The Toymaster's Castle

Chapter Thirty-Two - Piles of People

When I woke up, the next... well, afternoon... my nice neat Lighthouse home was a complete mess.

There were piles of people all over our bedroom floor... and then I went downstairs...

The marine guys had really made themselves at home.

They had, at least, built up the fire... but they'd used my carefully split kindling wood rather than the coal. And they'd managed to make themselves more tea... but that meant they'd been down into the cellar to help themselves to more of my long-life milk...

And they were lounging around... a couple of them even had their boots on my dining table... and a couple of them had been smoking in there! They'd even stubbed out their cigarettes in the remains of the porridge that one of the kiddies hadn't finished that morning!

"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" I exploded. "This is my home and not some kind of military barracks."

I could tell that they were about to start laughing at me but I was just too cross to care. "You do not put your boots on my table... or burn my kindling wood... and you certainly do not smoke in here... or help yourself to my supplies from the cellar... and, as for wasting food... we've got enough for a dozen people for six months... so after that, your kids are going to be starving... so you really ought to occupy your time working out where we're going to find some more..."

By now, they were starting to look like naughty schoolboys who'd just got caught... I suppose it was better than having them laughing at me but I still wasn't going to let it put me off my flow.

"You lot are not going to be sleeping in here tonight so you'd better get the cottages sorted out... you should have worked that one out George!"

George looked as if he was trying to hide but he was much too big to manage that particular trick!

The guy who had been driving our RIB, the night before, sprang into action.

"Excuse us, Ma'am. You are quite right and we should have thought. George, Bino, you get tidied up in here. The rest of us will go and have a look at those cottages."

"I'll sort things out in here, thanks, but if you could get some more kindling split, I'd be grateful..."

The men scurried from the room... obviously keen to get out of my way! But, when I turned around, I found I had an audience! Most of the ladies... and Daniel... were gathered on the stairs.

"Sorry," I said. "I probably shouldn't have been shouting at your boyfriends like that."

"That's quite alright," one of them replied. "They're good guys but, still, they're guys. They need a ceremonial bollocking from time to time to keep them in line!"

"What can we do?" another asked.

"A couple of you probably want to go and keep an eye on what they're up to out there," I suggested, sort of naturally doing my team leader type thing. "I think we'll probably all eat in here... at least at first... but you're going to be living in the cottages. So I guess you want to work out where you're going to stay and give the guys a hand sorting the places out. Susan, you should go with them because you know what we did last time. Then somebody needs to look after the kiddies... and I wouldn't mind a hand tidying up in here."

They sprang into action, leaving Daniel standing on the stairs. "What can I do, Ma'am?" he asked.

"Come and give me a kiss!" I ordered him. "And then get a padlock organised for the cellar door."

"Yes, Ma'am!" He even gave a salute!

A couple of hours later, one of the guys... the one who had been driving our boat... turned up with a box of what he called MREs... military style ration packs... and the rest of the food we'd brought with us. "My name's Mike," he told me, "but people generally call me 'Sarge', and I wanted to personally apologise for allowing the guys to help themselves from your cellar. I'm a supply sergeant... was a supply sergeant now, I suppose... and so I should have known much better."