Chapter 11

Margie resumes the Narrative:

Romero

New York hoodlum, 5’-8’’ tall, 165 pounds, 36 year old, black hair, brown eyes

We moved Mr. Franklin’s concrete mixer, a steam powered Ransome 7 batch mixer with an elevating charging hopper attached to the site of the first house on Monday, the 25th of March. Mr. Franklin was concerned as the mixer weighed some 8,000 pounds, but it really wasn’t any challenge for me at all. My Ancestors had moved much heavier loads longer distances with no trouble. I only needed to move the mixer from his equipment yard in Statesboro to the first new house site on Plantation Lane.

The cement sacks were on a separate pallet and were also easy to move. It was the other materials, the sand and gravel needed to make the concrete that I was initially concerned about, but Mr. Franklin had a number of large bins that his steam shovel could load the sand and gravel into for me to transfer them. Transferring the bins to the site was simple and emptying them easy before returning them to the equipment yard to be refilled. I also cast a protective ward on the cement sacks to keep them from getting wet, if it should rain.

Cousin Hugh had dug the five foot deep holes for the partially buried basements of the first two houses on the previous Friday and Saturday. He could make that backhoe dance if he wanted to, and he’d had no trouble with digging the holes and moving the removed dirt to a nice mound off to one side, to be used as back-fill around the basements and the rest of each house later.

Mr. Franklin’s workers arrived early on Tuesday morning to start work on the forms for the footings of the first house. Mr. Blackburn, the Mason, arrived later that day with some of his supplies and some helpers to unload them.

During the previous week, Grace and I had inspected the seeds and plant material left by the original O’Connell Sisters in the cellar of their house to see if any of it was still viable and would produce plants. I found a very elementary preservation spell on the many of the seeds in the sealed mason jars there, and I was able to determine that many of the herb seeds were still usable. They included sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, dill, fennel, Saint John’s wort, caraway, catnip, ginger, and peppermint seeds and leaves. Macha liked the catnip seeds and had thoughts of rolling in the herb later when it was growing.

“Be careful of the peppermint,” I warned Grace. “It will take over your garden given the chance.”

“Yes, we had that problem at home and had to drastically cut it back,” she answered with a knowing smile. We started planting the good seeds on Saturday.

We had previously decided which crops to plant this year and how much of each of them. Now with the tilling finished, Owen and Joe were marking the fields with stakes for the various crops. They would begin planting the seeds that they had ordered next week while the contractor started the construction of the first house.

Things went very rapidly with the start of April the following week. The various farmers started tilling their rented fields, and Owen hired a couple of young men to help with the planting. Construction of the first two houses continued and shortly the basements were finished, and the building of the actual houses began.

By mid-April, I could no longer get into my normal clothes, and Grace was beginning to have the same problem. By now I had selected several secluded locations in Statesboro that I could transfer to inconspicuously, and Grace and I went to town to purchase maternity clothes. The ladies at church had been commenting on our being ‘in a family way’ for the last two months, so those who saw us at the Statesboro Mercantile Co. weren’t surprised that we were there purchasing maternity clothes.

Things continued at their normal pace through the rest of April and May. All of the farmers had finished plowing their fields, and all of the fields had been planted. There had been sufficient rain for the crops to grow, and it only slowed the work on the houses a little. I had taught Grace, Owen and even Joe the weeding spell to help in the fields. Owen had been teaching Frank the basics of blacksmithing, while in return he and Celeste were helping Owen and Grace with their Magic studies. Frank had even managed to convince Joe to study some of the Basic Series of Books on Magic so that he could use his limited Talent. Joe had been very surprised that he was now able to read what was in the books, and in turn he had been amazed by what he had learned to do. The month of June, however, proved to be another matter entirely.

It started in early June when Great Uncle Aengus arrived at the O’Connell house with Great Aunt Gale. They had the Bill-of-Sale and the deed to the 400 acres of land south of the current town of Statesboro that had belonged to the O’Connell Sisters and had been purchased by someone in Charleston. This was the land where the Clan intended to establish the Georgia School of Magic.

“We finally convinced that obstinate man to sell us the land for the School,” Uncle Aengus told me in a somewhat angry voice.

“How long have you been working on this?” I asked, since I wasn’t sure when they had started.

