Chapter 3
***
Tony scratched his forehead, cursing himself for being so blinded by money that he had come all this way.
"Your Excellency, I'll have to go back and trade again, I had my doubts about the authenticity!"
Whoosh, another thin wisp of smoke filled the air between them.
But the pungent cigar smoke was good, if only to escape the piercing golden gaze. Tony exclaimed in exasperation.
"She had no idea what it’s worth, and I'm sure I could get her to sell it for ten times the money!"
Caius asked mockingly.
"You're trading again? With what?"
Tony answered immediately.
"Lord, I know the address!"
It had been six or seven years since the Burg lord had begun posting large pearls in the pawnshops of the outer islands.
A drip pearl the size of a man's finger.
He told him that if he brought him a pearl of the same size, even if it turned out to be a fake, he would be rewarded a hundredfold. It was the stuff of legend among pawnshop owners.
When Tony finally saw the finger-length drop pearl, it was hard to believe it was real. It was a size he had never seen before in his life.
The man who brought the pearl was, of course, a nobody. Of course, even in Burg, they wouldn't reward fakes.
He did his homework, and this was what he found.
He paid a small amount of money to have it properly verified and took the item, and he followed up to find out the owner's whereabouts, just in case it was genuine.
He would return later, if necessary, to try to force a sale.
To be sure, he sent a notarized document to the Imperial Bank and traveled to Burg. Even if it was a fake, and even if it had a bad reputation, he couldn't just walk away from a hundredfold reward for being a merchant.
He just didn't realize how much trouble he would get himself into over a loan deed.
The aristocrats seemed to spring from the ground without warning, and this lord, his head still bloodless, sat arrogantly like a heavenly lord, looking down on Tony.
Old vassals cowered around him as if they could rub his palms together, and a hound that hadn't eaten in days stood close by, more vicious than his master.
With each movement of the minute hand, the small man's heart sank. If Tony, the pawnbroker, were to call himself a small-time citizen, some would laugh at him, some would curse him, but in any case.
-Bang!
The silver jewelry box, with its coveted grape vine relief, rattled and tipped.
But Tony didn't even lift his head to examine the condition of his precious jewelry box. One of the lord’s hounds pawed at his flat palms on the floor, but he didn't even make a sound.
Caius concluded, as if he hadn't seen his torpedo boat-like behavior.
"No pearls were purchased, so there is no reward."
"What? Then..................."
Tony looked up at him with tears in his eyes.
He felt sick to his stomach at the thought of walking away empty-handed with the pearl, but his life came first. The man in front of him seemed to think he was as insignificant as an ant.
For the umpteenth time, smoke obscured his vision. That's when Tony nearly fainted, as did his future.
Caius opened his mouth to speak charitably.
"Instead, I'll buy the pearl and the deed of indebtedness, including the Helden pawnshop, for whatever you're willing to pay."
Tony swallowed hard.
It was an unexpected retirement, but retirement was the right of the living. Tony Zimmerman, a loan shark who thought money was everything, learned the value of life here.
"Thank you, Your Excellency, and feel free to spend ............... as much as you wish on whatever matters to you."
He couldn't muster up the courage to ask for a high pawn price. He just wanted to thank him for sparing his life.
"Before that."
But there was a catch. His heart dropped to the ground as he thought he had found a way out.
Caius put down his smoldering cigar and demanded slowly.
"Ermoli's address. Give me the address of Louise Henriette Ermoli first."
He might have asked for his brother's address, and he might have given it to him; she was a worthless wench, and it was none of his business what happened. Tony's lips opened without delay.
***
She couldn't sleep. With her mother's body lying in her bed, she slept face down on the hard table.
Louise rose early and waited for the carriageman the Viscount had promised to send, but the morning wore on and no one came.
She went outside and paced the dirt road. She realized that her house was in a difficult position for the carriage to come down.
She walked up the hill. But as she stood there, looking in the direction, she saw no approaching carriage. The sun had already passed the midpoint of the day and began to tilt westward. Louise grew impatient.
It seemed unlikely that Viscount Engel would break his promise in his letter of the evening before; if so, something must be wrong, and she had better go and see for herself.
At first glance, the Viscount's house seemed out of place. The usual errand boy was nowhere to be seen, and the hired hands were all silent and somber as they walked up and down the halls.
When she turned to the sisters, they were crying harder than she had since losing her mother a few days earlier.
"Waris? Eirini, what's going on?"
The fourteen-year-old girl who had been called by name first came running up to Louise.
"Teacher, what can I do, my father............ was taken away by the police early this morning!"
The girls, who had lost their mothers at a young age, had been nurtured by the Viscount's love like plants in a hothouse. The sisters were so surprised that they seemed to have forgotten Louise's misfortune.
"What? The police? What happened..................."
"We don't know..............., there must be a misunderstanding, right, teacher?"
It seemed unlikely that she would get any useful information out of the sobbing sisters, but Louise couldn't pull the terrified girls away from her.
It wasn't long before there was a knock on the door. It was Pietro, the eldest son of the Engel family, who opened the door.
"Lady Louise."
He winked, and Louise slipped out of the sisters' room. In the hallway, alone, Pietro bowed awkwardly.
"I heard you were coming, and I'm sorry to hear about your mother. I heard about her death and prayed for her to go to a good place."
"...............Thank you."
Louise dropped her head helplessly.
She hadn't told him about the promise the Viscount had made. The Viscount's eldest son had just returned from military service and was in the midst of his succession lessons, so he rarely saw her.
It was difficult to ask for his wages in advance when he was barely of age, much less when his father was arrested so suddenly.
She patted her aching chest and asked.
"What happened to the Viscount, I hope it's nothing serious?"
The Viscount was a fine nobleman, a trusted lord of Melk, and yet she wanted him back to help her mother's funeral.
Louise was ashamed of her priorities.
Pietro spoke up, his eyes shining with a brilliant blue.
"Drugs were detected in a shipment of wine from Engel's winery, but there must be a mistake, believe me. Although our shipments are small, our brewery produces wine of such high quality that we export it to Domus. We would never do such a low thing."
Of course she trusted the Viscount and the Engel family.
But she knew as much about people in power as they do. They were the ones who invented the absurd charge to wrest the sunny lands of Linz from Ermoli.
If the upstanding Viscount Engel had offended any of them, it was clear that the brewery, as well as the Viscount, was in jeopardy.
Perhaps the Viscount would never return. Perhaps he would be stripped of his title and estates like Ermoli.
But it was not to be.
"There must be a misunderstanding, the Viscount will be back soon, and Pietro, don't worry too much."
Louise forced a smile and offered comfort.
After a moment's pause, Pietro pursed his lips as if he had something to say. Suddenly, the door slammed and two girls ran out the door.
"Brother, you don't mean father is in custody, do you?"
His perplexed gaze wandered over Louise's face.
Louise bowed her head stiffly in greeting and turned to leave.
For her mother's sake, she hoped, once more, cowardly, that the Viscount would return.
***
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