Chapter 15

Rachel had not seen her boyfriend, Jeff, as often as she would have liked because of her travels to the rodeos. And when she was home they were both busy with work, so it was a Friday and Saturday night relationship for the most part.

They had been dating for three weeks before she slept with him. It wasn't great, but she chalked it up to opening night jitters.

A week later she spent the night at his place. The sex was slightly better that time. She did have an orgasm, so she put that one in the win column. She had her career, he had his. They were comfortable with each other, and he would take the edge off twice a week. She kept saying to herself, If this works out, no more dating, I can have some kids and a nice house and start working towards retirement.

After a while she stopped avoiding Rolly on her Saturday visits to ride Caesar. The two would chat as if nothing had happened between them.

She asked Stephanie if Rolly was still practicing as hard as he did before.

"Not so much. He got a lot of training from a sword master over those two years so he isn't so scared any more. He's been teaching me self defense so that he has someone to punch him, and we do riding drills, but it's not as crazy as it was when you were helping him."

Something happened to Stephanie the two weeks before she went back to school. She seemed 'sultry'. That was the only way Rachel could describe her. The bouncy college girl was gone and a poised young woman was in her place. She had also moved back home with her mother, Paula, and Tommy. Rachel decided that maybe Stephanie simply wanted to change her image for her sophomore year and if she kept it up she would be a force to be reckoned with.

After Stephanie went back to school, Rachel started having coffee with Rolly again. That soon progressed to going for rides together. For some reason Rachel never brought Jeff out to see her horse. Rolly didn't ask about her personal life, and she didn't tell. Rolly knew all he wanted to from outside sources.

Harvest was a busy time and Rolly's family helped on both farms. Rachel counted Tommy and Paula as family and helped out when she could on the weekends. She hadn't done something like that for a long time and it made her feel good.

Stephanie brought home a boyfriend one weekend during harvest. He tried hard, but it was obvious that he wasn't cut out for farm work, and was just there to prove to Stephanie that he was serious about his intentions. He reminded Rachel of the guys she had chasing after her in college.

One day Rolly asked Rachel to come over to the house on a specific day at a specific time, but he wouldn't tell her why, other than he would have something to show her.

She showed up on time and he said, "This won't take long. Come into the back room."

She followed him.

"Rachel, this is something I feel I owe you. This is the one year anniversary of when I fell into the cabinet, and I wanted you to be here for this."

With that he gave her a brief kiss, opened the cabinet doors and walked into the portal. There was the same shimmering blue and silver light that she had seen him walk out of.

She freaked out, He's gone and I may never see him again. No, wait, if he is killed his body will come back. That will be worse. He was gone for two years last time. No–its only fifteen minutes on this end.

She paced the kitchen, and at one point she checked her watch, but she didn't know how long he had already been gone. When she thought that it had to be about time she went back and stood just where she had been the first time, and stared at the open cabinet. Her estimate was a bit off so she stood there for over three and a half minutes until finally the lights appeared and Rolly stepped out in front of her. He didn't look quite so impressive this time. He was wearing a short, feminine looking robe, and held a load of clothes in his arms.

"I finally remembered to bring all my stuff back this time, and Stephanie really loves her robe, so I thought that you might like one too. I guarantee that you will be the only woman on the block with one."

Rachel didn't know what to say. There was the shock of relief, and she thought that she should maybe ask him what he had done on the trip, and then there was the lady's robe that he was wearing. That deserved a rude comment.

"Th-thank you."

"Could you make some coffee? I'll be right back."

He went to the table and checked his 'remember note' and then disappeared into the interior of the house.

She made coffee.

Rolly had never dwelled on it too much when women broke up with him in the past. Half of his high school class was waiting for whoever his current girlfriend was to become his ex girlfriend. When he was in the service he never thought about settling down. Rachel was one of the few woman who wasn't just a 'good time girl' to him, and she pissed him off by getting angry at something he did to try to be nice. Once he got over Saleen that started to eat at him. He also didn't like the fact that she had a boyfriend, not that he would want her back if she didn't. He was being a prick by having her there when he stepped into the cabinet. Officially, the robe was a peace offering. Unofficially he knew that she would probably think of him whenever she wore the robe.

When he came back, dressed, she was composed. They discussed the mission almost like it was a day at work. He said it was one of the more common scenarios. Two idiot robbers become infatuated with the damsel and kidnapped her without thinking why they were doing it. They took her back to their hideout cave with hopes that she would be their wife or something. When it was obvious that wasn't going to happen they wanted to ransom her, but she didn't have any one to ask for money. The next stop would be either to sell her or kill her. Killing was unlikely.

