A Queen's Mercenary: A Medieval Military Historical Fiction Novel - Available on Audible (Mercenary For Hire Book 3) by Burnell Sam

Author:Burnell, Sam [Burnell, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

A Warning Ignored

†

Lizbet and Froggy had the fire set by the time Richard arrived. The flames had receded and, in the centre there was a glowing pit of orange and red shifting colours fanned by the breeze. Lizbet pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear, cheeks glowing pink with the heat. Richard knelt down next to Froggy and watched. The small ladle they had used to melt the lead had been replaced now with an iron bowl that Froggy had nestled into the coals. To fill the mould that Richard had made would take more than the small ladle they had used before.

“It’s not ideal,” said Froggy, beginning to add lead strips to the bowl. “We can ladle out so much from the bowl, but we’ll never get to the bottom of it, so we have to melt more than we need.”

“I’ll have to think about that.” Richard’s hand pinched his chin in thought. “Let’s see how we do anyway.”

Lizbet dropped the iron skillet they had brought over the hot embers. The framework was high enough to hold the freshly made mould over the flames to warm it without it’s getting too hot. Too hot and the lead would not cool properly, too cold and they risked fracturing the mould as the molten metal was poured in .

Froggy poured the lead into the mould and three pairs of eyes watched his steady practised hand tip the smoking silver stream into the mould.

They ran out before the final row was filled. Richard held up his hand to stop Froggy from melting more.

“It’s enough. We can see how well it has worked. There’s no need to melt more. We can work out the quantities later.”

Froggy, using the thick hide gloves he had purchased from a blacksmith, pulled the skillet away from the fire and they waited for the mould to cool.

None of them had foreseen that the huge iron mould would remain searing hot for quite so long, and it was some time before Froggy, still gloved, undid the retaining wires that held all the sections together.

Lizbet clapped her hands together as the first freshly formed musket balls fell from the mould. “They are just as good as the ones we made with the proper mould.”

“You sound surprised.” There was a slight acid note in his voice, as, with a stick, Richard rolled one towards him. She was right, once the sprue was snipped away, the ball was as good as any Lizbet and Froggy had been making.

“I just think that the men who made the guns would have had more of a notion about how to make musket balls than you would, that was all I meant.” Lizbet edged one of the still warm lead spheres towards herself, a look of approval on her face .

“Your confidence is ever heartening,” Richard said sitting back on his heels.

“What’s he mean?” Lizbet said to Froggy, shooting him a confused look.

“No idea, lass. Get them clippers and let’s get these cleaned

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