Once Kalvin as the horses ready, we ride to the inn. Scott is busy with the last of his dinner customers so Emi and I sit at a table near the front windows. Once his customers have left he approaches, "Good Afternoon your majesty. How may I help you today."

"Good afternoon, Scott. Please sit, I have a proposal for you." I wait until he his seated himself. "Have you heard of the apprentice program?"

"I have. Would I be eligible for it?"

"Do Inn keepers have apprentices? If you do you would be eligible to train apprentices. If you wish to join the program write a letter stating how many apprentices you would be willing to train, though I suggest a maximum of two at this time. There is also some rules you sign off on and a training schedule to write up. Talk with minister Aden before tomorrow evening to join the program."

"Now on to my proposal. I have offered to help support the apprentices that are in the program. One of the stipulations of the program is that the apprentices are fed nutritious meals. What I would like is for you to prepare and serve one of these meals. I would pay for the supplies needed and for your time. I was thinking a bowl of stew and bread, for either dinner or supper."

"How many would be partaking of these meals? How many days of the week?"

"The numbers are unknown at the moment as the program is just getting started. It could be forty to seventy five, if every craftsmen was to train an apprentice. Today I just need to know if you would be willing to do it."

"Seventy five meals is a large number, I'm not sure I could serve that many at once."

"Are there other inns or taverns in town? If there are, the apprentices could go to the closest one. Or the apprentices could be scheduled to take their meals at different times, half at 1000, the other half at 1050. And not all of them would be partaking, they masters will be feeding them."

"There are a few public houses around town, though most are only open in the evening. Scheduling them at different times would work."

"Well think about it. Figure out what you would need for each meal and let me know. I need to talk to the masters about it also."

"I'll let you know tomorrow then. Is minister Aden in town today?"

"Minister Aden is in town this afternoon." Emi says, as I had a confused look on my face.

"Ah thank you, miss Emi. I will see if I can find him then." He stands then gives me a small bow then goes to the kitchen.

"Thank you Emi." We mount up, then ride to toward the salt ponds.

As we ride over the hill, I catch sight of the new ponds. Hans and friends have been busy. Where four ponds were now eight ponds sit, with troughs connecting them all to the lift. Hans is operating the lift, bringing the ponds to capacity. The four oldest ponds have white bottoms and sides from salt deposits. The newest four are mud brown yet. When Hans see us, he stops filling the ponds and comes to talk to me.

"Good afternoon, Hans. I see you have been busy."

"Your majesty, good afternoon. Yes, we completed the eighth pond this morning, I was just filling it. I'm happy to see you here, I need to ask how you wish me to proceed."

After setting Emi and Kalvin to work taking down the cabana, Hans and I descend to inspect the ponds. I ask him how the troughs are working. He says they are working well, leaking little. When I ask if he thinks they are high enough to feed another set of four ponds per side, he doesn't think so. We check the height, he is correct, there is only enough height for two more ponds per side. As I stand looking at the ponds it occurs to me I haven't designed a way to take the salt from them. There is not enough room on the beach to bring a cart close to the lower ponds and there is no access to them from above.

I tell him to add two more ponds per side, extending the troughs to those ponds. Then have a wide path, wider than the one the trough goes up, beside those ponds. As we are on the beach I squat down and draw in the sand as I talk. Beyond these paths, dig sixteen new ponds with a new water lift half way between them so there will be eight ponds, a lift, then eight more ponds. Then another wide path for access to the beach. Then depending on room another set of ponds with a lift beyond them.

I ask if the bucket on the lift is big enough, he suggests it could be larger. He has talked to Claude the cooper, who says the next larger bucket, an eight gallon one, would be 4 coppers. I tell Hans to order five and have Claude bill me. Then we talk of their living arrangements, do they return to town every night? How do they get their meals?

Two of the workers return to town, Hans and the other two are building a cottage to the east where I had suggested they build. One of the others is married so his wife makes meals for them. She has even started a garden, though it isn't producing much at the moment. They supplement their food supply with fresh fish caught from the inlet. I remind him not to dispose of the fish guts in the water as they will ruin the salt. Instead mix them with some leaves from the forest then bury them in their garden.

I ask him if he an his friends could help move the poles to the cabana to the next inlet to the east. He says they can. I look up the hill toward the cabana, which is now disassembled. We walk up the hill to where Emi and Kalvin are waiting. Once there I help Emi pack the canvas and the short poles into the panniers. Hans and his friends take the long poles and start walking to the east, each pair carrying two poles. Hans leaves one man behind to finish filling the ponds. Emi, Kalvin and I ride ahead, to find a site to place the cabana. The hill between the inlets is not high or rough going so we reach it in a few minutes.

