The Medieval Marine Part Eleven

CHAPTER XLIX

The next morning, Marion woke up terrified and alone. It had been a long night for her because she had almost constant nightmares. Images of Gabriel on fire and Luke hanging from a tree, gutted; filled her head. Also, images of Pollyanna giving birth and her child split open on a pike while still attached by the umbilical cord; her own child being tossed into a pig pen and being eaten alive also flew around her head. All this while she was tied to a stake so unable to do anything about any of this. Her cries just garnished cheers from the crowd who were being led be Cecilia. Marion had even begged to be killed but nobody would take the couple of seconds to kill her. On more than one occasion during the night; Marion had woken up screaming bloody murder, only to realize that she was safe in her bed and Luke’s strong arms were wrapped around her. Finally, she woke up for the day and she realized that she had been sweating all night for she was very tacky and the sheets were soaked.

Looking out the window, Marion figured that it was almost ten in the morning. ‘Shit’ she thought for she had a lot of work that she had to do today. Marion managed to drag her feet out of bed and sit upright. Her head was pounding and she felt very warm and weak. This was the worst she had felt since she had gotten extremely sick when she was young. It took her almost five minutes to crawl out of bed and make it to where Luke had installed a water faucet. Eventually he claimed that he would have hot and cold water available but for now it was only cold. He got the water there by using the steam engine that he had to power his shop, to pump water up to the roof of the castle, where he had put large tanks in to hold the water. This way the entire castle could have running water and he would only need to pump the water up there once a day, usually in the evening. Luke had even managed to hook these water tanks into a primitive fire suppression system for the castle. He was still working on making enough flushing toilets for everyone, but there was enough in place to manage and nobody had to use chamber pots anymore. As this plumbing was coming online, the seasonal diseases that usually made their yearly appearance were absent this year in locals where the sanitation system had been upgraded.

Marion threw water in her face in an attempt to wake herself up. It took some time but the cold water plus the sunlight started to work their magic on her. After she had washed her face, she went over to the window where she let the warm sunlight drench her nude body. As she slowly moved around, her hair began to flow again and started catching the morning light sending golden rays through the room. The warmth of the sun felt so good on her skin that she almost fell asleep standing up. The warmth also helped to loosen up her stiff muscles. After twenty minutes of standing in the sun she felt good enough to get dressed and to go get some work done.

The first order of business today was to find out everything about the turncoat guard. Marion walked into her office, only to find Gabriel and Luke hard at work. As she came through the door Luke said without looking up:

“You don’t need to worry about that turncoat guard anymore. We had him executed this morning after we pumped him for information. It looks like he was a greedy bastard who also didn’t like the fact that you have such a close relationship to Gabriel or to me for that matter. He still thought that Cecilia should still be the ruler for “she was born first and it was her right”.”

At this Luke scoffed and refocused on the paperwork in front of him. He had already gone through all of his paperwork for that morning. Since the main body of the army was on their way back home, they didn’t make an overwhelming amount of work for Luke. Gabriel in the meantime was going through the intelligence reports from their spies that they had all over England. Right now, the only threat to them was from the area around Sheffield and once the army had got back in a couple of days, that threat would diminish greatly. They knew that nobles in the area had teamed up and were rapidly building a large army to take on Marion.

After Marion had been filled in on everything, she nodded and went off to check on Pollyanna. She was in better spirits this morning for she was actually feeling pretty good for once so she was able to actually get some work of her own done. Marion stayed and talked with Pollyanna until it was lunchtime. After lunch Marion, Gabriel, and Luke toured the town to see what all was going on. This took much longer than it used to because the town was so busy. It seemed like on every street corner someone was trying to sell something. The whole place was now more like one big market. All these sights and sounds made Marion smile. Not only was the town more alive now but with all this commerce going on, her tax coffers were going to swell. Most people barely recognized them for there were so many new people in town that most had only heard de***********ions so vague that Marion could be standing right in front of them and they wouldn’t know it. Before they went back for the evening, they bought stuff for dinner. After dinner, Luke continued to work on Alice’s new tools and the solar water heaters that he had been tinkering with.

