Bob The Innkeeper

"I"ll look into it," he said, thinking of the mess the horses were making in the half-constructed dining hall. If he wasn"t careful, he was going to start hearing complaints about the horse dung that was piling up outside the building, where he had some of the boys keeping the area clean.

Glancing down at the parchment, he saw that it was a list of names and amounts each of them still owed from the orc battle.

"Hey, Bob! Do you have any rope ladders?" asked an adventurer perusing the rope selection.

"No, sorry, but I would love to get that 4 silver you still owe me," he said with a smile.

"What 4 silver?" he asked, glancing up in confusion.

"For the blankets, bandages, and the bread you asked for, to go with the free soup, after the orc fight?"

The guy laughed. "You never forget anything, do you?"

"Not if I can help it," he laughed.

"Alright. Go ahead and add this rope to that 4 silver, and I"ll get rid of my debt. Hey, does my brother owe you for anything?" he asked, placing the coins on the counter.

"Yes, actually, he owes me 2 silver."

"I"ll take care of that, too, then. He"s not going to be coming by any time soon."

"I"m sorry to hear that," said Bob, knowing his brother had been killed during a trip to the dungeon, but not wanting to make a big deal out of it.

"I think they"re going to bury him in the graveyard behind here, once the ground gets soft enough to dig."

"In the Poorman"s Graveyard?" Bob asked surprised. "I thought only the poor people were buried there?"

"Actually, adventurers get buried there, too. All their gear ends up getting parceled out to their friends and family, which leaves nothing for the actual burial."

"Can"t the clerics bring them back from the dead?" asked Bob, taking the coins and putting them away.

"Only if there"s a cleric capable of doing it, and there"s enough coin to pay for it. Normally those two things don"t happen at the same time."

"Bob! They took Timmy!" cried Fergus with Brad and Lys right on his tail.

"Who?" asked Bob, noting that only Fergus was wearing his tunic with the sigil of it.

"Some thugs! They said all the orphans were getting rounded up and taken to the new orphanage!" cried Brad.

"I"ll check on it," said Trudy, following the kids out the door. "You guys are supposed to wear your tunics!"

"Sounds like there"s going to be trouble," said the adventurer picking up his rope and heading out.

"Trouble?" asked Hector, stepping into the shop.

"There"s a new orphanage opening up, and it seems that they"re grabbing kids off the streets," said Bob.

"Hope your kids are wearing their tunics," his dad said, glancing over the full shelves Bob had behind the counter. "I see your dining hall is coming along well."

"It is, what brings you here?"

"I found some things out about the permits," his father said.

"That sounds ominous."

"Until the City Lord can get everything Clark messed up, cleared up, we"re stuck with things the way they are. It might be after the deadline, before he can get the permits cleared up, which means we need to get creative so they don"t lapse."

"What did you have in mind?" asked Bob.

"I trust all of the managers I have at all 6 of my stores, not to cheat me, so I am going to have them apply for the permits to run the stores. Since they are the ones actually doing the buying and selling, with my approval, of course, then there shouldn"t be any problems," his dad grumbled over the extra cost.

"But that won"t work for this store," said Bob, understanding why his dad had come to visit him.

"I need you to choose someone you trust to run the store, to get the permit. But there"s another problem that Clark has caused."

Bob sighed, "Of course there is."

"He"s had it so if you sell food, that"s a different permit. He"s doing everything he can to ruin us."

"What"s his problem with us, Dad? Why is he targeting us personally? Doesn"t he know this is going to ruin the whole city, not just us?"

Hector nodded, "He"s targeting me specifically. He doesn"t appreciate how well I"m doing financially. There"s a rumor going around that the king may want to grant me a t.i.tle, and if he does, I would be in direct compet.i.tion with him."

"But you"ve never wanted to be a n.o.ble," said Bob. He didn"t want to be a n.o.ble!

"No, but I can"t exactly tell the king no, can I?" said his father with a frown. "Think on the permit, and see that clerk when you can. The sooner we get this taken care of, the better."

"Alright, I will."
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Hector nodded and left.

Bob thought about everything his father had said, as several more adventurers came and went, buying various things from him, and paying him back what they owed him from the orc battle. Everyone was surprised that he knew their names and the amount they owed, and he didn"t have any problems from them.

When Trudy returned, with Timmy and the other kids under his employ, he turned to her.

"They are indeed grabbing kids off the streets and throwing them into the new orphanage, but it"s more of a prison than a home," she reported as the kids slunk off to find their tunics.

"Let me guess, Lord Richmond is behind it?" asked Bob.

"No, actually Lord Winston is behind this one. The man he has in charge is claiming they are trying to get all of the orphans off the streets before the king arrives, and to give them a place to stay out of the cold weather that is coming. However, I did notice that some of the men who are commonly working for Lord Richmond were also there. I imagine he still had something to do with it, though I"m not sure how they are working together."

"Do you think you could find out? If the place is a prison, I wonder if the kids have a choice? And how are they making sure the kids are actually orphans and not just poor kids on the streets?"

"I was hoping you would ask me to look into it. I"ll check back in with you tonight!" she grinned in delight and quickly left again.

"Is everything alright?" asked Vivian, coming back inside from the soup kitchen with her bowl of soup. She could have cut in line to get a bowl but insisted on waiting like everyone else.

"I"m thinking I have an interesting proposal for you," said Bob, watching as she joined him behind the counter.

"As a debt slave, I don"t really get an option to say no," she laughed. They both knew the t.i.tle was just a formality to keep Clark"s people off of her. The bounty hunters were furious that Bob had a claim on her.

"You are running the store for me, without any problems, and you"ve learned the prices of everything so well, you don"t even really ask questions or for help anymore. I need to renew my permit to run the store, and I think I want you to come with me when I do."

"But who will run the counter while we"re gone?" she asked. "You just sent Trudy away for something."

"We"ll close the store early tonight, to do it. I"m sure the customers will understand when they find out why we had to close early."

She nodded, and went back to her soup.

A huge man entered the store, and looked around.

"Throg need rock to make blade sharp. Last rock broke."

"A whetstone is 1 copper, please," said Bob, taking a large one down off the shelf.

The man dumped his coin pouch out on the counter, and coins rolled all over the place.

"Store man take copper, put rest back in bag for Throg. Throg fingers too big."

Bob carefully picked up the coins, setting one copper off to the side and placed the rest back into the bag under the barbarian"s watchful gaze.

"There you are. One whetstone. It should make your blade nice and sharp."

"Throg thank you."

He hefted the stone and dumped it into his backpack, causing a tinkling sound as something broke.

"Uh, oh, Throg broke something."

He took his backpack and dumped it on the floor before Bob could stop him, spilling the contents, along with the shards of broken gla.s.s, all over the floor. There was a strange mixture of things that had been in his bag: a map case, two waterbags both of which were empty, some dried apples, the broken remains of a potion bottle, the whetstone, and a small wrapped bundle.

"Store man have broom? Throg clean mess."

Bob didn"t say a word as the man took his broom in two fingers and proceeded to sweep the floor, after he picked up everything else and placed them on the counter. Several other adventurers, and the bard, Royce stepped in and watched in silence, as Throg actually did a decent job cleaning up the broken gla.s.s.

"Thank you. Throg leave now," he said, shoving his things back into his bag and handing Bob the broom.

"That would make a wonderful song!" declared Royce, taking out his lyre.

"Please, Royce, not right now," begged one the adventurers, rubbing his brow. "I"ve a splitting headache from the ale last night. Bob, do you have any more of those cookies for sale? They are sinfully delicious, or so I hear."