Eulia And The Butterfly Dragon

Chapter 27 A Brief Moment of Domestic Tranquility

"Bear, leave those poor chickens alone!" Eulia called and the huge dog loped over to her as she piled her pallet of strawberries onto the cart. Amanda, Phoebe and Jo added their strawberries to the load. "Becky, we're ready to go." Rebecca walked to the wagon. Her box had very few strawberries in it but her face and dress were stained with berry juice. Eulia laughed at her, "Most of your berries ended up in your tummy!"

"I love berries," Rebecca replied.

"The men folk should have our roadside fruit stand finished today," Phoebe said, "I hope we get traffic to our stand."

"Are we having lunch?" Rebecca asked.

"You're still hungry?" Eulia asked. Rebecca nodded.

"We have tons of fruits and vegetables for our stand," Amanda said happily, "and eggs too."

"We're eating in the annex today," Jo said, "we hired those sisters you mentioned to clean house and cook. That was a great idea Euly. We can take most of our meals together in the annex kitchen and dinning room, it's huge."

"Your Mom suggested that we hire the help," Eulia replied, "between supervising the running of the farm and managing the dragons we really don't have much time. The annex was used to feed the large group of imperial officers."

"We can use it to make jellies and preserves for our roadside stand and the inn," Amanda added.

"I have a wonderful recipe for orange marmalade from Mari," Eulia said.

"You have a much larger crew for the farm than Ian," Phoebe observed.

"Yes, but none are indentured and I really want this farm to be a success." Eulia then saw Jacob approaching and ran to him. Jacob scooped her off her feet and kissed her.

"How's the barefoot crew doing?"

"Did you finish our roadside stand?"

"Yes, I came to get you so I could show it off and brag," Jacob teased. "The other two are just finishing it up. Come, I want to show it to you. We also posted flyer's in the village listing its hours of operation."

"I didn't think about that," Eulia said.

"It was Fee's idea." It took several minutes to walk to the roadside stand. The butterfly dragons circled above them executing flips and rolls that dazzled and entertained Amanda and Rebecca. Bear simply ignored the tiny dragons as she walked beside Rebecca.

"This way the village will come to us for stuff," Phoebe said, "and except for deliveries to the village grocer we can take turns at the stand."

"I think it best for there always to be at least two of you at the stand," Jacob said. "And at least one of us."

"I can handle it alone, Jake."

"Please Euly, humor me on this. I have to leave for a few days and return to Dexter. I don't want to be worrying about you. The three of us have been called back to Dexter. I expect to be gone several days, perhaps a fortnight."

"I thought you all were keeping out of politics," Jo said.

"That was the plan, but we got drafted to represent the peninsula in the constitutional convention," Jacob said.

"The petty bickering is making the union difficult," David added, "Jake needs to carry a big stick to bring reason to the convention."

"Jake was the one who managed to pull the coalition of colonies together, without that who knows how everything would have went," Jeremy said.