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impatient they were for their morning visit from
him.
    They were just as eager for his company as he
was of theirs. It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust and
then it was time to get down to business of readying the horses for
their first real ride since arriving only two short weeks ago.
    As he approached the two animals, they
nickered again in anticipation of their morning carrot. Jamie’s
blue eyes went soft and he clicked his tongue at them. “How’re my
precious babies this fine morning?” He asked.
    The babies were
beautiful Andalusian cross-breeds, both of them a rare bay color, a
male and a female, chosen specifically for their breeding
abilities. The male was only two years old and not at his full
height yet, but would reach perhaps fifteen hands full grown. The
female was also two years old, smaller, only fourteen hands high,
and Jamie already knew he would have to wait at least another year
before breeding her. They were extremely fine horses, strongly
built and elegant and Jamie had felt some satisfaction that he had
arranged their purchase through their agent from their father’s
estate without ever letting it be known to that bastard brother,
Wesley. As much as Jamie loathed the thought of paying his
hard-earned money to the man; he knew the reputation of the horse
farm and had wanted stock from that line of Spanish
Andalusians.
    He brought each of them a large carrot from
the kitchen garden and chuckled affectionately as they devoured the
crunchy vegetable. He rubbed their velvet noses, crunching a fresh
carrot of his own, thinking of the times when he had eaten the
withered and dried up leftover carrots just to put something in his
belly. But now he actually ate them because he liked them, the
sweet, crunchy ones fresh from Robert’s kitchen garden, not because
he had nothing else to eat.
    What he was really looking forward to was the
day when he could offer them fresh apples as treats. Right now his
brother bartered for barrels of apples from another planter named
George Menefie, and being as precious as they were, Robert had
clearly made his wishes known that the apples were for human
consumption only. Jamie had thought he could gather the bruised
apples that had fallen to the ground for the horses on Menefie’s
land, but even those were used to make cider and juice. But Robert
had just planted a dozen saplings this past week in the newly
established orchard along with peach and cherry trees obtained from
cuttings from Menefie, and in a few years he didn’t think Robert
would mind if he snatched a few for the horses.
    Jamie was surprised that Menefie had even
agreed to trade with Robert this year. But then again maybe he
wasn’t so surprised. Not so long ago Menefie had been like an uncle
to the brothers, almost as close as any family could be. Throughout
their teenage years Francis Tyler had often taken them to
Littleton, Menefie’s plantation on the lower James River; but now
that the brothers had found their independence and openly disagreed
with Menefie’s commercial views, their relationship had become
slightly strained.
    Jamie and Robert both continued to respect
Menefie and admired him for what he had accomplished in the colony.
They knew through Francis and from personal stories from Menefie
himself that Menefie had originally been a lawyer in England before
he had come to Virginia in 1623 and that he had wasted no time in
establishing his plantation, growing tobacco and planting large
orchards of apple, cherry, pear and peach trees. He had become
politically involved, serving a single term as a Burgess before
being chosen as a Councilor. He had brought numerous laborers to
the colony, adding to his original land grant with each passenger.
He was one of the wealthiest planters in Virginia so there was
really no need for him to barter with two cocksure youths. So
perhaps it was out of feelings of friendship or of honoring his
association with Tyler, but whatever the reason, Jamie was