I held Emily in my arms for a while. When she started to calm down, suddenly, her body stiffened, and she pushed away from my embrace. She looked around the room at all the people there, and her face turned bright red.

  "I'm, I'm sorry, my lord. Please forgive my outburst," she said.

  I smiled. "You, Emily, are probably the only one in this room that, according to society, is allowed to be informal with me."

  This got surprised reactions from everyone but Benjamin. He did not look happy, though.

  "Benjamin, can you go retrieve Emily's birthday gift?" I said.

  "Yes, my lord," he said as he turned and exited the room.

  "You got me a gift?" Emily's face showed confusion.

  "I can't take complete credit for it. I only requested it. But the gift itself was not something I had the authority to give."

  "Lord Bicman, I fear your veiled speech is leaving my wife in more suspense than she can handle," Paul said while looking at his wife's excited face.

  I wouldn't say any more until Benjamin returned with two sheets of paper. "Edward, could you please read the letter?"

  He took the letter and began to read. "To the commoner known as Emily, who is in the service of Baron Amos Bicman. Through your bravery in the defence of Lord Aaron of Tine, in which you suffered severe injury in order to save the life of this noble, you have earned yourself a boon from His Majesty King Lenord Asput. Through your merits and at the request of Lord Amos Bicman, who vouches for your loyalty to the Crown, you are hereby granted the title of lady with all the rights and obligations to that title. You shall henceforth be known as Lady Emily Paper. Signed Magistar Edwin Farlet of the High Court of His Majesty Lenord Asput.

  "This, this has the seal of the king on it," Edward said in shock. He moved to the next sheet. This time, with eyes wide and in a voice barely above a whisper, he simply said, "A title of nobility. From the king himself."

  The fact that it came from the king was a big deal. I had learned now that I was a count I could have elevated Emily myself. However, it wouldn't carry the same weight that the King's seal had. In a social setting, saying that the King himself had bestowed the title would elevate Emily's importance.

  Edward turned and showed everybody. Emily's lips moved as she silently read the title. Finally, she mumbled, "This is a dream. I can't be a lady. This is a dream," she started to hyperventilate and then fled the home.

  Well, that went differently than I expected.

  Everyone sat there in silence for a moment. No one knowing what to say, finally Suzy threw up her hands and said exasperatedly, "Men."

  Turning to Edward, she said, "May I have the letters? I need to go talk to the girl. And Lord Bicman, please forgive my impertinence, but I wish to assist you with some counsel. In the future, I recommend you do this sort of thing in a more private setting and not spring these types of things on young girls. Their emotions are quite delicate. I will go sort things out."

  Well, it works in the movies. Maybe I should have started with the dresses, shoes, and jewelry I got her to go along with her elevated status.

  "Thank you, Suzy. I appreciate your assistance," I said. "I will try and remember your words in the future."

  After Suzy left, all the men just looked at each other for a moment. Suddenly, Paul burst out laughing.

  "I agree with the young lady. This appears to be a dream. Or one of the stories you are so fond of telling, my lord," he said.

  I could see the direction this conversation was heading, and I decided we should direct it elsewhere.

  "Headman Paul, could you tell me why you decided now would be a good time to restructure the layout of your village? Should we not be more focused on providing houses for our new people and preparing for winter?"

  He looked a little uncomfortable. "My lord, forgive me. We should not have done so without your permission. Edward planned out the design for the new village, and when we started building the new villages for the people who would be joining us, he explained that this was your design. During our weekly town meeting, a proposal was brought forth that we should start doing the same since we were building the palisade anyways. The vote ended with people strongly in favor of the idea, so we have slowly been restructuring our village. I assure you we have not been slacking in our efforts to prepare for the new people, and we have worked as a community to make this happen. We had hoped to please you."

  I had completely forgotten about the idea of the town meeting. It had been an offhand comment I had made while discussing things with my village heads. I suggested a weekly meeting be held for all adults of each village. They would discuss the current issues they were facing and even put things to a vote on issues. It was just a thought on how to help people feel more connected. I really didn't even think the headmen would do anything with it yet. It was not easy to remember how seriously these people took my suggestions.

  "Actually, I am pleased. It looks wonderful. I am also glad you decided to try the town meeting idea. How is that working?"

  Paul relaxed. "Very well, Lord Bicman. It seems to have elevated the mood of the citizens."

  "Good, now you mentioned new villages. I have not heard of this yet."

  "Ah, yes. They have not yet been named, but we had decided to create one between here and Cofi and a second one on the south side of Lake Cofi. We had planned for three hundred people in each but have two more villages planned and one under construction. One east of Kirisi near the lumber mill."

  "Do we have a steward of headmen for the new settlements?"

  "They each are run by a member of your guard. We are helping them as best we can. The villages do not have names yet."

  "I will put that on my to-do list."

