Chapter 16: Wedding Prep

We found the formal dining room set up for us.

I think I had to accept that I couldn’t eat with the staff now the house was getting a mistress. Kim whispered something to Lindell. She looked at me and then headed for the kitchen.

I took my seat and then looked up to see my staff heading into the dining room, their plates in one hand and a dish of food in the other. They all picked a seat and made themselves comfortable as Kim and Lindell sat either side of me. I beamed at them, and they all chuckled at me.

“Family,” Lindell said to my look.

I sighed in happiness, and Linette said, “The day just doesn’t feel right until the boss washes us in joy.”

The talk of the table was the wedding. Ian said that if we liked, he’d go and ask Jim to pop over to discuss what we wanted to do. None of them seemed upset that we didn’t wish to use a priest.

Pammy and Suella quickly found pencils and paper, Lindell joined them, and they made plans for a New Year wedding. I remembered something I’d seen in the cave and popped off to get it and then came back. I handed Lindell the box.

She looked in it at the invitation letters and envelopes and handed it on to Pammy. Pammy grinned, and next thing I knew, Lindell and the rest of the girls had shifted to one end of the table and were busily scribbling.

The boys and I cleaned off the table, while the girls decided Hara had the best handwriting and she started filling out the wedding invitations with the time and dates. Ian went to get Jim.

Tyus said he was going to do an inventory of the plants and flowers they had available for the girls. I took the boys to the Ballroom. While Ben had kept it reasonably well maintained, it looked shabby and gaudy. It sucked badly as far as I was concerned.

A room in an old castle I had seen came to mind. “Wally and Walter head out to the workshop and get me a cart. Fill it up with whatever is lying around that we don’t need metals, wood, whatever. Tom can you get Tyus to fill a cart for me with sand, soda ash and lime.”

I blinked Kim back to the treasure room with me, and we looked at the older stuff. I’d found a couple chests that had very tacky jewellery in them and collected them. Kim found some old tatty rugs, some gruesome vases and other stuff that was junk as far as we were concerned. We could reuse the materials in the items.

I also used a long lump of wood to knock off a heap of the lower crystals. I had learnt that they were bloody dangerous once they charged up. They all sparkled as they hit the floor and discharged enough so that I could handle them.

They could hold a lot of power in even a small crystal and acted a lot like batteries I had worked out. I would at some stage, have to find time to investigate their properties more.

They also made excellent lamps as well as maintaining any spells that were nearby. I’d found a spell that stopped them leaking their energy as light if no light is available for them to take in.

We transported it all back to the room and found the other boys waiting for me. We piled the lot into the middle of the room, while Tom and Tyus took the carts back. I got the other boys to join hands with me, I sent them the picture of what I wanted to create, and we picked jobs.

Bloody hell! That room was spectacular even if do say so myself. We tried to be careful to not overdo it. I wanted elegant, not gaudy. I was also glad I’d got the bathrooms downstairs up to spec. I double checked them and decided they were fine. We did a quick fix of the coat room.

I had picked a section of wall, and I added a long dark wood topped bar in front of it. I wiped up two long and low cabinets as bottle fridges and created two ice chests in the bar and a sink. You poured water in the ice chests, and it formed into chunky ice crystals. I then stocked the racks from the cellar and filled the ice chests.

I got Tyus to get me some more sand, and we still had other stuff left over, so we made several styles of glasses enough for two hundred people each and hung them on the racks that I had made over the top of the bar. I put mirrors behind the bar and a long ledge for the heavier spirits and cordials.

I looked at the guys, “What do you think?”

They looked it over and then the room in general. Kim grinned at me, “I love the bar, it gives the place class.” We had set the room up, so there was seating for four to six persons to a table. We arranged them around the walls and had enough to seat two hundred people.

The room was huge and took up a lot of the space under the west wing. So I had room for a large dance area in front of the stage for the orchestra. We could use it for when we said our vows. I hoped Lindell liked it.

Wally went to get the girls. When they came in, we waited quietly for them to inspect our work. Lindell came up to Kim and me; she then kissed him and then laid one on me. I reckoned it was a safe bet Kim was as hard as I was.

“It’s missing some greenery,” she said.

I smiled at her, “Already guessed that. I thought I’d leave that up to you and Hara to fix since it’s her speciality and you have excellent taste, my love.”

“Smart as well handsome, aren’t you,” she said with her beautiful smile.

I know I’m a sap. But the woman did something to my insides when she smiled at me. I kissed her long and hard. As soon as my lips touched hers, I was a gonna. I wanted to devour her, make her never want another man but me.

I felt Kim’s arm slip around my waist and I came back to my senses a bit. Well, maybe Kim was an exception. I turned my lips to claim his, to tell him I loved him too.

“Damn, Storm, you wanta tone it down a bit. Your gunna have us all fucking each other on the ballroom floor if you keep it up,” Walter said in a happy grumble.

I looked at my staff and grinned. The guys all had raging hard-ons, and the girls were highly aroused with hard nipples pointing at us, Oops!

“Sorry guys, using magic and kissing these two seems to get me a bit worked up,” I explained.

They all grinned at me in understanding. “I think we may all need to go release some tension,” Walter said.

I looked at him, “What about yourself?”

He looked at his pocket watch, which I knew he loved. “She should be here real soon, I hope,” he said. He didn’t have to tell us twice, and we dispersed, quickly.

I blinked mine upstairs.

It was a good hour later when we hit the kitchen.

We were all starving and now the order of the day was food. I’d added an extension to the two tables in the staff dining room, so they now each seat eight comfortably. I told Lindell and Kim that I thought of this room as the family dining room and the other one as the formal one.

Lindell looked at our eating area. We often set the food out on the big central dividing bench. It made it easy to come in from any of the three doorways. You could fill your plate and then go find your seat. If you wanted seconds, then it was all set out. I’d even made a special keep-hot plate for the stew/soup pot.

“Yes, it does have that feel, doesn’t it? By the way, I love your kitchen. I can see why you and Kim prefer to eat in here. I believe you told the staff you prefer to eat here unless you have guests.”

I nodded that I did. Lindell grinned at me, “Well since I’m no longer a guest I’m more than happy to eat in the family dining room with the family.”

Pammy had come back in looking refreshed. “Yes, it does have that feel about it doesn’t. And his lordship treats us more like his family than staff.”

I had noticed my staff never called themselves servants anymore. They worked for me, but they weren’t subservient, and I liked that. Lindell gave me an indulgent look. I think she was working out I didn’t like being fussed over. If you did things for me, that was okay, but don’t be surprised if I returned the favour.

The forever pot of stew found its way to the hotplate on the bench, and we got out the bread and butter and were soon eating. Since most of us now had magical items, we tended to eat a lot.

The girls just kept adding to the big pot. So we ate a lot of stews and chunky soups. They were always filling and tasted good no matter what Pammy put in there, and that was all we cared about when ravenous.

Occasionally the girls made salads and cold cuts for lunch. Dinner was normally cuts of meat, fish, clucker or a roast of some sort with vegetables. Porridge and toast with bacon and eggs were standard breakfasts. We ate pretty well in my house. Oddly, I didn’t miss the junk food I used to eat.

We were all sitting around eating when we heard the front door chime. I’d put it in for Tom. I think we all assumed it was Jim. Tom got up and headed to the door, and I told him to show Jim in here to us.