Mother-in-law

I was alone when I woke up the next morning. This might start to make me question my hygen, or how I slept. I just shook my head and got on with my day. I spent some time after breakfast training with my brothers. I worked on making my magic respond faster and testing the limits. The messenger watched me of course but he offered no input. I was almost falling asleep at lunch so I spent the afternoon reading one page of the history book. I wasn't sure I had made it more then a paragraph before I was asleep on the couch.

I woke with a start, Bella was standing in the doorway. I did a check to make sure I had not hurt her waking as I had but she was far enough away and the messenger was sitting in another chair by the door with a book of his own. I didn't think he was too likely not to interfere if I was going to do something that might really hurt her. I glanced out the window, the sun was still up but it was after when I normally came down for dinner. "Sorry, I must have lost track of time, reading again."

Bella laughed, "You are even more talented then I thought, if you can see the letters on those pages with your eyes shut."

I snorted, "That was just a momentary break to check my eyelids for pin holes. They still seem good, by the way."

Bella laughed again. "Well your brothers might rait if you take much longer to come down."

I stood as gracefully as I could. Which I think looked better in my head then it did in person. Bella looked at me as I started by her, I blinked before I figured out what her emotions were telling me. I held out my arm and got a bright smile from her as we started down the hallway. "I am surprised they waited."

"If it had been anyone else I am sure they would not have. As their Alfa, as they call you, I think they respect you more then most house men even respect their trainers."

"Travis, is the house trainer for Estro."

Bella seemed to be watching me out of the corner of her eye as we walked, "Yet, he doesn't train teams, only you do that." I opened my mouth but she went on, "Even when your teams work with each other they are only passing on what you taught them."

I closed my mouth and we entered the dining room. Isa stuck her tongue out at her sister, their brothers were still far down the table but they laughed at their sister. Hopefully their time outside of the house today was worth the lost day. From how they had relaxed around each other I thought it probably had been worth it.

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This time I woke up with one woman on each side of me. This was much nicer and other parts of me seemed to agree even as other needs started to make themselves known as well. I managed to sneak out of the bed without bothering the two women. I tried to sneak back into it as well, but I got caught. I think it was the first time in a long time I enjoyed failing at a goal I had set.

Once the two were satisfied, they let me find my way free to get to the work that needed done. They had their own ideas of what work needed done as well and went about it. Time moved faster now that I could fill every waking moment. The week was up before I wanted it to be, but I was pushing it by putting off the terms of my last fight that long. I really only think our lord was letting me get away with it because he had already gotten what he wanted.

My wives had talked to me about their last visit with their mother. It seemed like they thought her talks were going well. On the day I was to go see their mother they were up and dressed before I was. "I guess I don't have to ask if you are coming with."

Bella grabbed my arm, gently and slowly she didn't want to risk startling me after all. She had taken to being my handler between the two women and she was a bit older then her sister, but I got the impression that the shy Isa was the one really incontrol of the whole situation. Bella smiled at me, she was a little taller then me but not by too much and she somehow made it seem like she was smiling up at me. "Of course we are coming with. Unless the rules for the brothers of house Estro don't apply to their Alfa? Last I checked there are not any other women in the house and your sister, if she is going to meet you wouldn't like having to come all the way here only to go back."

"You are right I need to correct that rule to say that men can leave, with a woman, a priest, or a messenger."

Bella frowned at me. Isa nodded, "Yes you should, when we get back."

With that they escorted me back to where they had grown up. It made me feel good that they didn't seem as constantly afraid of me as they had when they first met me. My brothers didn't understand their change but they seemed to like it. They still weren't sure about having anything like that kind of relationship for themselves.

The walk was pleasant, the messenger led us to the best exit for where we wanted to go. If this did work out my house would be using the gate by the stables more then any other group but the messengers. The good news was that travel that way was free. You just had to wait for the messengers to take the horses out and bring them in. There were many more horses then messengers that take care of them so they made the trip quite often.

With the messenger with us we could cut through any house he wanted. No one said no to a messenger of our lord after all. Not if they wanted to live, and the women could live very long lives if childbirth doesn't take them. So we could head down the arena path of one of the houses and use it as a cut through.

We got to the farm almost as fast as we had when we had ridden. The women weren't unused to walking either so we didn't have to stop for them. My mother in law was sitting in a rocking chair on the small porch. Evidently she had been waiting for us.

"Must be nice to keep city hours." She spit on the path to the house as we walked up.

I gave her a flourishing bow. "Yes, the hours are nice, Inlaw. I hear some lazy men, get up at lunch and are drunk by diner. I don't hear about them for long, for some mysterious reason though."

The woman snorted, "As you say. I managed to talk to 64 like minded farmers." I raised an eyebrow, she was fast. That was almost ten people a day. I could only see that if she had gone to the people she thought would take up the offer first and had them carry the request for her as well.

"Impressive, and?"

"Before you let my boys and girls return, I had 10 considering taking your offer even without any such show of faith. After talking to them, 35 have accepted your offer and 15 more are requesting an extension to see how you deal with the others first. None of the others have said no, but they haven't shown that they can be enticed into a yes unless more terms change then I am willing to bring up."

"They want to make sure the boys come back as promised next spring." The older woman's lips twitched just a little, "Without them, what are the numbers that we are talking about for training?"

"Any boy over the age of ten. If the records are correct, it should be about 280 boys. You still think you can make the terms?"

"Yes, but not at either the house or the branch house. Even if I get your three boys trained up and they don't die before the first snow, it would still be 23 to 24 boys per teacher. I can do it but it takes open spaces. Normally houses don't train in the open there is too high of a chance another house will see what they are doing and plan accordingly, but are a few of these 35 farms close together? Can we use their fields to do the work I want to? If a few are, they might have their fields cleared before the melt."

"Too bad my fields don't meet that requirement. Yes there is a spot like that, I will talk to them again."

"Even if I do have to use the land, I expect the boys to answer to me and live as I say. Even if they grew up in the area."

"Of course, son, anything less puts them at risk in the arena, I am not new. Now for your other problem, I told them about your need for girls as well. After my daughters visited the first time, and the reports from the markets of them visiting there, I got a much bigger response then I expected. Over 30 of the girls offered to take up the terms, even knowing that the other men are of the house and not raised as you were. It was still a better turn then most of them had been hoping to have. Even a potently neglectful man that can freelance all he wants is preferable. Of the 30 five are from farms that are not ready to take up the rest of your terms."

"I am afraid, I don't consider myself much of a matchmaker, Inlaw. I will make sure my brothers don't go too far, but the terms are set by our lord. The terms is mostly obedience, and the women will still have to try and meet the law. If they will do that and there are too many who would do that, I am more then willing to leave the decision to you and my wives."

"I figured you would say that, son. So I did spend most of yesterday with my daughters talking about how we can best solve your problem. As they have spent the most time with your brothers. I will have the remaining 18 report to you and my daughters will introduce them to the men, they think they would best match. Now since you took so long, come on in, I think we have some soup left." With that she stood and headed into the little house.

The children were all out taking care of the late summer plants and bringing in some of the harvest. I sat at the table and learned of how my wives had lived. I didn't eat, there wasn't enough to go around on the farm. There weren't enough hands to feed the fighters and themselves. The houses bought everything the farms produced normally, but if a house had fallen on a bad streak sometimes the priesthood would take from the farms to make up for the houses lost. Having enough was a sure way to get it taken. Hopefully with this deal, everything the farms produced would belong to the house of Estro, and the other houses would have a harder time justifying just taking it.