Life for Marion continued much in this same way for the next week. At least her nightmares were calming down and she was actually able to get through the night without screaming. Her army made it back safe and sound and she had given most of them a week’s leave so that they could visit with their families or just relax. Many of the soldiers also had a lot of loot from this expedition and they were eager to spend it. Some got drunk, some used it to pay off debts, some used it to buy a piece of land for themselves, and still others were thinking about starting a family of their own. Speaking of family, Marion had also made sure to spend time with her small family. She really enjoyed watching Luke play with their daughter and after some warming up, Marion enjoyed playing as well. Luke had even moved their daughter into their chambers so that they could help take care of her. Marion was confused by this but figured that it was important to Luke so she didn’t complain about it too much.

CHAPTER L

It was the during the first week of May that the noble who had proposed through his brother made it to York and he was amazed at just how much wealth had found its way into the city. In fact, Marion wasn’t even bothering to rebuild the walls for she had decreed that the town would grow in that direction first. This would give her time to have the rest of the walls demolished. First, some of Pollyanna’s engineers would go out and lay out the new section of town. Then crews would start excavating for the sewer and water system. Since there were no such thing as environmental reviews or any of that BS, the crews were able to work fast. After the underground infrastructure had been put in place, the roads would be put in on top and then the buildings could be built. The two nobles and their entourage managed to get themselves lost for the city was changing so rapidly. They also had themselves a run in with Marion’s new city police force. They had been stopped be someone directing traffic away from a construction area and the nobles didn’t like a commoner telling them what to do and they took offense. The commoner fought back against the nobles and this attracted the attention of a pair passing officers. The officers listened to both sides of the story and then gave the nobles two options: apologize to the commoner or spend the night in jail. The nobles attempted to make themselves a third option but this was slammed shut when the officers beat the crap out of the entourage. The nobles then apologized and were on their way with proper directions this time.

At the castle gates, the nobles were forced to disarm. It was here that they learned of the assassination attempt and Marion was done with taking chances. Once in the castle, they were still further amazed since it seemed like every square centimeter of castle was having work done to it. The nobles watched as copper pipes were put in for fresh water and iron pipes to haul away waste. Plate glass windows were also being put in. This was something else that Luke had introduced. Sure, windows had existed before but they were all handmade and inconsistent. That inconsistency offended Luke’s engineering soul so he had started doing stuff about it. One of the results was the windows. Once they had managed to make their way to the great hall where most nobles did business and Marion had spoken with the brother; they learned that Marion conducted her business from an office down the hall. Stepping through the office door, the nobles were almost ran over by workers. Men and women were going in every which direction carrying reports and other papers. Many more people were working from desk filling out reports. They were escorted to the back of the room where they were met by a large door with two very fearsome looking guards on it and never mind that one of the guards was a woman. After the nobles explained just who they were, one of the guards opened the door and stuck their head in. The nobles were just able to hear the guard announce their presence. The guard then told them to go right in but the entourage would have to stay outside. They were directed to a comfortable lounge where they could wait. All through this the nobles were having a hard time containing themselves for most of the women working were showing much more skin than they were used to seeing outside of a whorehouse. The older one’s composer was almost completely undone when he seen Marion and Gabriel for the first time. He had been warned by the younger brother but the older one didn’t quite believe him and now seeing Marion he could see that his younger brother didn’t exaggerate anything and it anything wasn’t kind enough toward the ladies’ beauty. It didn’t help that the way Gabriel was bent over, the men could see right down her blouse that she was wearing and they could watch her breast gently sway back and forth.

Marion in the meantime was busy with some paperwork and hadn’t even looked up yet.

“Why don’t the two of you have a seat” she pointed to a couple of chairs across from her “and I will be with you in a minute”

Marion finished what she was working on and looked up. The older noble had to catch his breath for Marion was breathtaking. Her eyes were shimmering and her hair was reflecting the light with golden rays. She had a very light tan and her lips were bright red. The shirt that she had one hugged her curves nicely and the necklace that she was wearing matched her eyes.

“What can I help you two gentlemen with today?” Marion asked. Gabriel then left the room with a stack of papers and gently closed the door.

“We have come back to discuss my wedding proposal with you.”

“Ah” Marion said as she leaned back in her chair. “And what exactly are you proposing again? Sorry but I have had a very busy week.”

