Chapter 40

We returned to Hickory Hill much earlier today than we had yesterday, and took care of our horses ourselves, but allowed the stablemen to take care of the pack horse. After cleaning up, we went to look for Mark and Seamus. Sererena and Gwyn were already here. We finally got everyone together in the den.

“What’s so important?” Seamus asked.

“There are things that we need to discuss,” I told them.

“It couldn’t wait until after dinner?” Gwyn asked.

“No, we’re going to need to make an announcement at dinner,” Kell told them.

“Okay! What is it?” Mark asked, curious.

“We had a discussion with a man in Savannah today about crops. Crops generating the most income to be specific,” I told them, but didn’t mention who he was, or how we met him.

“Okay, what’s so unusual about that?” Sererena asked.

“What was so unusual was his recommendations,” Kell told his older Sister.

“Which were?” Gwyn asked.

“Rice, indigo, and tobacco,” I told her and waited for a reaction.

“In Georgia!?” she asked, puzzled.

“What about cotton?” Seamus asked.

“We were told that it was too labor intensive,” Kell answered.

“WOW! Wait a minute!” Mark said. “Didn’t Eli Whitney invent the Cotton Gin in about1792?” he asked.

“Yes, in our Reality,” I answered.

“Wait...!” Sererena stated. “Are you saying that they don’t even know about the Cotton Gin yet, let alone have any?”

“It sounded that way to us,” Kell told her.

“But why?” Gwyn asked in a puzzled voice.

“Think about it. Kell and I have on the way back here,” I told her and the others.

“Eli Whitney was a Yankee who was working as a private tutor in Georgia when Catherine Greene hired him as a handy man to work at Mulberry Grove Plantation where he invented the Cotton Gin, supposedly with her help. That didn’t happen in this Reality.

“When the British won the Revolutionary War, there was no plantation in Georgia for General Greene to retire to. Mulberry Grove, if it even exists, belongs to someone else. So no Cotton Gin, and no increase in the amount of cotton grown in the South,” I told them.

“And no increase in the number of slaves to plant, harvest, and process the cotton,” Kell pointed out.

“And no rich plantation owners, either,” Gwyn added.

“That could lead to a slowdown in the Industrial Revolution in England where they had all of those mills turning out cotton cloth, and they were dependent on plentiful cheap cotton from the South,” Sererena added.

“And maybe Eli Whitney doesn’t go into the production of muskets in New England and invent the concept of standardized parts and machine tools. That would further slowdown the Industrial Revolution,” Kell pointed out with a grin.

“I don’t imagine that the British are allowing the colonists to develop the precursors of the clipper ship either,” Mark added. “Certainly not anything that could out-sail their Navy.”

“This could lead to the slowdown of advancement all over the world,” Gwyn said in a startled voice.

“It would lead to a very different world than we knew,” Seamus stated.

“Yes, who will invent the Model T and when?”

“Will the Wright Brothers invent the bicycle?

“What will Thomas Edison invent?” These were the questions that several people asked. None of us had an answer to any of those questions.

“So what do we do?” Gwyn and Sererena both asked at the same time.

“I don’t know,” I told them, “but it certainly gives us a lot to think about.”

“If that’s not enough for you to worry about, here’s something else that we got wind of today,” Kell told them. “The British in Georgia and maybe South Carolina too, are planning to launch a push all of the way through at least Georgia to the Mississippi River this year and to claim all of that land. They also think that they can push the French out of New Orleans and take that over,” Ken told them.

“That would cut off the Americans’ source of supplies!” Gwyn said in a shocked voice.

“They don’t think that there might be a few Indians, the French, and the Americans who wouldn’t agree with that plan?” Seamus asked.

“I think that they have something else up their sleeve,” I told the others. “Didn’t you say that the French had a powerful fleet in the Gulf of Mexico, and that they were keeping British ships from trading along the Gulf Coast?”

“Yes, and there are the Spanish in Florida. They would certainly take a dim view of British expansionism,” Mark told us. There was a knock at the door just then.

“Come in!” Mark called.

“Here you all are!” Thomas said in surprise before a frown crossed his face. “I haven’t interrupted anything important, have I?” he asked.

“No, that’s all right. We were just discussing history and its differences in the various Realities,” I told him.

“A philosophical discussion?” he asked with a smile.

“More or less,” Kell agreed, but I had a question for Thomas that I wanted to ask.

“Thomas, you’re well informed on the latest developments. Have you heard anything about an invention to remove the seeds from cotton fiber quickly?” I asked.

“No, that’s why cotton hasn’t caught on as a money crop. It requires too much time and labor to remove the seeds to make it profitable. Farmers are staying away from it and going to more money making crops like tobacco and corn,” Thomas told us confirming what we had been talking about. We all went to dinner following that.

