Saturday September 22, in The Year 725 AF 1:30 p.m. at the Bank of the Griffon

"Whew! That should do it." Mario carefully wiped the sweat off his forehead to keep it from dripping on any of the books.

It had taken longer than they expected to set up, the hardest part being finding enough tables and other flat surfaces to display the books on. But now it was done and with 30 minutes to spare.

At Genie's suggestion, and privately he was still beating himself for not seeing the possibilities, they had invited all the local partners in the bank, and the chief clerk, to attend the showing. If they so chose, they could each buy any five books they wanted at a 30% discount.

After every one of them had accepted with huge smiles, she didn't say a word to Mario. Words aren't necessary when one has a relationship as close as theirs. Not to mention that every time she looked his way, her self-satisfied smirk spoke volumes.

He sat down, to rest a bit, and to think. Half an hour ago, Brigid has suddenly appeared and taken him aside. She had informed him that Robin Pascal's husband ran a small coffee house on one of the side streets. It was fairly popular, but lack of space and its inconvenient location prevented it from any greater success.

That was when she'd shown that, even at the young age of 14, she was capable of rubbing it in. She'd very casually drawled, "I wonder how business might be affected for both of their shops if they moved to a better location, say, that vacant building right across the square from the bank, and just happened to merge. With the right interior layout I imagine that both of them would see substantial increases in their profits."

With that she'd smirked at him just as evilly as Genie, waved, and said over her shoulder as she left, "I'm heading back to the inn. Almost nobody else knows one end of a horse from the other."

Once she was out of sight, he bent forward and put his head in his hands. It just wasn't fair. Two women blindsiding him in the same day, and both of them were right. So much for his lofty opinion of his skills. While getting your ego punctured might be necessary at times, it was also rather painful.

Well, at least he shouldn't feel bad, maybe, about Robin and her husband. Brigid had lived here for over two years. She'd had more than enough time to learn where all the shops were.

"And what would Aldus say to an apprentice who hadn't checked out all the possible business connections of a new client?"

"Heh. He'd chew them up one side and down the other for being sloppy, that's what he'd do."

"Well, well. You remember. How droll... Now quit lying to yourself, figure out how to do better in the future, and get back to work. Dolt!"

Mario jumped to attention and snapped out, "Yes ma'am!" to the empty air. There wasn't anyone there. He rubbed his eyes. They hadn't gotten much sleep last night. Was he so tired that he was hallucinating?

"Not hardly. Now get back to work. We'll talk later. Probably much later, but we will have a nice chat."

The voice took on a hard edge, "That is, it'll be a 'nice chat' if you straighten up by then. Otherwise, probably not. Toodles."

He stared at the ceiling and counted to 30. Focus. Focus. One of Ringvold's first lessons had been about putting aside distractions that weren't urgent and focusing on the problem at hand. That's what he'd best do. Besides, if he did that, maybe he could make himself forget what just happened. He doubted it, but maybe....

The only response to that thought was a burst of high-pitched, almost tinkling laughter that sounded like a donkey trying to sing soprano.

He shook his head and left the room to meet their guests. That and to arrange that by the end of the meeting the bankers would think that the idea of financing the moving and integration of Robin's and her husband's businesses was theirs.

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It was a little after 5 p.m. when Genie and Mario were able to leave. Once outside he began stretching out the kinks and she was...giggling?

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"All right wench, just what evil thoughts are percolating through that devious mind of yours?"

"What? Me? Devious? How rude!"

She looked at him with mischief in her grin. "It's true, but it's extremely rude of you to come out and say it."

"All right. I admit that I'm a rude, insensitive boor. Now that I've admitted it, explain."

"Ah. You're no fun."

Genie grinned at him again. "All right. I give. It's Robin. She's a lot smarter than I'd given her credit for, seeing as she got all goggle-eyed when she first saw the books. Her husband Pierre is no slouch either. When we left, the two of them were talking terms of the loan, and they were tag-teaming the bankers. They'd managed to convince the partners to include half of any discounts on book or coffee shop purchases the bankers made as partial payments on the principle of the loan. They were threshing out the details for keeping track as I was going out the door."

