The Merchant Princes #
The Lanifica matrons enter the dusty workshop with snobby disdain. But once the Matron sits at the "demon" machine, she masters it within seconds. The thread is flawless.
"Rufus, grease the bobbin. Siro, tighten the leather. Now!" she commands, pushing the engineers aside.
Weeks later, the workshop is a symphony of humming wheels and matrons spitting for luck. Gaius and Aulus watch from the balcony as production explodes.
"We buy more," Gaius declares. "Every fleece in Campania. We bail out the region, Aulus. And Marcus—the Houses will remember whose mind turned this wheel."