a silver box, open, containing a piece of brownish-yellow hard soap.

In fact, only this piece of soap could be considered a washing supply on this tray, but people at this time might not agree with Louisa's view—wine was often used by nobles to wash their faces and hands, for reasons unclear to her, probably because wine was considered a good thing, so people tried to use it wherever they could.

As for the fragrant oil, it was oil infused with some aromatic substances, believed to make the skin smooth, delicate, and fragrant when applied, and some even believed freckles could be removed by rubbing it on... well, of course, that was impossible, but even in modern times, many people would trust miraculous ancient skincare products, including these fragrant oils, so it's not strange that people hundreds of years ago believed in them.

"...Miss, this is the finest imported Eastern soap," the maid seemed to think that Louisa, having lived in the convent, might not have seen such things, and explained.

Louisa knew that the 'East' she referred to was the Near East, equivalent to the region of West Asia in her previous life.

"Oh, I know," Louisa smelled the soap, making sure it didn't have a rancid smell but a very faint fragrance—she knew this kind of soap, the abbess of the convent she used to stay in, her aunt in this life, used this soap. Unlike the locally common soft soap, this hard soap had to be imported from the 'East' and was quite an expensive commodity.

Louisa thought for a moment and said, "Madam, please open the trunk I brought with me, the one painted with the story of the 'Fountain of Youth.' The soap I usually use is there, you can fetch it."

Although Louisa could always 'smuggle' various items from her portable supermarket, she also kept some commonly used items outside to deal with situations where items needed to be 'legitimized.'

Soon, the maid found the trunk and, by intuition, found the soap. Unlike the dried-out hard soap she was used to, this crimson soap was plump and smooth, with a much more pronounced fragrance. Moreover, the fragrance was comparatively purer—this was normal, as the better soaps at this time used vegetable oil, represented by olive oil, while the inferior soaps used animal fat. The difference was that animal fat had a more obvious odor. If the oil refining was not careful, there might even be a burnt smell!

Of course, vegetable oil-based soap also had a smell, but it depended on each person's acceptance level.

This was like the oil fragrance from an oil mill, which many people found fragrant, but some couldn't stand it. Moreover, even those who liked that oil fragrance might not like 'rapeseed oil perfume,' 'peanut oil perfume,' or 'sesame oil perfume,' right? In such cases, the oil fragrance of vegetable oil could also become what some people called 'oil stench' or 'oil odor.'

Compared to the soap of this time, Louisa's scented soap was a standard product of modern chemical industry, with a stable and thorough deodorization process. Its fragrance, whatever it was, at least had no odor. Modern people were used to this and didn't find it special, but for people in the Middle Ages, it naturally seemed like a very rare and high-quality product.

The maid, like many in the castle, had both a reverence for Louisa's status as the heir of Brudo and a disdain for her having lived in a convent in a rural place like Fontevraud, thinking she was just a country girl. Now, just a piece of soap opened the maid's eyes to the fact that Louisa was different from what she had thought.

In the medieval court, maids and male attendants, despite their noble origins, were actually of noble origin (they didn't necessarily have much work to do, the actual labor was done by male and female servants, who were the true servants). Therefore, these people 'had the right' to be snobbish, to judge and comment on Louisa, the future lord.

Louisa didn't expect the maid to put away her snobbery over a piece of soap, as it was too overt and petty—it could only be said that her sheltered upbringing in the convent made her unaware that medieval nobles were just this low-level.

During the Middle Ages, although the rise of court culture led the nobility to finally begin emphasizing 'elegance,' the 'elegance' of that time was quite different from the flamboyant and delicate modern Western elegance that emerged after centuries of prosperity. This is not surprising, as the ancestors of the current nobility were all rough military men, and the social atmosphere still glorified violence.

The so-called 'elegance' was something that did not exist outside the court.

Louisa used her own soap, a popular brand from her past life—nothing fancy. However, the red 'Pomegranate Soap' had an outstanding floral and fruity scent, sweet but not cloying, which Louisa particularly liked—though it was called pomegranate, Louisa had seriously studied its scent and found it had little to do with pomegranate.

The only thing was that the soap was red, reminiscent of pomegranates. As for the so-called 'guava' in the fragrance, guava is not pomegranate. One belongs to the Myrtaceae family, guava genus, and the other to the Lythraceae family, pomegranate genus—they are completely different things.

Too tired to wash her hair, Louisa hurried to sleep. However, she really wanted to wash her hair, so she informed the maid before bed: "Please prepare enough hot water tomorrow morning. I rarely had the chance to wash my hair on the way from Fontenay, and I really need it."

The maid respectfully replied, "Yes, my lady... I will inform the shampooer to prepare."

Jeanne added at just the right moment: "Miss, the bed is made."

Louisa glanced at the bed. She wasn’t sure what had been there before, but now it was all her own familiar bedding—other things could be overlooked, but Louisa never used someone else's bedding! Even if it was brand new, she had to think about the hygiene and health of the people who made and handled it!

Sure, the idea that the Middle Ages were dirty is a stereotype. In reality, the Middle Ages was a long historical period involving vast territories. Some places and times were indeed excessively dirty, but most situations were just at an average level for ancient societies.

However, for a modern person, any period or region in ancient times would be considered very dirty. Take this, for example: even the highest nobility had fleas and lice. This was not necessarily related to personal hygiene habits—when everyone around had fleas and lice, it was almost inevitable to have them too.

Louisa smiled at the bed and teased Jeanne: "Ah, you always say 'make the bed' instead of 'lay the bed,' don’t you? But today it fits—it’s like we’re making a whole new bed."

Back then, ordinary homes didn’t have beds as permanent furniture, and their cramped spaces made it impractical to dedicate room to such a bulky item. So, beds weren’t around during the day. Only at night would they use hay-filled sacks as mattresses, along with basic bedding, to 'make a bed'—something they could take apart and move the next day.

Louisa didn’t mind whether Jeanne said 'make the bed' or 'lay the bed,' but she didn’t want her to get teased by the castle folks for it.