Armand’s First Letter. Amelia’s First Letter. Cathy’s First Letter.

12 April 1024, L’Isle du Grand-Blaireau

Amelia,

Not only has Spring arrived in earnest, but so have visitors! Most are seeking to do business with your cousin, as in the past, but we have also had our first guests who have come just to see the Sloops and the waterfall, including a member of the Grand Parlement. We’ve had to open two more guest rooms.

His Napes has hired another chambermaid, Bessie. She’s Cumbrian, our first Cumbrian on the staff other than His Napes and me. She is also the daughter of Captain Allen, the proprietor of the Cochon’s Head, which you’ll recall is the inn near the garrison. She’s young for the task, but old enough that her father would prefer her not to be working among soldiers. I can well imagine, particularly as she is devoted to Eloise and tends to follow her example.

“I told him, send Bessie to me,” Eloise said to me. “She will do very well here at the Sloops, I told him, and Miss Gamble will look after her.”

“Shall I? It is you she looks up to.”

“And that is why it must be you,” she told me sternly. “A barmaid must be free with her guests—it makes them happy, n’est-ce pas? But not too free. Bessie has not, how you say, the knack. And a chambermaid, ooh la la! A chambermaid must not be free with her guests at all, if a maid she wishes to be.”

“And so Captain Allen sent her here. I see. Well, Corinne and I will take her in hand.”

“Mais oui!” said Eloise, and with a cheery nod whirled off to the bar parlor.

The big news, as you may already have heard from your cousin, is that a new firm has come to Bois-de-Bas: Froissart & Fils, Carroserie, or as we would say in Cumbria, Froissart and Sons, Coachbuilders. It seems that M. Froissart is the younger son of a family of carriage makers in Toulouse; and having once seen your caravan in the city—your caravan, Amelia!—he was possessed of a burning fire to build such things. And as Bois-de-Bas is where such things are made, he has come with his family to Armorica to make a new start. 

Tuppenny Wagons builds mostly floating wagons and fact packets; sky-chairs, and caravans like yours and ours, are occasional things, built mostly for use here in Bois-de-Bas. Now Tuppenny Wagons will branch out into building frames, or châssis as M. Froissart calls them: open frames capable of floating or flight, but with no seats, cargo space, or much of anything else. Froissart & Fils will apply their expertise at carriage building to add leather seats, windows, and other such amenities, each to a particular purpose. Some will be made for sale by Tuppenny Wagons, but Froissart & Fils will also sell them directly.

Amelie is greatly excited. It seems that your cousin predicted years ago, when he first opened Tuppenny Wagons, that Bois-de-Bas would one day become the second city of Armorica. Truly, it is much larger now than it was then; but other than the wagon works, the life of Bois-de-Bas has been built solely on farming and timbering. Now we see our second large firm come to town, and it is not hard to see that others will follow. Which is good news for the Sloops!

The little news is that His Napes is looking for a caravan driver, as he finds he needs to spend less time in flight and more at the Sloops seeing to our guests. Oh yes, and he has engaged a team of loggers to begin clearing a path from the Sloops to the head of the waterfall. I have learned that loggers are also skilled at building roads through the woods! The wood must be cut; and once the wood is cut it must be brought back to town, usually on a wagon pulled by horses; and so it must go down a suitable road, and as that road will continue to be used for many years it must be made to drain properly. They will not pave the path with stones, or with a board walk, of course; His Napes must hire others for that. But we should have the path itself opened up quite soon!

Cathy

Next letter

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Photo by Pisit Heng on Unsplash