Chapter 43: Life Goes On

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost.

York, Great Britain. April 1076

Marion was busy with paperwork when her secretary knocked and informed her that Captain Morwenna was ready. When the captain entered the room, Marion couldn’t stifle her giggle because it looked like the captain wore every article of clothing she owned.

“What’s wrong, captain?” Marion asked after returning the captain’s salute.

“What’s wrong is it’s fucking freezing! When can I return to the Caribbean?”

“But you just got here, and today is pretty warm.”

“Bull! It was 30^oC the day I left. One could lay about without any clothing and be comfortable. If you want to go swimming, the water is comfortable and almost clear in many areas. Here, you get hypothermia if you try swimming outside a heated pool.”

Marion and Gabriella laughed. It wasn’t difficult to see Captain Morwenna spend a lot of time in the sun as her hair was almost white while her skin was a beautiful bronze color. From what Marion could see of her captain’s build, she immensely enjoyed swimming.

“As soon as your ships are loaded, you will return to the West but not Jamaica. This time, you will be headed to South America.” Marion pulled out a map and unrolled it on a nearby table. Morwenna recognized it instantly as a highly detailed map of the entire western hemisphere. “Your new mission will be to found a colony here,” Marion laid her finger at the mouth of the Amazon River. “At the mouth of the Amazon, this will allow trade over a vast area rich in natural resources.”

“What am I looking for?”

“Rubber, gold, copper, iron, nickel, gems, timber, fruits, vegetables...”

“Okay, I get it.” Morwenna laughed. “The region is loaded with resources.”

“Yep. Although, to your interest, Luke once told me the region was home to some of the world’s best beaches.”

“Really?” Morwenna didn’t have to fake her interest.

“Yes, but be careful, captain. This area is at the equator, so the sunlight is very strong. Also, I don’t want your people dropping like flies to unknown diseases.”

“That’s logical. What about the natives? I doubt they will let us build a city on their lands?”

“See if you can buy the land. Once sugar production takes off, Jamaica won’t be able to produce enough sugar to satisfy demand. Luke wrote to me that in his time, Brazil produced a large portion of the world’s sugar.”

“And if they are not willing to sell?”

“Try a different area until you find somewhere. It’s also possible you don’t encounter much in the way of native tribes. Before Luke left, we discussed this. As far as he remembers, there was no great civilization in the area. However, he is getting old; he may have forgotten a civilization,” Morwenna giggled with Marion before Marion continued. “If you go into the mountains, there are some impressive cultures, but not in the lower Amazon.”

“And if the natives attack?”

“Use your common sense, captain. Eliminate them and take their land. However, if I find out you provoked them to attack, you will be beached in Greenland for the rest of your career.”

“Understood. What forces will I have at my disposal?”

“I am sending a regiment of Marines since they have returned from the Med, plus a battalion of engineers and 500 civilians to begin building a settlement. You will have six trade ships, a cutter, and a patrol boat mother ship.” Each mother ship carried two squadrons of patrol boats and served as a home base where they could resupply and get serviced.

“Damn. Captured natives?”

“No slavery is tolerated outside the penal system. You know that. If you have captives, take them outside the captured territory and release them.”

“Yes, ma’am. When can I start?”

“Immediately. According to the reports, loading your ships will take a few weeks. I don’t need to warn you about hurricane season, do I?

“Hell no. I thought Luke was trying to scare me when he told me about their power. Having lived through one, I will tell you his stories don’t do the storms justice.” Marion smiled.

“Is there anything else, Captain?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Dismissed. Find yourself a heavier coat.”

“Can I borrow one? I don’t want to buy one, knowing I’m leaving for warmer weather in a few weeks.” Marion looked at the captain’s build.

“Gabby, do you have anything that would work?”

“I think so. Come on, captain. Let’s see if I have something warm enough for you.”

“Thank you, Colonel.”

Gabriella led Captain Morwenna out to find a warmer coat while Marion sat in her seat and pulled out Luke’s latest letter. The letter was from Luke, the husband, not Field Marshal MacDougall. Marion always found his personal letters more informative than his official correspondence. Luke had been promoted after his capture of Cairo.

In his letters, Luke let Marion know his unfiltered feelings about the various events in his reports. Most of the content of his letters was a mix of homesickness and discussion of the conditions he found. Luke hated the large number of slaves he found but was impressed by how cosmopolitan Alexandria and Cairo were. Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived near each other without trying to kill each other constantly, something he wasn’t used to in the 21^st century.

