Chapter 39

The following new character appears in this and later chapters:

William Graham (Captain Billy)

Ship's Captain, 5'-10" tall, 170 pounds, 49 years old, brown hair and beard going gray, blue eyes, weather complexion

The next morning the seven of us were ready to leave again, but we only took one pack horse with us not feeling the need for the extra grain. We transferred to Savannah, Georgia this morning. At least Savannah didn't have marshes near where our bookstore would be at this location. In our Reality, it was located near Oglethorp Mall. Kell and I had both cast the transfer spell.

"Good, we're well out past the City Commons, the garden lots, and farm plots," Thomas Young said, as he looked around at the tall pine trees that surrounded us.

"Where are your contacts here?" I asked, as we mounted our horses. I hoped that we didn't need to cover half of coastal Georgia, as we had yesterday in Charleston.

"There is a woman who grows and sells herbs here. She has a large garden plot outside of the city. She tends her herbs each day. Even in this weather some of them will be growing," he told us. It was fairly warm in Savannah today. Certainly warmer than it had been in Charles Town yesterday. Sunshine and Rose had definitely perked up at the mention of herbs and garden plots.

"How large a garden plot does she have?" Rose asked.

"The garden plots are five acres in size," Thomas told her.

We moved north through the trees toward the city for over an hour and about four miles or so before coming to the garden plots. They were laid out very precisely and we could see the divisions between them. They certainly appeared to be about five acres each. With the wind blowing toward us, Sunshine and Rose guided us to a plot with growing herbs by the scent alone. There was an older woman there tending the plants this morning.

"Good morning, Herb Mother," Thomas said addressing the woman in a friendly manner.

"A good morn to you too, Thomas. What do you here?" she asked, looking up at us.

"We have come seeking information," Thomas told her, as we all dismounted. Our horses didn't care for the smell of the growing herbs but were interested in the tastier things in other nearby plots.

"And what kind of information would you be seeking with all of these strangers?" she asked warily.

"These are a part of the O'Connell clan. They are seeking information on what warehouses the British are using here," he told her in a quiet voice.

"And how would I know anything about that?" she asked, appearing to not care at all about what he had asked, but I had seen the change in her posture when he had asked and so had Airmid and Almha.

"I thought that perhaps you might have noticed what warehouses they currently occupy while delivering herbs to your various customers," he told her nonchalantly.

"If you want herbs, come to my house, and I'll see if I have what you need," she told us changing the subject. None of us could see or otherwise detect anyone approaching, but followed her, leading our horses, toward the line of buildings some distance to the north of us.

While following the herb lady to her house, it was easy to see that Savannah at this time in this Reality was still a rather small town. We soon saw, however, that it was laid out the same way that it was in our Reality with its squares and the surrounding blocks of buildings. Many of the streets were not well paved yet, however. The woman led us to a small house on a lot that it shared with two others just north of Oglethorpe Square.

Savannah had been laid out by James Oglethorpe on a modular grid. The basic unit of the system was the ward which was initially six hundred feet square. Each ward had an open space or square and was surrounded by housing blocks on the north and south sides, and blocks for public buildings on the east and west sides. The wards were connected by broad streets running north / south and east / west. There were garden plots and farm plots laid out on public land outside of the wards. Initially there were four wards, but these had been added to over time.

"How many wards are there now?" Kell asked the woman, once our horses had been cared for, and we were inside her house.

"There are twelve wards now. They have added several in the last few years. The British Army controls a number of them," the woman told us. "There are Tories in control of the city also. They grow fat on the sweat of others. There have been ships arriving all of the time, but I know little of them.

"One of my customers, Captain Billy, is a retired Ship's Captain, and he is always around the docks watching what goes on. He would know what has arrived, and where it is being kept if anyone would," she told us.

"Will he be willing to help?" Thomas asked.

"He has no love for the British. He lost his last ship to them some years after the war. Their Army and Navy people do what they please, and if they take a fancy to something, they just take it. 'For the good of the community' they says, and that is supposed to make it right," she finished in exasperation.

"Could we go to see him today?" Thomas asked.

"It's a little early for my regular visit to him, but I could go there. I won't be able to take all of you with me though. I could take maybe two of the girls, since I could say that they are apprentices from the countryside here to learn,"the woman told us.

"Who should go with her?" Thomas asked turning to us.

"If we are supposed to be apprentices, either Rose or I should go in case there are questions. The other should be one of the Mac Sweeney Sisters," Sunshine told us.

"I'll go," Airmid volunteered. "Which of you will go with us?"

"I'll go also," Sunshine told her.

"You'll need to change clothes. What you are wearing would be out of place for a country girl here," the herb lady told us

"Would this be appropriate?" Airmid asked as she drew a glamour around Sunshine and herself that made them appear to be dressed in homemade clothes like those they had seen on country women in Lexington and Charles Town. The old herbal woman gasped in shock on seeing this.

