Lucien was allowed to leave the bar without anyone stopping him, whereas he expected that John and Alex would never be able to leave again. He had a hunch that Marilla would not let them off easy.
Poor guys. While he felt bad for them, he knew that they had gotten themselves into this mess. Even if they hadn’t chosen this type of life, they did choose to bite the hand that fed them.
So he didn’t sympathise with them too much, especially after what they had done to Susan and probably a few others.
Walking through the streets, he returned to the little shack. Must still be inside. He thought after seeing the two horses tied up out the front. He approached them slowly, then ran his hand through Chase’s mane.
Hearing talking coming from inside, he knocked on the door. “It’s me.”
The talking stopped for a moment before the door was opened a little from the inside and a tiny head popped out.
Sam looked up at Lucien who towered over him, and was scared for a moment before breaking out into a big smile when he recognised him.
“It’s the big grandpa!” Sam shouted as he opened the door and rushed back to his mother.
Ouch. I’m not that old, am I? Being used to the little kids in the village calling him uncle, he was caught off guard. He wanted to look for a mirror, but he knew that there wasn’t one here, so he ignored his thoughts and stepped inside.
He smiled, seeing that everyone was safe and sound. Admittedly, he was slightly worried that something might have happened while he was gone. He was glad that that wasn’t the case.
He stood in the doorway, watching Susan and Lynn laughing and smiling. “I’ve sorted out things with those thugs. They shouldn’t bother you anymore.”
The conversation stopped as Susan turned to look at him. Her lip quivering as tears streamed down her face. “Really?”
Lucien nodded. “There shouldn’t be any problems.” He looked around the shack, locking their faces and this place in his memory forever. He sighed before looking at Lynn. “It’s time for us to get going. We’ve still got a lot of ground to cover.”
Lynn got of her seat and kneeled down next to Sam and ruffled his hair. “I’ve got to go now. I’ll come back to visit when I can.”
“Promise?” he asked with puppy-dog eyes, his tiny hand reaching forward as he stretched his pinkie towards her.
“Promise.” She locked pinkie’s with him, gave him a hug and walked towards the door.
“Wait.” Susan called out, clutching a small coin purse in her hand as she walked to Lucien. She pushed the purse towards him, the few coins jingling inside. “I don’t have much, but please take this.”
Lucien smiled and clasped her frail shoulder gently with his rough hand. “There’s no need for that. Use it to fill your bellies.” He pushed the purse back to her and walked over to the horses.
“Thank you. Truly, thank you.” Susan grabbed Sam and insisted on seeing them off to the gate as the two hopped atop their horses, only to be rebuffed by a soft smile and a slight shake of the head from Lucien.
Crying tears of joy and gratitude, she stood at the door with her son and waved them off, watching as they disappeared down the street.
“Should we stay the night?” Lynn asked, her eyes constantly darting back in the direction of Susan’s house.
“We can still make good headway right now. Staying would just be a waste of time.”
“If you’re so worried about wasting time, then why did you help them?” she snapped harshly, evidently still worried that something would happen to Susan and Sam without their help.
Lucien clenched his fist tight around the reins, grimacing. “I’m not inhuman, Lynn. I helped them because they needed it. And I’ll keep doing the same even if it delays us by a little. It’s what my family would have wanted.”
“I’m sorry.” Lynn realised how harsh she sounded and felt guilty.
“It’s alright.” Lucien didn’t get mad at her, It wouldn’t do either of them any good. Instead, he focused on the journey ahead of them. “We might not be able to make it to the next village by sundown, so we’ll have to camp out for the night.”
It didn’t take long for Lucien and Lynn to reach the northern gate, and considering how little time had passed, the guards on duty were still the same as the ones they met earlier.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The line to leave the town wasn’t too bad right now, so it didn’t take long for them to reach the front. The guards still did their due diligence by checking them, but they chatted warmly with them, asking about how Sam was going.
Lucien and Lynn were let go after answering a few questions, and continued on their journey. They left the town, but this time stuck to the main road as they continued forward.
“We’ve already gathered all of the supplies that we’ll need to cross the wasteland while in town, so depending on when we reach the next village, we might just pass straight through it while only stopping at the mayor’s house,” Lucien said, informing Lynn about the next part of the route.
~
Marilla wiped the blood from her knife as she walked around John and Alex who were crumpled on the floor and groaning. “Throw them in the dungeon. I need to see if they’re telling the truth before I decide what to do with them.”
“Yes boss!” Four large men stepped up and grabbed John and Alex from either end and started carrying them out.
