Chapter 32

Well, maybe he would at that. No matter, I had to decide what to do when the Barons and their men got here. All I had so far was a general idea of sitting up at the wall and picking off the leaders with Barretts. I really had no idea what their men would do after that.

"Maybe I can help," Big Boy thought to me.

"What did you have in mind?"

"We had in mind providing the weapons we have and then letting you take the natural course of action. We know that they have no hope of doing you damage. They don't even own any significant artillery. They do have an engineer who has seen a trebuchet before but he's never tried to build one."

"In other words their only real hope is talking me into surrendering?"

"Yes. They have gone off half-cocked. I believe that is the expression," he thought to me.

"I'd say they haven't even planned that well. That brings us back to my question. What did you have in mind for them, considering the new information?" I asked.

"More men will be helpful to you, and they are bent on attack. Why don't we let them all fall soundly asleep tonight? We will provide handcuffs and leg irons and you should have plenty of men to make them secure. When they wake in the morning the men you have now can just march them inside," he said.

"No muss, no fuss. I like that much better. It really isn't much fun to just kill them, although I'll probably make an exception in the cases of the Barons.

"Do you know anything about their holdings?"

"Of course, we know everything about their holdings. One is fifteen miles north of you and the other is twenty miles west northwest. Both locations are considerably larger than the one you now occupy."

"Do you think we'll have any difficulties securing their property?" I asked.

"We don't foresee anything that we cannot handle together. If you'll do the talking we will make sure it is enough."

"Excellent. You are a wonderful ally," I said.

"Thank you. It is our pleasure," he thought to me and then he was gone.

All in all I thought this would be even better. We wouldn't even have to shoot the Barons, we could frog march them inside the walls and execute them. No doubt it would avoid a lot of confusion. I even decided to go up and talk down from my walls to the men Geron said would probably show up, if they did show up.

With everything practically arranged I headed back into the castle and made my way to the dining room. It was coffee time. One of the serving girls saw me as soon as I entered and I took a damned good look at her too.

"How may I serve you my lord?" she asked, in perfect English.

That Big Boy had become a caution with making my life easy.

"I was hoping for some coffee," I said.

"Would my lord like to be served in his study?" she asked.

"Yes he would. Would you be so kind as to show him where his study is?"

"Certainly my lord, please follow me," she said.

I was more than glad to; especially with the way her slightly swinging hips put the motion of the ocean in her short skirt. She led my way with her beautiful buns peeking out first one side and then the other.

It was the first trip to my study for me and I was impressed. I didn't exactly have a desk, rather it was a large table, but it did have a nice comfortable looking chair behind it. There were several other overstuffed chairs and a couple of couches in there too, along with several large cabinets and several maps hanging on the walls.

No doubt this was where Pierre, his sons, and his advisors had relaxed after meals. There was even a humidor with several large cigars, right near where Pierre's chair was, I guess it was my chair now. I didn't mind if I did so I took one out, trimmed then end and lit it.

I wasn't really much of a smoker anymore but no one could fault me for taking a cigar now and again, especially since there was no Skoal around. I'm sure powdered snuff was available, but it wasn't the same.

"I'll be right back with your coffee my lord," she said, and was about to turn to leave for it.

"Better bring a helper back with you. I may need other errands taken care of and I don't want to be lonely if I must send you off again," I said.

She blushed crimson, but agreed that it would probably be best.

I didn't think I was being unreasonable. I'd spent the last couple of nights in bed with beautiful women but it hadn't done me a damned bit of good, and there was every chance we'd have to go somewhere tonight too. No doubt we'd need to assert control over some new castle. I was thinking about getting a little pussy before lunch.

I'd come to my senses before they got back with the coffee. Just because I was riding herd on a feudal barony didn't mean I had to act like a pig. I did give each girl a ride in my lap and a little light fondling, but it was all in fun, for now anyway. They blushed but when I kissed them they kissed back, and I wasn't the only one fondling.

Luckily for me they were gathering up the trays to leave when Meka and Tutsie came in. Meka gave them both a looking over and then looked at me and grinned like a little wild child.

I wasn't fooling her for a second. Apparently I wasn't fooling Tutsie either because he came bounding across the floor, jumped up into my lap and began barking at me while he wagged his tail at least a hundred miles and hour.

Meka didn't give the serving girls another glance. She came around behind my table and stood by the chair.

"Tutsie me want ride Missy, you ride Joe Bob, please Daddy," she said.

"Your wish is my command my princess," I said, handing her Tutsie and standing to go.

We headed to my barn to saddle and fork our broncs. When they were dressed to ride we led them to the front of my house and I reached inside the front door for my Marlin. We were on our way after that.

Missy was a small, very small horse, but Joe Bob wasn't. Still, compared to the warhorses he was diminutive. He wasn't nearly so tall and probably weighed five hundred pounds less than the smallest of them. That didn't bother him in the least though.

Joe Bob still had his balls down there swinging and he could smell mares when we he was out of the barn. He sounded off to let them know he was around. That was the extent of his shenanigans though and after I had my rifle in the saddle scabbard I got up then Meka, Tutsie, and I took off for a ride.

We started around to the west, generally following along our outer wall. We'd made about a mile when we came to a large gate. It was across a road that passed through the wall and into our little town. There were two guards manning it and we stopped to talk. I hoped that they knew at least a little English.

One of them did and both of them knew exactly who I was, I could tell by the way they treated us.

"Any problems today?" I asked.

"No, my lord. We have had a few people come in but we were told to keep the gate closed and only open it for people we were sure of," one of them said.

"Isn't the gate a lot of trouble to open and close?" I asked.

"Not now my lord. Since the wall changed all we have to do is press what they call a button. We push it and the gate lowers into the ground, as if by magic. If we press it again the gate rises. It is very fast and no trouble at all now," he said, grinning.

"Well, I'm sure they'll send word if you should stop opening it. We are expecting trouble later today," I said.

"Yes, lord. We've been told. The new box inside talks to us when we have instructions," he said, offering to show it to me.

I'd seen an intercom before so I declined. Meka and I continued our ride. Later we came to a bridge over a small stream. The stream was probably twenty feet wide and it was flowing gently on its way. The bridge might have been there for years but it had been lately improved, last night probably.

We didn't even make it to a corner before we turned around and headed back. Meka had enjoyed the ride but she was afraid she'd tire Missy out. Poor Missy, moved from one gravy train to another.

When we got back to the barn there were two grooms waiting to take charge of Joe Bob and Missy. I didn't mind but I asked them what was up. Only one seemed to speak English and he told me that the main man over the horses hadn't noticed us going to the barn and he'd been shamed that we had to saddle our own mounts.

"Tell him not to worry. I usually saddle my own mount," I said.

"But sire, he's sent us here as our regular duty now," the man said.