Chapter 20

Life after this got better for Marion and the rest of the group. Cecilia’s troops wouldn’t even come out of the castle anymore, and Marion rapidly turned the entire area against her. At the same time, Luke was making fantastic progress in forming the army. He assigned one unit to learn under Pollyanna and one under Matt, who had recovered.

If the recruits thought that winter would slow things down, they were severely mistaken. If anything, Luke made their training more demanding because they had excellent intelligence on what Cecilia was doing. They knew she had hired a professional general to rebuild her army, bringing units with him from Europe. Marion always ensured her soldiers were paid on time, and their pay came directly from her coffers, not the officers. The direct payment was something that Luke had demanded; the new army would be government troops, GIs as he called them, not independent contractors. They were also a complete volunteer force. With Marion now in control of the countryside, she instituted her taxes on the population. They were much lower than Cecilia’s, and with the extra grain harvested, the people could easily pay it and were glad to because Marion was a much better ruler than Cecilia ever was. They also knew their lots would be much worse if Marion lost the war.

Some of the territory Marion captured contained lands that belonged to Cecilia. Now, they were Marion’s. The first time Marion toured one of these estates, she vomited so badly that she almost passed out. People were nothing but skin and bones, even the children. Management treated the livestock on the estate better than the workers. Marion immediately started them on a program designed by Alice to help them regain their strength and health. While recovering, Marion held classes to learn how to read and write. Many of these people had been in the prosperous merchant and artisan classes but couldn’t afford Cecilia’s sky-high taxes. Very few could afford them, and usually, they couldn’t afford them long because if Cecilia found someone who could afford the taxes, she would raise them again. As soon as the people were healthy enough, Marion would let them return to work, encouraging them to return to the trade they were doing before. Since there were plenty of abandoned houses around, Marion would give each family one of these houses to have somewhere to live. To get workers for her estates, she offered jobs for good pay. The workers would work ten hours, and Marion would pay by the day. As long as they worked an honest day, Marion paid them an honest day’s wage.

There was plenty that needed doing, too. Crops needed harvesting, and livestock required care. Then there was the new stuff that Luke introduced. He needed coal, iron ore, limestone, timber, and almost every known raw material. Marion also required soldiers to defend what she had accomplished so far, and unlike every other army in the world, Marion gladly accepted females into her army. Their pay was the same as a man in the same position. Now, suddenly, the women of the area who had been locked into abusive marriages or wanted to get out of an arranged marriage had an easy way to do so.

During training, the men and women were in separate units, and the unit commanders matched the unit’s gender. Pollyanna or Gabriella would train the women, while Matt or Luke would train the men. After basic training, the units became co-ed, and their training focused on what they would be doing in combat. At first, they had few arms to train with, but slowly, that changed as more became available. Often, one group would be on the target range, and when they finished, the rifles would be turned over to the next unit. After cleaning the rifles, that unit would commence with their target practice.

On Christmas Day, 1065, several significant events happened for Marion and her followers. The first thing was that Luke finally got his steam engine up and running correctly. Now, he could make weapons far faster than before and could produce small quantities of highly advanced weapons. Gabriella was the first to receive them when Luke gave her a pair of six-shot revolvers and a bolt-action repeating rifle based on the German Mauser rifle. It was slower to shoot than if he had based it on the Lee Enfield, but it was more rugged. Gabriella also got a small unit of bodyguards to help protect Marion: four women and four men, and within a week after Gabriella got her weapons, they were equipped just like her. Luke gave Pollyanna a six-shot pistol and surveying tools that she instantly fell in love with. Measuring distances was always a pain, but now she could do her work much faster. Alice got a surgeon’s toolset. Luke had scrounged high and low to find enough suitable metals to make the tools, but he just managed. Alice knew what Luke was doing because he had measured her hands to ensure the tools would fit her hand properly. Matt got a set of guns as well. His were a bit larger than the ones that Luke had made for the women. The caliber was the same, but the rifle stock was slightly longer, and his pistol grips were larger. Luke had done this so that Matt could use them more comfortably.

The other big thing that happened was much more personal for Marion. Before they left the house, Luke gave her a diamond ring and asked her to marry him. Of course, she said yes, and everyone’s reaction was: “Well, it’s about bloody time that Luke made her an honest woman.” Luke had gotten the diamond while he was in one of the port towns looking for salt so they could preserve meat for the winter. He had met a gem dealer, and after much bargaining, which saw Luke trade in the loupe he had made, he got several large rough diamonds and a couple of smaller ones. He also got some sapphires and a ruby.

Luke had taken those rough gems and cut and polished them to perfection. The largest diamond was cut to two carats and got a solitaire cut, bringing out the fire. Luke then made a ring out of gold, although he would have preferred platinum. The diamonds were held by six prongs that Luke had carefully shaped like lilies, and the small diamonds down the sides were secured by a V-shaped groove that Luke had formed. Luke took the sapphire and a couple of other small diamond pieces and made a necklace for Marion. He took the ruby plus some other diamonds and made a necklace for Gabriella. After Marion and Gabriella’s first night together, the three slept together every night, but Luke would still only make love to Marion. That happened in November, and now Gabriella wondered if she was pregnant from her one time with Luke. She had missed her last period, but she had never been regular and was under a lot of stress. If she was, then so be it; Gabriella had always wanted to be a mother.