Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 92 - The Flying Colours

Michelle was standing at the courtyard when she was greeted by her surprised comrades. "Hey girl, what are you doing out here? Aren't you supposed to be on house arrest? Why are you here out in the open, looking somewhat lost?" Nolan pounced on her back as she was standing there as if she was waiting for someone.

"I've got released by Bishop Levingstone just now. He told me to come to the courtyard so that I would be turned to work at the loom." Michelle explained as she twirled around, and was glad as she was finally out from her captivity.

"Heh, don't you go around and make blunders. We will be here to save you no more. You are going to be a loomer? You can't even see that tear to cover your blade of grass before...!" Oscar chided her and laughed when she was seen through that tear and showed her knickers instead.

"Hush, you old fool. If you don't want me to make blunders, then you two shouldn't be starting any for me. Oh, here's Bishop Levingstone now." Michelle waved her hands as she tiptoed as if the courtyard was too small for her to be noticed.

The two comrades of hers scampered away quickly so they would not be looked upon as mucking around, even though they weren't and so the duo returned to the weaving production area and to prepare the next batch of prefabricated building materials for the houses.

By this time, the 12 houses had been completed and there are 36 houses erected altogether on the residential lots where 17 houses were occupied while the rest were waiting for occupancy.

"Come with me, I will introduce your new head of loomer and she would be guiding you how you would be coping in the next few days." Eagle was not about to take any nonsense from Michelle and he quickly ushered her in and introduced them to Chadwell the head loomer and Innes the head tailor.

After a short brief of introduction and instructions, Eagle left and informed Ben that Michelle is now reporting to the loomer and would be deployed there until further notice.

"Thanks, mate, so she is out of the boiling cauldron, eh? No worries, I will inform the two head to keep an eye on her." Ben replied to Eagle as he went ahead to arrange the Firewood that he had chopped and set aside to dry. It would take a week or more for it to be dry since it was cut from a green trunk. But since it was halved and quartered, the process of drying is much faster.

"Thank you so much, Ben, catch you later then." Eagle tapped on Ben's shoulder as he went about to attend his own task.

=*=

"Hi, I am the tailor here. Even though there isn't much to do at the moment, but I already had made a few flags for him to replace the one at the windmill by daybreak." Innes showed the full flag of Darlington with pride and cannot wait for it to be fluttered in the next following day.

"I am the head loomer here. Come inside, let me clarify how the loom works and you could be in your way to create your first project. There are some foot and a half before dinner time so we need to hurry since we would be preparing meal tonight. Innes, what's cooking tonight?"

"I am not certain, but I think we should be having bread and then we might be having creamed mushroom soup or creamed corn soup or black pepper soup with potatoes and other vegetables. We yet have the wild boar's meat so we would just see what's on the table and wait for Kayla's instruction then."

"Oh, alright then. OK, young lady, this is an original loom to make cloth of fur, cotton and silk. But with slight modifications, these threads were originally meant for fur, but right now it is being made of a thread of jute." Chadwell started to narrate the Fundamentals of her own loom.

"So this part here is..." Chadwell proceeded to narrate about the functions of the loom, the pedals and how it works. "Sit here and I will lead you on how you should operate this loom." Chadwell informed her the initial steps and how the Reed stalk would be inserted and closed off and tied every string in a kind of macrame knot-tying.

After a few trials and error and getting the sequences right, Michelle was apt to insert a few strips of bamboo and had successfully made the loom and secured the first few strips. It was a monotonous job, but at least there's someone to talk to instead of counting the weaves on the walls.

"Hah... You finally got it. You're smart. But don't get it to your head too much, young lady. By the way, why did you join conscript? Was it after your studies or for some other reasons like broken-hearted or something like that?" Chadwell nudged the sides of Michelle in a jokingly manner but she just smiled and did her best to perform her looming.

Listening to their chatter is better than hearing the crickets. Besides, Michelle was introvert when she was with her own gender but with the right people, she definitely would be talkative. At this moment, she used her best abilities and that was: observation.

=*=

"Hoh...! Michelle... What a surprise. What are you doing here? Are you supposed to be house arrested and watching the spiders in the corners of the roof, spinning webs and trying to catch a fly with its web or something?" Heather walked in and was surprised when she saw Michelle, her arch-rival back in York.

"I just got released and I was told to come here to learn how to loom. How about you? Feeling so carefree and walking around just like Her Majesty. Hmph..." Michelle snorted as she continues her looming.

