Chapter 12

Surprisingly Alexis started off on the right foot in her early days as queen of the realm. In the following four months she was able to put the taxes into the royal treasury. She summoned several men from other kingdoms who lost more than Billingsly to her army, giving any man who signed up and pledged allegiance to her five silver pieces of a newly minted coin, and gave the serfs their freedom with the promise of giving them more land to till.

By October, the realm prospered more than expected. Alexis took to the bow again. She practiced with Thomas every morning as the sun came up.

She attended church every Sunday to be an example to her subjects. She enjoyed the hymns and the lecture from Father Jude. She was always escorted by one of her generals or by Thomas. A place was given to her so she could see both the minister and the congregation. She had gowns that showed her royalty but no expensive jewelry. She had a smaller crown made that was on her head, gold but not jeweled. Being a widow, she always wore darker colors to show others that she too had suffered loss as they did.

A year went by while her reign continued to prosper as many of the smaller kingdoms surrounding Billingsly cast a covetous eye upon the land seeing its assets grow. The soil for raising crops were the best around. Billingsly stock in cattle, sheep, swine and horses increased.

Their coffers swelled with revenues. She had many of the freedmen take down their rotting huts to build homes of wood and stone. The lumber that Lord Billingsly had not permitted to cut, she freely gave them her permission to cut in the forest. Besides, she wanted to clear the area for travelers and merchants from being ambushed by robbers and murderers. Alexis also improved the castle by adding heavy wooden shutters on all the open windows to cut down on the cold. By the end of that year, all improvements were done. Now it was ready to prepare for any war that was on the horizon.

Word came to them that the pestilence had taken a heavy toll on all the kingdoms. The Queen had Thomas teach all males over ten archery.

The men were required to learn how to use the sword, spear and staff.

Alexis also practiced with the bow daily. Her hope was that there be no conflict but she was readying her people for that eventuality. She vowed that she'd never be the aggressor. She thought of everything and prepared for it.

It was in her bed at night she felt the loneliness of missing her late husband and the children. She often wept for them longing to be in his arms making love to him. Theirs was a short and happy marriage. She even wondered if she could ever love a man again.