Chapter 57

Mark resumes the Narrative:

The remainder of the family had continued with our regular chores while James, Gwyn, Glanda, and John were in Boston with the Commission to convince the New England colonies and the Canadians to join the Confederation.

Ships had continued to arrive to transfer units of the British Army to their new stations. The soldiers weren’t the only ones leaving, however. Many civilians were also leaving. It had started with some of the English merchants departing that spring and leaving only some locals as their purchasing agents to represent them.

Many of the more prominent Tory families had followed their example fearing retribution from their neighbors for their high handed behavior both during and following the war. They left on many of the troop transports reducing the number of troops that could be moved. Even with this, there were now but few Army units left in the southern colonies, and operations were beginning to wind down in Charles Town and Savannah. There were still many units to be transferred from the colonies farther north, as they’d had a slower start than the southern ports had.

Due to the departure of all of these Tory families, the price of houses had fallen considerably, since the Tories had to take what they could get for the houses and other properties that they were leaving behind. Numerous citizens had taken this opportunity to move up to larger and nicer houses, leaving quite a number of small but nice houses for sale. This presented an opportunity for us to obtain three very nice houses at quite reasonable prices. The owners wanted to use the proceeds from the sale of their old houses to help defray part of the cost of the new houses that they had purchased.

The problem that we now had was that these houses were in Savannah, but they were needed at our plantation near Statesboro. Fortunately, Ken remembered reading of a spell in an ancient scroll while in the Otherworld for his marriage to Sunshine and Rose. The scroll had dealt with moving the large stones that made up Stonehenge in Briton. There had been a spell recorded for moving the stones without fracturing them. The spell created a platform consisting of a set of reinforcing double wards separated by a space that formed the platform that was used to move the stones to their destination.

“We could cast this spell under the houses and create a platform to move them to Statesboro on,” Ken assured us.

“How many would it require to cast the spell and move the house?” I asked.

“Our Grandparents moved all of their houses and the property they were on from Statesboro to the O’Connell Realm using the match plates. We only need to move the houses and their foundations. Also there are no utilities to worry about in this Reality. I would think a couple of us would be sufficient for the job,” Ken told me and the others listening.

Ken, Kell, Seamus, and I, Mark, moved the three houses the next day. The spell worked very well and none of the houses were damaged. They were ready for our employees to move into after the use of a cleaning spell or two to freshen them up. We sold the now empty lots that they had been on in Savannah for a fine profit. We also purchased a fine large house in Savannah for an in-town residence when we have business there. It was protected by our wards when no one was there.

The large quantity of lumber that we had purchased and had moved here from Lexington could all now be used by our neighbors for their new houses.

Those Tories leaving the North American colonies had a definite problem in this Reality. There was no place for them to migrate to in Canada here, as many had done in our Reality of Less Magic. Those who were the first to leave were the fortunate ones. Many from the southern colonies were able to move to the islands controlled by the British in the West Indies and to climates similar to that where they had previously lived. Those departing later were less fortunate and had fewer choices. Many had to move to India or a number of British possessions in southern Africa. The last to leave eventually wound up in Australia. These were all climates quite different from what they were used to.

The arrival of James and his future Wives in late October was certainly a surprise to all of us. We had never expected to find such huge Talents in New England. The religious atmosphere there was not conductive to the spread of the Talent among their citizens. Again, unfortunately, the Sisters followed an all too familiar pattern here with both parents dead before they were found. Sererena and Saraid quickly started them on their Magic training to ensure that they gained control of their considerable Talents. Airmid and Almha also helped them, and they became close friends for life.

While both pairs of Sisters had similar levels of Talent, they were quite different in many ways. Airmid and Almha had no problem shedding their clothing and getting naked for any reason at all, such as the heat. Savannah and Shannon, on the other hand, were always very meticulous about their dress and would never consider removing their clothing where someone other than James could see them. The Mac Sweeney Sisters did learn much about fireplace cooking from the Collins Sisters.

