The third Platoons’s Fourth Squad like all the others in the company was split into two sections of six men each. One commanded by myself and the other by Corporal Bennet. The five other individuals in my section were privates Todd Blanche, Andrew Browne, Philip Este and the two individuals I had been made aware of earlier, Austin Warren and Jamie Dolt. As for the rest of the squad well that was made up of Privates Raymond Savage, Marc Buckman, Erik Ram, Preston Este and Harold Livingston.
Philip and Preston Este were two cousins who had joined the company at the same time two years ago along with a third one who had died on their first contract. They were as unalike as you can imagine and didn’t always get along with each other hence why they weren’t in the same section. Austin Warren was the one who had served the shortest period in the company, having only joined at the start of the campaign season and as stated earlier Jamie Dolt had served the longest, even longer than Captain Walker.
Andrew Browne was by far the ugliest man I had ever met and Marc Buckman's body was covered in scars while at six foot four Todd Blanche was the tallest man in the company. Harold Livingston had an accent that I couldn’t place and Raymond Savage was a man of little words who spoke so infrequently that it wasn’t always easy to tell that he was capable of doing so.
Other than Eric Ram who was a friend of a friend I hadn’t really met any of the others before and I couldn’t even claim to know him all that well. As for the rest well, it was early days yet and I was sure that in the coming days, weeks and months I would get to know them far more than any reasonable person would care to.
After meeting up with the new lieutenant it took the company a further eight days to reach the site of our current contract and in that time I met individually with each member of my squad to try and gauge their strengths and weaknesses and to get a feel for how best to make use of them. I also spent as much time with the other sergeant in the platoon as I could manage and by the time we arrived at our destination I had begun to settle down into my new role.
It was a big come down I know but it helped to think of it as a learning experience. Previously while I had served as a sergeant in the scouts I couldn’t claim to have much experience leading a squad. In the Brothers n Arms Mercenary Company, I had served as a corporal but not for all that long, less than half a season in fact.
My sergeant had been very good at his job and in the short time I had served with him I had learnt a lot. Unfortunately, he had been the first to die in the ambush back then and I had only managed to learn a small part of what he could have otherwise taught me. Seeing how the ones who had served under me in second platoon, especially Tucker had gone about their jobs had shown me more of what made a good sergeant but still, I had much to learn. Some of the lessons and abilities I would no doubt learn as a sergeant could still be applied as I rose up the ranks, as I hoped to do in the future. After all, even the simplest of buildings require a solid foundation.
The company's first contract during my time as the sergeant of fourth squad of its third platoon was performed on behalf of Lord Sir Albert Messenger of Winter Rose Manor. On Telondia most E Ranked people can barring misadventure at most reach the age of ninety or so. The Lord of Winter Rose Manor was eighty-seven and in recent months his health had started to deteriorate and he knew his time was coming to an end.
Unfortunately so did his family and neighbours, while most of the time such a situation would lead to Albert’s son or grandson inheriting his manor and title or if there was none the husband of a daughter or granddaughter. In case there were none of these then his closest male relative would inherit but in this case, things were different.
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His only son William had predeceased him and had only left behind a daughter, the six-year-old Ashley Messenger. In cases like these someone, usually the closest male relative or a local bigwig would be appointed as her guardian. They would look after her lands until such time as she was wed and the lordship passed on to her husband. To some of those living outside Telondia, this might seem like a weird way to operate but here with our less cosmopolitan God, this was the norm.
In this case, Ashley had two cousins, sons of Albert’s two brothers who had married the only daughters of neighbouring lords and in time inherited their lordships. Usually, it would have been the eldest of them that would be her guardian and that is what Albert wanted to happen but the reality of the situation was such that who would enforce this once he was dead.
The answer unfortunately was might make's right and the two cousins did not get on with each other and their two lordships weren’t as large as Albert’s or as profitable. Why did this matter you might ask, well her guardian had control of her lands and funds until she was married and usually got to decide to whom that would be.
Albert was worried that any conflict that might arise when he died would spill over into his own lands and wanting to prevent that he had hired us to defend them if such a situation arose. Taking up such a contract was a risk since what would happen if he died before we arrived? Well, we wouldn’t get paid and probably have to return the deposit. At the same time, he might survive for months or even years and that would leave the company waiting around for him to die when they could be somewhere else earning combat pay never mind the chance of looting the enemy dead or ransoming them if they surrendered.
One way to mitigate this, if the employer was willing and had the funds that is, was to hire a company for a month or two and then replace it with another when the time was up. We were the second company to take up the contract and thankfully when we arrived at Winter Rose Manor it was to find that our employer was still alive.
Upon our arrival, Captain Walker met with Sir Albert and the captain of the Knotted Band Mercenary Company whom we were replacing, in his bedroom in the Manor House, which he was confined to by his ill health. When he returned from the meeting over two hours later Fourth Squad received orders from Lieutenant Bracton to proceed to one of eight temporary encampments that had been built on the Manors borders with that of the squabbling cousins manors to relieve a squad from the outgoing company.
Second Platoon was being deployed to the four encampments on the Manors border with Sir Cecil Messenger-Wright’s Dry River Bed Manor while we and the rest of Third Platoon were deployed on the border of Sir Rudolf Messenger-Darnley’s Thanet Manor. First Platoon was being deployed to a single encampment that had been set up in a central position between the two borders so that they could come to the assistance of either of the other platoons if needed. Our scouts would be busy patrolling the two borders, on the lookout for anything suspicious.
When we arrived at the encampment it wasn’t much to look at, a small watchtower surrounded by a wall and a ditch with a single entrance and barely enough room for a full platoon within. Thankfully with just a squad guarding it, there was plenty of room to set up our tents, once the departing squad packed theirs up anyway.
For the next two months, it would be our home and when the time came if it did we would defend it with our lives. In the meantime we settled into a routine, one section would patrol the border area while the other stayed in camp and then swap roles.
The main roadway between the manors wasn’t located within the area we patrolled but that didn’t mean we saw no traffic and when we did a watch had to be kept on them to make sure they weren’t up to no good.
During the next two weeks we got to know the areas we were patrolling like the back of our hands and the people who lived nearby as well. There weren’t many of them just a few foresters and a single family of swine herders. Thrice a day we received messages from Captain Walker, that mainly informed us of changes in Albert’s health, which was going further downhill every day. Every other day Lieutenant Bracton paid us a visit to inspect us and make sure we were doing our jobs. Every other visit he would stay the night and be gone early the next morning.