Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 69 -.Uh Oh...

The next following day.

Everyone participated in helping their children pull all the readied clay bricks that had been fired to a simple open-aired stall in the courtyard to display these bricks and use it to build the baking oven.

Jack had made a simple plan drawn in papyrus and I helped to make the measurements so that it would be equally sized. The rear partition of the brewery was dismantled and set aside. Using bamboo as its main structure while using reed stalks and woven screw pine thatched walls, any building would be able to be extended in any size they deemed fit.

Since the Jennings is going to be a Baker and she has her own house to return to, it was normal for other towns to build a second level to house their bakers and apprentices. However, as of now, it would be better to have a single floor unit as having a second level above the heated ovens might prove to be a fire hazard.

Work continued for the rest of them and the engineers assisted in getting the ovens up. They had used clay to fix the 'legs' of the oven. Frank had felled a tree and Ben had made several thin planks as a support for the base of the oven. As the whole oven was to be made entirely from clay bricks, the whole construction only takes up half a day with the help of 4 engineers, Jack and an assistant.

Clay was used to cover the leg supports as well as the base of the oven while the metal wire racks inside the oven were used temporarily as a support for the top of the oven by using a few thin planks and some bamboo to hold the top oven in place.

The construction of the oven may take half a day but it would need 2 to 3 days before it is fully cured and then fired to ensure that the insides would be bisque dry and more clay would be added to cover the cracks if any.

As I was observing the construction of the long baking oven, Sir Blackie went into Overdrive and barked excitedly, ran a few circles in the ground as if it was chasing its tail and then stood on his haunches. If Ben was playing his lute, I am sure Sir Blackie would have danced along with him...!

"They have arrived, sir...!" one of the engineers mentioned it to me and went back to his work as if it was not a big deal to him for his leader's return. May be its due to his discipline not to get so worked up while Sir Blackie ran and stood before the defensive structure, wagging its tail and tongue out of his mouth.

Crystal who was at the enclosures went to pull one of the defensive structures aside and wife enough for the incoming wagon to slip through. She saw Levingstone also known as Eagle waving his hand and she waved back while Sir Blackie ran up to the wagon and pranced in front of the horse as it neighs and snorted in reply.

As though Sir Blackie was talking, "Your friends were having a time of their life here, you know. Crystal made a new bread for the horses to eat and they seemed to enjoy it. There were wheat hulls, vegetables, fruits and all sorts of goodness a horse like you would really love to eat."

"Oh is it? I would also like to have a loaf of that. It's been a harrowing experience since I missed getting the right nutrients for the past few days. Luckily they had gruel and shared with me 2 pounds of wheat. At least that could give me the strength to pull this overladen wagon." neighed the horse in Horse-talk to Sir Blackie.

"Yeah, yeah... Go on over to the courtyard and get yourself unhooked and rest for a day or two. I see you there. Glad to have you back with us...!" replied Sir Blackie in his usual prancing and excited barks as he raced ahead of the wagon as if telling the horse to hurry up and send the goods there and time to relax after some hard day's work.

I went over to the enclosure and Eagle disembarked as he walked along with me to chat. Sparrow traversed the wagon as the 3 people handling the handcarts seemed to push them with a lifeless look in their eyes. It's not a training for the guardsmen, but a T-O-R-T-U-R-E...

"Good morn, Sir. We have arrived and the covert mission is a success. You can come and visit the windmill to retrieve the items required. By the way, there are 3 survivors from Gillman's. They would be your new subjects, sir. Those are the walking dead, pushing those handcarts."

"My, they looked terribly worn out. Didn't you had a rest earlier?" I asked and counted 6 barrels, quite numerous sacks and an assortment of weapons.

"Yes, we did. But we moved out earlier than the rooster crow and had estimated our time of arrival here. I should have listened to you to get an extra horse-drawn a carriage. But I won't be able to assess these 3 guardsmen then. Their camp was initially hit before they could react, thus no support troops were sent from Gillman to Darlington to reinforce its defences."

"Oh...That explains the non-existence of external troops that evening. How are they, I mean the last rites? Did it went well?"

"Yes Sir, in fact, it went extremely well. I had retrieved their signs of royalty, the crown, coronet and tiara plus an assortment of rings, bracelets and amulets. Plus I retrieved the long sword, the crest and 4 flags. There's your pouch and also the savings that you had since the day I reminded you to save till the day you stopped savings."

"Always save for a rainy day, remember? That's your wealth that could be used to build this village." Eagle explained as we walked back to the study table as he sat across me to describe what he had taken and what he had done to pay the last respects in burying the remains.

