The work day ended just after lunchtime and the house was completed. Helena had arranged a garden party of sorts for the work crews and their families, who were amazed at the transformation of the estate in only a week. While they ate and had a nice time, Helena and I made sure to visit each and every room and made love in each of them for most of the afternoon.
We finished just as the fountain was delivered and we cleaned ourselves up, then with our maids to help, we dressed in our semi-formal outfits. We went out to visit with the work crews and their families, Selena and Mona, and the main house maids and butlers that I hadn't seen up until that point were there as well.
The fountain itself was concealed behind tarps and things and was on a huge modified horse drawn cart. It was quickly put into place and hooked up to the previous fountain's water supply.
The entire Bassinger family had shown up as well, even their second and third cousins, so the place became quite crowded for the unveiling. Helena let everyone talk for a while and then she whispered a few things into my ear as she handed me a glass of wine. I nodded to her before asking Frank for a step ladder, which he delivered promptly because he was waiting for me to ask, and he gave me a thumbs up gesture.
I climbed up three steps and faced the crowd. “If I could have everyone's attention please.” I said and all the chatter quieted down as they all looked at me. “This was a huge undertaking and none of it could have been possible without the dedicated work crews that have been a godsend to my future wife and myself.”
A short round of applause greeted my words.
“I'd like to keep you on to make the retaining wall around the entire property; however, I know there are other jobs that some of you would like to get back to.”
“We're not scheduled to work anywhere else for another two months!” Someone shouted. “We'll take your easy pay any day!”
That made a lot of the workers and their families laugh.
I raised my glass briefly and nodded. “I look forward to seeing it done in record time.”
“You know it!” Someone else shouted and a cheer came from them.
“Now for the reason we're all here.” I said and waved at the mansion behind me. “I'd like to formally introduce you all to the recently completed and fully functional Henrietta Longshore Estate.”
Another round of applause met my words.
“It's both a residence and a workman's paradise.” I said, because I had built it almost like my house, with rooms for specific things, like enchanting, smoking meat, a huge kitchen, the potion making room in the basement with a tool room beside it, a huge library that only had a few books in it at the moment, and everything else that a rich or noble family would have in a house.
“I wish I lived here!” A young woman's voice said loudly and a few people laughed and applauded.
“Thank you for letting me get to my next point, young lady.” I said.
“I'm not a lady.” She said and blushed.
“We're a new house and our staff for such a place is lacking, since the Henrietta Family had planned for people to be hired after it was completed several months from now. With it completed so soon, thanks to those work crews, we have several open positions available.”
A dozen people raised their hands and waved to me.
“Cooks, maids, butlers, stable hands, a general work crew for maintenance, cleaners, gardeners, and... dearest, what was that other word?” I asked.
“Topiary maintenance.” Helena said.
“Right. Someone to trim the hedges.” I said and a few people laughed. “If you are interested in any of the jobs available, stay after the fountain's unveiling. My fiance and I will come and talk to you and see where your skills lie.”
A lot of heads nodded acceptance.
I raised my glass. “To the Henrietta Family's continued prosperity.”
“Here, here!” Most of the work crewmen said and drank their mugs of ale.
I took a sip of the wine to finish the toast. “Lady Bassinger, I turn this over to you.”
“Thank you, my lord.” A quite tall and lithe figure of a woman said as she stepped out of the pile of well dressed people that I assumed were the entire contents of the Bassinger family. Her solid black hair was shoulder length and straight as an arrow and the dress she wore hugged her thinness and showed off her long legs.
I took her hand and carefully helped her ascend the three steps.
Lady Bassinger held onto my hand to remain steady. “When my daughter was contacted a week ago and told shocking news, that we had a commission from the eldest daughter of the Henrietta Family and her fiance, I fainted for nearly twenty minutes.”
Almost everyone laughed and a few of her family members admitted they had, too.
“Of course, word quickly spread to my family members, as if they were magically connected somehow...”
“We are!” A man said from the back of the group and a few people laughed.
“...and we started to plan. It couldn't be another statue of the king or even a member of the royal family, since that subject has been overdone enough. No, we needed inspiration and we didn't know where to get it.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“You used magic!” Someone shouted.
“Ha ha, no my dear fellow. We had to learn who our benefactors were, so we reached out to several sources.” Lady Bassinger said. “I have to admit that some of the stories were quite disturbing and others were concerning, while others were scary and still more were absolutely terrifying.”
A silence descended on the gathering and she smiled.
“However, among all of those stories was one that not only inspired us to create, it urged and begged us to recreate it in all its glory.” Lady Bassinger said and waved at the tarp covered fountain. “This is that masterpiece.”
The tarps were pulled off and everyone in the crowd gasped, even the men.
It was a twelve foot tall sculpture of a marsh dragon on its hind legs with its wings spread as if to take flight. It was partway through a breath attack that was aimed directly at a slightly out of scale stone Helena. She had that look of defiance on her face and everyone admired it and the rest of the sculpture. The real Helena's face flushed red and she looked quite embarrassed.
“This was the perfect moment from that tragic battle. Out of all of it, through the panic, the desperation, and even the loss of Mage Lukas himself... this was what everyone remembered and comment the most about. Mage Henrietta isn't even a combat mage, and yet after her fiance was swallowed by the dragon, this was what she looked like as she glared at the creature.”
“WHAAAAAT?!?” Nearly everyone yelled in surprise, except for the Bassinger family members and the Henrietta family members, since they knew I had been eaten.
