Luke’s HAARP Time Warp: Part 10

Marion settles into the life of a ruler.

Based on a post by somethin fishy,
in 15 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.

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Lukke’s next stop was the blacksmith shop although these days it would be
better to call it a foundry or a small steel mill. Since Bard had taken over
the business had grown tremendously and he was now running 24/7. The biggest
problem he was having was the constant lack of raw materials; he couldn’t get
enough iron ore, coal, or limestone. Overall, Luke was impressed with the job
that Bard had been doing. After all he had managed to keep the arms flowing to
Marion in enough quantity to arm her entire army with firearms. Bard was also
working on building steam engine locomotives but again the material shortage
was putting a real kink in his schedule and if it wasn’t materials then his
other great annoyance would make itself known.

The general inability for anyone to accurately tell time without having to
look at the sun. The general lack of watches or even the ability of people to
read was constantly driving him nuts. When Bard saw Luke though, he’s mood
improved drastically. After all, as bad as his life was, Luke’s was far worse.
He had to deal with the possibility of being killed or assassinated on a daily
basis; he had to deal with keeping the army clothed and fed while working to
train the army; he had to manage over a dozen industries in which he had to
train all the workers and make all the machines himself. If that wasn’t enough,
his wife was one of the most powerful nobles in the north. After they talked
for a few hours and Luke taught Bard some more steel making tricks, Luke left.
He was feeling much better and his next stop was one that he didn’t want to
make grumpy for it was finally time to go see his daughter.

By the time that Luke got to where his daughter was staying; he was feeling
his exhaustion. Fortunately, Mackenzie was napping so Luke followed her example
and passed out on the floor but not before the couple that took care of her
told him how well she was doing. It seemed that she was as tough as nails and stubborn
as hell. Luke managed to sleep for almost an hour before Mackenzie’s crying
woke him up. Her wet nurse was there in a minute and nursed her. Luke stood,
leaning against the door frame and watched; he really wished that they had a
bottle so that he could feed her himself. He missed his daughter so much that
not a day didn’t go by that he wondered how the hell Marion did it. She was now
almost a head taller and was putting on weight nicely. Luke stayed there for
the rest of the day and slept there that night.

During the day he played almost constantly with Mackenzie. Her caretakers
were glad just to have some time off for she was a real handful and seemed to
have much more energy than the typical kid of her age. That night they were
both so tired that Luke had fallen asleep on the floor and Mackenzie used him
for a pillow. Usually, she would wake up several times during the night, but
that night she slept right through. When they woke up, Luke changed her, much
to her caretaker’s surprise. Before long though, it was time for Luke to go
for, he had to get back to his duties in York. He said bye to everyone and
promised to try and visit more often. Of course, once Bard had managed to get
enough steel to build a railroad, then Luke would be able to visit much more
often.

It was late morning by the time that Luke left for York. This time he didn’t
hurry. He took his time to stop and watch village life, to smell flowers, or to
watch the wildlife. Going this slow would mean that he would have to either go
on through the night or stop and camp for the night. Since he didn’t have any
of his gear with him, he decided to ride through the night.

As the sun was coming up the next morning, Luke found himself looking down
on York in about the same spot that Marion had stopped his party when they had
first arrived in York. He stopped here and thought about all that had happened
before and since. After going through everything in his mind, he came to the
solid conclusion that he was much happier here in the 11th century they he had
ever been in the 21st. With that he sent his horse in motion again and resumed
his trip back to York. As he silently made his way through the city, he was
pleased to see that people were once again beginning to put weight on. The city
was now much cleaner than it had been the first time he had been here and the
people looked so much better. Not only that but they seemed happier too. As he
worked his way down the streets, people would stop and thank him for everything
that he had done to help them for now under Marion, jobs were becoming
plentiful and they were well paid. Food was flowing into the markets again and
people could afford it. Most of them were still disappointed about her
sexuality but had come to the conclusion that if her husband, the biggest man
that any of them had ever seen, didn’t care then maybe they shouldn’t either.
Eventually Luke had got back to the castle gates and with it back to duty.

Chapter 46.

Luke’s first stop was to see Marion. It took him a while to find her for she
was with Pollyanna. She was still alive so that was something. Other than that,
she was about the same was when Luke took off. Luke’s good mood was almost
erased when he saw Marion though for, she looked like shit. She had barely
slept since Luke had left. Gabriel had offered to stay and watch Pollyanna so
that Marion could go and get some sleep but she had refused. Luke knew what he
had to do so he gently picked Marion up and carried her to their bedroom. To
his surprise she didn’t argue too much. Before he left, he told Gabriel to wake
him up in a couple of hours for he knew that he had mountains of paperwork to
get through. Oh, the joys of bureaucracy but without it, civilization just
wouldn’t be possible. Once back in their chambers, Luke started warming up some
water. He carefully stripped Marion and sat her down. She was so tired that she
was acting more like a limp noodle. After the water was warmed up, Luke
carefully washed Marion’s body with a washrag. After he had her clean, he laid
her out in bed and covered her up. He then proceeded to wash himself. After he
was done, he crawled into bed and pulling some of the cover over himself;
passed out.

Almost three hours later, Gabriel woke Luke up as he wanted. She was about
to wake Marion up when he stopped her and whispered to let Marion sleep.
Gabriel nodded and helped Luke get dressed. As Gabriel was helping him, she
just couldn’t help herself as she gently grabbed Luke’s cock and gave it a
couple of tugs. When Luke looked at her, she had a very naughty look on her
face and a glimmer in her eyes. Luke smiled at her and whispered,

“Sorry but I want to let Marion get some sleep, plus I have a shitload of
paperwork to get down before I can do much of anything else.” Gabriel gave him
a pouty face and said:

“Party-pooper.” Luke smiled as he finished getting dressed and lead Gabriel
out.

Luke spent the rest of the day reading reports from the front and from the
various industries in which he had an interest in or owned outright. All in
all, things were looking good. All his companies were growing like weeds and at
the front the army continued to kick ass. One of the best things he came across
was that they now had an uninterrupted telegraph line between York and the lake
district. This allowed Luke to follow the battles in almost real time and issue
orders in time for them to do serious good. Most of the lake district was
surrendering instead of trying to fight off Marion’s army. It was to almost to
the point to where the army just had to march into an area and the local rulers
would surrender and accept Marion’s standard deal in which they would follow
all the laws to the letter and in turn the people would get to help shape said
laws. Of course, this wouldn’t kick in until at least sixty percent of the population
were literate.

The hardest thing for the local nobles to accept was that they could no
longer own serfs under any circumstances. If they needed farm help, then that
help had to be hired at an agreed upon price between the land owner and the job
seeker. The job seeker was entitled to know what the other workers were being
paid and how the employer treated the other employees. If an employer tried to
withhold a worker’s wages then that worker could file a complaint with Marion’s
labor board. They would then investigate. If the employee was indeed correct
then the employer would be fined 1000% of the amount that they illegally
withheld. Half of the money would go to the employee and half would go to the
government. If the employer had done nothing illegal, then the employee would
then have to provide free labor to that employer for the amount of 500% of what
the employee claimed was stolen from them and the same amount of free labor for
the government.

In addition, the various employers in the area couldn’t conspire with each
other to keep wages down. If they did, then all their assets would be seized
and they would be thrown in prison where they would have to do hard labor. It
also helped the population of the lake district to get behind Marion that she
was making sure to invest heavi