Rachel asked for details about everything. They laughed about how the damsel came onto Rolly the whole way back to the bank, which was only a two day trip. They didn't have a chance to do anything until they got back to Crossroads though so the damsel had to suffer.

Because he had only been gone for fifteen minutes none of it seemed real to Rachel, so she just kept asking questions as if he were making up a story.

When Rachel got home late that afternoon she took the time to really look at the robe. There was no label, and no seams! It felt like satin or silk, but it wasn't woven, it was a solid sheet that acted as if it were cloth. It shimmered between white, light pastel blue and pearlescent aquamarine. She loved the feel of it on her skin and it still smelled like Rolly. They must have some really good smelling soap at that place, she decided.

She spent the whole evening alone in her robe, luxuriating in the feel of it.

Thanksgiving she spent with her family in Denver. She had a pretty big extended family there so she got to see a lot of people, and she had a lot of stories to tell, especially about her new job and what went on at all of the rodeos, – and about the guy that boarded her horse. Even without saying anything about him jumping around in the barn or going to other planets he was still a good topic of conversation, if for nothing else than his on again off again beard. Everyone was glad that she was getting along with Tommy and his wife. That made the unusual ex-soldier part of the family.

Jeff got a footnote in the conversations here and there because she did have plans to spend Christmas with him and his parents skiing in Steamboat Springs.

Stephanie came home for winter break, and Rachel soon found out that she had gotten rid of the potential boyfriend that had helped with the harvest. The reason Stephanie gave was that he was nice, and good looking, but there really wasn't enough substance there, so she didn't want to waste her time just to have somebody around to open doors and pay for the movies.

Christmas Eve rolled around.

"Rolly, am I going to get the present I asked for?"

"I told you at the beginning, Steph. Only one trip."

Susan was overjoyed to see her lover come back, and she was excited to see Rolly too.

In addition to Stephanie, Rolly brought a big bag full of potatoes and seeds.

Chaos had been populated with European people, plants, and animals, which meant no new world foods, and Rolly was sick of eating turnip and carrot stew everywhere he went. He read an addendum in the rule book that said a hero could bring plants and animals if they were approved first, so he loaded up on new world crops. He found a couple of different kinds of mixed gene pool maize, and he brought along several varieties of beans, squashes, tomatoes, and chili peppers. The potatoes were the most diverse types he could find that he thought would grow in Glen MacTynnen's climate.

Rolly wasn't much for hot peppers himself, but spices were worth their weight in gold throughout ancient history so he thought that his little valley might be able to export paprika even if they didn't like it themselves. All of those crops were staples in Europe in the late middle ages so Rolly was pretty sure they would pass review.

When Susan and Stephanie ran off to give each other makeovers, or talk about boys, or do whatever they did, once again he was left by himself, this time with no refreshments. Eventually they came back, and based on the revealing outfits and how horny they were, makeovers and boys were the main subject of their powwow.

Stephanie had just about given up on college boys and was thinking about going over to the other side, or at least switch hitting to get some satisfaction, and Susan was from Cassandra and had the enthusiasm of youth, so together they put Rolly through his paces. He gave thanks for the shots of restorative.

The next day they got down to business. Rolly wanted a mission that he could begin from Glen Mac, and that would need a larger force than just he and Stephanie. He wanted to test out his knights.

Susan found three missions that fit those parameters.

One was a rescue from a pirate hideout on a small island, one was a rescue from cattle rustlers that had taken over a hacienda, and the last was a rescue from a tribe of horsemen that had been raiding villages.

Rolly dismissed the pirate island. The two others were interesting, and he could start at Port Balkat for both of them. The horse warriors were on the steppes of the upper plateau to the east. There were a lot of warriors and he would have to pass through the territories of additional tribes along the way. He decided against it but was glad to learn of the potential threat to his barony. Hopefully there was no Attila or Ghengis in the area to unite those tribes.

The hacienda was on the southern edge of the central basin. A large gang of rustlers was using the hacienda as a gathering point. They had burned out some other ranches in the area and brought the women and cattle to that one, presumably in preparation of driving the cattle to one of the cities or harbors further to the south for sale. Based on the season, it looked like they had some time before the rustlers would try to drive the cattle out of the area. Rolly chose that one.