The wagon soon parked itself next to the windmill as Sparrow soon took the bundles of the sack containing the clothes and their pieces of personal belongings, the longsword and crest as he placed them inside the windmill. He then led the rest of the team and the 3 survivors to meet with me once some refreshments were served. As it was nearing midday, Kayla decided to speed things up and serve lunch earlier.

"Why did you bring back father's crown and mother's coronet?"

"You will ascend a throne in time to come, maybe in a weeks time, a months time or even in 3 months time. I will be here to advise you about it. Both Your Lordship and Her Lady would ascend together."

"But I thought that the rebels would be..."

"The rebels kill for a sport. We only need to worry about the French but since we are so in the middle of two points, I don't think we would be meeting the French marauders soon. They are more interested in a kingdom, rather than villages."

"I suspected the rebels worked for the French to make things easier for them to gain a foothold here in our English lands. By the way, are the houses ready?"

"Just in a day or two, in fact, your men are assigned in the building of the bakery just of today. We got a lot of prefab materials for the houses since we planned to make another row of 12 houses totalling to 24 houses together."

I then explained the houses that had bamboo skids underneath to be used as defensive measures and also some stakes that I held in my hand. The stakes were one foot long. Sharpened and heated to make it sturdy. It would be inserted inside a hollow bamboo and laid inside a trench with the points pointing upwards.

A mound of soil would be placed before them so marauders would climb and then tries to jump across or fell inside the trenches and got impaled instead. It won't kill but it sure hurts slot and if the tips of these stakes were lined with faeces, it would lead to an infection once someone gets impaled with it.

"Your idea seems workable for these two sides of the village. The frontal attack mentioned would be countered measured by these houses that would be pushed against them and set fire. Unlike the idea, Sir. You really sounded like a way commander."

Eagle commended me after I explained the strategy for the defence of this village and as I wanted to explain more, Kayla called us for lunch and sounded the bamboo striker. "That's one foolproof handy alarm system. We could hang it for the watchtowers and in the ground."

"No need, these are better..." I handed Eagle a few whistles made by Ben and he finds it practical. The main alarm will be sounded from the watchtower, and thus will be echoed down to the night watchmen and down to the rest of the village.

During mealtime, everyone can't help but wonder how long these 3 guardsmen had last seen food as they were practically stuffing their faces, I mean R-E-A-L-L-Y stuffing their faces with freshly baked bread.

"Slow down, take it easy. Food is not going anywhere. If you eat too fast, your bread would come out from your flaring nostrils instead...!" I advised amidst the chuckling of the rest of the citizens around.

"Sorry, Sir. We had not met another living person for about 3 months. Our ration had run out before that and we had to hunt rats and other game to feed ourselves." Nolan explained to the general audiences.

"This food before us is much better than those cooked in our cookhouse. We are truly grateful for your hospitality.' Nolan spoke up as he swallowed the bread that he had soaked in his mushroom gravy after stuffing his face with some boiled potatoes.

I noticed at the corner of my eye that the lady guardsmen were watching me intently and furrowing her eyebrows. Despite that, she directed spoonfuls of potatoes and gravy inside her mouth and she looked like an overfeeding goldfish or a hamster.

She saw that our eyes locked and she bowed her head, almost touching her noel a d began to chew her food and swallow. Frankly speaking, if I had not seen another human for many months and have to rely on eating what you kill, I would surely be eating like them too.

"Sir Victory, that's what your horse should be called," I called out to Eagle even though I broke the rule of no discussion during meal times. Eagle nodded and now we have Sir Hope, Sir Resolute, Sir Justice and Sir Victory amidst the Knights with 4 hoofs.

After the meal, we had a short introductory briefing where the 3 guardsmen were seated before the citizens as Heather and I sat on our 'throne'. After the two men had introduced themselves it was the lady guardsman turn as she stood up walked a few steps and then went down on one knee and clasped a closed fist over her heart before the citizens, while putting her head down slightly.

THIS COULD ONLY REPRESENT ONE THING...!

A SOLDIER'S SALUTE BEFORE A RULER...!!!

"Your Lordship, Prince Audemars Macleod, heir of the kingship, it is I, Michelle 'Belle' Ramsgate, Your Lordship's fellow student together in the university. I am now a guardsman, and I am at your service, Your Lordship."

The air went perfectly still and the residents were all looking at each other, dumbfounded, surprised, shocked and even some women began to swoon and faint as all we could hear right now were the frogs in the lily pads croaking by the river banks.

"Uh... Oh..." I thought to myself as I too was looking at Eagle for some kind of help in this situation.