Stone

9.

The wagon ride was very slow, barely more than walking speed, but they made it to a camping spot just as dusk was falling. A mile or so before the spot, identified by Arthur, Rayla rode off to the east and a grove of trees. Stone noticed and called two nearby guards.

“Follow her,” he commanded.

“Keep her safe?” the older guard suggested.

“No. If there is any danger she will keep you safe. But she is hunting, and for large game to fill all of your bellies tonight. She will need help bringing back her take. Stay well behind so you don’t disrupt her hunt.”

Stone soon pulled into the campsite and set up a camp around the wagon. There were so many guardsmen that there was little for most of them to do. Some went off to get firewood, while the others tethered their horses, and the wagons, sufficiently far apart that they would all be able to graze well during the evening.

Stone started the fire, and soon had it blazing cheerfully. He didn’t worry that it would attract attention: Arthur would notify them if any other groups approached.

“Tiress, get the pots from the wagon, and start the supper for the family,” Sybil ordered.

“Do it yourself,” the former slave snapped back.

“What foods do you have?” Stone asked the smith’s wife.

“Not enough for all this lot,” the woman snapped back.

“These men are protecting you,” Stone said. “Without them you would be certain to be plucked up by slavers. Is that what you want for yourself and your children?”

“Slaves,” Sybil said, clearly never having considered herself in that role.

“Tiress, would you get some of the vegetables you brought sliced up and boiling in some water,” Stone said, and she meekly agreed. “And Mistress, would you fill your largest pot with water.”

“That is slave work,” Sybil snapped back.

“Yes, but we have no slaves in this train. And while you are getting water, have your oldest daughter help Tiress,” Stone said.

“But …” the woman seemed to want to say something else, but was unable to.

When the pot was on the fire and boiling the three hunters returned. Rayla was successful, and a gutted deer carcass was strapped onto the back of each of the two horses of the guards. The kills were flopped on the wagon, which was serving as a table, and Rayla and one guard each started chopping up the carcasses, and throwing chunks of venison into the pot. It would be a meaty stew, and should feed the near 100 people in the train.

An hour later it was dark, and only the light from the fire illuminated the campsite. Sybil had fed her children, and put them to bed, continually looking to Tiress, who once would have looked after the job. The former slave was not afraid of work, so long as it was not something ordered by her former mistress. When all had been fed, she scoured the big pot clean, and filled it with more water for the morning. There was a bit of oatmeal in the food that Sybil had brought, and in the morning there would be a small bite for each man, and a decent breakfast for the children.

Stone was not worried that they had used all the food that Sybil had brought, to her dismay. They would reach Greenford before the next night, and there was also some boiled venison in a smaller pot that would give the children and the pregnant Tiress something to chew on during the next leg of the trip. The soldiers were used to eating only once a day on campaign, and would be pleased with a spoon of oatmeal.

In the morning the camp rose with the sun. Most of the men had slept rough, with only a bed sheet and a cover to protect them. The smith and his family had claimed the space under the wagon, and Rayla and Stone had cuddled together under her bed sheet. She seemed more comfortable cuddling with the big man, who certainly generated enough heat to keep her warm.

In the morning Tiress made the oatmeal while Sybil attempted to clean up her children in the nearby river. The men used a spot farther downstream as a latrine, so the water nearest the camp was clean.

The sun was not up long when the camp was ready to start moving again. The surprising thing came when Sybil cautiously approached her former slave: “Tiress, I would like to hire you to care for the children. They are more used to you than I, and they miss you. I will pay you two and a half, no three silvers every six-day, and I will try not to be as sharp in speaking to you. If I order you to do something, know that I am asking, not ordering. You will be off from 1 to 5 each afternoon, since the evenings and morning are busy times.”

“I will do this,” Tiress said. “I have raised those children since they were babies, and it has hurt me to have ignored their needs, particularly the needs that were not being met. But the agreement will only be until we reach Newtown.” She used the name of their destination, which was what Rayla and Stone had started to refer to it.

Stone had little to do in getting the company moving again. There was an old sergeant named Pothman who took charge of the soldier. After they had been moving for about an hour, Stone rode up to Pothman. “Will you manage the train for the next few hours? We should approach Greenford around noon, but we are too many to just appear in the little village. Rayla and I will ride ahead, and alert the people that a big group will be appearing, so that they can feed us. We will also buy more supplies for the road. There will be at least one more night camp between there and Greenwood, and one or two before we get to the barrens.”

In Greenwood they went first to the stable, where they announced that there would be 100 horses appearing in two hours. Then there was a discussion with the saloon master, who ordered more people to work for food preparation immediately. He said he could only handle 25 at a time, so Stone said that there would be three sittings for lunch. Both the stableman and the barkeep sent off for more townspeople to come and help. Everyone in town could use a little extra coin, and Rayla doled out golds and silvers in advance so that people would know the company was paying, not extorting services.

There were nine or ten young boys in the street, too young even to work for the stables, and Stone called them over. They looked up timidly at the giant of a man on a giant horse.

“You boys,” Stone said. “Would you like to join the army?”

The boys shyly nodded yes, but one boy spoke out “We are too little to be soldiers.”

“Yes, but not to be scouts,” Stone replied. “In two hours almost 100 soldiers will appear, and I want to send some of them out on a mission. They will need scouts who know the town to help them on their way. They will need to visit all the houses in the town and in the nearby farms. If you do this, you will each earn a copper fourthing.”

A quarter of a cent was big money to these village boys, and when the advance guard of 25 men appeared, Stone took them to the boys. “You lads get the short straw,” Stone said. “You will eat on the third shift, in a little over an hour. Between then and now I want you to visit each house in town and the environs, and tell people to meet here in the street in two bells. Take up one of these lads on your saddle, and they can tell you who lives where, and how many. I want all adults, and especially all slaves. Four to a patrol, plus the boy.”

