Chapter 8

The drake household was buzzing with activity. With the return of a Lord to the Manor, a Lord who was now known to have performed two miraculous feats and in doing so had brought hope back to a collection of people that were the Drake household.

From the jovial old cook to the surly guardsmen of the Manor the entire staff was alive with energy and engaged in some form of activity. The majority of the staff were in the grand dining hall preparing for the feast in honour of the new Lord.

Scruffy children ran round the hall playing noisily while the adults wove between them preparing the hall for the feast. The youngest had managed to escape any kind of work besides or perhaps because of the fact their enthusiasm and youthful energy meant they were very willing to help. However they were very accident prone so the various parents among the staff were content to leave the youngest children in the hall under the watchful eye of those working in there.

The captain of the Manors guard, a burly man known only as 'Major' whose thinning hair and a bushy moustache tinged with grey accompanied by an assortment of facial scars and a painful limp gave the impression of a soldier who had seen many battles, directed the few members of the guard who had stayed on the last few years as they polished and prepared the raised dais and table where the Lord customarily ate. The dais encompassed the furthest quarter of the hall and held an antique oak table which ran perpendicular to the length of the hall, allowing the Lord who customarily sat in the centre to observe all of his subject and the entire hall.

An elderly man by the name of Tann who for over fifty years had been the head gardener of the manor, was directing a couple of lean youths, who couldn't quite pass for children but were not yet allowed to do the same jobs as the men, barking orders as they placed potted plants up the length of the hall between the grand fireplaces that were spaced along the walls of the hall.

The smell of various meats being cooked wafted through the hall, accompanied by the sound of the head cooks admonishments as she directed the preparation of the food by the various women of the manor who hadn't been drafted into setting the high table on the dais or the two long tables that ran the length of the rest of the hall perpendicular to the high table.

All of the staff were lean and wore scruffy clothes and seemed like unruly folk who had worked hard for a living, not like they lived in a manor. The lack of funds for the household had taken a toll on the manor in the form of resignations from the workforce as well as a more limited supply of materials and funds with which to maintain the manor.

With the magical restoration of the manor at the hands of the new Lord meant that now one could only tell that the household had suffered by looking at the staff and servants.

Clarice sat in an old oak chair watching as the hall was prepared with a slightly dazed look on her face. Amazed at the transformation in the manor and slightly overwhelmed by the grandeur of the house she had so long tried and failed to maintain restored to it's former glory made Clarice rather emotional.

She watched as the staff, who had for as long as she could remember been grim and hard-working people, joked and laughed as they performed their allotted duties. Instead of the usual air of depression and foreboding that occupied the halls of the manor there now was singing and laughter filling the air. The whole atmosphere spoke of hope to a long deprived people.

Meanwhile in the regal suite which was the usual abode for the Lord of the manor. There was a slight tension in the air.

Andrew was still propped up on the headboard of his new four poster bed reading a book on defensive enchantments and though as simply amazing and informative he found the book it only had a fraction of his attention.

He surreptitiously glanced at Mary-Lou or Jacob every few seconds as if to check they were still there and not a figment of his imagination. Each time they would stop what they were doing be it Mary-Lou reading with a look of intense concentration on her face as she idly twisted the ends of her blond hair in the fingers or Jacob carelessly flipping a knife in his right hand while he rested his chin on his left and stared at the floor.

All three felt anxious, excited and overwhelmed by the events over the past few days, but it seemed as though none of them could vocalise their thoughts for fear of the entire thing being some elaborate fantasy or dream that would dissolve as soon as they tried to speculate on the why and how of the events.