Mayor Harald at the meeting
Harald felt his temper quicken. He did his mayoral best to hide it. He wanted to rage, to shout at Letty, “Your no-good husband and son brought this misfortune!” But he subdued his anger. The last thing this poor goodwife needed was another attack on what was hers.
“Whom do I want to do what?” Harald repeated, looking at the assembled Farmer Thistle and his boy, Berilac, Telien, Andreth, and Letty.
“We think too much of defense,” said Telien. “Once the people are inside the town, those outlying farms will be picked clean and then burnt. I wish there was a way for the farmers to send a signal – perhaps ringing the dinner bell – when the ruffians arrive, and then all the neighbors could hurry to fight them off. Bandits will go where the pickings are easy.”
Harald wished he could agree. It would be good to knock a few heads in return for the wreck of the Farroweed farm, not that he cared a whit about Tom.
“People would be hurt for sure,” he answered at last. “Running around in the dark, not knowing who you were hacking. “No,” he continued. “For now we will do this. No further work on the Hedge; it is as good as it needs to be. We will follow the plan I spoke of earlier, with the nets. Sturdy folk who know the risk, positioned to fling the ropes over any group of bandits who enter.”
Andreth looked worried, for her inn was near both gaps in the Hedge. But she said, “You may use my rooftop to position archers if you like.”
“Anyone looking up will see archers against the sky,” objected Telien.
“They won’t see Hobbits,” Harald said. “Berilac, will you get good archers up there? No hotheads!” Berilack nodded.
“And the dyke?” asked Farmer Thistle.
“We can either try to deepen it enough to delay entry, or … fill the ditch with pointed stakes. Remember the bully boys who attacked the school children? I ordered them to make stakes, and they have done so with a will. But it will not be pretty. What is your thinking? ” Harald asked, grim-faced. "Please speak quickly, for we also have the farmstuff to deal with, and the farmers to house."
[ 12:43 PM November 30, 2003: Message edited by: Chathol-linn ]
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