Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 98 - Recognition

As the women were bustling around to pick up the supplies to make the morning breakfast and bake some bread (since the bread was given away last night to the nomads), the Shadows who were working the sawmill in the night after the merriment had ended finished their shift and had done some housekeeping before the day shift takes over.

Sawdust was piled and wheeled away to the clay bricks production area. Strops of bark and wood from the sides of the planks were compiled in the woodcutter area to be dried and transferred to the common cooking ground and the firing place.

In fact, the night shift personnel that were working the sawmill throughout the night had completed all the logs that had turned to planks as well as those planks that were made a few days ago were all trimmed and ready for use.

Their work was considered as top-notch and we were happy to find the place spruced up for the daily operations to begin. However, work can only commence after the morning briefing.

The men had started to stir from their rest and prepared their children as well. That was the time when the nomads had cleared their camp and were heading to enter the village. I had just stirred from my sleep when the nomads had already gathered in the courtyard and were looking around the place with looks of astonishment and surprise.

"Is this a small village? The whole courtyard was filled with stores and facilities and was well obscured from the prying eyes. This was actually a fully operational town, if not for the whole population of just 53 citizens...!" the nomads thought to themselves and noticed how self-sustaining the small village was.

"Mac, do you think we entered the village a bit too early this morning? I mean, their Lord is still asleep and hadn't woken up yet from his slumber. I think we might be disturbing him." a head of a young family voiced his thoughts aloud to their leader.

"It's alright, we can wait. An early bird catches the first worm. I might say, this village is rather fine and dandy. It's like a small town and it would be a shame to still call it as a village. Oh... Here comes the Lord, I think." the leader stopped what he was chatting and pouted his lips as if it was his way of pointing without using his fingers.

All eyes were on me as I came out of the house, brushed my teeth and then dressed for breakfast. I saw that the nomads were actually sitting in opposite directions and were facing the residential lots instead of the bamboo 'throne'.

Their livestock was not with them so I guess they must have left near the camp where they had parked their wagons and all. "Good morrow everyone...! Hope you had a hearty meal yesterday. How are your children? Do they have enough of those sugary pretzels and cheesy breadsticks last night?"

"I could inform our bakers to bake some more for the children later on." I casually greeted and remarked to the nomads, with Heather by my side who coiled her arms around mine, as we walked along with sheaves of papers and our writing materials.

"Good morrow too, Sir. We had a hearty meal last night, thanks to your generosity. The young 'uns are quite alright, sir. They had their share of the fine treats you provided for them and we thank you for the meals you had presented to us."

"This is the first time we had been treated with such kind thoughts from a Lord, Sir. I and the rest express their gratitude." the leader replied and slightly bowed to me and Heather as we took our seats at an outdoor dining table and shifted it so that we could face them as we converse.

I observed that the group of nomads were watching the bustling activities around them as they sat on the benches. There were lots of infants as well as young kids and how I wished that these people could change their minds and decided to become citizens of GraceHaven, instead of roaming around aimlessly for months and years to come.

The nomads observed that the young man before them might be the son of the village chief and deduced that the eldest member of the citizens to be the parents of that youth that were sitting before them.

The more they observed, the more comprehensive they seemed as they knew that they could neither be fixing any of the everyday household items here since we have our own blacksmith.

Besides, they observed that even as a town, we were still using clay products to prepare our food and everyone seemed to be happy with their activities as they laughed and joked around.

After a while, they noticed two large smoke rising up in the air coming from within the residential lots and there was a familiar smell of semi-dried out underbrush and kindling. The nomads thought nothing of it and thought it was a normal thing to do.

There was a lot of hushed discussions among them and when it had quietened down, I raised my hand and addressed the nomads.

"I am the Lord of this village, also might be known as the chief Village or some similarities in your terms. May I know who is the leader of the chief here?" I had thought of the right words before I formed them through my lips.

"I am here, my Lord, Sir. I am a Macintosh and I head this group for more than 20 years now. We are called the Irish Travellers, also known as nomads by you." an elder man stood up and slightly bowed before he answered.

"Just the term 'Sir' would be fine. You had been travelling for 20 years... That was before I was even born. This is Lady Heather, my wife and also my personal assistant to manage things when I am not around." Heather was introduced and she gently bowed her head towards them.