"What are you?" she gasped in amazement.

"We are Sorceresses and Mages, and we practice Magic," Almha told her with a smile, as she drew a similar glamour around herself.

"What have you become involved in, Thomas?" the herbal woman demanded, crossly.

"The defeat of the British by any means necessary," he told her calmly.

"Aye, defeat!" she whispered before turning to gather several herbs from their places on shelves and hanging from lines in her shop. She placed them in a basket before turning to Sunshine and Airmid.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"Yes," they replied.

"The rest of you stay inside. The neighbors are nosy and will ask questions if you go out," she told us before departing with Sunshine and Airmid.

There was little to do while we waited for them to reach their destination. Rose checked out some of the herbs that were hanging on lines in the shop portion of the house and talked to Almha about them. Thomas, Kell, and I merely waited. It was more than a-half hour before Airmid appeared there in the shop again.

"I take it that you didn't have any trouble reaching your destination," I said to her.

"No. Are you ready to go?" she asked.

"Yes," I told her, as the others gathered around us.

"I believe it's best if I stay here," Thomas told us still worried about his identity being revealed to the British.

"That's fine. Keep an eye on the horses if you would," I asked as we all joined hands, and Airmid cast the transfer spell to return to the house that she had just left. We all materialized in the front room of a small house, startling both of the people there with Sunshine.

"I told you they are some kind of Witches and Wizards," the herb lady said to a tall older man of about fifty with a beard.

"Popping out of thin air like that is enough to frighten someone to death. How do you do that?" the man demanded.

"We use Magic. We can do a lot of things that other people can't," I told him.

"What do you want with me?" he asked. "Evelyn only said that you needed information."

"Evelyn?" I asked, confused.

"The herb lady, Ken," Sunshine explained.

"She told us that you keep an eye on the docks and know what ships come in and where their cargoes are being stored. We need to know what warehouses the British Army is using to store their supplies in," I told him.

"That's easy to answer," he told us before pausing, "but what do I get out of it besides trouble when the British catch you?"

"The British will have a hard time catching any of us. You have seen how we can appear and disappear. As to what you can get... ?" I asked and paused there.

"What do you want?" Kell asked, breaking in.

"I want a ship again. A sea going ship!" the man answered instantly. He had obviously thought about this.

"We don't have any ships," I told him.

"I mean when you win. If you win, I want a ship of my own again," Captain Billy told us.

"I believe that once we drive the British out of North America that we will be able to give you a ship," I told him with a smile.

"I've been watching the arrival and sailing of ships here for the last six years since I was beached," he told us. "There are always ships bringing in supplies for the Army. This year there have been more and larger ships arriving than any time previously. They have been receiving two ships a week for the last four months. I also learned that more soldiers arrived last week, but they were sent down to Fort Frederica on the coast.

"The supplies, once they are unloaded, are taken to warehouses that are in what is called Oglethorpe's Ward. It's the area on the west side of King's Road."

"Where is the King's Road?" I asked, there being no road of that name in the Savannah that we were familiar with.

"It's the road to the west of the newly constructed city wards. They were named after two British Generals, Clinton and Cornwallis. The road runs from north to south and all of the warehouses are located there. The Army has taken over a large number of them, and there are guards around them day and night. The remainder of the warehouses hold goods that British merchants have purchased and are waiting for better weather to ship to England," he told us.

"How large is the area that these warehouses occupy?" Kell asked.

"I have paced off the area several times since they expanded it, It is around 900 feet wide more or less and around two thousand feet long. There are a great many warehouses there in addition to a large open area for the storage of wagons and for the auctioning off of goods," the Captain told us.

"Could we see the area?" I asked.

"I don't know. The guards have been increased in the last few weeks. Even I am getting suspicious looks when I go down that road," the Captain told us.

"Where does the road go to?" Almha asked breaking the Sisters silence.

"It ends at the farm lots which is where the land for the warehouses was taken from," we were told.

"So do farm wagons use this King's Road also?" Kell asked.

"Yes, they can," the Captain answered.

"Then we need to find a farmer going out to his fields!" Kell said with a grin.

"There aren't many this time of year. Would a manure wagon do?" the herb lady asked.

"Yes, just the thing! The soldiers aren't too likely to investigate that too closely," I agreed after a little thought.

"There is a man that collects the manure daily and takes it out to the fields. He contracts with farmers who use it as fertilizer," the herb lady told us.

"When does he deliver this manure?" I asked.

"Usually each afternoon," she told us.

"Can you arrange for us to ride with him," I asked.

"Yes, but he will expect you to help with the unloading," she told us.

"We can deal with that," Kell assured her.

"You'll need to look like farm workers also," she added.

"Like this?" Kell asked, as he drew a glamour of Mr. Bell around himself startling Captain Billy again.