Chapter 25

The following day came way too soon for either Marion or Gabriella when a bugle call woke them up at sunrise, and they both felt like they had drank an entire bottle of strong wine. It took a few minutes to untangle their bodies and unstick their skin where their juices had crusted overnight. When they finally managed to get up, Marion skipped into the bathroom, brought back a wet towel, kneeled in front of Gabriella, and thoroughly cleaned her pussy. After Marion was done, she kissed Gabriella’s mound and jumped back up to her feet. Gabriella then signaled Marion to spread her legs, and she returned the favor. After they were both squeaky clean, they got dressed for the day. Marion carried her pair of short swords, and Gabriella carried her pair of revolvers, a K-Bar knife, and two throwing knives Luke had made her. She carried one pistol on each hip, and her overcoat hid them very well but left them easy for her to get to in a hurry.

Marion had a considerable amount of business to take care of today, but her first stop was the hospital. She stopped in and saw Luke. He was still sleeping, but Marion could tell he looked a little better today than yesterday. Marion’s next stop was to see Cecilia. She was awake and, as she always did, wore a frown.

“Well, good morning, dear sister,” chirped Marion. She was really in a good mood.

“Aye fuck off bitch,” was the response.

“Aww, feeling the love, sis. Is that any way to greet your favorite sister?”

“Favorite sister, is it? I would rather be Satan’s sister than yours’s. You fucking usurper!”

“Well, if you were capable of being a proper ruler, then the people wouldn’t have rebelled and thrown your arse out; now, would they?”

“The people didn’t rebel bitch; you did!” snarled Cecilia.

Marion gave her a warm smile that pissed Cecilia off even more.

“Well, I’m afraid that I must be off, for I have a lot of lands to administer. Oh, by the way, we seized all the money you made by making others suffer, and we’re using it to rebuild, so you are now broke, but at least the people are getting paid for their labor now. We also seized all of your other holdings and are in the process of treating all those poor people.”

“YOU FUCKING CUNT!!! I SWEAR TO GOD, SATAN, AND ANYONE OR ANYTHING IN BETWEEN, I WILL KILL YOU BEFORE I DIE!!” Cecilia screamed at the top of her lungs. When she finished, her face was blood red, and she was breathing very hard.

“I love you too, sis. I must be off, but I’ll try to stop back before I turn in tonight.” With that, she patted Cecilia on her shoulder, got up, and left.

Marion had a tough, long day ahead of her because she had to rebuild the entire province due to Cecilia sucking almost all the wealth out of it. She spent nearly all day at her desk reading reports and issuing orders. It seemed like everything needed tending to at this very moment. At least Gabriella had done a damn good job running things until Marion recovered from her meltdown, or she might have had another one. Gabriella returned to her familiar role of head guard and Marion’s enforcer in a pinch. During her first day on the job, Marion heard complaints from everyone. Noblemen asked her for her hand in marriage while whining about what Cecilia had stolen from them. Clergymen complained about church lands and money that Cecilia had seized. Commoners begged for food to eat and seeds to plant; Cecilia had taken everything from them in taxes.

It was these people who Marion helped first. She had one of her guards make a list of farmers and what they needed to plant their crops. The farmers would then be granted enough seed to plant. Marion couldn’t give them any food because she didn’t have enough at the moment for her army or the starving people who remained in York. Marion also made a note to send a message to Bard to send Luke’s mechanical planters to York to be put to work. Luke had finished building the prototype planter just before the battle, and since the battle, Bard had built a couple more.

A different guard took the complaints of the nobles and clergy. Marion would check to see if anything Cecilia had illegally taken from them could be tracked down. Marion also ensured that the church would, at the very least, get back the land their churches and cemeteries sat on. She doubted the church would get back any commercial interest because if for no other reason, she would make damn sure they didn’t.

In between hearing complaints, Marion worked on laying the groundwork for setting up schools and improving the sanitation system. She would have to wait until Pollyanna returned to start serious work on anything. Thinking about roads, she sent a message to Bard, asking him to come in for a meeting with Marion.

Bard had always been somewhat of the group’s oddball because he was a mediocre fighter. While he could fight, he would go out of his way to avoid it. However, when Luke put him in charge of the metalworks, Bard found his calling. He was a natural businessman. While Luke built Marion’s army, Bard built the metalworks to the point that York Metalworks was the best-known in the Isles within three months of his being put in charge. They were primarily known for innovative farming equipment and fancy swords. The armory was where the real innovation was at; however, Marion had banned them from selling guns to anyone but her for the time being. Marion’s army created enough demand that the armory could barely keep up. By the time Marion took York, the York metalworks were Britain’s largest coal, iron ore, and limestone consumer. Their blast furnaces were now running 24/7 and still couldn’t keep up with the exploding demand from Marion’s rebuilding efforts.