It took nearly a week before Rolly had the detailed knowledge of the area he wanted, because he wanted to get the cattle back to the glen for sale in the gold fields.

Port Balkat was not much larger than Safe Harbor because it was isolated in its own way.

There was not much in the way of trade coming from up river because even though the Balkat was a fairly large river, it ran through the arid central basin, and the people of the higher steppe grasslands traded with the population centers to the east. The Kenty Range dropped from forested upper slopes down to rocky grassland and dry scrubland by the river, and to the south, the scrub desert gradually changed back into grassland so there were no farms hear the river.

There was trade for agricultural products with the people of Glen MacTynnen and a few villages with arable land near the delta. For the most part Port Balkat was a trading post for the people scattered along the north coast. Manufactured goods came from the south and were met with dried fish, furs, walrus ivory and whale oil from the north.

Rolly checked his bank balances and noticed a small increase in them so it looked like his business plans had not been a total flop in the relatively short time he had been gone. He also asked the bank manager about the possibility of getting a bank branch in Tyndell to deal with the gold he expected to pass through the glen. The manager told him that Rolly would have to approach the owners of the bank for that, but the manger had no way to contact them.

Rolly decided that he would have to open his own bank without the special bank boxes if he couldn't get anyone at Crossroads to help. From what he could gather from Susan they seemed to be almost as out of touch with the powers that be as the bankers were. Things were what they were on Crossroads as they were on Chaos.

Leaving the bank, Rolly and Stephanie were dressed as free peasants. Rolly purchased a wagon and loaded it with trade goods and started up the road along the south bank of the Balkat. There was a small village called Marsh Ferry two days travel from the port. It was situated just before the delta wetlands and had a raft-ferry service across the river. They stayed the night, and the next day skirted the wetlands to the north and worked their way up the escarpment.

At the top was the second largest town in the barony. The town of Waterfall was the point where rafts coming down the MacTynnen River off loaded to wagons for the trip down the slope. The waterfall itself was quite impressive, but not much of it could be seen from the trail on the way up.

Sir George's Castle sat overlooking the village and protected the barony from invasion coming up the escarpment. Rolly tried to pedal some of the goods in the village, but he had brought high priced items well above the means of the peasants. He was able to talk to a lot of the people about their conditions and was happy with what he heard. Sir George was a good master it seemed.

After vetting the village Rolly drove the wagon up to the castle and handed the guard a sealed message to be delivered to Sir George. Soon afterwards, the wagon was let in and he and Stephanie were taken through the bailey and into a room in the keep. There they were left alone.

They didn't have long to wait before Sir George came to meet them.

After the proper exchange of greeting, Sir George was introduced to Lady Stephanie, and Rolly explained their ruse. After the way Rolly had gained power he half expected to be killed on sight by his own lords wanting to take power.

George acknowledged that there were some manor lords who were upset, mainly those whose sons were among the knights killed at the mining camp, and others who had been looking forward to the relaxation of laws regarding serf labor that Baron Nevin had promised. But none of those men would ever approach the three lords of the military estates with a conspiracy.

Rolly accepted accommodations but refused any official gatherings. He wanted to stay secret for now. He did meet with Sir George's two sons, who were near his own age. They were surprised when he mainly talked about increasing trade with Port Balkat instead of threats to the Barony or matters internal to the valley. Rolly asked them to look into ways to get goods down to the base of the falls more easily so that there weren't wagons going both ways on the scarp trail. Maybe they could sled them down or lower them with ropes, he suggested.

The lords were restricted from conducting trade directly, but there was no reason that they should not get a cut from infrastructure usage such as dock fees, millworks etc., that were on their lands.

Over the next two days Rolly and Stephanie passed through several villages on their way to Sir William's castle, which guarded Westgate Pass. Westgate Pass was the most likely point of attack for an army arriving from Port Balkat.

Again Rolly and Stephanie arrived incognito, much to the delight of Sir William.

Of the three military lords, Sir William had been the most adept at military strategy. He also loved the excitement of intrigue. He had been the one to convince Sir George and Sir Brinkton not to send their men on the 'Annexation Expedition, ' as it was called at the time. None of the three liked Nevin, but they were honor bound to serve him. Sir William also knew that Rotringham was in the gold fields, and many of the miners would be younger sons from other lands rather than just freeman peasants. It was a massacre waiting to happen, and it could rid them of their problem. The three did their duty and kept Nevin alive. They also did not object when he insisted on making all of the military decisions.