Oh dear, this didn’t bode well at all.
“Your Highness, I’m sure you’re well up to your neck in all the repairs after the Wrath hit, but I must beg of you to add one more. Before the Retazo’s Wrath, my people were packing up the first harvest from my orchards—forgive me, do you know we have orchards?”
“I do. Cherry trees, I believe?” Prince James nodded encouragingly. “It’s a beautiful sight in early spring. I toured through it once as a child. I believe a good portion of cherry and citrus fruits come from your orchards.”
A flicker of relief and then the distress came back full bore. “Yes, so it does. We were in the process of harvesting the first harvest, as I said, when the Wrath hit. The waves made a tidewrack on the main roads we use to reach the orchards. Right now, our people can’t get in there. We’ve tried to resolve the problem on our own, but some of the felled trees are three hundred years old or more—they’re massive. It’ll take a good month to clear them all, and in that time, all the fruit already picked will rot where it sits, as well as the unpicked harvest. Your Highness, I cannot emphasize enough how disastrous this will be.”
I sucked in a breath and let it out again in a low whistle. She wasn’t here just for her own gain; the ripple effect of a failed harvest would be gnarly. The Doughtrys had a standing contract with the navy, supplying them with necessary fruit for voyages, specifically to avoid scurvy. This would absolutely impact our navy if they didn’t get their supply of fruit, and not in a good way.
Another problem was the effect it would have on the economy as a whole. Their orchards supplied an insane amount of fruit to the country, and many small businesses—grocers, bakers, jam makers—needed what the Doughtrys supplied. In a time when food was already in danger because of the waves impacting roads and crops, we couldn’t afford this loss.
“My dear lady, thank you for coming to me.” Prince James sucked in a breath, and I could see the wheels spinning in his mind. “Edwin, what force can we send?”
Hmm... Almost everyone was already deployed to help out in different areas. The army was all over the place, the navy cleaning out the shoreline, Prince Victor’s knights were deployed, as were Prince James’s own knights…we were operating on a skeletal crew. Who else was left?
Oh!
“Your Highness, what about the debtor’s crew?”
Prince James snapped his fingers, a smile blossoming. “The very thing. Countess Doughtry, are you familiar with the debtor’s crew?”
“I…I’m sorry, I am not.”
“It’s an unconventional force, you could say. Anyone who has been thrown into prison for debts, fraud, or theft can work their sentence down by doing voluntary labor. It does require a royal signature, which I’m happy to provide. Generally speaking, if you put out the call for help, you could have a hundred people on your doorstep within a day. Or, well, I should say at the worksite where you need them. You don’t need skilled labor, after all,just people who can saw through tree trunks and help move the debris to clear the roads.”
She brightened, some of the anxious tension coiled within her relaxing. “Yes, that’s very true. Do you truly think you can get them to me quickly?”
“We can get the ball rolling now, in fact. Edwin, do you have a form on hand?”
I gave him a droll look.
He chuckled. “Forgive me, what a stupid question.”
“I’ll forgive you this time.” Shaking my head, I skirted around his chair and went inside the office to the file cabinet.
Prince James continued to speak as I moved. “I can grant a pardon to anyone with a lesser crime—such as a debtor—or a partial pardon to those guilty of a more significant crime, offering them a lesser sentence. This is a rather standard thing, really, so it shouldn’t take long to organize, and you’ll likely receive help in fits and spurts as multiple groups come in. I will make the pardons on the condition the roads are cleared within a week. That should motivate everyone involved. It’ll be like ants on a cupcake.”
And with that much manpower, no matter how clumsy, the roads should be cleared shortly. I thought everyone won in this circumstance. If only Marquess Marrable had come in with this attitude—of needing help, of being sincere—he might well have walked away with a victory like Countess Doughtry would.
Well, no skin off my nose, either way. I was just chuffed I had a smart boss. Beat having a bad boss, no lie.
Twenty-eight
Edwin
A couple days later, Prince James was perfectly good to his word and gave me the entire week off to fix my house. I’d been reluctant, afraid he wouldn’t eat on his own, but he’d promised not to skip meals. I chose to believe him.
For now.
I had informants silently watching him, so he’d better, otherwise I’d make the trip to the palace just to eat with him. See if I didn’t.
I was glad to have time to work on my disaster of a house, however. That gift I wouldn’t look in the mouth. In fact, my family had gone through their house and mine, taking out anything salvageable before a construction crew came in and removed the waterlogged and damaged items.
Compared to my parents’, my house hadn’t fared too badly. In fact, a few of the houses on my street were still technically livable. The bottom floor was a loss in terms of furniture, my books—sob—and other things. All the walls had been ripped out, as well as the floors and kitchen cabinets. The bathroom, mostlymade of tile, had fared fine though. My second story barely had any damage. The furniture and clothing were something of a loss, but the water had drained down the stairs quickly enough to not impact the structural integrity of the house itself. Aside from some painting and replacing busted windows, not much work had to be done up there—a marked relief.
After ripping everything out, the construction crew was now rebuilding it. I heard the saws and hammers going in the kitchen, as they were putting the floors back in first. An obvious first step. Meanwhile, I sat on the stairs—the bottom part had already been ripped out and replaced, just not stained yet to match the older wood—and tried to write up a list of all that must be replaced. I’d been in this house nearly ten years, which meant I had accumulated quite a bit, so it was hard to think of everything off the top of my head. The list would help, hopefully.
Couches, chairs, bed, armoire, and table had all been ordered already. Prince James had sent me on a shopping spree with his checkbook yesterday, which had smelled strongly of a boyfriend taking care of me...
