CHAPTER 11
The next morning just as the sky started to lighten, Sam and Jack were allowed out of the barracks and into the kitchen. Sam was put to work kneading dough for the morning meal of fresh bread and whatever was available and Jack was sent to chop wood and haul water.
The kitchen had a very large copper cistern that was filled with water from the opening in the top. It flowed into a sink and was controlled by a cork that plugged a spigot. It had formerly had all been plumbed but the supplies to repair the plumbing or the know-how was lacking. And it became obvious that many things at the villa were jerry-rigged.
When the bread was left to rise Leda call them over for hot tea and yesterday's leftover sweet rolls.
"Have you no sandals or boots?" she asked Jack.
"No ma'am."
"Such big feet" she muttered as she rifled though the cupboard and produced a pair of well worn but sturdy boots.
"Thank you, ma'am."
"For that I expect a supply of wood and the cistern filled – every day."
"Yes ma'am." He replied with a grin.
"Leda, was the water always drawn from the well."
"We always had the well but there was a supply of water for the baths from the aqueduct. Something happened, perhaps when Vulcan shook the hills or when Jupiter or Mars hurled their thunderbolts, but the water stopped flowing and no one knew how to fix it. When I was younger the water flowed to the kitchens, to the baths, they in turn flushed through the latrines. We never lacked for water to do laundry or for the crops when drought threatened. The villa was prosperous then."
When Sam got up to tend to the bake goods in the oven, O'Neill quietly spoke.
"Leda, it was very cold last night and I was wondering…"
"You can just keep on wondering or do something about it. You must work for everything and anything you get here."
"But how…"
"A man comes to trade every week or so and will buy pelts. Catch some of the rabbits. The meat will go in the cook pot and the pelt you can trade for goods. If you have too much more than the others they will hate you."
After breakfast O'Neill trudged off with the majority of the slaves either to some project such as the repair of the barn or into the fields. At mid day they rested for half an hour and ate bread and cheese if they had any and the toiled the rest of the day until they returned for the evening meal. This consisted of a vegetable stew with, when times were good, a hint of meat and the ever present loaf. Sam remained in the kitchens. Her hours were long but she was spared the weather and the backbreaking work in the fields. Her chores consisted of helping prepare meals, cleaning up after and planning the work load of the other scullions and laundresses and seamstresses, women who doubled as field hands when needed.
O'Neill had tried to snare rabbits as a kid up in the woods by the lake by usually had no luck, this time he set about this task a bit more seriously. The first few tried were total failures. The next few nights brought three rabbits and a little more proteins in their diet. After that something larger was apparently raiding his snares. So O'Neill built a trap for the thief and caught a beast that reminded him of a pine martin. He felt bad dispatching this beautiful creature but the weather was damp and frigid at night. Neither of them slept well. He just about used his body as a blanket to keep Carter warm at night in the drafty barracks while his knees and stiff back gave him fits in the mornings.
Leda told O'Neill to let her and Sam do the trading. He was afraid the man would try to cheat them and watched from the shadows. He needn't have worried. Leda drove a hard bargain and Sam batted her eyelashes at the poor man. They tag teamed the fellow and procured a deep green hooded cloak which would provide warmth during the day and a blanket for them at night. Strangely O'Neill, while proud of the good job Carter had done bartering, was jealous of the attention she had given the trader, smiling at him laughing at his stories and touching his arm. He tried to tell himself it was just being protective but he knew better.
With patience Jack snared enough creatures to trade for a warm tunic for himself but accompanied Carter the next time to meet the trader. Somehow he felt compelled to stake his claim, as it were.