  I wonder if I can delegate that responsibility.

  Just then, Richard, the Headman of Melnon, arrived.

  "Everyone, why don't we head over to town hall? We can discuss all the issues that need to be addressed and how to proceed," I said. Suzy and Emily were nowhere to be seen when we exited the home but standing with the guards I had brought with me was Chris. He was chatting with them about the trip. He was wearing the grey shirt of the Bicman Defense Force. This was an off-duty shirt. When I left, we had been making them out of cotton, and they looked like crew-cut T-shirts. However, after my talk with Jasper, the tailor, on the use of cotton, I sent a message back with Draves explaining that all clothing production should be made of things other than cotton.

  We could still spin it and weave it, but we could not use it for commoners. The shirt he had on now was made of linen.

  When he saw me, he gave me a big smile and bowed. "My Count, it is good to see you."

  "Captain Chris, you look well," I said.

  "Ah, that is because I am married now."

  "Married? Who would marry you?" It wasn't a very noble thing to say, but it just kind of slipped out.

  He laughed, "Well, you see, Bixy's Dad was so impressed by me that he insisted I marry his daughter. She wasn't opposed, and I certainly wasn't going to argue, so here we are, and signs indicate we may have a child next year."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  I wasn't quite sure if we were dealing with a shotgun wedding or if this was just Chris's humor.

  "Good for you. I am glad you found yourself a bride and such a great father-in-law. It is not always easy to find a father who is pleased with his daughter's choices. Especially when the groom is ugly," I chuckled.

  "You know it isn't nice of you to tease me now that you aren't fat. I have no comeback. Besides, aren't counts supposed to be above such things as teasing their subjects?"

  I looked at Benjamin, who was frowning at me. I sighed, "Yes, as a count, I should be above such things. Unfortunately, as a friend, I am required to. It is quite the problem."

  "Well, I have a solution. It appears that you are in the process of elevating the status of your friends, so if you make me a noble, I think that should do the trick."

  "I swear gossip spreads faster here than a fire does in dry grass,” I grumbled. “Tell you what, Chris, I can elevate you to the status of a knight, and we will ship you off to Hitub.”

  “Um, let's not be hasty. I have got a lot of men to train here."

  "Speaking of which, how has the Bicman Defense Force training program been going?"

  Chris changed to professional mode. "It is going well. I have ten infantry trainers and five archery instructors as well.”

  “I would like a cavalry unit. According to Fredrick Vaspar, the stirrups have been very effective. The men can fight better from horses now that they don't fall off when swinging weapons and can make better turns."

  "You have brought us quite a few more horses, but we still have two problems: One, we need more horses, and two, they need to be horses trained for military use. I don't think you are going to find any available. Horses that have been trained to be ridden already are probably going to be expensive. We could buy some foals in the spring, or maybe some raise our own. You need to ask Ben, your stable master, how long it takes to raise a horse before we can be ridden. Also, we need to train them, and I don't know how good Ben is at that. I don't know if he trained your family's current horses to be ridden or if it was done by the person they were purchased from," Chris explained.

  "So we need a different group of horses that can be ridden and also find a way to train a cavalry. I think that may have to be put on hold. I wonder if any of the nine hundred people who just came in are anything other than farmers. I had Chack and the other guys sorting them out, Vaspar, with a list of all the skills."

  "There may be. We found out from the people who were originally sent by the king that you had been creating lists of skills each person had. But the list did not arrive with the mercenaries. Thanks to a fuller who says you offered him a job, we were able to figure out how you were dividing this up. At first, he just explained what you had done and helped organize your scribes to take everything down, but then he took over the job for Edward. He probably knows everything about everyone in Bicman. He has been working with the headman now to create lists of all your original people as well."

  "Wow, I don't even remember that guy's name."

  "Roger, my lord," Edward said. "And as Chis has stated, he has been very helpful."

  I wonder if I should create a census bureau. It's a little too early to create government agencies that I will have to pay for. How about a third-party employment agency?

  "We will have to have a meeting with him and anyone else in charge of census data. Has he been able to make soap?"

  "Not yet, my lord. We have all been quite busy," Edward said

  "Hmm. Soap is going to be important, but it will have to wait. We need to implement proper immigration policies."

  I didn't bother telling them the reason for immigration policies and procedures was the knowledge that we would be flooded with refugees from possible upcoming battles. That was a thing that should be discussed behind closed doors.

  "So, will Draves be in attendance?" I asked.

  "He is at Fort Cove. A message has been sent," Edward said.

  "Good. Hopefully, I will be able to go there sometime," I said.

  There was a small table and two chairs at the front of the room and a whole lot of chairs and benches lined up in the center.

