At Owen-nap, I introduced Baron Edmund's family to mine. Eleanor and I were more of an age with his children, but for some reason, we hit it off with the older couple. Maybe it was because we had children, and his son and spouse didn't.
Edmund and his wife Morgan were like grandparents to my children. That is to say, my kids immediately had them wrapped around their fingers and took advantage of it.
We had a pleasant evening after the children were sent to bed. We talked of how the Jutes were pushing into Mercia, forcing them to leave. It wasn't an army invading. It was families showing up with all their worldly goods on their backs and settling wherever they could. Their numbers were straining the land's ability to support them.
It did no good to kill them or drive them off. There was always more to replace them. Edmund knew from talking to Jutes the Gauls were doing the same to them. He had no idea who was pushing the Gauls. I thought it was probably due to a push from the Mongols, but there would be groups in between.
From what they described, Mercia would be moving towards us. The King of Mercia must be fighting mad about all of this. When I brought it up with Edmund, he told me the King was assembling an army to repulse the Jutes. He intended to kill everyone he came across, including women and children.
After a while, the conversation started going in circles, so we called it a night.
After a large breakfast, I took Edmund and his son, Elford, on a tour of the village of Owen-nap. I didn't say anything to them at first, just took them on a walking tour.
It was Elford who caught on first.
"How is everything so clean? Where are they dumping the nightsoil? I don't see any or even smell any."
"Let me show you how we do this."
I knocked on the door of the first house we came to. A housewife answered the door.
"Goodwife, I'm showing these gentlemen our village. They asked why they saw no evidence of nightsoil. May I show them your bathroom?"
The flustered housewife answered, "Yes, My Lord."
She led the way to their bathroom. Opening the door, she said, "Please excuse the mess. I gave the children a bath this morning and haven't had time to clean it up."
It was a typical bathroom in our village. It had a bathtub, sink, shower, and toilet. There was a cabinet for towels and facecloths.
It was obvious you sat on the toilet like a garderobe. I showed them how to flush the toilet to get rid of the nightsoil.
It dawned on me to ask, "What did you do last night and this morning?"
Baron Edmund blushed a little and said, "We were desperate and found an old chamberpot under one of the beds. We wondered what it was all about.”
I had learned not to be squeamish, but the thought of four people using the same pot twice was unsettling.
I then showed them how the taps worked on the sink, giving hot or cold water. They nodded when I showed them how the bath and shower worked. They now had a basic understanding of how they worked.
The Baron looked around. "These are nice tiles on the floor and the shower. Where did they come from? They had to be expensive."
"Not at all costly. We make them here in Owen-nap."
"I can feel heat from the floor through my boots. How is that?"
“We copied what the old Romans did in their villas. There are pipes under the floor. We run warm water through them."
"Could you show us where the waste goes, how the water is heated, and how it flows in and out of the house?"
"Those are next on the agenda."
On the way out, I pressed a coin into the housewife's hand and thanked her for her courtesy. I would like to have seen her face when she realized it was one of the new gold crows.
I pointed out the water tower. It took a while, but they finally understood how we got the water up that high. Baron Edmund wanted to know if Dereham contained one of these. If it didn't, we needed to ensure his wife didn’t know about this.
I laughed while I told him these were now standard in all our new Keeps and the old Keeps were being retrofitted as we could.
That required an explanation of the term 'retrofitting,' but he was nodding as I explained it.
The Septic Tank system was hard for them to understand as nothing was visible on top of the drainage field. I made a mental note to have a model made and kept nearby for future explanations.
When they finally got it, I had to promise Dereham would have one. Otherwise, they might as while run from their wives while they had the chance. Again, it was now standard procedure to include the entire system on new Keeps and villages.
I explained we were installing a septic system on every farm in the County, and they were more than impressed.
Elford said, "Dad, we are lucky the Jutes made us move. Our lives have improved a hundredfold."
Figuring they were close to being mentally overloaded, I called it a day. They still hadn’t seen our manufacturing plants.
We retired to the open-air tavern and discussed what they had seen. You could see they were dying to ask where all this knowledge came from.
