When I arrive at my rooms the girls are busy sewing Eliza's swimsuit. "Did Mark's suit fit well?" I asked.

"Yes, it did. And he looked good in it, almost as good as Kalvin." Which cause a protest from Emi but not a large protest.

"And how is Eliza's suit coming along?"

"Nearly done." They show her the suits, Eliza has chosen one like Emi's and mine as she had a small bust and didn't need the support like the other two did.

I described the place the trial was going to be and telling them we'll be up at 500 tomorrow, so we could hopefully be done with the trial by the heat of the day. I asked Emi if the swimsuits were packed, they are. Alright, I'm going to the study to sketch then.

I meet Aden coming down from talking to the guard captain and I reminded him he needed to talk to the witnesses of the search. He said he would do that when we rode through town. We part at the study door, I was soon sketching type for the printing press, trying to remember all the little details of the type. After that I was counting up the number of individual characters that would need to be made when Mark and Eliza returned. I put my sketches away and go to the kitchen to see Tilly.

"Tilly, we are almost ready to leave. Are you?"

"Yes, all packed up and ready."

"Breakfast is going to be early tomorrow, about 540, we will be heading to town just before 600. Are you going to the trial?"

"No, I'll stay here and make you all a nice dinner."

"Thank you, Tilly." I heard everyone coming down the stairs, telling Eliza about the inlet, the salt ponds and swimming. "Is there any thing I can carry?" She points to the jugs of tea. I take a jug in each hand and join the others as we head to the garden.

Those of us that need to change to our boots and out the gate we go. Kalvin has the horses ready. The panniers are sitting on the ground ready to be loaded with the picnic and anything else we are taking. Once they are ready they are hung from the horse with the pack harness. It had slipped my mind that Eliza may not know how to ride so she rode behind Kalvin, hugging him tight. I'll need to talk to Sophia about their talk again, to find exactly what was said.

As we rode though town Aden stops at a couple of shops to talk to the witnesses about the trial. When we reach the inlet, we ride to the far side, where the cabana is and dismount. Eliza helps Kalvin stake out the horses, after the panniers have been removed. I check the liner test hole, which only has a knuckle depth of water in the bottom. There is a crust of salt forming on the walls just above the water level, and the water is extremely salty. Looking around I spot the bucket. Filling it with seawater I then pour it into the test hole, might as well get some salt out of it.

I filled the bucket again then started to check on the ponds, three of which were all smoothed out and ready to be filled, the serfs had been busy. The lining of the fourth pond had yet to be mixed and smoothed. I set the bucket down next to the pond then head back to the cabana. The others have already started to change into their swimsuits, which is why we came here for in the first place after all. I remove my boots and stockings as I wait my turn in the cabana. I sit there on the hill side staring out to sea, relaxing. Emi comes to sit beside me, not saying anything. Soon Sophia sits down on my other side. I glance at them but they are just leaning back enjoying the sun on their skin as they have both been able to change. Kalvin, Aden and Eliza are waiting, too. Tilly is down in the water. So that means that Helen is in the cabana.

Soon we are all changed, "Who will help finish the last pond?" They all do so I start them stomping mud and straw, in pairs, while Tilly and I carry water for them. Soon the bottom of the pond is a covered in slippery high clay mud. Things get messy when Helen loses her balance. Aden tries to keep her upright but fails, causing both to fall, coating them both in mud. Eliza starts laughing which makes Helen mad. Helen then trips Eliza into the mud. Then when Kalvin tries helping her up, instead gets pulled down too. When Emi and Mark trying helping Kalvin up, Helen and Aden sabotage them. Now everyone but Tilly and I are in the mud, trying to keep each other from getting out, which causes Tilly and I to start laughing. This draws the attention to the fact that we are the only non muddy ones, soon they have us dragged in as well, covering us in mud. When we have recovered from the laughter, I have them scrap the mud off each other before helping to smooth the mud. With nine of us the smoothing is done quickly. When we finish we move well to one side and clean the remaining mud from each other.

As Emi and I are the only ones to swim well, I divide the others in to two groups, Helen, Tilly, Kalvin and Aden with Emi and Eliza, Mark and Sophia with me. I have Emi lead them in some back floating then some back stroke. While they are doing that I show my group how to do those moves. After they are familiar with floating and can do the back stroke I swap groups with Emi. I show this group the crawl, then explain how to breath while doing the crawl. They practice breathing and stroking with their arms while being held by the hips. Soon they are crawling back and forth across the inlet. Emi's group, doing the back stroke is also swimming back and forth. They are soon tired so I had them on the beach resting. This gives Emi and I a chance to swim which we did, swimming across the inlet 4 times quickly.

When we get to the beach we flop on the sand, panting. That was a quite a distance for only swimming for a week. I need to increase my stamina, Rufina is a wimp but getting better. The others are playing a game of rummy but Mark asks me if I would take over his hand, as he wants to talk with Emi. I say sure, I can do that.