The men rode off, leaving four sad lads alone. Stone ordered the remaining guard to fetch 15 more men from the company, and soon there were another four patrols headed out with the now-happy boys riding in front of a guardsman.

The stable boys had been pumping water for two hours, but thirsty horses were emptying the troughs nearly as fast as they could be filled. There were only 16 stalls in the barn, and Doug and his ladies, and the wagon horses got those, and were munching on oats and hay. On the street bales of hay had been plopped here and there, and soldiers were feeding their horses in groups of six to eight.

The smith tended to five horses that had suffered in the trip so far, most from pulling the wagon. He agreed to take in three of the spare horses from the train, in payment for his work, and to trade five healthy horses from his stable to replace the lame ones.

Wheelbarrows of supplies that Rayla had ordered appeared and were loaded onto the wagon: 100 pound bags of potatoes, 50 pound bags of onions and turnips, and smaller bags of spices and other items.

Stone and Rayla ate in the last group, with Stone preparing a speech in his head. They finished and went outside to see the wide main street packed with people. There was a small line of boys lined up, and Stone asked Rayla to give each boy a halfpenny, double what they had been promised.

Meanwhile, he stood on the stoop of the tavern and shouted. With his height no platform was necessary.

“People of Greenford,” he spoke in a loud enough voice that all could here. “Times are changing. I have been told that tax collectors come through every few months. What rate do they charge?”

“It’s supposed to be 25%,” a man near the front said.

“But they usually take 50%,” another added.

“And if you don’t have cash, then they will take what they want,” said a woman.

“Including your wife or daughter, for the night,” another man said.

“Well, that ends now, if you wish,” Stone said. “You see that we have a fairly large army. How many come to collect the taxes?”

“Always in pairs,” the first man said. “But if we were to resist, then the Duke would send out an army to collect.”

“Probably raze the town,” another man said.

“Well, you can see that we have a fairly large army here,” Stone said. “I am suggesting leaving a group of eight soldiers here. They will have to billet in houses in the town, but be assured that the families that take them in will receive a silver a week to compensate for the food and lodging. They will have three patrols of two, with each working eight-hour shifts. The fourth pair will be at ease for the week: unless there is a need for reinforcements. Then they will head for Greenwood, where another eight men can come back as reinforcements. If more men are needed, then all you see here will come down from Newtown, another day up the road.”

“And we will pay for all this with more taxes,” a man said scornfully.

“Eventually yes,” Stone said. “But it sounds like you have been taxed hard of late. Therefore there will be no taxes for a year, and then only 10%. And no taxes at all from Sarn, ever again.”

There was a positive murmur through the crowd at this information, so Stone started on the negative news. “The only thing I ask of this is that there will be no slavery in the village or surrounding areas. I would ask that all the slaves in the crowd move to this end of the street.” People started moving immediately. Stone noticed that some were families with children. One of the boys who had ridden as scouts was among them.

“We need our slaves,” a prosperous looking man called out. “We cannot run our businesses without them.”

“Then you will have to hire them as servants,” Stone said. “They will work for you, and you will pay them a living wage: the amount that you would pay a free worker. If you don’t pay them enough, or if you mistreat them, they can leave and take another job, or move to Greenwood or Newtown, where they will be paid and treated as they should.”

“We won’t make any money if we have to pay wages,” the man complained.

“If you can’t make money without slaves then you must not be a very good manager,” Stone said. “If wages result in higher costs, you just have to charge more for your goods. And remember, now your former slaves will be new customers.”

The man did not look convinced, but Stone held firm. As before, a few older house servants begged to remain slaves, and Stone agreed, but repeated the rules for slavery that he had formulated for the Newtown people.

As well, the former slaves were allowed to travel north with the band. He could see merchants going into the slave group and try to negotiate with their former slaves, and here and there a handshake could be seen. Stone listened in to the man who had complained: he was apparently a lumber mill owner and had many slaves. None agreed to his terms: he offered a low salary and apparently had whipped slaves in the past. Almost all of his workers opted to join the group heading out of town an hour later.

There were 15 slaves who joined the trek north, including nine from the lumber mill. Rayla bought another wagon and two horses to pull it from the smith, to allow everyone a ride. That night they camped out again, and a bigger meal was given, thanks to the vegetables that could be added to the venison stew.

“I’ll have to hunt again soon,” Rayla said as the last of the venison was added into the pot.

“Well, we will be in Greenwood for supper, I think,” Stone said. “If I recall from our last trip, they had beef farmers near there. It will be a nice change to have a beef stew instead of just venison again.” The new horses on the wagons had them moving a bit faster, and everyone was riding a horse or a wagon. “We will spend the night there. I think if we offer a penny a person, the people of Greenwood will let the people and guards sleep in their barns and houses. That should only cost a half crown in total.”

“We spent nearly a crown in Greenford,” Rayla said. “Between the meals and the fodder for the animals. Of course the guard is smaller by the eight we left there. I hope they understood the signals that Arthur will make to them if he sees danger approaching. They seemed to find it hard to believe that a bird is so intelligent.”

The trip to Greenwood was close to the one in Greenford. The main difference was that the town meeting occurred in the morning, just before the band was ready to leave. Eight men were left as a guard, and 15 more former slaves joined those headed north.

The trip from Greenwood north might take two or three days. Stone had no idea where the others would have established the town. His plan was to stick to the river until they reached signs that former burned-out farms were in use again, and then ask to see where they should seek the new town.

However it was late on the second day when they found the town, nestled along the banks of the Green river, or stream as it was here. They crested a ridge, and then saw a community mostly of tents, although a few lumber buildings were erected. It was less than a month since Stone and Rayla had left the others, and they seemed to have been busy.