Josie nodded at the dining room set up by Jack. He had extended the floor space on the bottom floor, pushing the girls’ rooms out. Then he had put up walls to mark a dining room and a living room. Pushing the kitchen and Elaine’s room around to be behind the rooms had been a little trickier, but done. A shutter went over the door to prevent anyone knocking it down instantly.

Josie put a table and chairs together for them. Zatanna made that easy. She thought about beds for the girls, but wanted to wait to see what they brought home from their shopping trip.

Jack put the stew on to boil. He cooked some meat he had bought from a butcher with fire from his hands before cutting it up and adding it to the pot.

“We’re going to need more than this eventually,” said Josie. She waved at the stew in the large pot hanging over the fire. “Where did the crockpot come from?

“I made it when I made the rest of the kitchen,” said Jack. “One of the drawbacks of living in the past is the lack of variety in the food. That’s why they developed fancy recipes to make the food more presentable.”

“Okay,” said Josie. “How do you think the apple pie will taste?”

“Not as good as back home,” said Jack.

“It will be all natural,” said Josie.

“Give me my artificial flavors and preservatives,” said Jack.

The lock in the front door rattled and the crowd of girls entered the hideout. Their words filled the air until they noticed the new room joined to the area around the front door. Amazement at the change filled the air.

“How did the shopping go?,” Jack called.

Josie smiled when she stepped out of the kitchen and saw their reactions. Putting a little amazement in people’s lives was worth it.

“I have a list of things we secured,” said Elaine. “We had to rent a cart to bring some of it back. I hope that was fine.”

“You were in charge,” said Jack. “If that is what you had to do, then it’s fine. What did you get?”

“We picked up maps of the city and the North, several texts about the Dark Rider, and the royalty in the North, clothing, spices, bedding and pillows, blankets, a wash bucket for washing everything, and some personal things,” said Elaine.

“And your pie, milord,” said Beatrice.

“That’s the most important thing,” said Jack. “I might have to send you back to get me another one if this one is any good.”

“I’m sure that will be thrilling,” said Elaine.

“We were talking about hiring a self-defense instructor for all of you,” said Josie. “We were wondering what you thought about that.”

“An instructor?,” said Beatrice.

“Someone to teach you how to fight,” said Jack. “Do they allow that here?”

“There are retired mercenaries who teach sword fighting, and other things,” said Elaine. “I don’t think many teach women.”

“We’re going to let you girls think about that,” said Josie. “It might be useful down the way.”

“Will we still have to learn letters?,” asked Melanie.

“Yes, Mel,” said Josie. “You will.”

She ignored the groan that entailed. She clapped her hands once.

“All right,” said Josie. “Jack, help the older girls with bringing the things in. Younger girls, help me set the table. The pie will be cut after dinner. Then we’ll see about basic letters and such.”

“Ahhh,” was the collective groan.

“Then clean up and ready for bed,” said Josie.

“Best move along before she gets out the whip,” said Jack. He gestured for Elaine and the three oldest girls to precede him to the door. “Then you’ll really hear some bad words.”

“Really?,” said Melanie.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Yes,” said Jack. “She cusses like a sailor. Let’s go.”

Josie shook her head. She waved for the three younger girls to follow her into the kitchen.

“Mathilda, get the plates for the table. Melanie, fill up mugs with clean water and take those in,” said Josie. She looked around the kitchen. Jack had made silverware too. “Angelica, wash this lettuce and tomatoes, and then cut them up in a bowl. We’re going to have salad with our stew.”

“What’s salad?,” asked Angelica. She looked around for a knife. She found one in a drawer. She grabbed a bowl from a cabinet and put it on the table.

“It’s fruits and vegetables cut up and mixed together,” said Josie. “Sometimes a sauce is added to enhance the taste.”

“All right,” said Angelica. “Seems like a waste.”

“It’s basically a filler,” said Josie. “It fills your stomach without hurting you, and

doesn’t let you eat so much.”

“So you don’t get fat and can’t take care of yourself,” said Melanie. She had half of the mugs filled and on the table. She had one in her hand, working the pump to fill it with water.

“Ideally,” said Josie. “A lot of things go into obesity.”

She took a moment from making sure the girls were handling things. She realized in a second, they looked like her and each other enough to be sisters. She frowned because she knew it wasn’t a coincidence.

Montrose had gone after them because of what they looked alike. They had gone after a category to fill an order.

They deserved what they were getting from her, and anybody else looking into their business.

She ushered the girls out with the food. She took a moment to put a bottle of dressing together for the salad. She put that on the table as the girls gathered around the table. Jack had his pie in hand, and sniffed the apple smell where he stood.