“It seems the new Lord Henrietta isn't a boastful man.” Lady Bassinger commented and smiled at me.
“That's not something I need to talk about.” I said to her. “I nearly died and threw up a lot when I finally escaped.”
Lady Bassinger laughed softly. “It was much more disgusting than I imagine it was, wasn't it?”
I nodded and she looked back at the crowd as she waved her free hand. The fountain started up and the water poured out of the dragon's breath attack and onto the battlefield between it and the carved stone Helena figure. They had made it almost like an island with several depressions, just like it had been in the marsh, and it looked great. There were 'oo' and 'ah' sounds from the crowd, too.
“Thank you for letting us create such a wonderful masterpiece of work.” Lady Bassinger said to Helena and I as I helped her step down off of the step ladder. “It will look even more impressive once it sits for a while and weathers into the proper color.”
“Come back tomorrow.” I said and Helena laughed softly at Lady Bassinger's surprised face.
“He means that.” Helena whispered. “It'll be weathered and aged properly by then.”
“How?” Lady Bassinger asked and gripped my hand. “No, I don't want you to reveal a family secret. I have to assume it's how you've acquired all that beautifully stained and aged wood on everything.”
“It is.” Helena whispered and then she spoke normally. “Although it's embarrassing to be put on display like this, you did an excellent job capturing the moment. It's very lifelike.”
Lady Bassinger nodded and didn't let my hand go. “We had two failed attempts at trying to get the breath attack to work. We had to compromise and not make a direct acid cloud attack and did it more as if it was spitting fire instead.”
“I didn't notice the difference and I was there.” Helena said and glanced at the fountain to look.
“Most people don't, hence the compromise.” Lady Bassinger said. “I really do need to thank you both again. This was a... a passion for us to do... and it was both a delight and a pain in the ass.”
That made Helena laugh a bit loudly and that gained the attention of her sister Selena and her mother Mona. They came over to us and Becca was right behind them. She looked just like her mother and was tall, had straight shoulder length black hair, and had a lithe figure.
“Mother's telling you it was a pain in the ass, isn't she?” Becca asked.
“She thanked us first.” I said and that made them all laugh.
“It was amazingly difficult and more than a few of us couldn't handle it on our own.” Lady Bassinger said. “If we didn't have so many family members close by, we might not have completed it on time.”
“I can't believe you redid the entire mansion so quickly! It's unbelievable!” Becca said. “You really do have the best work crews in the capital.”
Everyone saw several carts arriving and a few workmen went over to them. The driver spoke to one of them and the workman quickly made his way around the crowd to approach me.
“My lord, the scrap springy trees are here as are the commissioned logs.” The man said.
“You can unload the carts where they are for now. After the party, I want them taken to the basement work room, please.” I told him and he looked happy.
“Yes, my lord.” The man said. As he went back to the carts, he waved his hands in signals to the other men to start working. By the time the workman arrived back at the carts to help, half of the carts were already unloaded.
“I thought the mansion was done?” Lady Bassinger asked.
“It is and we will be happy to bring you along at the head of the tour.” Helena said. “The materials are just for a side project David has his mind set on, despite my assurance that he doesn't need it.” Helena said, easily deflecting the older woman from asking about what the materials were actually for.
Lady Bassinger had to laugh. “Compromise, my dear. Sometimes it's easier to accept a man's ideas and let him try, rather than discourage him.”
“Oh, I would never discourage my David.” Helena said. “I only told him it wasn't really necessary, not that he shouldn't do it.” She gave me a look. “I'm not sure if there's anything that I won't help him do, now that I know he's as committed to me as I am to him.”
Lady Bassinger looked at us and she smiled a genuine smile. “Are you really going to wait for three years to get married? You two are too good of a match to wait so long.”
Helena glanced at her mother and then at Lady Bassinger. “David needs to pass the basic courses at the academy to become a mage before father approves officially.”
Lady Bassinger gave my hand a squeeze. “That old fool still thinks you need to graduate as a mage to be considered magical?”
“I believe it's the official recognition he wants and it doesn't matter about the potency.” I said and the women around me stared at me with slightly opened mouths. “I could perform the most outrageous magic he's ever seen and it won't impress him unless I'm an officially recognized mage.”
Helena's hand gripped mine and she reluctantly nodded in agreement. “I think it's time for the tour.”
I nodded back and Lady Bassinger finally let my hand go to take her daughter's hand, then we made the announcement that the tour was starting. Everyone was excited to see the interior and what we had done with the place, even Helena's mother Mona, and the procession began as a workman opened the large and quite heavily reinforced double doors.
They had weight enchantments on them for ease of access that would only be charged during the day. At night, they would ensure that no one was getting into our house by normal means.
Everyone made appreciative sounds as they walked through the halls and visited the rooms, saw the furniture and the amount of work that went into restoring and refurbishing the entire place. We were barely in the second hallway when Lady Bassinger spoke.
“Your walls and halls are bare.” Lady Bassinger lamented. “How could you do such a disservice to all of your hard work in making this place livable?”
A few people laughed at her statement.
“We were waiting for a certain family to finish their very first commission for us, before we could gauge their talent and approached them for more.” Helena said, quite pointedly.
Lady Bassinger's face flushed red, then she nodded. “Your challenge is accepted, Lady Henrietta.”
“After seeing what you accomplished with the fountain, I am quite happy to hear that, Lady Bassinger.” Helena responded with a happy smile. “With appropriate compensation, of course.”
“Of course.” Lady Bassinger said with a happy smile of her own.