By the time December arrived, most of the units in Virginia and Maryland had been transferred out and the facilities at the ports of Manchester and Fells Point were ready to be closed out. Charles Town and Savannah had already seen the last of the British Army units depart and their Headquarters in those ports had closed down also. The Royal Navy had also reduced its presence in the Atlantic ports, but a number of their ships had moved to the West Indies. The French had countered this by moving ships from the Gulf of Mexico to their own possessions in the West Indies.

The dock and warehouse owners in all of the ports had been pestering us for the return of their facilities. We had been consolidating supplies and clearing warehouses as quickly as possible to free them up. We had reduced the size of the defensive shells to the size of individual warehouses to free up dock space as well. We now began to transfer those items that we knew the British were not getting back to Defensive Shells set up outside of our property near Statesboro to free up even more warehouses and their docks. Having something on those properties, which had been unclaimed land, would cement our claims to them.

Gwyn, Glanda, and John also returned in early December. They had transferred back rather than taking a ship to return as the other Commission members had needed to do. The Commission had finished its meetings with the leaders of the New England Colonies and those from Canada. They had all decided to join the Confederation rather than attempting to go-it-alone. They had also promised to hurry the British withdrawal from their areas as much as possible.

While they all still intended to trade with the English Merchants, they would now be free to trade with others as well. They could do that as part of the Confederation without fear of interference by the Royal Navy because of that Navy’s recent experience with Rattlesnake, and this was the main point that had convinced them to join the Confederation, at least according to Gwyn.

Gwyn and Galada both returned from Boston pregnant. They were twenty by now and had decided that they had waited long enough. Sererena and Saraid also admitted that they were pregnant after that announcement.

“Why do you think we have been avoiding the Mages for the last couple of weeks?” Saraid asked after they admitted that they were pregnant. “It’s because they would have known, especially Sunshine and Rose,” she finished with an embarrassed smile. That made five of our women who were pregnant, and I wondered what our Mothers would say.

December, of course, meant Christmas. All of the local farmers had long since finished selling their crops, and they were amazed at how much money they had brought in. The majority had also finished harvesting their gardens. The weather had remained warm through November so they had a good yield, and they would be well fed for the winter either from what they had grown, or what they would be able to purchase from Savannah, or from the other small towns in the area between here and Savannah.

We O’Connells and our employees had a wonderful Christmas with a fine dinner, but no O’Connell ale arrived this time. It was a situation that we would need to remedy but at a later date.

On Thursday, the 31st of December, all of us still in the Army transferred to Fort Jefferson to tender our resignations from the Army and draw our final pay. There were thirty-four of us O’Connells plus Jeremy Lister. General Green was quite surprised by our decision to resign.

“But what will you do?” he asked in shock.

“We’ll all be returning to school in our own Reality,” I explained.

“You’ll be leaving? What about all of the material remaining in the warehouses at the ports on the coast?” he demanded. “And the remaining units?”

“We’ll be back every-so-often to take care of all of that,” I assured him to a doubtful look from him.

“We still have a plantation to run in Georgia and will be back often to take care of it,” I reminded him also. Jeremy had collected our pay before we resigned, as we had all been on General Green’s staff since leaving the Border Rangers.

A number of us stopped off at Fort Washington to see Samuel Moore before returning to Statesboro. He was doing well and had married Linda Magee. Egan O’Callaghan was there for the New Year also, and he had married Lelia Magee. They all seemed quite happy, and before we returned to O’Connell House for our own New Year celebration, we assured them that we would see them periodically to check for any problems.

In the last week, Gwyn and Sererena had discovered the source of the good ale that the Generals had been drinking at Fort Jefferson, and they had purchased two firkins of it. We had a jolly party that evening and some of our neighbors visited us on New Year’s Day, and they were treated to some of the ale also. G & G, and S &S, plus Chandra didn’t have quite as good a time as the rest of us did. Being pregnant, they didn’t have any of the ale. We were all sure that they had the same fun that the rest of us did when they went to bed that night though. The house was solid with privacy and noise suppression spells.