“Since just after New Year. He is the most obstinate man it has ever been my displeasure to meet,” he told me.

“Now, Aengus, you can be just as obstinate when you want to,” Aunt Gale told him with a smile.

“Was it very expensive?” I asked to get their minds off of the former owner.

“He finally settled for eight hundred and fifty dollars for the 400 acres of land,” Aunt Gale told me.

“What was the problem then?” I asked, as the amount didn’t seem excessive.

“He didn’t want to sell the land initially, but we kept after him. Finally we needed to not only explain why we wanted the land, but we also needed to demonstrate that we could in fact do Magic, not just the stage kind, but actual Magic,” Uncle Aengus told me in a mollified voice.

“You will need to take the Bill-of-Sale to the Recorder’s office at the County Courthouse in Statesboro to have it recorded and to have the property records adjusted. Did you get the deed to the property also?” I asked.

“Yes, we have all of that. Will we need an address for them to contact us?” he asked.

“Use Grace and Owen’s address until we can get some numbers for the houses once they are finished,” I told him, and shortly I transferred the three of us to a location near the Bulloch County Courthouse where we went up to the Recorder’s office. Things went a bit differently there than I expected.

“Can I help you?” the clerk asked as we entered the office.

“Yes, we need to record the sale of some land,” Uncle Aengus told her, and handed her the Bill-of-Sale and the old deed. The clerk spent some time studying the Bill-of-Sale.

“This says that the property was purchased by a Clan O’Connell. Is Clan O’Connell a business or company of some kind?” the clerk asked. Uncle Aengus looked thoughtful for a second or two before breaking out in a large smile.

“Yes, Clan O’Connell is a business. We will be having several buildings constructed on the land over the next few years,” he told the clerk who was in fact the Recorder.

“And who are the principals of this business or company?” she asked.

“I am Aengus Brien O’Connell, President and An O’Conaill ( the O’Connell in Gaelic) of the Company, and this is Gale O’Connell who is my Vice-President and the Treasurer,” Uncle Aengus told her in a loud voice.

“I see,” the clerk said mildly, “and where can tax bill for this property be sent?”

“We are presently having several residences built on Plantation Lane. You may send the tax bill to Clan O’Connell in care of Owen O’Connell on Plantation Lane, and I’m sure that we will receive it,” he told her.

“We will advise you of the address when the Post Office assigns the new houses their numbers,” Aunt Gale told the clerk in a sweet voice.

“You can pick up a copy of the new deed in a few days,” the clerk informed them after they had paid the registration fee for the sale of the land at the business rate. Once outside the Courthouse, Aunt Grace had more to say.

“That was very smart of you to register the property as a business location, Aengus. It will fit in with our plans very well,” she told him in approval.

“Yes, it suddenly occurred to me that there was a certain advantage to being a business entity, especially with the other businesses that we will be setting up here,” he told her with a broad smile, before they returned to the O’Connell Realm, while I returned to Grace and Owen’s house on Plantation Lane.

The next incident occurred on Wednesday, the 12th of June, which was the date of the new moon. Grace and I had transferred to town to pick up a few needed items that afternoon and were ready to return home when Grace noticed a man talking to one of the local young women of about eighteen, a rather attractive young woman who Grace knew form church.

“Oh my God, that’s Romero!” Grace said in a shocked voice to me as she gripped my arm in fear. “He was one of those who held me captive in New York and turned me from a servant into a prostitute. It was his men who I was trying to escape when I found the cabin,” she told me in a rush of words.

“That’s Lila Preetorius who he is talking to, and he’ll do the same thing to her if he talks her into going to New York with him,” she added in a worried voice.

“We’ll see about that,” I told her, as I could see that this Romero was nearly finished his spiel and was reaching out for the young woman’s arm.

“If you touch that young woman, I’ll remove not only your hand but your arm as well,” I told this Romero in a commanding voice, as we moved closer to the pair of them. The young woman looked startled and then frightened, but the man turned to look at us. A surprised look passed over his face on seeing us.

“Lila, go home and pay no attention to the lies this animal was telling you. He only wants to take advantage of you like he did me,” Grace told the young woman, who quickly fled. The man however was smiling.

“Well, well if it isn’t the one who got away, all knocked up and with a friend. We looked for you for a long time, and now here you are, how convenient. There are people anxious to see you back in New York,” he said in that smooth snake like voice of his.

