Chapter 11: Study

The next three weeks flew by.

Prue was working on her designs and the textbook. Tah spent more time with her than his friends. Raghu also spent a lot of time with them and Tina. Prue found Raghu had a very good eye for design and a strong mechanical aptitude.

He picked out several issues that he helped her improve. Tah became her editor and sounding board for her book. He was fascinated with it and asked her lots of questions. They even set up experiments so he could see her theories in action.

Two of his entourage, Walter Greythorn and Brian Collier were also soon spending a lot of time with them. They would get in a huddle with Raghu and rough out designs and then discuss them with Prue and alter them accordingly. What they didn’t know was Prue had already designed several of the processes for important parts.

They were helping with other parts that by themselves were not much use for other applications. She knew that they could reverse engineer her final product and work them out, but it would take time, so she wasn’t worried about letting them have input. She also had a feeling it kept them out of mischief as bored young men were want to find.

They had turned her sitting room into an office and had even established office hours. During office hours, they just left the door to her suite open so everyone walking past could see they were working. After the first week of the new arrangement, Tina had told her the current rumours were she was working on setting up a new company.

Tah’s people were now working for her. She had to smile. When she was working out the next morning, she ran this idea through her head, added up the pros and cons and decided it was actually a good idea.

It may not give the Norlanders exactly what they wanted, but it would be good for her current company and diplomacy between their kingdoms. She had a feeling King Harold would approve. He was all for collaborative projects that made his neighbours happy to work with his people rather than look for reasons to give them grief.

Tah, Raghu, Walter and Brian, had also started to exercise with her in the mornings. Raghu had asked her about her exercise program a couple of days before. She had explained that it was a good way to get her creative juices flowing. She could just let her mind worry problems, while she kept her body healthy.

So they turned up the next morning and worked out with her. They then went and changed. After breakfast, they went back to Prue’s suit to start work. They all agreed that the work out helped then get into a work mode. Prue often found the hardest thing was getting them to go home.

The guys were all enthusiastic about the projects she was working on. She understood why Tah had them as part of his entourage. If they thought it strange that she often fed Nianna in her room, none commented on it. She had a feeling that they knew she was breastfeeding and the rumour that Nianna was Tah’s was true.

A few subtle questions on how they had managed to meet up without one of them knowing about it were asked, but both Tah and Prue wouldn’t comment. Tah didn’t help either. He often had Nianna in his lap while he read Prue’s latest offering. He often read it aloud to her as he said it helped him understand it better. Nianna was getting at least two extra bottles of milk a day to top her up.

Tah would often end up feeding her the bottles and looked very fatherly while doing it. If they thought he was besotted with Prue, he seemed equally smitten with Nianna. Tah was a very content man. He rarely slept in his room. He spent as much time with Prue as he could. He wasn’t looking forward to the trip ending.

Tah and Raghu were in the lab and the others in the sitting room, one day in the fifth week of travel. “Hey Tah,” said Raghu. “We have spent a lot of time on ships lately. Do you ever remember a passage as smooth as this one?”

Tah was feeding Nianna. He looked up and gave Raghu a thoughtful look. “No, now that you mention it. The captain said last night that we are nearly three days ahead of schedule. He said we’ve had good winds and so far the storms seemed to have gone around us.”

Raghu nodded. “There’s a sailor on board who said he was on the ship Prue was on that that went to Kagin. Apparently, he told the others this would be a good trip because she was aboard.

“Seriously?”

“Yep, he said if Prue did her exercises on deck, they always had a smooth day on the water and good winds. The two days she didn’t, they got slow winds, and it rained. It’s probably just one of those weird coincidences.”

“Except the morning after her birthday, she didn’t exercise, and we got slow winds and rain. The crew thought it would storm. The guy even asked the others if Prue was on deck that morning and she hadn’t been.”

Tah remembered that morning well. She didn’t exercise on deck because he was reluctant to let her out of bed. She had told him the next morning, in no uncertain terms, she had to do her exercises. Tah shrugged, “Well she did say that her gift had something to do with the flow of energy and elements. Maybe she can control the weather, but doesn’t know it?”

Raghu grinned, “I wonder what happens if you make her really mad?”

Tah looked thoughtful and commented, “Or sad. Do you remember those two weeks in Sunland when it drizzled for two weeks?”

Raghu nodded.

“I think that’s when she and Nianna’s father went their separate ways,” said Tah.