Dear Diary,

Apparently sensitive spots hurt not just when you hurt them, but while they're healing, too. Need to remember that if I ever get the dumb idea to hurt someplace more sensitive than my lips.

So after two straight days of burials and road work, we'd got Terrence's farmstead pretty much seen to. Three nights staying in a farmhouse where we've got a decent sized suite was kinda nice, too. The latter two nights having Isnomi right across the house doing the sleepover thing with Terrence and Teresa was even better.

What? I sleep better with Marie and Saffron piled around me. Really. That's all. Insert Muttley snicker here, because I might really have slept better, but I sure as fuck didn't sleep as much.

So we'd checked the four cardinal directions, as well as east and west of north, plus a few more to the east, where we'd come in, I figured after checking the two in the southeast and southwest, we'd need to start pushing outward, although I wasn't sure which direction to do first; east, since that seemed to be which direction the Plague had moved, which meant people there needed help more, or west, to find out where the edges were. North I figured Gary and Rowena could handle on their way back. Unless they just came straight back along the same path, which would be faster, but... fuck, I hadn't specifically told them which to do. I don't think I had, anyway. Hopefully they'd make the right decision, because fuck me if I knew even now what the 'right decision' was.

Right after breakfast I hopped Larry and I back to the western farmstead, and between having no troops with us and having a cleared road to travel on, we straight up ran southward, winding up at the southwestern farmstead right around lunch time. Angel and Bill had the situation well in hand; they'd Cured everybody who might have needed it, then started in on helping the troops clear the road eastward. They'd just come back from the front to check on the farmstead and have lunch themselves.

We sat down at the table with Holder Vivian Lands, which I thought was a real weird name for a dude, but given that there would be a bunch of little dudes running around named Tabitha, I wasn't really one to judge. The women of the farm brought out the food, which by 'orthodox' Lancaster House standards seemed almost progressive. Then again, while my 'tracts of bountiful land' might not be quite as bountiful as Saffron's as a factor of our height, I'm like almost a foot taller than her, and I'm not one to bind that shit, so I was pretty clearly a woman sitting down to eat. I guess between me doing that, Lancaster nominally deferring to me, and him not, I dunno, burning people at the stake for letting the women out of their cage? Vivian felt chill enough with us to not be constantly apologizing for, as noted, letting the women out of their cages.

Given they came and went freely from the kitchen, and one of them wandered upstairs at one point to roust out a kid who'd been put down for a mid-day nap, it seemed like 'cage' might not really be the right word here. Hard to be sure though.

Once we'd finished lunch, which had been a mix of salted fish bought from a farm to the south before the snow set in and mashed yams with what tasted like syrup mixed in them, I turned to Bill and said, "so, how's our southern line looking?"

He nodded and said, "almost done from here to the south central farm. Angel jogged over to where they'd cleared things; we should have the road from here to there cleared entirely, with Volunteers stationed just within sight of each other all along the way. I was thinking we ought to let them dig in a little; not to hold if they see Calverton coming, but enough to keep them out of the weather. Or maybe rotate them back to the farmsteads?"

I thought about it. I didn't want us running into the Calverton Army while we were all spread out, but I wanted to get a solid idea of how far the plague had spread. Eventually I shook my head. "Once you've got this end set up, I want the two of you to push westward until you hit a farmstead where the Plague hasn't hit them, or where they stopped it cold like they did to the northwest. Or until you run out of troops, at which point we'll have to shuffle some from Lancaster House down to widen the line."

"We'll want to push northward at least one farmstead behind the line and clear that east west road as well, Commander." When I just raised an eyebrow and made a 'go on' gesture with my spoon, he said, "if we've only got the one road clear, any troops beyond our current westernmost north south road will wind up cut off."

I closed my eyes and tried to picture what he'd said. "Shit. I'm gonna need to look at Bonnie's map to be sure of things, but... yeah, I think you're right. It's gonna wind up taking more troops, but once you've got this southern road set up? Head north, leave a line of units along the north south road, then head westward along that line doing the same. When you get to that farm, plow south, then back east to here."

"They'll still run the risk of getting cut off." Larry sounded a little speculative, like he'd decided to play devil's advocate rather than actually push back. Hell, I kind of needed it, because I'd missed the potential for us getting cut of at all.

Still, sometimes you had to do risky shit in fucked up situations. Not like I'd ever done that before. Okay, not like I'd ever ordered someone else to do that before when I wasn't going to be doing the same. Fuck. "You're not wrong, but we need to take that chance somewhere, unless we plan on letting the Plague do its worst while we hunker down at Lancaster House eating waffles."

"I don't know, Commander. The Ladies make very good waffles." I popped my eyes back open and stared at him, but he'd managed to hold a decent poker face.

Angel snorted, then started laughing. "Shit, Lancaster, are you feeling okay?"

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"Believe it or not, Cadet MacConno, I have a functioning brain and sense of humor both. Despite all the evidence to the contrary."

I cut in before that particular back and forth could go south, because we absolutely did not have time for it if it did. "Okay, so it's my call to make and I'm saying we'll extend the east west line from Lancaster House, pushing south and back towards the center with each additional farmstead we clear. Got it?"

Angel and Bill both nodded, so I turned to Holder Vivian as I pushed myself out of the chair. "Well then. Lunch was excellent, Holder, but Heir Lancaster and I have to go if we're going to make it to meet with Cadets Jonopolous and Carruthers before dark."

