Bob The Innkeeper

It was late in the day, and he had just finished fixing what he could of the stairs.

"I"m here, father," he said, stepping into view.

"Ah, good. I"ve brought you some supper. How has today been? Many customers?"

Robert looked around at the small shop, feeling rather proud of himself. He had turned the two empty crates into a decent counter, or so he thought, and the shelves, while not full, were neat and organized.

"I"ve had a steady stream of people since midday. Most only wanted to come inside and look around, but I"ve had a few customers buy things."

"How many were adventurers and how many poor people?" asked his father, pausing to look at the counter.

"I would say about half were either. The poor people were mostly just looking, I think, though one lady did buy a set of bowls and utensils. The adventurers were all grateful that I had opened up shop here, but they wanted to know if I was going to be getting any better stock?"

Robert looked at his father"s face, watching it carefully for any tells. His father was too good at dealing with people to give anything away that easy.

"I"m glad that you"ve sold some things. Let"s see what you"ve made."
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Robert dutifully laid out the coins he had collected and watched as his father quickly counted them.

"Almost 10 gold. Not bad, considering the quality of your wares, and this being your first day. I"ll see what I can do about getting you more items to sell, but the quality won"t improve immediately. Now that they know you"re here, and that you are the only store next to this gate, I"m expecting your sales to improve. Keep these coins, so you have change for future business. Edith told me you were having your things moved here?"

"I thought it only right, since the door doesn"t lock. I don"t want all of my stuff to walk away in the night."

His father walked over to the door and studied it for a moment.

"Eat your supper, I"ll go visit the locksmith and see what I can arrange."

Robert took the basket his father had set down on the counter and opened it up. Seeing what was inside almost made him want to do a little dance. There was a small hunk of bread, a chunk of cheese, an apple, and a meat pie. He loved meat pies!

Picking it up, he vowed to make it last so he could savor every bite, but it was gone far too quickly. Licking his fingers to not miss a single drop, he settled for finishing off the other items in the basket, rather than run off to fetch another pie. Stewart had really outdone himself on it, as the crust was still flaky and the meat gravy thick and rich. There had even been tiny bits of vegetable in the gravy, to hint at something more, but not to take away from the meat.

As he was finishing the last bite of bread and cheese, another adventurer entered, looking around.

"h.e.l.lo, I heard you were a new store?" he asked, shutting the door behind him.

"Yes," Robert nodded, placing the basket on the floor behind the counter, out of sight.

"You don"t happen to have any food stuff for sale?" he asked glancing over the shelves.

"Sorry, not yet. Today"s only the first day and I don"t have all of the stock I would like to have just yet. Would you like to suggest something?" Robert had so many requests already, he was almost afraid he wouldn"t remember them all before he could tell his father.

"It would be nice if you could offer something to eat and drink, and maybe a bed to sleep on," the guy chuckled, rubbing his face, as if he was exhausted.

"I"m sorry but I"m a merchant, not an innkeeper," said Robert.

"You"re young, you certainly could look into it. I bet you could expand along this stretch pretty easy. Being this close to the western gate, a lot of people are going to be looking for an inn to stay in when they come in the evenings."

"I could suggest one?" offered Robert, thinking about the inns in the city.

"Naw, that"s ok. Let me have one of these bedrolls, and I"ll just crash on the road outside. You might want to think about carrying food and drink though. Even if you won"t consider an inn, everyone will be interested in food."

"Alright, sir. I"ll consider that. The bedrolls are a silver each, so 1 silver, please."

The guy dug into his coin purse and pulled out a battered silver coin. Flicking it at him, he hefted the bedroll over his shoulder, and Robert saw blood all down his back as he left. It was brown and stained. Shaking his head at the sudden unease that welled up, he couldn"t help but wonder if it was his blood, or someone else"s. That was one job he didn"t want.

His father returned after an hour, or so, with the locksmith, and proceeded to have a lock installed in the door.

"I want two copies, one for me and one for my son," he instructed the locksmith, as he finished up.

"Alright, there you go. I"ll collect on it tomorrow," said the locksmith with a nod as he left.