"W-H-A-T...??? A person by the name of Lady Heather had just bowed her head to us, nomads? We were considered as an outcast by the "Borders" and had never received such a welcome before, much less of the untouched food that they had feasted last night even...!" these thoughts raced through everyone's minds as they looked at the two youths before them and was wondering if this was a dream nor a fantasy.

"Sir, breakfast is ready. Shall we serve the guests along with the rest of the citizens?" wife of the Chadwells came forward and bowed before she addressed the situation.

"Please do serve our guests first, our citizens can wait their turn after this. Furthermore, those children must be hungry and we do not seem to have enough chairs and table at the moment." when the nomads heard that they were referred as guests and not pikeys or minkiers as what they were used to be called, they were equally stumped.

Do the nomads eat before the citizens and the Lord of the village?!? Is this truly happening or what?!

"Call Jennings over, please. I need to have a word with her." I added before sending Chadwell away.

"No... No, Sir. Your citizens must have their meals first. We are just a lowly nomad that normally people would not even give a second look." their leader blurted out the truth and that made me raise my eyebrows and looked directly to them.

"No, you are all our guests so you should provide first. It has been out customary. Besides, we do not have enough chairs and tables as well as bowls and spoons to share with. Hahaha. Please forgive us for the inadequacy." I apologetically informed the nomads as they watched huge clay serving bowls were carried to the tables and bowls were swiftly laid out 10 on each table complete with a ladle and spoon on its side.

They noticed that the bowl was made from clay and the spoons were made from bamboo. It's kind of backward since the village or town had a blacksmith and this Lord should be getting the blacksmith to make vast iron cauldrons, ladles or even spoons. But bamboo? Only those backward, improperly structured villages or even small settlement would use such cutlery.

"Yes sir, what can we be of service?" Jennings greeted me as she wiped her hands on a rag where her hands were a bit whitish from kneading flour just now.

"Oh, make several rounds of those sugar-coated pretzels for those children and ours. I'm sure they both would like to eat them while they socialise during the morning conference."

"Yes Sir, I would use two ovens while the other two would be for bread this morning and midday," Jennings replied affirmatively and then scooted off to prepare the bread that I wanted. I too loved the sugary coated pretzels since Jennings had squeezed the cane sugar and extracted the sweet juice.

Ben had made a device specially to squeeze the cane sugar by shaping two rollers with just a quarter of an inch space in between them and were stacked on top of one another.

A manual hand crank was set on the top of the roller and when the cane sugar was inserted into it, the pulp got crushed and the juice would slowly be drained into a collection pan underneath it.

The juice could be drunk as it is or boiled down to produce a kind of syrup and that syrup was the one that was made into a coating for the pretzels. Children loved it, and so do we...!

So the nomads were seated at the dining tables before me and had their meals as they fed their young children. Mulberry tea was served, salvaged just before my house was dismantled and replanted near the riverbanks.

The tea looked a bit reddish and was sweetened with a bit of heavy syrup. In the end, copious servings of tea had been washed down their throats while the ladies made a few more cauldrons of it.

After the meals, the ladies from the nomad group helped to clear the table and then it was our turn to eat. They observed that none touch the bowl until the last person had sat down. They were surprised that the village's Lord joined the same table as their citizens to have their own meal and only started to eat once I raised the ladle to scoop, not for himself but to his wife first.

Totally quite the opposite, one might say...!

After a hearty meal, the dining table was cleared and everyone moved to the benches. As there wasn't enough space, the residents have no choice but remained at the dining tables while the guests sat in the be chew instead.

Since our guest had occupied the first few benches in front of other citizens, I greeted the citizens and soon, I welcomed the guest once more.

"First and foremost, I would like to thank Macintosh here, leader of the Irish Travellers, also known as the nomads to be here and present in our little humble village." hearing them being thanked in public out a certain ki d of embarrassment look on the a.d.u.l.t faces.

They were being treated with respect and hospitality ever since they had set foot on the perimeter of this village since the night before...! They felt proud and was deeply elated inside their hearts.

One word to sum it all: R-E-C-O-G-N-I-T-I-O-N