Chapter 1 (partial)

The most pressing problem I faced as the new, first, and only Count of Cornwall, was being invaded by my neighbor, King Ine of Wessex. The Welsh were to the north of me but they were contained by the three border Barons.

The Saxon King had previously taken three border Baronies from King Geraint. I would like to have taken them back, but I wasn't strong enough to go to war with the western Saxons.

If the western, eastern, and middle Saxons ever combined, they would take over most of England. Only the Welsh and the Scots could remain independent. And King Alfred the Great would do that in a little over a hundred years. Nothing against the great King, but his battles against the Angles allowed the Welsh to take over Cornwall, which wasn't pretty. None of our Keeps in the area could repulse the Saxons from further encroachment. I had to invade the new Wessex possessions to take them back or build Keeps to create a new border.

It wouldn't be that hard to build a Keep. But what gave an area its strength was the associated villages and surrounding farms. And that was the problem. We weren’t a heavily populated County and didn’t have the people to move into the area. My advisors and I talked in circles to figure out what to do. It was my scribe and note-taker, Thad, who found the answer. "Excuse me, My Lords, but we have the people. "

I was slightly sarcastic when I asked him, "Where will you magically find these people? " "The people from the Keeps stolen from us. "

That stopped me cold. The villages and farms were occupied by the same families that had always lived there. And not enough time had passed for them to assimilate with the Saxons.

If we could pull those people back into Cornwall, the three Baronies taken wouldn't be economically viable for King Ine. He would have to invade us to get those people back.

While we weren't ready to invade them, I was confident we could repulse any attempts on their part. "Thad, you are brilliant. I'm sorry for my previous tone. Your idea just might work. Well done. " I hoped I hadn't introduced "brilliant" as a common saying. My English friends in the uptime had used it to death. Not that we didn't overuse "cool".

This idea brought up several questions. Would the people be willing to move? How could we spirit them away? How could we build three new Keeps without the Saxons knowing? These buildings didn't go up overnight. As a result, two action items were developed. First, we would send scouts to the three Saxon villages to observe the conditions. They were not to make contact with the villagers.

Second, a surveying team was sent to identify the best locations to build new Keeps and villages. Luckily there was enough space between the taken Keeps and our existing Keeps to build new ones without taking too much territory from the existing Keeps.

Not only were good sites required for the Keeps, but we wanted to mirror the taken villages and farm fields as much as possible. It would be far from a perfect match, but the more it resembled the old areas, the better.

The first scout to return was from the closest Keep. It was the center of the three. She reported the people were being treated a little better than slaves.

If it were the same in the other Keeps, there would be few objections to their returning.

Cast in Time Book 6 Available in June 2024!

---

More details coming soon.

Earl E. (Ed) Nelson

I have always wanted to be an author. I had my first rejection slip in about 1965. Wish I had saved it. For many years the only writing I did was technical as pesky things like three children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren came along.

My technical writing was in the field of quality in several different journals. I worked in the field of quality for over fifty years, starting as a line inspector and ending up as a Vice-President of Quality and elected a Fellow of the American Society for Quality.

Then a wonderful thing happened. I lost my job and was out of work for almost eight months. To keep from going crazy I wrote. I posted my stories on an online site, and lo and behold people read them and said nice things. Fast forward about eight years and I am retired and writing for the fun of it.

A lot of what is in my stories is based on my life experiences, gasp! Give or take a lie or two that is. The one fortunate thing in my career is that I got to travel worldwide and have been to most of the locations I write about.

In my younger days, I tried hot air ballooning, sky diving, white water rafting, spelunking, and target shooting. I have collected stamps, drove in road rallies, lowly rated by the US Chess federation. I built a Kentucky long rifle and a dueling pistol. I am a licensed HAM radio operator. My hobby is having hobbies.

My true passion is reading. Trapped in a hotel room I would read the telephone book. The TV would not be turned on. I have averaged 200 books a year for the last sixty years. I knew those long flights were good for something.

BTW I was born in the middle of an air raid in England during World War II, the house next door was destroyed and our windows were blown out. That is probably the most interesting thing I have been involved with. Mum never forgave me. Happily married for 56 years I hope my wife doesn’t catch on to what a goof I am.