Luke also wrote about the blonde whore he had found and how she reinvented herself. After her physical, Aistė renewed her whoring, but as she slept with the British men, she was able to learn English. The men knew her history and often took time to help teach her, even when she wasn’t whoring. Once Aistė learned English well enough, she stopped whoring and enlisted in the army.

Marion put the letter away before Gabriella returned since she didn’t want Gabby to see how sad she was that Luke wasn’t around. Gabriella knew exactly how Marion felt since she felt the same way, but she allowed Marion to have her ‘secret.’ However, the world doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings, so everyone needs to continue moving forward.

Moving on for Marion meant traveling to Edinburgh to tour a new factory. The factory was a government arsenal to produce artillery. Leaving for the train, Marion and her escorts grabbed their safety gear since they would change on the way.

Pollyanna smiled when Marion stepped off the train. This factory was her brainchild, and she was proud of it. She had taken everything Luke had taught her and everything she knew about engineering in the 11^th century to build the most advanced factory in the world. Seeing her engineer’s ego, Marion only shook her head. After living with Luke for so long, Marion knew she had to make allowances for an engineer’s ego.

The group started their tour at the beginning of the process when steel billets were loaded into an oven. There, the billets were heated to 1200^oC over 12 hours. Once heated, a mandible was pushed through the billet to start forming the barrel. After the hole was formed, the billet was loaded into the chuck of a rotary forge.

Here, four powerful, synchronized hammers hit the billet simultaneously with 150 tons of force, lengthening and shaping the steel. After forging, the barrel was twice its starting length and had its general shape. It was also much tougher. Next, the barrels were allowed to cool before being reheated and quenched with water to harden the steel. Before the barrels went any further, they went for annealing to remove stresses formed by the heating and cooling.

The barrels warped with the heating and cooling, so each barrel went into a press that straightened it. The straightened barrel then went to be machined. First, the outside of the barrel was machined to provide a smooth surface for the following processes: boring and rifling. Before rifling, the inside of the barrel was reamed to produce a perfectly round barrel. After reaming, the barrel got its rifling cut in.

Once the barrel was rifled, it went to have the breach and the muzzle break attached. A muzzle break wasn’t attached if the barrel was for naval use. After assembly, the barrel entered the paint shop, where each barrel was cleaned, primed, and painted. The color of the top coat depended on where the barrel was destined to see service: green for Europe or the Americas, gray for naval, or tan for Egypt.

All barrels were then attached to carriages for testing. Each tube fired ten rounds to ensure everything was in working order. Then, if the gun had been ordered as a complete piece, it was cleaned and sent out with the carriage attached. Most tubes were removed from the carriage, then cleaned and packed in a large wood box with sawdust before being shipped to the unit that placed the order. There, the new tube would be swapped out with an old tube, and the old tube would be returned to the arsenal for refurbishment or recycling.

Not only did Marion see the process, she tried her hand at each step. It was her way of boosting worker morale and learning the process’s capabilities. By the time the tour was over, Marion was covered with dirt, oil, paint, and metal shaving because not only did she tour the manufacturing, but she also helped with the end-of-shift clean-up. Even her normally golden hair was black with grime. None of the workers could remember when any noble was so interested in what they did that they helped clean up. In one day, Marion secured the absolute loyalty of every worker in the plant.

Marion was so tired afterward that she slept on the train ride back to York, leaning against Gabriella. All the guards chuckled, seeing their monarch snoring against their commander’s shoulder. When they arrived in York, Gabriella woke Marion. Marion smacked her lips before giving her guards dirty looks. She figured out what their looks were for when she woke but was too tired to say anything. Back in their quarters, Gabriella helped Marion strip before guiding her into the shower to scrub the dirt off.

The soapy water falling off Marion’s body was black, and it took soaping her hair three times for Gabby to return it to its glorious golden color. Gabby wasn’t nearly as dirty and was clean when Marion finished. As Gabriella helped Marion dry off, Marion tried falling back to sleep, and it took Gabby everything she had to keep Marion awake long enough to climb into bed.

With the stress of a newborn child and touring the cannon factory, Marion slept for 24 hours. When she woke, Marion was disoriented until she took the time to clean the sleep out of her eyes. She was still confused by the light coming through the windows until Gabriella explained she had slept for 24 hours.

Now mentally exhausted, Marion decided to take a long weekend at her country estate. The children were thrilled to learn the family was going to the estate. They would have plenty of room to run and play without worrying about the restricted areas of the palace. Another benefit was the nannies and governesses wouldn’t be going since this was a family trip. The only extra people would be the security team that traveled everywhere with Marion.

