Riverbreeze: Part 1 by Ellen E. Johnson Page A

Robert after Robert’s
wife’s death, they had planted six acres of land, doubling their
profits.
    As the brothers and Robin moved deeper onto
the property, the house, yard and outbuildings came into view. Over
the past fifteen years Tyler’s holdings had increased considerably
from the three hundred acres he had originally been granted. His
contacts in London had allowed him to quickly establish himself as
a merchant/planter and he had become rather prosperous. And over
the years his associations with several prominent members of the
Council had also allowed him to increase his holdings and
profits.
    His plantation was one of the largest in the
colony with significant tobacco, corn, wheat and barley fields, a
small orchard, a middling kitchen garden and surprisingly, a small
silk-producing operation. He was one of the few planters that could
afford a modest stables, separate quarters for his indentured
servants, several smoke sheds and other outbuildings including his
merchant store and large silkworm house. The main house was still
quite small with only six rooms, three downstairs and three up.
Originally it had been built as a typical one and a half story
structure, with two rooms downstairs and two up, divided by a
center hall staircase. It was only when Jamie and Robert had joined
the family that a two story addition had been constructed at the
back of the house to be used as the kitchen and the room above as a
bedchamber.
    The scene ahead was as lively as a May Day
festival. The brothers could see many of the guests, clustered in
small groups, talking, laughing, and gossiping. Perhaps a dozen
children could be seen running and playing and if one looked in
just the right places, pairs of teenagers could be seen flirting
and cuddling. Two columns of smoke rose high in the sky, one from
the kitchen chimney, another from a pit that had been dug into the
ground and was being used to roast a whole boar and a haunch of
venison. One of the indentured servants, nicknamed Jack, stood
tending the fire and the meat. He was a tall, naturally muscular
man with tanned skin, sweat-soaked black hair pulled back in a tail
and dark brown eyes that missed nothing. He was wearing buff
breaches that were a little too snug and a grubby linen shirt that
had seen better days. His calves and feet were bare and very
dirty.
    They also recognized John Pawley, the chirurgeon from James City County, a
meticulous man of average height with a surprising amount of
strength in his arms and hands, which came in handy when the need
to amputate arose. Both Robert and Jamie were personally acquainted
with the man; three days after Robert had injured his leg and when
it had appeared that there was no hope of saving it, he had been
sent for by Robert’s wife, but Jamie had kicked him out and against
Kathleen’s will, had gone himself to fetch Mistress Warren, the
woman who dealt in herbs and lay healing, and brought her back to
Robert. At the time, Pawley had been highly insulted and predicted
that Robert would suffer a horrible, drawn-out death, but after
Robert had recovered, he had actually admitted he was glad he
hadn’t had to perform the crippling operation.
    Now he stood around the fire with Thomas
Harrison, the minister, a spare man with sunken eyes and cheeks,
who would rather pray than eat. His somber gray doublet and
breeches hung from his skin and bones body. Harrison had come to
the colony with righteous intentions of saving the natives and
rearing their children in proper English fashion, and several times
a year he would go deep into the territories attempting to spread
the word of God, but few listened, much to his dismay. Together the
two of them were standing with Jack and engaging him in
conversation.
    And then as Jamie and Robert got closer to
the main house, they saw Walter Newberry, one of the servants who
helped in Tyler’s stables, appear from the privy. He was a
funny-looking young man with dirty blond hair kept tied back with