They start walking down the beach, in the direction away from town. Soon they are holding hands as they walk. They stop at the mouth of the inlet, sitting on the sand. After I playing a round or two I glance back to where they were but they are gone, going out beyond the inlet mouth I assume.

Eliza won the first game with a very lucky third hand, being able to meld out on her first turn, catching the rest of us with a lot of high value cards in our hands. We were well into our second game when Emi and Mark returned hand in hand, smiling widely.

"We have an announcement to make." Emi says as they come close.

We lay our cards down, looking at them.

"Mark has asked me to marry him and I have accepted." she said.

When she says that, we all jump up and start hugging them.

As I am watching them get congratulated I realize I know nothing of the culture of Emi's species. Do they have a religion, how do they marry, who marries them, I know none of it. Thinking about it, I don't have much cultural background on any of the species of Dominion, even of the humans. I sink to sit on the ground again, deep in thought, sorting through Rufina's memories.

I am not sure how long I sat there like that but the next outside thing I'm aware of is everyone staring at me. They are all clustered around, having faces covered in varying looks of worry. Emi has just placed her hands on my face tilting it up so she can look in my eyes. I smile at her, "Congratulations, love. May you have a long and happy life."

"It sounds like you think I'm leaving you, silly princess. I can't leave you yet, even if I wanted to so get that idea out of your head. What were you think about so hard?"

"I realized that I know nothing of the culture of this world, what the ceremonies of life, marriage or death are. Who presides at a wedding, what are the rituals, the customs. I trying to remember what Rufina knew but she only knows the death rituals because of her father and brothers."

"And she knows nothing of the rituals of other species, nothing. Is the whole world like this? Ignorant of each other." I look at Sophia, "Is this one of the things I need to change, Sophia? Do you want me to unite the world?"

"If that would help solve the problems of the world, yes. I know it can't done in one life time, but you can start it on its way."

I let out a large sigh. Sometimes the expectation of a god can be too much. I jump when a different pair of hands lift my face. These belong to Sophia, who catches my eye with hers, "Rosa now Rufina, know that I chose you to begin a long journey into the future, to teach and to be taught, to live and love and hopefully to bring knowledge to a benighted world. Those that hold sway here do so by oppression and withholding knowledge, you can break this cycle by releasing knowledge. The path is long and dangerous, there will be deaths, just as on your old world the ones in power will not go quietly but fighting and kicking all the way. But enough gloom and doom, we have a bride and groom to cheer for."

She stands, lifting me up. Guiding me to Emi, she gently pushes me forward. I again smile at Emi, gathering her in a hug and kissing her cheek. I then hug Mark but no cheek kiss for him, he get a full on the mouth lip biter. I whisper in his ear, "We need to talk, later." When I release him, he nods.

"Is it supper time yet?" I ask, looking at the sky. "Close enough, lets eat."

We head up the hill to the grassy area behind the cabana, where there is shade to sit in and grass to sit on. Tilly has a large blanket in the pannier, which is spread beneath a large tree. When the food is spread out, beside the sandwiches there are small crocks of pickled asparagus and pickled beets along with a apple pie. Not content to eat out of hand, she brought plates and spoons. The pickled vegetables aren't like the ones I'm used to on Earth, these are more sour than acidic being pickled by bacterial action, not by being marinated in vinegar. I wonder where she has the pickle crocks, the basement probably. Looking at the beets I wonder how color fast a beet dye would be.

"Tilly, do you make sauerkraut, too?"

"Sauerkraut?"

"Pickled cabbage."

"Yes, there are several big crocks in the basement. It's should be almost ready, as it's made from this springs cabbage crop."

"Yum, I look forward to it. If it's as good as these pickles it will be good. Pickles on earth are made differently, with vinegar, which gave them a different taste."

After we have been eating awhile I ask Emi and Mark, "Do you two want a fancy wedding or a intimate one? And when?"

"We haven't talked about that yet. Mark has to leave when the ship does, returning in about eight weeks, right love?"

"That is the schedule, about eight more days here, then a week to the next port, a week to ten days there. The port of call after that is a week out, ten day in port then a week back to home port. I'm not sure how long the lay over at head quarters will be, but it's ten to eleven days to return here from there. So a minimum of eight weeks."

"So this week or in ten weeks. Is there a reason to wait?"

Emi thought for a moment, "The only reason I can think of is family, though if I did invite them I not sure they could come. Having to take a month or two away from their work and plus the expense of traveling here would be to much. Do you have family that could or would come, love?"

"Father couldn't take the time from business, mother would love to come but my youngest siblings are too young to leave alone so she wouldn't come."

"You could visit them at a later date to introduce each other to them."

"We could do that easily." Emi replied.