To head it off, I gave the now standard story of being on death's bed and receiving this wonderful knowledge. I had no idea of how it came to be, but I was going to take advantage of it.
Out of everything they saw they were most impressed with our four-field farming method. Hot and cold running water was nice, but they had been too close to starvation in their lives not to appreciate what they had seen.
When we returned to the Keep for, we found the women discussing the upgrades they wanted at their new Keep. Eleanor had shown them hot and cold running water and the sewage system.
They already knew about our health care and educational systems.
I liked these people and thought Baron Edmund would be a valuable advisor in the future. He was calm, measured, and thought things through before speaking. I needed good people to help me in our growth.
One thing I noticed was we had already run into the Peter Principle. Father Timothy couldn't handle things past a certain point. I suspected as we grew in size and complexity, others would fall by the wayside.
I hoped they wouldn't self-destruct like the good Father and be content with the level they had risen to.
Granted, he had a brain tumor, but he was going off the rails earlier than that.
The next morning, a message came from Saltash. A single Viking long boat had arrived, asking for me.
I invited Edmund and Elford to come with me. It was a day of hard riding, but we arrived by nightfall. We stayed with John Chandler rather than at the Keep. I needed to speak to him on trade matters, so it made sense.
I did have word sent to Lady Catherine about where I was staying and why.
In the morning, we met with the Viking leader in the port's customs house. They didn't call it that, but that was its function.
We did the hail well-met thing with Bijord the Red, the Viking leader. I asked him what his mission was.
"To tell you that no Vikings from Kaupang will bother you again. We want peace with you and possible trade if you have anything we want or need."
He sounded arrogant. I doubted he would be on my Christmas card list.
"As long as you leave my lands alone, I won't visit Kaupang."
His eyes bulged. It had never occurred to them we might bring the fight to them.
He replied, "We would welcome you to try. The ones who came against you were weak children. You would face the Viking men if you ever sailed into our harbor."
I decided then and there to make an impression on him. I took him to our shipyard, where the first cannons were being installed in one of the schooners.
Upon inquiry, the instructors were teaching the new crew how to work the cannons. We had an old cog that was due to be broken up for firewood, so I had it towed out to the center of the harbor.
I told the instructors they would each get one gold if they could sink the cog in two volleys or one silver each if they managed to sink it in more volleys.
They got the gold.
"This is what would be sailing into your harbor if we come for you! Now get out of my port."
The Viking Chief turned pale. He didn't have anything to say after the demonstration.
Strength was the only thing these Vikings respected. So, to rub salt in it, I had a trade gift packet delivered to his boat. It contained a telescope, microscope, a pamphlet on smallpox inoculation, a supply of chloramphenicol, and mirrors, among other things. But no weapons.
By this time people in the surrounding area poured out of buildings to see what was going on. It took some time before the second round was fired, so everyone in the harbor saw the ship go down. The rumors would be flying.
Before leaving Saltash, I visited Lady Catherine and filled her in on the recent events, including our new five thousand Angle citizens.
She appeared to be doing well and recovering from her grief on the old Baron's death. She told me she was getting bored and was considering becoming one of Lady Agnes's nurses.
I told her that was fine, but she should continue living here and collect the allowance the Baron had left her.
"I want to help people, not suffer myself. Of course, I will live here and take the money."
I had to laugh at that. She was recovering from the shock of the Baron's death.
The next day, Baron Edmund, his son, and I headed back to Owen-nap. No longer having to ride hard, we talked on the way.
"My Lord, it is time my family and I head back to Dereham to help our people get settled."
"I agree. If you need anything, send a message."
"I will do that, My Lord."
It had got to the point where I didn't even hear the honorifics anymore. They were ingrained in this society, and that was it.
"There is one thing that you can do for me."
"What is that, My Lord?"
"Make that two things."
He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"Send messages to your former neighbors and let them know what we have accomplished and that they are welcome to join us. I would rather they came peacefully, not to conquer me, like some people I know."
He had the grace to blush.
"What is the second thing, My Lord?"
"Quit with all the damn, My Lords!"
He and his son, almost in unison, replied, "Yes, My Lord."
Then they both broke out laughing. The son handing his father a silver coin.
The son commented, "I didn't think he would last this long.