  I went to the front of the room and sat in one of the chairs. "Edward, you are going to be the scribe for this meeting, so sit next to me. Benjamin, grab a chair and sit on my other side. Everyone else, create a circle with the chairs. Before we get into anything else and the other headmen get here. I would like to go over general information that all of you know, but I do not. Everyone here is free to talk. We don't have time to waste on formalities."

  "Most pressing, in my opinion, is the well-being of the immigrants and security of our sensitive projects. Do we have any idea how many people died on the way up to Bicman and how many are ill currently?"

  Edward spoke up. "There is no exact count on how many died along the way. I can have someone investigate that if you desire."

  "It is not urgent. I was just wanting to know if all the money I spent trying to help people survive actually did anything."

  Paul answered, "It certainly did. We may not have exact numbers of those who died, but most people arrived in good spirits. There were and still are some illnesses, but those people are being quarantined. Unfortunately, it hasn't completely stopped the illness from spreading."

  "Alright, let's address this and then sanitization. What does Maggie say?"

  The room stayed silent, and some of them put their heads down, refusing to meet my eye. Finally, Edward spoke. "My lord, the healer Maggie passed away. She spent too much time around the ill and became ill herself. Her body could not handle it. I am sorry."

  My heart tightened at the news. I should have known this type of thing would happen. A young, healthy person might be able to recover, but not someone Maggie's age. What was she doing walking around sick people? I get the fact that someone had to do it, but with the huge amount of people…

  "How are those people in quarantine being treated?" I asked

  "The people in the quarantine camp are not being treated. There are too many of them."

  I hadn't put much thought into medicine since I have been here. I knew people would get sick in my barony, but I figured that since I wasn't a doctor and Maggie seemed to know what she was doing, I should just let her do her thing. I knew I shouldn't beat myself up because I couldn't do everything for everyone. I was sure there were ideas I had learned about that could help these people if only I could remember them all. I thought for a moment.

  "Ok, I am not sure how much this will help, but I know it will help some. The reason why we have been taught to boil water is because it kills diseases that are in the water. We can also get diseases from open cuts, which means diseases can be picked up from surfaces that touch our skin. So touching things that have the disease and then putting it near areas where the disease can get inside us can spread the disease."

  "What are you suggesting, my lord," Barak asked.

  "When treating patients, all areas that the disease can enter through need to be covered. Let's assume that anything that a deceased person touches can also have disease on it. So those who help with sick people need to cover their hands and faces with cloth to prevent sickness from getting inside them. We will have gloves and masks made for the healers. Any time they are in the presence of a sick person, they must wear them. Afterward, they will put them in water and boil the cloth. If they have multiple people they are treating, they must switch out after each visit.

  "Actually, to be extra sure, we will make coats that cover the healers. They should also be boiled each day."

  "You think this will help?" Paul asked.

  "I know it will. I just don't know how much. I wish I had gotten around to having medical discussions with Maggie."

  If I had followed her around for a week, maybe it would have jogged my memory of medical practices. I will have to interview any other medics we have and get some more.

  "Ok, so we got off track. What are all these people doing? We mentioned villages, right?" I asked.

  "Yes, they are constructing their own villages and because we are providing the food, the villages are going up quite quickly. Everyone is constantly working. Children and women are gathering fibers to make additional clothing for themselves. The clothing we were able to provide was not enough, and Draves said that now that the people are here, we cannot make them any cloth quickly. Any spies will start to wonder how we are able to make so much cloth. Also, the spinning wheels and looms have been moved to the fort. None of the new people are allowed there," Edward said.

  "What about our other projects? The paper and the coke production?"

  "As you know, the paper shop is burnt down. We were going to close it down when the new people arrived anyway. We were just getting things set up in the fort but didn't want to stop production. I am sorry."

  "Well, now, Marcus knows about our paper," I said disappointedly.

  Several heads dropped again. "I am sorry for my failure, my lord," Edward said.

  "On the other hand, if you had moved the paper production there sooner. That kid would have probably tracked down Emily, and he would have found out about our secret base. Also, the fact that the boy is alive is my fault. I must take some responsibility for anything dealing with Marcus. Let's move on."

  "Coal is still being mined, but it is being put into storage after being extracted. The coke is not being created. The furnaces are only being used for lime and charcoal production. A road is being built from Alfer to the copper mines south of Melnon. And don't worry. It does not go near the road to Fort Cove."

  "Ok, to clarify, Fort Cove and The Fort are two different places, right?"

  "Yes, my lord. The Fort is the one being built near the mountains to hide our projects."

  "That is confusing, but maybe it is good that it is confusing. If anyone slips up and mentions The Fort, people will just assume we are talking about Fort Cove."

  "I told you it was a good idea, Paul," Barak said.

  "Okay, there's no need to rub it in. I just get confused every time we have a meeting, " Paul retorted.

  "Back on track, coke, paper, sugar, and easily produced fine cloth are all being hidden. Let us assume that everything else is out in the open. Now, let's discuss our rat problem."