The Purpose of Miss Shepley

Chapter Five (part I)

The Great War And The Forging of The Peacetroth

The Aethalfolk grew Wise in the Ways of Industrie and prospered. The Woole of their Sheepe was fine and coveted by the Peoples beyond the Sea. Fleeces sold for such Coin as was too dear to refuse, though their Children might shiver and go naked. Thus the Aethelfok sought new Pastures for their Flocks.

Knowing already of the fearsome Baelgaste who dwelt in the Narrow Land between the Bay and the Mountains, the Aethelfolk did cross the Mouth of the Bay into the Northern Lands unwitting of the Wolffe Kings there abiding.

The Wolff Kings little heeded the Aethalfolk for more than two Dozens of Yeares and tolerated Port Cities to be built. But as the Aethalfolk labored to dam the Eormen Bourne, the Wolfe Kings grew angry and made War on them. The Wolfe Kings lay in Siege a-round the Far Port and the East Port and stopped the Shippes of the Aethelfolk coming to land.

The Aethelfolk grew fearfull of Defeat, and so in Budding Month they did march Armies through the Narrow Land to the Border of the Wolfmarch. There they clashed with the Armies of the Wolf Kings and War raged down through the Narrows for eight Moonths, til the Baelgast would be driven from their Homes, even up into the Mountains of the Raven Peoples.

The Baelgast and the Raven Peoples kept Peace on Terms that neither should cross the Line where Oak yielded to Pine. The Baelgast were Proud and would not but keep their Oath to the Ravens, and so brought War on the Wolff Kings and the Aethalfolk both.

Albord Baelric, High King of the Baelgast, marched with every Man, Woman, and Childe of the Wyrm Northward, even into the Wolfmarch, and burnt every House Town and Fielde put behind them so that None would find Respite nor Quarter as Winter fell upon them.

The Wolffe Kings were dismayed at the Furie of the Balegast. They made Peace and allied with the Baelgast. The Wolfe Kings were long allied with the Ravens, and so the Three Peoples united and made war on the Aethelfolk until they fell back to the South Lands.

All Peoples pledged Troth to the High King of the Baelgast at a great Feaste at Midwinter and across the Lands there was Peace.

(excerpt from An History of the Peacetroth and the Peoples of the Trothlands, as recorded by Aethelred of Caxton, and amended so as to include Events of Recent History by Alfred Caxtonson, Esq.)

.:.

The next days passed in a sort of idleness. To be sure, my hours were full enough; nearly every minute had a prior claim on it, from my first bite of toast in the morning til late at night, when I began yawning pointedly. I played quite a few lawn games and quite a few more parlor games. I sang, I danced, I went on walks, and I spent hours trying to form an opinion on ruffles... But by day's end, I could not honestly claim to have really done anything.

I did arrange to have my penned-in sheep moved to pasture, and I informed Darlene and Henry Thatcher, both, that I would speak with them as soon and as often as I was able to, but my knitting was so woefully slow, I might as well have not even bothered with it. The guide for young brides, still wrapped in brown paper, waited for my attention beneath a pile of letters, which also waited for my attention -- they were invitations, mostly, and I never had time to answer them properly, so the pile grew every day like a bury of rabbits.

I didn't even manage to pick a favorite suitor. There were five eligible men in the lot, and I did try my best to forge an understanding with at least one of them, but by the end of a week, the only thing I understood was that Hollis Acton was far better matched with Temperance Grimmond than with me.