“That is quite alright lass. I am proposing you marrying me. After the wedding your lands will then be under my protection and I assure you they would be quite safe for I have the most powerful army in the midlands at my disposal.”

“So, what will happen to my people if I were to marry you?”

“They would also be under my protection.”

“I see.” The nobles were really quite happy with themselves for they figured that Marion was about to give in. “So, what would happen if I refuse to marry you?”

“My army will invade and lay waste to everyone before it.”

“I see” Marion said without emotion “So you are trying to extort my hand in marriage?”

“No, not at all milady. I just want to see the people of this province under strong leadership so that they are not tempted to stray.” Marion nodded and gave them a warm smile.

“Well milords it seems that you leave me no choice” The two nobles smiled at hearing this. “Let me ask you two idiots something?” The warmth in Marion’s voice vanished “Do either of you know what this ring on my finger means?” With this Marion held her left hand up and showed off her ring that Luke had given her. “Well do you?”

“No, we do not.”

“Well, “gentlemen” this ring means that I am already married and I am very happy.” She then called toward a closed door off to her left “Luke, honey, can you step in here for a minute?”

“Seriously Marion? I’m about to be buried in paperwork.”

“Just for a minute. Pleassse?”

“Fine.” Seconds later the door opened and through it came the biggest man the nobles had ever seen in their lives. Not only that but this big man was in some kind of uniform. “What’s up sweetheart”

“These are the nobles that I was telling you about the other week.” She then turned back to face the nobles. “Gentlemen, meet my husband; General Luke MacDougall.” The nobles were now petrified for this ogre looked like he could pick them up, throw them out, and get them to fly over the city walls.

“So, you want my wife’s hand in marriage? I must say you don’t look like much and I bet that neither of you could possibly keep up with her for she is extremely active in bed and every other flat surface now that I think about it.” Marion snickered at this and earned herself dagger looks from the nobles. The older one went for his sword forgetting that it had been seized when he entered the castle gates. Marion bent over and picked up two swords. She unsheathed them and threw one of them to Luke. He kind of looked at the sword.

“You call this letter opener a sword, sweetheart?” He retreated into his office for a second and came out with a large object. He tossed Marion’s sword back to her and unsheathed his sword. It was almost three feet long, but in his hands was a single-handed sword. The sword itself was beautiful with the wavy lines running through the steel of the blade and the polished brass of the hilt and pommel. “Now this is a sword” he said smiling in his cold way. The nobles were growing more terrified by the second and the younger one was ready to piss his pants for he had never been so scared in his life and he had been in a large number of battles. When he looked at his older brother, the look that greeted him shook him out of his paralysis for his older brother was beyond scared. The younger one’s diplomatic skills then came into play.

“We are deeply sorry if we have offended you in any way Milady Marion, but we didn’t know that you were already married and when I last met you didn’t give any clue that you were.”

“Actually, I did. If you had bothered to look past my tits, I have been wearing this ring ever since I was married to Luke last winter. Now gentlemen if nothing else we really need to get back to work. Oh, one more thing. You two will have a heavy escort on your way out for I want none of the women who work for me attacked. I heard all about your roaming stares during your last visit.”

With that Marion called for her guards. “See these two gentlemen and their entourage out of York if you will please. If they try anything funny; kill them, no questions will be asked.”

The guards snapped to attention “Yes, ma’am.” To the nobles “this way if you please”

The nobles turned and almost fled out of the room. They collected their entourage and high tailed it out of York. They didn’t stop running until they were kilometers away. When they were sure that they were far enough away the older one exploded:

“The fucking cunt treat me like that! I will teach her the meaning of the word respect if I have to whip it into her!”

The younger brother agreed fully with him. “We need to go talk to Duke Vincent for I heard that he recently had one of his plots stopped by Marion and it was one that had cost him dearly.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” exclaimed the older brother.

He and Vincent weren’t exactly friends but in no way were they enemies. If the bothers approached him with an offer of alliance against Marion, they knew that he would agree and this would give the combined army a strength of almost ten thousand men with a number being men-at-arms and knights.

CHAPTER LI

Gabriel came back in the door with more papers to find Marion with her legs wrapped around Luke’s waist.

“Hey!