“Elaine?,” asked Josie as she took the pie away from him.

“She’s coming,” said Jack. He frowned as his pie disappeared into the kitchen.

“You can eat the pie after dinner,” said Josie. “Be seated, please.”

“All right,” said Jack. “I should have asked for ice cream too.”

“How are you going to get ice cream here?,” said Josie. “You’re going to have to make it yourself.”

His face lit up at the thought.

“After dinner,” said Josie. She shook her head.

Jack made a sad face at that. The girls laughed at him. Some commented on who was really in charge.

“Tell us about your day, ladies,” said Jack. “How does Hawk Ridge work for

citizens of the country?”

“We went and got fitted for clothes,” said Mathilda. “That was strange. Mum usually made ours at home.”

“Then we checked for bedding,” said Angelica. “Elaine had to bargain with the man to get a cart so we could bring everything home.”

“The expense is in my notebook, sir,” said Elaine.

“Then we walked through places with piles of books and the adventure hall,” said Melanie. “That was a pain.”

“The maps were great,” said Laura. “There are so many places beyond the city.”

Josie and Jack looked at the middle girl, Alicia. She hadn’t spoken of the day’s adventure. She worked on her soup slowly.

“What do you think, Al?,” asked Jack. He made a gesture for the dressing to put on his salad.

“Words,” said Josie. “Use your words.”

“May I have the dressing, please?,” said Jack. He caught the bottle out of the air. “So, Al, did you see anything that was good.”

“No,” said the girl.

“What do you think about a swordsman teaching you some things?,” Jack asked. He poured half the remaining dressing on his salad and dug in.

“That would be good,” said Alicia. She started on her salad.

“Do you want to talk about anything?,” asked Jack.

“No,” said Alicia.

“Okay,” said Jack. “That’s fair.”

“How did your quest go, milord?,” asked Beatrice.

“It went good,” said Jack. “Accordly seems to be full of fish people who worship a fish god of some kind. And their god was about to drop in and have a talk with the locals. We figured out what to do, and stopped that, but the town is probably mad at us right now.”

“You have a knack of making enemies,” said Mathilda.

“I don’t see why,” said Jack. “I’m friendly and outgoing, love cats, and generally live and let live.”

“And the fish people?,” asked Melanie.

“Are overreacting,” said Jack.

“I would love to meet these fish people,” said Laura. “I’ve never seen a fish person.”

“They’ll probably be mad that we blew their subterfuge,” said Josie. “Who knows if they’ll be there the next time we go through there?”

“Anyway,” said Jack. “I need to get some chalk so Mathilda can show us how to write letters after dinner. We need to clean up. And Elaine and I need to go over what she found. And we need to put the beds together.”

“Sounds like work,” said Melanie.

“Life is like that,” said Jack. “Tomorrow, we’ll have to make plans on how we’re dealing with things. Give Elaine any requests for anything you think you might need. I think if all of you can read a book, then you pass the read/write course.”

“How big a book?,” said Beatrice.

“Let’s say one hundred pages,” said Jack. “Pick something you’ll like to read about. It’ll make things easier for you.”

“A hundred pages?,” said Melanie.

“It’s easy,” said Matilda.

“No pictures,” said Jack.

“You’re not serious,” said Laura. “I could have gotten a book of maps, but now I can’t.”

“That reminds me,” said Jack. “I want you to write down what the book is about in five hundred words. That way I know you read it.”

“Five hundred words?,” said Melanie. “That’s a lot.”

“There are people where we come from that write fifty thousand words in a month as part of a contest,” said Josie. “Five hundred is not so bad.”

“Fifty thousand?,” said Melanie. “What’s the prize for this contest?”

“Nothing,” said Josie. “Is everyone done? We can bring out the pie and cut it up.”

“Yes, bring on the pie,” said Jack.

“All right,” said Josie. “We need a trash can for the refuse. I guess we’ll scrape the plates out next to the wall. Let the local rats have some of it.”

“The city doesn’t have anything for half-eaten food,” said Elaine. “Local farms

would have added it to a compost pile for the next harvest.”

“Something else we’ll have to check on,” said Jack. “Let’s go, ladies. That pie isn’t going to eat itself.”

The rest of the night went by quietly as the pie was shared, the living quarters was cleaned up, and Matilda wrote down the letters of the alphabet on a wall with chalk for her students to learn. At one point, Josie worked on a guitar and tuned it so she could sing a few things.

They settled in to rest. The next day would have their next challenges.