“Convenient for us, you ... you rat!” Grace told him in an angry voice.

“I have two men here with me, and in this hick town there is nowhere the two of you can hide that we can’t find you. I’ll be taking both of you back to New York with me,” he told us in a confident voice.

“I think not!” I told him before casting a freeze spell on him right there on Main Street.

“What should we do with him?” I asked turning to Grace.

“I’m not sure, but we need to be sure that they haven’t convinced any other young women to go with them to New York. Also, Owen has told me that he had wanted to go to New York and punish those who had hurt me, but we didn’t have the time or the money for that, and we came here instead,” she told me.

“Perhaps we should allow Owen to decide what to do with him,” I told her to a blank look from her.

“But how?”

“With Magic of course, my dear,” I told her with a smile, as I cast a glamour of the two of us that would move away from our location when we disappeared, and would dissolve once it was out of sight of every one. I then transferred the three of us back to the O’Connell house.

We reappeared in the backyard of their house, and Grace quickly called Owen who was working in the blacksmith shop today.

“Owen, Owen come quick!”

“What’s wrong?” he called as he hurried toward us, but stopped on seeing the unknown man between us.

“Who is this?” he asked, as he approached us more slowly. Joe had followed him out of the shop and had stopped some distance from us.

“This is Romero, one of the men who held me hostage in New York,” Grace told him in a trembling voice.

“We found him in Statesboro recruiting other young women. I used a freeze spell on him and brought him here,” I added.

“I have always wanted to punish those who hurt Grace, and it would appear that this will be my best chance to do that. Unfreeze him,” he told me before noticing the heavy blacksmith’s hammer in his hand. “I won’t need this,” he added handing it to Grace. I canceled the freeze spell on Romero, who looked around at the sudden change of scenery in surprise.

“You definitely picked the wrong people to aggravate,” I told him with a smile.

“SO, you’re one of the rats who caused Grace pain,” Owen said stepping up to Romero, and hit him in the face with his right fist, rocking him back on his feet.

“Let’s see how you like pain,” Owen continued, and hit him again several times with both his right and left fists. Romero, being from New York, was no stranger to fist fights, but Owen was very angry, and he had been in a lot of fights with his Cousins growing up. It wasn’t long before Romero was backed up against the carriage house wall and bloody, which was when he pulled a knife. Owen backed off for a second on seeing the knife which had a five inch blade. This gave me the perfect opportunity however.

Raising my right arm, I pointed my middle finger at the knife. “Fire,” I thought, and a single beam of Magic Fire erupted from my finger to strike the knife. It remained on the knife even when Romero moved it to try to get it away from the fire, as it began heating the knife; first to a red color which then went up the color scale as it heated to straw and then to yellow. It never reached a white color or began to sparkle since Romero dropped the now very hot knife, and the blade shattered on hitting the ground.

Owen dove back in following that with blows to Romero’s face, chest, and belly. He finally stopped when Romero could no longer rise from the ground and just lay there in a bloody heap. Owen looked at his knuckles which were skinned and bleeding a little, but he had a very satisfied look on his face.

“What do we do with him now?” he asked, looking around at me.

“I believe that we should send him somewhere to contemplate his failures, and I know just the place,” I told him with a broad smile.

“Not some place near here,” Owen objected.

“Or to New York,” Grace added.

“Oh no,” I assured them. “The place that I have in mind is out in the Rocky Mountains quite some distance from any towns or cities. It’s an abandoned quarry where those in my Clan have gone for many years to practice and refine their destructive skills. Of course in this time period, it might not be so abandoned, but I’m reasonably sure that those quarry-men would know how to treat a slick talking stranger form New York,” I told them before casting the transfer spell to send Romero to the quarry in the Rocky Mountains. I then used my Mage Talent to heal Owen’s knuckles.

“We still have a problem,” Grace reminded us as I finished, and we all turned to look at her.

“What problem?” Owen asked.

“Romero said that he had two other men here with him,” Grace told him.

“Where are they,” Owen asked aggressively.

“At the hotel he said, but which one?” she replied.

“There are a couple of smaller and more private hotels plus the Drummer’s Hotel, but I would bet that being from New York, they would be staying at the best and largest hotel in town ... The Jaeckel,” Owen said after thinking for a few seconds.