They were all there at the bar when Lucien showed up and went to the back with John and Alex. They were all laughing at how cowardly John and Alex were acting, but when Ava came down and ordered them to come up here, they were terrified by what they saw.
Afraid that it would happen to them if they didn’t follow orders quickly enough, they carried the two down to the dungeon as quick as they could.
Marilla followed behind them for a while, making them sweat, but she broke off from them on the first floor. With Ava by her side, she left through a back exit, picked up a shovel, and started walking down the street.
Unfortunately for her, John and Alex were stupid. Normally, she liked it that way. The stupid ones were usually blindly loyal to her and made great henchmen. But in this case, it didn’t work out in her favour.
This was because they had buried the money at the bottom of a tree in an old orchard, and the only way they could find it again was through following the ridiculous route they took to get there. Since they didn’t even know which tree it was buried under, she was forced to follow that route.
To make matters worse, they were illiterate, so it took a while for them to tell Ava the route so that she could write it down.
Just looking at the parchment Ava was holding gave her a headache. The instructions covered the page, and although Ava did her best to keep it neat, the thing was still a mess.
“They can remember this, but they can’t remember which fucking tree they buried it under.” Marilla shook her head in disbelief.
“They’re both smarter and dumber than we thought,” Ava sighed.
They begrudgingly followed the instructions detailed down on the parchment, weaving from one street to the next. They almost felt like they were running in circles, but they eventually reached the small orchard that had been mentioned.
By this point, Ava was a little out of breath and her calves were sore. She wasn’t used to doing this much walking. “Let me deal with them when we get back,” she snarled, ideas of how she could torture them ran rampant through her mind.
“Okay. Hand it over, I’ll take it from here. You rest up for a bit.” Marilla reached out and grabbed the parchment before walking over to the trees.
“I’ll be fine.” Ava pushed down the discomfort as she followed behind Marilla. Her eyes shined with greed at the thought of how much money was buried here, and only dimmed slightly at the fact that they wouldn’t be able to keep all of it.
Following the instructions written down on the parchment, they eventually found the right tree.
Taking up the shovel, Marilla began digging at the base of the tree, and it wasn’t long before she hit something solid. Continuing to dig, she unearthed a small locked chest. For a moment, the whole situation made her feel like she had gone on an adventure searching for treasure.
Lifting the chest out of the ground, she could hear the clinking of coins as she moved it.
“Just how much have they stolen from us?” The two eyed each other, and decided to carry the lockbox back to the tavern.
Having finally got what they came for, they were able to figure out where they were and easily make it back to the tavern without having to follow the path written on the parchment.
Returning to her office on the third floor, she dropped the chest on her desk and sunk into her chair. With the door closed, they were now away from prying eyes and could freely open it.
Grabbing her knife, mana coiled through her arm, bolstering her strength as her muscles tightened.
Bang!
She brought the handle of her knife down on the lock with enough force to shatter it. Pieces of the lock flew off everywhere, scattering across the ground.
The chest popped open, revealing a glittering stack of silver and copper.
Marilla sighed as she pinched her forehead. “Get the ledger. We’ve got some work to do.”
Ava ran off to grab the ledger while Marilla started counting. She separated all of the silver and copper coins into their respective piles while waiting for Ava to return.
Ava returned with the ledger, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the large stacks of coins. She sat down across from Marilla and began counting.
The coins totalled to several gold, a large sum in this part of town. In fact, it would still be considered a sizeable sum by all but the richest people in this town.
Marilla looked up at Ava, noticing the greedy glimmer in her eyes. “We’ll keep only the amount that we were owed. The rest will go back to the families that John and Alex stole from.”
“But-”
“No buts! This doesn’t belong to us. We aren’t criminals, we’re running a business here. And the only way we can survive here is by having the clients trust us. Nobody is going to borrow from us if they think our interest rates are higher than those nobles,” Marilla explained, cutting Ava off.
“You’re right.” Ava bowed, wiping the greed from her face. “What do you need me to do?”
Figure out how much was taken from each person and make sure they get their money back. You might have to go door to door and ask them. I want this money cleared out as soon as possible.”
“Yes Boss!” Ava grabbed a piece of parchment and began writing down the names of all of the people that John and Alex were in charge of. After writing down the total amount of money minus what they were going to keep, she immediately left the room.
Marilla looked at the two piles of coins, the amount to be returned and the amount that would be used to pay off their debts, and grabbed five silver from both.
“He can consider this my thank you should he ever show up again,” she mumbled to herself as she left the tavern.