She laughed out loud. "It may be that, for the first time ever, that old saying about "eating into your profits" could literally be true!"

Mario tossed his arm around her shoulders, pulled her close, and kissed the top of her head. "Well done Love.

"While you were introducing Pierre to the partners, I was working out arrangements with Robin on how she can order more books from us. I have to admit that I never thought she'd take all 712 left over after the partners picked out the ones they wanted, but she was certain that she'd be able to make use of them. She plans to turn part of her new quarters into a small library."

Genie held up her hand. "Don't tell me, let me guess. The library part will be in the section with the coffee shop, right?"

"Got it in one Love. To tell the truth, I'd hate to be negotiating with them if I were starting from a position with even the slightest disadvantage. They might, maybe, if they were together, be a match for Aldus."

He stroked his chin, "Though I have no doubt that if they were matched against both Aldus and Alicia, they'd not be quite so successful."

Genie took his arm and held his hand, "Well, on that note, let's make our report now rather than later. We're going to need as much time as possible to get everything sorted out so we can leave early tomorrow."

"That's for sure. Go ahead. I'll steer, you report. Then let's eat. I'm famished."

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The five adults, Consuela, Stavros, and Brigid had easily managed to secure the travel necessities that they needed to buy, and the planned after dinner packing/preparing to leave proceedings took far less time than expected. The reason was simple: The children didn't own anything, so there was no possibility of leaving anything behind.

Once they'd finished, all the packs were deposited in one of the spare rooms on the third floor that had a window too small for even a small child to enter through. It's not that they were expecting thieves in such a reputable inn in such a lovely city....

(Well of course they were. Remember this class, "Constructive paranoia is constructive.")

Not for the last time, Mario regretted that very few inns and businesses outside Italy had warded storage facilities. Oh well. He reminded himself that "what is, is" and went on about his business. At least while they were awake, all the children running back and forth in the hall would provide excellent security.

There was plenty of time before bedtime to finish sorting out which child would best fit which horse, as there were five experienced riders to help with the choosing. It seemed that Brigid was the only child from the village who could ride because, as the eldest, she'd been used as a messenger when an outlying farm or another village needed something.

Once the children had settled down for the night, 'Suela and Stav blinked home to sleep in familiar beds. Officially at least. 'Suela's desire to return home for the night stemmed as much from her desire to spend time with her new sister Heidi as anything else. She reveled in learning and seeing new things, and Heidi promised to be a huge source of both. One thing that especially excited Consuela was that Heidi's questions about The City had already shown her how much she herself had yet to learn about it.

Sara had decreed that, as Heidi needed practice writing in Italian rather than French, she was to write out all her questions. Her oral skills were already acceptable. It was that which had initially puzzled 'Suela the most. ALL the children spoke at least passable Italian, which was highly unusual what with them being French, and near the German border to boot.

When she asked Heidi about it -- which was frustrating as Sara also made her write down her questions so as to give Heidi even more practice with reading -- she was informed that, what with the constant flow of pilgrims visiting Metz, a child who could beg in multiple languages had a much better chance of going to sleep with food in their stomachs.

Upon reading Heidi's reply, Consuela broke into inconsolable tears, which persisted until Sara picked her up, put her in her lap, and rocked her like a baby until she was able to get herself back under control.

The effect on Heidi was just as predictable, though the reason for her tears was not what one might expect. She cried because someone else was crying for her. Nobody had ever done that before. It was that, as well as Sara's behavior, which, more than anything that came before or happened afterwards, cemented her relationship with the family.

After they were ready for bed, 'Suela crawled in with Heidi. "Is it OK? For some reason, I can't bear the thought of sleeping alone tonight."

Heidi stroked her hair, "Yeah. Me too. Thank you for letting me be your sister."

'Suela sniffled, "Hey, that's my line."

They squirmed around till their backs were touching and were soon asleep.