By Wolfgang Wittenburg
Published: Dec 7, 2013
(Writer’s Note: Any resemblance to real locations, events and persons is purely coincidental)
There once lived a lord who was gifted a large piece of land by a rich relative. The lord was happy about his good fortune, because times were hard, and his lovely estate no longer provided the income he was accustomed to in the past.
Alas, the new land was strewn with rocks, its depths full of old tree trunks, and the soil not good for farming. Never mind, the lord was dreaming of a future of golden, undulating wheat, rows of orchards as well as grassy commons where parents could play with their children and artists perform to their audiences. He instructed his estate manager to make it happen.
He went to work at once, but it was not easy. Soon the hired hands of the estate needed outside help and it all began to cost a lot of money which the lord did not have. A nearby prince proposed to help, but he was sent away, since the lord was afraid the prince would not share his cherished dream for the land.
The estate manager and his helpers then toiled on for many more years, always assuring the lord that all was well. The land did not look better despite the work done and the huge sums of money the manager had spent on it, money which had to be borrowed and which indebted the estate ever deeper to the bank. There was nary any accounting of what the vast sums were spent for.
The lord naturally began to worry and so did the estate manager, he about being dismissed by his master. He knew that only a bold plan could save him now
The first part of his plan was easiest: Even the lord could see that the estate was no longer able to put more money towards that land and therefore agreed to have it sold. The second part was more difficult, because his master still wanted to see his dream fulfilled by others.
The land was advertised throughout the kingdom, but none of the offers he received included any to accommodate the lord’s dream. Tormented by sleepless nights about his predicament, the estate manager was close to despair…and then – at last a break! The wealthy merchant living in one of the estate’s villages who was willing to help before when it looked like money was running out, came to the rescue again!
It happened just as he had hoped, except that the merchant and his foreign partners only agreed to the lord’s dream with a nod of their heads, the exact details, the price and all else to be worked out later. Nevertheless, It was the first good news our embattled estate manager could present to his master in a long time.
Will he succeed in helping the lord’s dream come true and keep his job? Will everyone live happily ever after on the estate, or will there be more unexpected twists ahead? To find out, don’t miss the next instalment of this tale!