Saturday afternoon, the 2nd of January 1802, we gathered our employees for a meeting to inform them of what we would be doing for the foreseeable future. It was only Seamus, Ken, Kell, and me, Mark, who met with them, and it was only our longtime employees who attended the meeting.

“We’ve called you here to inform you of what we intend to do starting tomorrow,” was how I began the meeting.

“Is something wrong?” Allistair O’Flannagain asked.

“No, Allistair, nothing is wrong, but there will be some changes necessary for the next few years. You’ve all heard us speak about the requirement that we finish our education.

“Tomorrow, we’ll all be leaving to do that. I’ve received word from our benefactor, the Eternal Flame, that tomorrow he will transfer us back to our Reality to continue our education.”

“Just you O’Connells?” Mary, one of the cooks, asked.

“No, it will be all of us O’Connells and those who we’ll be marrying. That is another thing that we’ll be doing in our Reality. All of the twins will be married to their chosen mate by Druids in the Otherworld. I’m sure that all of you are aware that the Christian churches frown on plural marriages. All of those in our clan have traditionally been married by the Druids. Only those of us who’ve been married here are the exception.”

“When will you be returning? Will we be able to keep our jobs?” several women asked in fear.

“You will all be keeping your jobs. We’ll be back on weekends and holidays in addition to the entire summer when school is out,” I assured them.

“While we are away, Jeremy Lister will be in charge. You all know him and have worked with him for some time now. There is plenty of food in the pantry, the basement, and the smoke house. The main house will be closed and warded. Jeremy and Allistair can easily work the wards and will be able to get whatever you may need from the house. Jeremy will also be paying you as usual. The portal to Savannah is set up and functioning. You can go to Savannah for anything that you might need,” I finished.

“You’ll be back to stay eventually, won’t you?” one of the laundry women, Dorthy, asked.

“Oh yes! You can rest assured of that. We’ll be back every chance that we get,” Seamus assured her. “We have our own farm in northwest Georgia to look after also,” he added. The meeting broke up after that. Gwyn and Serena went out with the women to speak further with them. I pulled Jeremy aside to speak to him while Ken, Kell, and Seamus spoke with the other men.

“Jeremy, the surveyor has finished the initial property survey and is working on the new plats. He’ll be back with them when they’re finished. It will take him a while to do that. If he returns while we’re away, pay him what we agreed upon, and whatever additional amount with-in-reason that he asks for. We’ll need him to start on the survey for the new farms starting next spring. We’ll need to work those out once you receive the new documents. John will also need to get the new documents recorded at the land office. I’ll see about obtaining more accurate maps of the area in our Reality and will bring them back when we return.

“If any of our neighbors come to visit, just tell them that we are away on business currently,” I finished.

“Will they believe that?” Jeremy asked.

“Probably. They know that we were supervising the evacuation at all of the ports and the issuing of supplies,” I told him.

That night there was a lot of love made at O’Connell House. It would be our last time here for a while, and all of us weren’t exactly sure how our Parents, Grandparents, and Great Grandparents would take the fact that we were not only older, but ready to be married, that is the ones who weren’t married already. The house was again solid with privacy and noise suppression spells that night.

Clare and I made long slow passionate love before starting to have sex. It was also long, slow, and passionate with a lot of massaging and kissing before we got down to the serious business of having some orgasms. In the end it was as hard and frantic as it had ever been. Clare screamed when her second orgasm started, and I began to fill her with hot baby batter. We both collapsed after that to recover.

“Thank you, Mark. That was marvelous!” Clare told me when we had both recovered sufficiently to speak again. She cuddled up against me following that, and we both fell asleep for the night.