Chapter 31

Luke’s first stop was to see Marion. Finding her took him a while since she was still with Pollyanna. Pollyanna was still alive, so that was something. Besides that, she was about the same as when Luke took off. Luke’s good mood was almost erased when he saw Marion; she looked terrible and had barely slept. Gabriella had offered to stay and watch Pollyanna so Marion could go and get some sleep, but she refused.

Luke knew what to do, so he gently picked Marion up and carried her to their bedroom. To his surprise, she didn’t argue too much. Before he left, he told Gabriella to wake him up in a couple of hours because Luke knew he had mountains of paperwork to get through. Oh, the joys of bureaucracy, but civilization wouldn’t be possible without it. Once back in their chambers, Luke started warming up some water. He carefully stripped Marion and made sure she was comfortable. She was so tired that she was acting more like a limp noodle. After warming the water, Luke carefully washed Marion’s body with a washrag. After cleaning her, he laid her in bed and covered her up. Luke then proceeded to wash. After he was done, he crawled into bed, curled up behind Marion, and pulled some covers over them before passing out.

Almost three hours later, Gabriella woke Luke up as he wanted. She was about to wake Marion when he stopped her and whispered to let her sleep. Gabriella nodded and helped Luke get dressed. As Gabby was helping him, she couldn’t help herself as she gently grabbed Luke’s cock and gave it a couple of tugs. When Luke looked at her, she had a very naughty look and a glimmer in her eyes. Luke smiled at her and whispered:

“Sorry, but I want to let Marion get some sleep; plus, I have a shitload of paperwork to get done before I can do much of anything else.” Gabriella gave him a pouty face and said:

“Party-pooper.” Luke smiled as he finished getting dressed. He then gave Gabby a deep French kiss before leading her out.

Luke spent the rest of the day reading reports from the front and the various industries he had an interest in or owned outright. All in all, things were looking good. All his companies were growing like weeds, and at the front, the army continued to kick ass. One of the best things he came across was they now had an uninterrupted telegraph line between York and the front. This allowed Luke to follow the battles in almost real-time and issue orders in time for them to do serious good.

Most of the region was surrendering instead of fighting off Marion’s army. It was almost to the point where the army just had to march into an area, and the locals would surrender, accepting Marion’s standard deal in which they would follow all the laws to the letter, and in turn, the people would get to help shape said laws. This provision wouldn’t kick in until at least sixty percent of the population were literate.

The hardest thing for the local nobles to accept was they could no longer, under any circumstances, own serfs or slaves. If they needed farm help, that help had to be hired at an agreed-upon price between the employer and job seeker. The job seeker was entitled to know what the other workers were being paid and how the employer treated the other employees. If an employer tried to withhold a worker’s wages, then the worker could file a complaint with Marion’s labor board. They would then investigate. If the employee were correct, the employer would be fined 1000% of their illegally withheld wages. Half of the money would go to the employee and half to the government. If the employer had done nothing illegal, the employee would have to provide free labor to that employer for 500% of what the employee claimed was stolen from them and the same amount of free labor for the government.

In addition, the various employers in the area couldn’t conspire with each other to keep wages down. If they did, all their assets would be seized, and they would be thrown in prison, where they would have to do hard labor. It also helped the local population get behind Marion, and she invested heavily in the area. The road linking York and southwest Scotland was coming along well, and the steam-powered machinery that Luke had designed and helped build made the work go much faster and with higher quality.

Luke had been so occupied with the reports that he lost track of time and was surprised when Marion came in with his supper. Luke looked up at her:

“What are you up to, sweetheart?”

“Just bringing my favorite general his dinner.”

“It’s not dinnertime yet.”

“Honey, believe it or not, it’s well past dinner.”

“Oh”

With that, Luke cleared a space on his desk so Marion could put his dinner down. After she did, he reached up and pulled her onto his lap. Marion squealed and “tried” to escape, but Luke held on and wrapped his arms around her. She settled down and leaned against Luke’s chest while he ate. Her hair had come loose during their playing and now was spread across her face like a golden blanket. Luke gently brushed it out of her face and gave her a very gentle kiss loaded with passion. He offered her some of his food, but Marion had already eaten and was full. That didn’t stop her from sneaking in and nibbling on Luke.

After Luke had finished, Marion hopped off his lap so he could get up and stretch out. He had been reading reports and sending orders for hours without getting up.

“Any word on Pollyanna?” he asked after he had worked some of the kinks out.

“Alice says that she is starting to show signs of improvement.”

“Oh, good.”

Luke gave Marion a warm smile. He went over to the custom-built safe, opened it to pull out his computer, and put on some music that he and Marion could dance to. Marion had never seen Luke do this, and she was thrilled because she loved to dance. Since they first met, she had secretly wanted to dance with Luke, but he had never shown interest. They danced for hours to a mix of slow and fast dances to music from Luke’s world and music that Luke had carefully recorded from Marion’s. The pair was so into each other that neither noticed Gabriella come in and sit to watch. Gabby sat and watched the two lovers dance for almost half an hour before she worked up enough nerve to interrupt; she felt left out.

“May I cut in?” Gabriella asked.

Luke and Marion almost jumped through the ceiling, and when they realized what had happened, all three laughed.

“Of course, you can, darling,” said Marion. “Now for the important question: whom do you want to dance with first?”

“Ummmm,” Gabriella was mentally kicking herself, for she hadn’t thought about that. “No offense, Marion, but do you mind if I dance with Luke for a bit?”

Marion bowed to Gabriella and stepped out of the way. She went over to pour some wine while Luke and Gabby started dancing. While they danced, Marion watched them. She had to admit that Gabriella seemed to be starting to pay more attention to Luke, but Marion loved both of them so much that she couldn’t find it in herself to be jealous. After she had finished her wine, which took her several songs because she was drinking very slowly, she put down her glass, walked up, and tapped Luke on his shoulder: