Chapter 5 Discussing the house

When we were in sight of the Farm Marie spoke up. “Brother Mark, you should probably discuss this intention of acquiring the Orphan Girls with your parents now, rather than surprising them with a bunch of new daughters out of nowhere. They’d probably think you’d gone total bestial otherwise. Surrendering fully to carnal desires, and with no limit on age, and all. They were quick to jump to that conclusion when they met me after all.” I groaned, and drew my hands across my face. “You’re probably right. Sad to say, I know some men actually do target girls who are too young to even think about such things, let alone actually want them. Besides that, it’s a good idea to get their input anyway. Sure Mom would help teaching household chores, and Dad would want to help teaching Farming. Still two people who have their own duties won’t be enough to teach multiple girls at once. Maybe they can give me some more ideas for sourcing staff.”

Mom saw us coming, as she was in the front garden, tending to the cabbages. “Welcome back you two. Mark I have to thank you for that Spear. May not have been your intention, but it does quite nice at stabbing a rogue fox. Never had a Fox attack me like that before.” She pointed to the body of the Fox, and I could still see blood and tissue stuck to her spear blade. “Mom, did you see any froth from its nose, or mouth? That’s really a worrying act for a Fox. Did it scratch you at all, any bite?” She shook her head. “It didn’t get the chance, and I don’t think there was any froth. What would that mean anyway?”

I sighed in relief. “That would have been a sign of a particularly nasty disease called Rabies. That disease can be spread to any living creature through a bite, or scratch. Once it takes hold, the creature can’t tell friend from foe, is light sensitive, and afraid of water. That last part is probably the only saving grace about it, cause it means the creature will die quicker without being able to drink water.” Mom’s eyes widened in horror. “That’s a terrifying thing! Is there anyway to tell now it’s dead?” I slapped my forehead in self disgust. Then I cast Analysis on the corpse of the Fox.

Fox

Male

12 years old

Status deceased, Rabid

“Good thinking Mom, my skill worked, and it was indeed Rabid. Don’t touch it, I’ll burn it later, and let me clean your spear, I don’t want to risk even a little of that blood getting in contact with you. If you nicked yourself while cleaning it, it could easily infect you.” Mom’s face paled. I picked up her spear, and stabbed it into the Fox’s corpse and took it over to a large flat stone we used for burning trash. Tossing the body on top of the current pile, I pulled the spear free. “Brother Mark, I’ll tend to the fire, you tend to the spear. Let’s get everything sorted as quick as possible.” I nodded in thanks to Marie, and went a decent way downhill from anywhere we grew plants, taking a bucket of water along. I splashed water across the blade till no traces remained, then went back to the house, got a cauldron deep enough for the whole blade to be submerged, filled it with water, and set it to boil in the fire Marie had started under the Fox’s body. Once the water was boiling, I put the spear blade into the water to sterilize it from any remaining trace of the virus. Dad came up at this point, having noticed the smoke.

“Why,…are you burning a Fox, and boiling your Mother’s spear?!” I looked at Dad with a very serious expression. “Welcome back Father, as it happens, Mother had a VERY close call today, which that Spear saved her from. She was attacked by that Fox, which only happened, because that Fox was diseased. That particular disease can effect anything that comes in contact with its blood, so I’m burning the corpse, and boiling any trace of its blood off her spear tip so there’s no chance of it still killing her later when cleaning the blade herself. Wasn’t going to take the chance.” Dad’s face panicked, and he ran to check on Mom, leaving me to the mundane task. I let the water boil till the fire had burnt itself out. Only then did I extract the blade, and polish it clean. I went into the house then, where everyone was waiting. “Here’s you Spear back Mom, all clean and ready for whatever.” She gripped the spear with a white knuckle grip, the narrowness of her escape causing her some distress.

Marie had finished cooking dinner, since Mom was in too much shock, and Dad wasn’t any help either at that moment. We sat down together and started to eat. “By the way, I’ll be looking at plans for a new house to be built on my land. It’s going to be BIG. I have the intention of adopting all the girls from the Orphanage in the next town over. So non of them will end up slaves in some pig’s pen. I already have a cook lined up to teach them how to work in a professional kitchen, and I’ll need some suggestions for other people who can work out of the house, while teaching the girls. I know you two will be happy to help where you can, but that’s got to be limited, since you have this Farm and House to tend to already. I’d also like input on the house plans if you don’t mind. Then there’s the thought of you adopting any of the girls who are twelve years old, so they’d technically be my sisters, instead of daughters, and could call themselves aunts to the younger girls. My coin though, for everything.” This particular shock managed to override that of the Rabid Fox earlier, since that was over and done with, while this was new and looming in the future.

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“What makes you think they’ll end up as slaves?” Mom asked. “That orphanage is under funded. So they can’t afford to teach any skills, and when the girls reach twelve years old, they typically have nothing to earn a living. That ends up with them either in a Brothel, or as a slave. Neither one of which is acceptable in my book.” They both considered my words carefully. “You’re saying you’ll provide all needed funding, not only for their adoption, but also going forward? Us adopting the oldest girls is only to give them sibling status to you, rather than having daughters the same age as you. That part makes sense, but I’d say that should apply all the way to age ten. Still we don’t even know how many we’re talking about yet.” Father was definitely on board with the concept. “I approve of this idea. It is a huge expense you’re talking about, but at the same time, you’re setting them up to support themselves on both our farms. The older ones can take over our farms as our daughters, and the younger ones your farm, and eventually you’ll be the head of the family.” My shoulders sagged in relief that they were both willing to step up as family to this as yet unknown number of daughters.

Father spoke out again. “I think it would be wise to include your own small forge. Shoeing animals, making nails and the like would be much easier, and if the neighbors know you have a forge, they’ll be quick to come to your farm to help out, in order to have access to your forge when they need it. Right now, nobody in our area has their own forge, and we all have to go into town. I expect you already know someone to talk to about that, judging my Marie’s new Bow. Never seen the like of that before, and it’s powerful.” I nodded my head. “Makes sense Dad, and yeah, I’m sure he can help to get a small forge setup out here, especially if I have him as the instructor for the work. Take a good chunk of work off him at his shop, while technically being his apprentices, so any commission partially goes to him.” Dad’s eyes sparkled, knowing that the old smith would love that arrangement.

“You know, Melissa’s daughter Christy is pretty advanced at their laundry service, but Melissa is nowhere near able to retire herself yet. Having her setup as the Laundry Teacher would work nicely for the both of them. Gives her control of her own business while she waits for her Mother to retire, and take over the main shop later. I’ll pop over there tomorrow, need to get some laundry done there anyway. We’ll be needing the Winter Blankets before too long, best get them cleaned now, rather than later when it’s rushed for everyone else.” I smiled. “Thanks Mom, I appreciate the suggestion. Let’s try to keep it a mostly female staff too. Doesn’t Henry the Grounds Keeper at the Mayor’s Manor have a Daughter too? Might not interest her to actually be a grounds keeper, but teaching it might work as a short term job. What was her name again, Vivian?” Mother laughed, “No silly, Veronica, at least you got the first sound right, I’m sure she’d be heart broken if she knew you forgot her name so easily.” I groaned. “You call having fifty years of past life memories suddenly popping into a twelve year old brain easy?! Honestly though, looking back on our interactions now, I think you might have a point. You think she’s really interested? Not that I have time just now to even consider that.”

Dad chimed in. “I have to take some produce to the Mayor’s Manor tomorrow, I’ll talk to Henry about it, and see if she might be interested. It’s good you’re thinking ahead for this. Lots of things to consider.” I snapped my fingers. In excitement. “I just thought about irrigation, a pond, and a grain mill. The stream along the north side of the farm could be altered to flow down along the west side, and we could install a mill pond, just after that little bluff right on the boarder between the two farms, and then branch off there into irrigation canals, that will ultimately lead into a return stream that can connect into the creek that usually dries out in summer. That would also provide a source of fish in the pond too. I’ll have to draw everything out, and design the Sluce gates to control the water flow. If we can mill our own grain, we can sell it at a higher price. Can also charge for others to mill their grain too.” Shock on Dad, and Mom’s face, was mirrored in Marie’s face. “Brother Mark, how does a stream mill grain, I don’t understand.” I looked at everyone. “Non of you have even heard of a water driven grain mill? It’s all hand mills at home? Just how far behind IS this world?” They looked at each other. “Does that mean Son, that your old world did it that way?” I tilted my hand side to side. “Not anymore, we advanced to machines driven by electricity, with all kinds of fancy gadgets to make everything simple. A few hundred years before my death though, that was one of the two main methods, the other being similar, only using wind. Water mills are more reliable, because wind isn’t constant.”

I was dumbfounded at this revelation. Such a simple concept had eluded my new world. It gave a new sense of respect to the current miller’s family, who spent all day churning their hand mills. “Wait, Penelope hardly ever gets to work does she? Not enough Querns I suppose, I bet she’d love the chance to pioneer a new method of milling, yet her dear ol dad will just assume I’m having her mill for the kids, which I will, but she’ll be teaching the process once I show her the literal ropes of how the mill operates. Yet another thing to draft so it can be constructed.” I excused myself from the table, so I could get started drafting everything. Marie once again had to drag me to bed, or I’d have crashed on the couch. I was still uncomfortable sleeping next to her, and it didn’t help when she threw an arm over me, and hugged me tight as she dozed off.