Arriving at the estate, the four moms made the children take their luggage in before they could play. Gabriella, Alice, and Kukka were not in the mood for any of the children’s antics since they suffered from morning sickness. It made for interesting mornings with three women fighting for the toilet, but they wouldn’t have traded it for anything. Carrying Luke’s children meant everything to them, even Gabriella, since she couldn’t carry Marion’s.

The five large greenhouses were a major advantage of being at the country estate at this time of year. They were 300 meters long and 30 meters wide and produced fresh produce year-round. One was even dedicated to growing peppercorn bushes, which produced enough income to pay for the entire operation. The other four were tied together with insulated bee tubes, allowing pollinators to move between the greenhouses.

Inside the greenhouse, squash, watermelon, cabbage, beans, peas, coffee, and lemons were grown. As more contact was made with tropical areas, more tropical plants would be grown. Luke insisted his family, especially the children, ate plenty of fruit high in vitamin C to prevent scurvy and boost their immune systems.

To help herself relax, Marion dressed in old clothes to help the estate’s farmers prepare the soil for planting. While it was physically demanding work, it allowed her mind to relax. Each day, she would return to the house covered in dirt, tired but happy. After her shower, Marion would spend the rest of the time before bed playing with the children. In a small way, playing with the children made her feel closer to Luke, and she missed him less.

By Sunday, Marion was relaxed and ready to go back to work. With everything else in her schedule, Marion had neglected hearing cases, so starting Monday, she would catch up. Her first case was filed by a father of twins. The twins were a beautiful pair of 16-year-old women, and they were in love with the same man. The man in question loved both twins and instead of trying to choose between them, he proposed to both. When the father refused, he didn’t like the man in question and didn’t like the idea of his girls sleeping with the same man; the girls ran away and moved in with the man. When the father discovered what had happened, he filed charges against the man.

Far from annoying her, the case amused Marion. With just a glance, she guessed there was something more between the twins. Still, Marion asked the father to testify, his main argument being that he was the twins’ guardian and didn’t want a husband to play favorites with them. When the man came to the stand, the father’s sneer was unmistakable; he hated the man.

The man testified that he had a stable career and could easily support both women with a comfortable life. He was a railroad train engineer, so Marion knew he made good money. With their husband gone some of the time, the twins could entertain each other. The father didn’t see this as an acceptable job and wanted his beautiful daughters married to someone of higher stature. When the twins testified, Marion confirmed what she had noticed earlier.

“I would like Colonel Smiten, Godgifu, and Hilda to follow me.” Marion led the way into a small office. Once everyone was in, Marion turned to the twins. “Is there another reason you are not saying you want to marry the same man?”

The twins turned cherry red, and Gabriella snickered. She had figured out what was happening when she saw the twins. To help them settle down, she walked to Marion, grabbed her shirt, and pulled the queen down for a heart-stopping kiss. Marion put one hand behind Gabby’s head and the other on her arse. Gabriella ground her crotch into Marion’s leg a couple of times before they broke apart. The twins looked at Marion and Gabriella with wide eyes. Marion looked up and smirked at the twins.

“Well. Am I right?”

“Yes,” Godgifu squeaked.

“Does your man know?”

“Yes, he loves to watch us together.”

“I would too,” added Gabriella, leering at the twins and licking her lips. The twins turned redder before looking at each other and sharing a lover’s kiss.

“One more question,” asked Marion. “If you two marry the same man, will you honor him and each other?”

“Yes,” the twins answered together. Marion nodded and led the group back out.

“I have talked with the twins,” Marion stated once she sat. “they will be allowed to marry their man.”

The twins ran to their man and jumped in his arms while their father fumed. Marion wrote the marriage license out to keep the father from further interfering. It turned out she didn’t need to worry about that because before she could finish, the man charged his new son-in-law and landed a couple of heavy punches before Gabriella got to him. While the man might have been double Gabby’s weight and had 30cm on her, it was he who ended up on the floor crying.

When Gabby got close enough, the man tried to grab her. He wasn’t the first man to try this and doubted he would be the last. Gabby grabbed his wrist and twisted, forcing him to twist with her or have his wrist broken. Once she had a clear shot, Gabby delivered a targeted blow that temporarily paralyzed his right arm. With his right out of action, the man tried to connect with an off-balanced left while Gabby deflected before repeating what she did to the right.