Larry nodded and stood, and I put a hand on his shoulder and stepped us both to the farm where we'd last seen Fred and Linus. While we ran southward, I said, "so, no news as of yet from or about your cousins. That doesn't sit well with me."

He nodded, and slowed down just a touch in order to reply. "I can think of a few reasons they might not have contacted us."

"Enlighten me?"

"They may have found no evidence of Calverton forces and decided to push forward as far as they could into Calverton territory, where the roads are... less good. They might have found a stationary Calverton army and decided to scout it out as thoroughly as possible. They might have decided to travel entirely off-road, which wouldn't slow them as much as it would troops, but might still explain their delay in returning."

I nodded, but said, "I notice you don't include 'they ran into a Calverton army and all died', 'enough of them defected that the rest all died', and 'they're playing some kind of bullshit game to try and wind up with one of them as Heir'."

"I did not, Commander. I was thinking of reasons that would be less stressful than those."

"Fair point."

After that we kicked the pace back up, and wound up at the southeastern farmstead well before dinner time. The road had been completely cleared, and when we got to the farmhouse we found a single unit in one of the bunkhouses. Linus and Fred were out with the troops, clearing the path westward. The remains of the former inhabitants of this farm were buried in the field nearest the farmstead. I decided not to go running into the night and stepped us both back to Lancaster House.

The lack of information regarding the cousins still did not sit well with me. Either they'd hit something and gotten themselves bogged down, they'd turned their coats and we'd have to deal with that, they'd decided to fuck around instead of getting the job done and heading back, or they'd thought up some new deviltry that my poor little abused brain couldn't come up with. I may only be good for fucking shit up, but at least I'm pretty fuckin' straightforward about it. I've pretty much got two action modes, and both start with 'fuck you', and one ends with 'r shit up', while the other finishes up with 'senseless'. I'm a simple woman, never claimed otherwise.

At any rate, we got together with Bonnie, Lachlan, and Raven in the map room before dinner. "Okay, so we know this farm," I tapped the one to the northwest with a toe, "was almost completely plague free. The ones east of here got hit progressively harder the further east they were." I stepped over and tapped each of those as well. "The farms with Volunteers billeted, inclusive of Lancaster House, got hit pretty hard; the ones without some kind of Healing got ripped the fuck up, where the ones with Healing just got hammered a bit." I kept hopping around tapping farmsteads as I mentioned them, hopping over or stepping around Bonnie's formations of yams and apples, because the visuals helped me to think. If they did so for anyone else, great side benefit, but I had the big hat, so I had to be the one to make the decision, so my brain had to grok it all. "The ones to the southeast and northeast both got whomped but good."

I kinda broke down at that point. I didn't start bawling or anything, but I couldn't bring myself to do any more mental work, what with me still coming to terms with that field full of low mounds of dirt and empty farm buildings. After a minute or so, Larry coughed quietly and said, "should we have them bring the livestock from the southeast farm back here, or use it for supplies for our front line?"

I shook my head and asked, "what are your thoughts about it?"

He nodded and said, "we've got the manpower here to slaughter the livestock we need to, not to mention processing the meat into rations that will keep more troops fed for longer. If they do it there, they'll be able to keep more animals alive longer, but they'll waste more of the food from each animal, not to mention the leather, wool, or other useable portions.

I thought about it for a half second, made my decision for the worst reason possible, because otherwise I'd still wind up stumped, and said, "let's send a unit with some folks trained in transporting animals and bring them all back here. Corral what we can, butcher and process the rest. Um, am I right that most of the cows can be milked and the sheep shorn for wool without, y'know, killing them?" Lancaster nodded. "Okay then. Preferentially slaughter any pigs we get. From what I know, they're both a little messier and don't provide anything but meat and maybe leather?"

He shrugged. "They also can eat just about any refuse that isn't outright poisonous. I'd recommend keeping at least a few around for that purpose."

I nodded again. "Make it so." I looked up at the big 'L' window and saw a lack of light seeping in around the shutters. "Let's go get dinner, then I'm for bed, I think."

Larry just nodded, first to me, then to one of the butler guys, who took off at a trot, I'm guessing to get dinner ready for us. I trudged up the stairs, more mentally tired than physically. You coming to Lancaster House for dinner, Kitten?

Sorry, love, but I'm working through dinner. Is there any chance you could pick up Marie and Isnomi from the Academy and...

And?

I feel a little soft saying this, especially since it's at least in part because I know Ophelia doesn't have the option every night, but could you have a bath ready when I get there?

I laughed a little at that, thought, sure, Kitten, then stepped to the Academy and met Marie and our little menace as they came into the cell. Isnomi cried out, "mama!" when she saw me, then launched herself at me from the front of Marie's cart. When I'd got my balance back, I stepped over to Marie, put an arm around her and, after standing like that for a minute, stepped us all back to the dining room at Lancaster House. Despite my hints that she ought to sit down and eat with us, Marie helped serve dinner. Isnomi had apparently decided that Lachlan made a good conversation partner, because she ran around the table and grabbed the seat next to him. I deliberately clubbed the part of my brain thinking about how similar their mental ages seemed when it tried to start matchmaking and shit, then spent dinner talking with Raven about nothing much. Well, okay, she was talking about potential improvements to the map room, or a way to do something similar in Phileo or Camden Yards. I mostly just nodded and made polite noises while I ate my meat pie. Really weird flavor, what with yams replacing the potatoes I'd expected.

Then again, I'd made what amounted to a major logistic decision because I wanted to get scrapple back on the menu, so I didn't have much room for culinary complaints.