"Father," Robert said, picking up the basket to hand to his father. "There have been a lot of requests from the adventurers that came in today. Do you want to hear them?"

"You can tell me, and then I"ll see what I can do. Sometimes there are some odd requests that only one or two people would buy, and then you"re stuck holding onto stock that doesn"t sell."

"The most common request has been food and drink. A couple of people have even requested I open an inn."

"Ha, like that would ever happen. I"ll look into getting you some food though. There"s always plenty of leftovers that I can buy cheap from the merchants near the center of town. I just hate the idea of what it will cost me to have your trash hauled off to the dump. That trash service is going to kill me."

"h.e.l.lo?" called Edith, sticking her head into the room. "Oh, there you are Master Hector, Young Master Robert. I have Master Roberts things. Shall I bring them in?"

"Yes, and see to it that he gets some firewood for that fireplace. It"s starting to get cold at night. I don"t want him to catch cold."

"Of course," she said, holding the door open as Stewart brought in a large bundle, that included his clothes, bedding, and various other things. Then the two of them left, bringing back a stack of firewood, that Stewart stacked next to the fireplace while Edith got the fire going.

"I"ll see you at some point tomorrow. I have several other things that I need to attend to. Keep up the good work," his father said, leaving without a backwards glance.

Robert looked down at the key his father had left him and picked it up. He had a key to his very own shop!

"Robert, are you sure you want to stay here by yourself?" asked Stewart, looking around. "This place is very close to the gate, and the poor section of town. Now that everyone knows a young man such as yourself is the one running the place, you might have thieves and brigands in the night."

"I"ll be fine," rea.s.sured Robert. "Being so close to the gate, means that the guards are closer than normal, and if worse comes to worse, I"ll run upstairs and let them steal everything. This stuff isn"t worth my life. Father can always get me more."

"Alright," said Edith, standing up and brushing off her skirt. "I"ll come with your breakfast in the morning, and bring a broom to sweep the floor for you. Do you need anything else?"

"Another meat pie?" he prodded, bringing laughes from both of them.

"You"ve always enjoyed those meat pies. I can definitely bring you some more of those."

Stewart shook his head in cheerful amus.e.m.e.nt at her willingness to hand out his pies, as they left him alone.

It was dark outside, and Robert was already thinking about getting to lay his head down upon his pillow when there was a soft knock at the door.

"h.e.l.lo?" breathed a soft voice, as a young n.o.ble servant stuck her head through the door. "Are you still open?" she asked.

"I am, how may I help you?" he asked curiously. He didn"t think he was carrying anything that might be interesting to a n.o.ble.

"Do you have any tinder boxes for sale? I"m going to get into some serious trouble if you don"t."

She looked like she was about to start crying, and Robert wondered what was going on. His first thought was that he could give her his personal tinder box, if he was out, but there were two left on the shelf.

"I have two left. They are 5 silver each."

"But I only have 3 silver, is there any way I can pay you the rest later? I lost my master"s tinder box, and I have to get his fire ready when he gets home later tonight. None of the other shops have any, I"ve already checked, and if I go ask anyone to borrow one, word will get back to my master. He"ll throw me out on the street."

Robert was tempted to go ahead and sell her the tinder box at the lower price, but he had no way to guarantee that she would bring him the 2 silver later. If his father found out, he would get in serious trouble. What should he do?

"I"m afraid I can"t part with it for only 3 silver. Do you have anything else worth 2 silver to make up the difference?"

She wrung her hands for a moment while she thought about it, then pulled off a ring from her finger.

"This is my servant"s ring, that announces to everyone that I am a servant at the house of Richmond. I can give it to you, to promise that I will bring the other 2 silver?"

Taking the ring carefully, with the other 3 silver, Robert examined it for authenticity. It did indeed have the house sigil on it, as well as the symbol for servants. If Lord Clark found out his servant had just given him this ring, she would be punished severely. This must be legit.

"Alright. I will hold on to this ring and will give it back to you, when you provide me with the remaining 2 silver you owe me," he said, handing her one of the tinder boxes.

She gave him a small smile of relief, glancing worriedly at the ring, before dashing off into the night.