Bellied up to John Byrne’s bar sipping a beer and eating fries was exactly where I wanted to be on a day like that day. We shot the shit and filled each other in on happenings in our locales. John and I got along in that lazy, laid back manner of men who weren’t feeling overly pressured usually did. We talked weather, crops, autumn hunting and even a tiny bit about our women. Mind you talk about our women was a scarce thing, you didn’t want to bad mouth your own woman and you definitely didn’t want to insult his by simply agreeing with him. I found that regardless of era normal men didn’t talk about women much at all. It’s just safer that way.

I spoke to him about my attempts to find a steam boat and the incredible bounty of crops we had which were actually coming through the back door of his restaurant as we spoke. He loved hearing about the buffalo hunt, which was actually a fun story to tell. He served the occasional patron and eventually got around to ask about where I was staying the evening. I very much let him know that besides a quick stop at the bank I intended to hang out like a bum either here or over at the Marine House where he was very much welcome to join me.

Honestly, I had no intention of moving from that chair anytime soon. Tomorrow would be soon enough take care of any serious business. Patrick stopped by briefly to report that he had heard of a steam boat sitting down in Memphis that hadn’t moved for a while and might be available. I decided it was worth checking out, we’d offload what produce we could move here and head down river with the pelts. The further we got from the frontier the more valuable the pelts were on the market, I really wanted to see their value down in New Orleans. Of course as soon as I found a steamer I’d be heading back north again; municipal exploration and additional value could wait.

I really wanted see what New Orleans was like in 1822, it had to be an experience worth seeing. Baton Rouge came first and September would follow shortly after, a pole boat trip up-river could take as long a eight weeks so Baton Rouge might be as far as I went that trip. New Orleans could wait until next spring if I could find everything I wanted in Baton Rouge. I had decided it all depended on what I found where.

So I sat and shot the shit with John and caught up with other folk who showed up. I did send a runner to the Marine House to ask them to prepare a room for me and that I’d be arriving later that afternoon. The bank manager quickly learned that I was in town and he showed up at the bar, we were able to conduct our business in the private room so I didn’t have to visit the bank. I now owned the Doctor’s house and the deed resided in my safe deposit box so that business was finished. I let him know that my book keeper would be around soon to audit the books.

I arranged with John to schedule a tour of the brewery, distillery and warehouses tomorrow. The bourbon was going to be a long term project to even get it to the five year mark but the patience would be well worth the result.

Amos showed up shortly thereafter and together we rode out to the Marine House. We ambled along on our mounts taking our time as I filled him in on the days events; he had been following Patrick around and observing the negotiations to sell cargo. It had been an eye opening day for him and he had managed to learn a lot, that young man was very eager to tell me about it. The lessons learned were good ones for a young man to learn and I assured him that they would come in very handy as his life progressed.

As we approached the Marine House I could see workers still hard at the repair and additions that I had ordered. There was a large sign on the road proclaiming “Construction Provided by Andersson Bros. Construction”. The front gate itself had already been repaired and looked to be of the same granite as the rest of the wall, I found out later they had simply used the wall blocks recovered in the creation of the side gates for the repair. There was even a sentry on duty so we dismounted and introduced ourselves. We shook left hands as it didn’t appear that his right arm was on the same team as the rest of him any more, it kind of just hung there.

He noticed my glance and commented with a chuckle, “It’s a good thing for me I was a lefty to begin with.”, I had to chuckle with him and told him I’d see him at supper that night.

Amos and I walked our horses the rest of the way, it was good to stretch our legs and gave us time to stretch our legs and get a first look at the repairs made to the place so far. The main house was in very good shape with new windows, fresh paint and repaired shutters. The shutters were all functional of course, not the vinyl decorative ones used in the modern world. These were solid and sound, they were closed whenever the weather became hostile.

We were met at the front porch by another old geezer wearing something that resembled a uniform, he saluted me briskly and took the horses from us to have them stabled for the evening. Amos and I looked at each other, shrugged and proceeded on into the Marine House to see what else had changed. We had left our packs on our mounts so we didn’t have much to do at the moment. Amos wandered back to the servants quarters to see who was there while I simply walked into the study, grabbed a glass from the liquor cabinet and poured myself a nice healthy dollop.

I had barely sat down and lit a cigarette when Grace swept into the room full of excitement and bubbling with things she wanted to tell me. I rose to greet her with a polite hug and she started to babble all over again, I simply held my hand up palm towards her and turned my head away with closed eyes. She got the message and went quickly silent.

After a moment I looked at her and explained that I was having a calm day and wanted to keep it that way, I also invited her to grab a drink and gently update me with all the news. I was back relaxing in my chair when she came back with her wine, just smoking my cigarette and gazing out the window. Grace sat down on the nearby couch, took a deep breath and calmly began to feed me all of the news.

I began to relax again…