At dinner, we announced that we needed to meet tomorrow with A & A and their fiance Duncan, D & C and their fiance Connor, plus G & G and S & S. They were the ones who we had slated to quarantine the warehouses in Savannah and Charles Town.

That evening in bed, I asked Sunshine and Rose why they had accompanied the herb lady when she returned to her garden that afternoon.

“We just wanted to see what herbs she was growing and how they were doing,” Sunshine told me.

“We were disappointed when we checked her plants and the soil of the garden plot,” Rose added.

“How so?” I asked.

“She had been planting all of her herbs in the same place for some time and was depleting the soil,” Sunshine told me.

“We asked about her yield, and she admitted that she wasn’t getting as large a crop as she had previously,” Rose added.

“We recommended that she rotate where she grew the various herbs every couple of years and even recommended which ones to rotate together or with others. She seemed surprised by the concept,” Sunshine finished. There wasn’t any more time for talk following that as both wives were ready for a few orgasms, and I was way too busy to ask questions.

The following morning Sererena and Saraid plus Gwyn and Glanda were the first ones to arrive after we started work. We explained that they were the ones who would be quarantining the warehouses in Charles Town, and that we would be taking them there this afternoon to show them the layout of the warehouses and to introduce them to the contacts there. We would be leaving at about 3:00 PM Lexington time.

Amelia, Annan, and their fiance, Duncan, along with Dymphna, Coleen, and their fiance, Connor, came in later that morning, and we explained that they would be quarantining the warehouses in Savannah. We would all be leaving at the same time that afternoon.

“Are you sure that those young women can handle the warehouses in Savannah?” Thomas asked after they had left.

“A & A are Senior Masters. D & C are Senior Master Mages. Both of their future Husbands have strong Talents. They’ll be more than capable of handling anything that comes their way,” I told him. I was tempted to mention what our Mage Mothers had done at Frankfurt against the Persians and the rebels, but thought that he might worry on hearing about them casting balls of red hot lava at the rebels. (See Magic Ink III Chapter25)

Everyone was ready to depart at 3:00. We didn’t need to take our horses, since we could now transfer to all of the places that we needed to visit. Thomas remained at Hickory Hill this afternoon to rest, as had our Wives.

We transferred to Hogg Island across the harbor from Charles Town first. We appeared near the buildings of Mount Edgecombe before continuing on to the observation post on Shute’s Folly. Gwyn and Sererena created a small defensive shell as a marker point to return to in the event of any trouble before we transferred to the observation post. A quick freeze spell kept the observers from asking too many questions. It didn’t appear that any new ships had arrived since we had been here previously.

Next, we transferred to the camp of the partisans who were keeping an eye on things in Charles Town so S & S and G & G could meet their leader. A & A and D & C in addition to their future Husbands remained at the camp while Kell and I transferred our Sisters plus our guide, the old leader, back to the alley near the Market in Charles Town. By now it was late afternoon here.

In the deepening shadows, Kell and I used an invisibility spell to hide us and the man who had guided us here before. S & S, and G & G remained visible, and we all set out at a leisurely walking pace going out to East Bay Street and then turning south on it to walk past the warehouses and piers on our left. Our Sisters smiled at the various Sergeants and other guards who ordered them to hurry on their way, but didn’t move any faster. Kell and I told them in whispers what we had learned about the various warehouses which wasn’t much. Our former guide added other information that he and his people had gathered. After turning to skirt the inlet at the south end of East Bay Street, we all transferred back to the partisans’ camp.

“We’ll return on the 28th or 29th of January when there is a full moon and get a better look at those warehouses,” Sererena told us after we had reappeared there in the near dark.

“We’ll use a series of Prolate Defensive Shells to cover not only the warehouses but the piers also,” Gwyn added.

“Yes, that will leave them few places to dock their ships,” Glanda added after her Sister had finished.

“We can return several times to get a better feel for the layout of the warehouses. Those British merchants should have their goods quarantined also,” Saraid added.

“Just what is it that you is going to do?” the old leader asked in confusion.

“We are going to create a series of Magic structures to keep the British from using or moving their supplies,” Sererena told him.

“They’ll use cannons to knock them down,” he told her.

“Not these structures. Their cannons and muskets will have no effect on them. They can fire at them all day, and all they are going to do is bounce cannon balls off of them and back into the buildings along East Bay Street. The citizens won’t be happy about that,” Gwyn assured him.

“It’s getting awfully dark,” Annan said when Gwyn had finished. “Will we be able to see the warehouses in Savannah tonight?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem. There is a half moon tonight and it will be up shortly,” Kell assured her. “We should be able to see just fine.” We bid the partisans a good evening shortly after that and transferred to the south end of King Street in Savannah. The moon wasn’t high enough yet for good visibility, so we transferred to the herb lady’s house. She was having dinner, and we shocked her rather badly appearing there.