Jayden stumbled into the shop ahead of Maggie, and stopped, confused about what to do next. Maggie gripped his shoulders from behind, pushing him past the serving counter and through a doorway into the back room.
The room was clearly a workshop. A man was leaning over a bench with a magnifying glass, a needle and assorted scraps of leather strewn all around him. He looked up, at first appearing a bit confused, and then he brightened.
"Ahh, Maggie! And I see you brought Lachlan.", Jamal said.
"Yes. It's Lachlan, Jamal, he's come back from his trip to Safforn.", Maggie replied.
"Indeed", said Jamal, "Welcome home, nephew. It's good to have you."
Jayden wasn't quite sure if Jamal knew that he wasn't really Lachlan, and was just acting really well, or he was a bit befuddled and thought that Jayden actually was Lachlan. Nonetheless, Jayden played his part.
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"Hey, uncle. It's good to see you again too. I'm keen to get cracking on my leather apprenticeship."
"Cracking, you say?", Jamal replied, looking confused and curious. "Hopefully we won't be doing much cracking. I can assure you all my leather is very fresh."
Once again, Jayden wasn't quite sure whether Jamal was joking, or if he was genuinely not aware of what Jayden had meant.
"Now, let's get you set up and start working. I've got a bunch of templates I need cut out and then I can start to show you how to sew. If you can do the basic sewing for bindings, that will save me a lot of time. It'll let me get to work on some of the more complicated stamping and filigree."
"Alright", said Maggie, "I'll be off. See you later Lachlan, see you Jamal!"
"Bye Maggie!", they both said.
"You might want to stop using slang", hissed Maggie to Jayden, as she walked towards the door, "and good luck!". The last was whispered so that Jayden could barely hear it, and Jamal was unlikely to.
Jayden was still confused about Jamal's role in this. But at least this was an opportunity to hide away in the town. And an opportunity to live.