This is a much better place to swim than the other inlet. The west side of the inlet gently slopes away from the water, with a wide sandy beach with a gentle approach from the south. The outlet of a stream can be seen at the southeast end of the inlet. The hill to the east rises steeply from water to over one hundred feet. Once I get closer to the water I can see it is shallow for one hundred feet out, then is deep water to the base of the cliff. Trees and brush cover the slope beyond the beach. The high water mark is one third the way up the beach. I walk my horse along the tree line, scanning the ground. It is mostly sand, with a few stones sticking out here and there. When I am a couple hundred feet from where we entered I stopped, the sun was a double hand length from the tops of the trees so it's mid afternoon still.

Dismounting I ask Emi for the shovel from the pannier. When I have it in hand I start digging a hole. When I get two feet down without hitting a rock I stop. I ask Kalvin bring one of the cross pieces over. Using it as a guide I start a new hole. I am nearly finished with the fourth hole when Hans and crew arrive with the poles. They stand a pole in each hole as Emi and I pack them in. Once the four uprights are in, I have them hold the cross poles up so they can be lashed on. When those are done we hang the canvas again. We have a cabana again. I thank Hans and crew, telling them they can take the rest of the day off.

When they are nearly out of sight, Emi enters the cabana and changes to her swim suit. When she is done, Kalvin changes then I get a turn. It's been a nearly a week since we got to swim last, the day of the wedding. All three of us wade out to our waists then start floating. Emi and I float for a while then roll over and slow crawl to the south end of the inlet. I can feel the temperature difference of the stream water flowing into the inlet, it's cooler. Going close enough to shore so we can stand, we do.

"I missed this, swimming with just you and me, Kalvin is here but is way over there." Says Emi as she hugs me. She starts running her hands up and down my back. We kiss, fondling each other. I am breathing hard when she undoes the frog on my bra, sliding it off. Hers soon follows. A minute later I suggest, "We had best get on shore, it won't do it have our swim suits float away." And they are doing that, already being ten feet away in just this short time. Grabbing them I head to shore, to a small beach close to where the stream enters the inlet.

We lay on the sand next to each other, legs intertwined, kissing. Soon she has a nipple between her teeth, pulling on it, sucking, fingers seeking my folds. Our swimsuit bottoms join our tops on the beach. We are soon laying on our sides, upper leg cocked, heads resting on the others thigh, licking and sucking the nubbin of the other. We orgasm several times before we look toward Kalvin. He is laying on the beach not far from the cabana. We put our suits back on then return to the water, rinsing the sand from where it shouldn't be. We float a short distance then start crawling, slowly speeding up.

We are fifty feet from the cliff side, swimming parallel to it. When we get close to where Kalvin is laying, I start treading water, looking at the cliff. Swimming closer I can see there is a small shelf ten feet up, with clearly defined hand holds leading to it. Diving down I check underwater for intrusions, large rocks or other obstacles. When I resurface I swim over to the lowest hand hold then start climbing, "What are you doing Rufina?"

"Climbing a cliff, what does it look like." I am half way up to the shelf, then past it. Stepping down, I am now standing on a three square foot shelf of rock, ten feet above the water. The water is clear, I can see down twenty five feet, the cliff is close to vertical here, there being only a foot to the water and the cliff extends down another twenty feet or more. "Move over that way five feet Emi." I point to my right. When she does I put my back to the wall, then take a step putting my toes on the edge of the shelf, swinging my arms up over my head and jumping out and up. At the top of the arch, I bend in two, grasping my knees then opening up fully as I enter the water. I approach the bottom in a cloud of bubbles, twisting I swim to the surface.

Damn, that felt good. It's been twenty years since I did any diving, the last time being in high school gym class. After starting in sixth grade and being on the middle school dive team it was a let down to be rejected for the high school team so I quit diving all together.

Emi didn't know whether to scold me or praise me so she did both. "That was amazing and never do it again." She forgot the rule about grabbing on to people in deep water, grabbing me in a hug which promptly sank us, luckily we are close to the cliff so our feet touch bottom and I can push us back the surface. She is sputtering, coughing up water. I get her to lay back, then I side stroke across the inlet towing her by her chin. By the time we are half way across she is back to normal and starts swimming on her own. We race the last two hundred feet though the last fifty is too shallow to swim in. Running up to Kalvin we collapse beside him, laughing.

"And what is so funny?" he asks peevishly having been woken up.

"Oh, not much, I just feel like laughing today. You should try it some time, grumpy." I start tickling his ribs. As he starts laughing Emi joins in, soon he is retaliating, having us rolling on the ground getting more sand in places sand shouldn't be. Panting from laugher, I snuggle up to him, kissing his cheek. "Now that wasn't so bad was it. Now get up, it time to go back home." Emi and I stand, each taking one of his hands and pull him to his feet. We let him go first, jumping back in the water to wash the sand off and out. Emi and I play rock, paper, scissors to see who goes next, I won. I quickly change as Kalvin saddles the horses and Emi is packing the tools back in the panniers. When I'm finished and while Emi changes I help Kalvin load the panniers on the horse. We mount up and start back to the palace.