"Hmph... So what if I walk around like Her Majesty? At least I am dirtying my hands and rolling up my sleeves, unlike you... In your household, you just lift a finger and your servants will be swarming over you..." Heather simply stated the truth and that made Chadwell and Innes gasped in shock.

"Michelle is really a noble?! Why did she end up in the conscript and how many people knew her as one? No wonder her demeanour was slightly off compared to a commoner." whispered Innes to Chadwell when the latter sidled next to her as she had finished her looming.

"Just how many nobles are there in this village? I'm truly surprised and these nobles are just like us commoners where they work and toil side by side with us. I really wonder...." Chadwell responded to Innes and can't help thinking about other hidden nobles out here in this village.

"Alright, Michele, I am not here to observe your work but I'm checking the progress for the banner that I need to fetch. Innes, is the banner for the entrance to the village ready?" Heather asked as she saw a pile of cloth that had some crest if the famous two-headed winged eagle on the tailor's work table.

"Here they are, Lady Heather. These are the vertical banners that Sir wanted. These to be put at the entrance of the village here? No wonder Sir wanted it to be longer and the crest was turned upright instead. Little did I expect this banner is for the front village to display its identity. Who will be putting these up, Lady Heather?"

"Secretary and his men would put it up. Would you mind fold it up so I could bring it to them later on? It's going to be dinner time so we better prepare right after this. Thank you so much, Innes." Heather then received the folded banners as it was folded in a kind of triangular shape.

Two T-shaped banner posts made from bamboo poles had been ready and this banner would be displayed prominently just outside the residential lots' entrance. This would mark the spot where merchants and visitors would normally come by.

=*=

"Here you go Eagle, the vertical banners from the tailor is ready." Heather passed two vertical banners to Eagle as he unfurled each one of them and nodded approvingly.

"This is perfect, just the way it should be. May the spirits of those Darlingtoners love on as this banner flutters valiantly with its colours." Eagle held the banner like as if he was cradling a baby before he halved and folded them up in a triangular shape.

"Thank you so much, Lady Heather, by the way, could you inform His Majesty that I would like to have an attendance with the 4 of us regards to the education of our townfolks? It is going to be a brainstorming session for the 4 of us." Eagle requested to Heather as she nodded her head.

"Wait... The 4 of us? Who is the other one?" Heather was thinking to herself and she spoke aloud to Eagle in which he replied, "Oh... Just milady wait and see then. I am sure you would be in for a pleasant surprise."

=*=

After dinner, the citizens gathered around for the nightly conference and I was spearheading it as usual. I made a formal announcement for the 5 newly arrived engineers and briefed the citizens of the ongoing sawmill operations than would operate in both day and night.

"With the running operations of the sawmill on both days and night, we would be able to achieve or targets within the next coming 3 days. As the engineers had earlier forecasted, they had been chopping down at least 35 trees per day within the vicinity of the domain."

I explained to the residents to not being alarmed of the activities that would be going on within the courtyard after hours.

"Sir, most of the priorities had been completed, the defensive structures, the watchtowers, the new residential houses and the ongoing of projects for the domain. Would we check with the Domestic Affairs Minister of he would like us to mine for more ores and coal to standby in the future?" asked one of the miners who was currently assigned to assist the clearing of the forest.

"Industry Minister and Domestic Affair Ministers, do you have any questions to be raised so far? Would releasing the 6 men back to the mines be any problem?" I pointed out to the ministers concerned and the duo discussed among themselves to decide for the release of the 6 men.

The work around the clearing of trees around the domain had been very smooth lately and to reduce the redundancy of the extra manpower, both the ministers agree to let them head to the mines instead.

"Alright, that settles it then. The miners would be heading to the mines from tomorrow onwards and they would be gathering three 50 pounders sack of ores and one 50 pounders of coal per trip. Would that be enough, Domestic Affairs Minister?" I looked at old Jack and after he pondered and counted with the rings of his fingers, he finally replied.

"Yes Sir, that would be enough. 3 pieces of ores could be made into a single piece of pig iron and that could be used to make small tools and parts. To make weapons or other bigger tools, it would require at least 3 pig irons or more."

I nodded and once everyone had shared with the citizens of the progress and plans for tomorrow, everyone was dismissed. Eagle, Heather, a rather feminine figure and I stayed behind.

"Sir, we would like to discuss the education matters for GraceHaven and I do hope to have your views on it." Eagle sat down before me and announced of the subject that would be the interest of all citizens as the former took out his plannings that he had penned earlier before the conference.