Stretching I stood, glanced at the sky,"I think it's time to head back, I must speak with Captain Jones about tomorrow. Aden needs to arrange for some furniture and a cart." I head to the cabana, to change clothes. On the way I decide to check the pond first, it is looking good. Returning, I picked up my bundled clothing and enter the cabana. I lay out my clothes before starting to change, then removed my swimsuit. Laying the suit next to my underwear I noticed that the swimsuit is stained a light tan, the same color as the clay we had been throwing around earlier. As I dress I wonder if the stains will come out. Bundling up the swimsuit I leave the cabana, placing my swimsuit in the pannier. I then help Tilly with the remains of supper, placing everything in the other pannier.

After the others have changed, we mount up and ride toward town. When we reach the town square the group separates into three groups; Aden departs to talk to the witnesses and arrange for some furniture, Emi, Kalvin and I head to the dock to speak with Captain Jones and the the rest head off to the palace.

I'm lucky, he has just arrived on the dock, "Well met, your majesty, I was on my way to see you."

"Emi will you ride with me so the Captain can use your horse?"

Kalvin helps Emi dismount and remount behind me. After the Captain mounts we too head to the palace. As we ride he asks, "Where have you been the lovely afternoon?"

"We have been working on a project then had supper on the beach, as it was a pleasant day for it." We continued chatting as we return through town on the way to the palace.

When we arrived there, we rode around to the garden gate before dismounting. Tobias is placing the wheel barrow in it usual place by the gate, after having been using it in the garden. He helps Emi and I dismount, and after the others dismount takes the horses to the stable. Leading them to the back door, As the we took off our footwear I explained to the captain that it help to keep dirt from the floors.

The pannier of clothes has left on the patio, the other being taken to the kitchen to be unloaded. Emi ducks into the kitchen to fletch a bucket of hot water to wash out the swimsuits. Eliza sits at her art table at the edge of the parlor and is busy drawing card faces. I escort the captain to the parlor to have our talk.

"Captain, you are probably wondering where the trial will be held and when. The when is at 600, the place is hard to explain but if you are at the town hall at 600 tomorrow, we will be leading everyone there. Aden is arranging for some furniture and a cart to haul it now and should be here shortly."

"Like I explained before your role is to assist the jury on legal matters and to guide the voices. Other than that you haven't much to do. Would you like to stay and observe as Aden and I do a dry run of the starting proceedings?"

"I would like that, I wouldn't be totally in the dark then."

We sat and chatted while waiting for Aden to return. I asked him how long he had been a Captain, what his normal route was, did he have partners, was the shipping business profitable, all kinds of things. He had started as a cabin boy at the age of ten, worked his way up the ranks, had gotten his first command eleven years before. He had sailed the coast here abouts for the last five years, stopping here twice a year, and shipping was fairly profitable if you could stay away from the pirates.

Upon Aden's return I gathered everyone together and explained what we were going to do. "We will be practicing what Aden is to say at the beginning of the trial, so he had an idea what to do. Eliza, Sophia, Helen, Emi and Tilly will play the part of the jury, Mark will fill in for Lian and Captain Jones is the judge." I coach Aden on the reading of the charges and the explanation of the Captain and jury.

Then we do a mock jury selection, having the Captain call each of the crew up, then Mark and myself asking questions of them, either accepting them or rejecting them. As we only have five to choose from the rejects return to the end of the line to be a different person. I explained that each voice is attempting to get as many jurors at could be open to his case as possible. That is why the questions, to determine the attitude of the juror on crime and the defendant. If the juror knew the defendant he could be biased in favor or against him and if they had had a crime committed against them they could be biased against any criminal.

When we had the jury selected we did it again, which went much smoother. At the conclusion of the second run, "Thank you Captain, we will see you in the morning at the town hall." I have Emi escort him to the backdoor. "Aden, would you like to stay the night? You can use the first single room as Helen has moved next door."

"Thank you, your majesty. I will be up at dawn, so will see you all at the town hall in the morning. Good night." He gives me a small bow then heads for the stairs.

"I will be heading to my rooms also. I have several things I need to meditate on. See you at breakfast." She follows Aden upstairs.

Eliza approaches, several pages in her hands. "Your majesty, I have more of the card faces completed." She holds them out to me.

I take them, looking them over. "Well done, Eliza. How many does this make?"

"With these, about half."

"Very good. When you complete the faces, I would like you to do four designs for the backs. Two simple and two multicolored ones."

"Yes, your majesty." She takes the pages back when I hand them to her, a large smile on her face.

Helen has come up while Eliza and I were talking. When we have finished, she hugs me with a kiss on the cheek before leading Eliza off to their rooms. Emi and Mark are sitting at the far end of the parlor whispering to each other, Emi sitting on Marks lap, I leave them be. Tilly had excused herself as soon as we had finished the rehearsal, retiring to her room.

I climb the stairs after getting a pitcher of hot water. After bathing and selected my clothes for the next day, I snuff the candle. Curling around one of my pillows I am soon asleep.