Bernard set aside the parchment and emptied the bag onto the open desk. He meticulously counted out the two dozen coins, separating them by size. “It will take us some time to pay you back,” Bernard said, looking up at Ian from under bushy white eyebrows that matched his beard.
“I am not expecting this to be returned,” Ian said. “It is a gift.”
“We are a money lender, not a charity,” Bernard explained.
Ian assumed Bernard was speaking as the treasurer of River’s Talon, not of Lockwood, but he was not sure if there was or could be a distinction between the two.
“The loans?” Ian asked. “You really expect those to be paid back? I assumed they were Robin’s way of getting people to accept charity.”
“They are.” Ilida and Bernard spoke at the same time, frustration marking their voices.
“But,” Bernard continued, “they are meant to be so much more, and they still can be.”
Ilida tapped her charcoal pencil against Bernard’s desk, leaving little specs of black dust on the spotless wood. “Let him see the books. He is like to know a good bit about managing coin, likely more than all of us. Except for you.”
Bernard grunted, twirling the end of his mustache with his finger. His eyes remained fixed on the charcoal pencil still tapping against his desk.
Ian looked between the two. “I have spent a significant amount of time working with the merchant houses to ensure that their loans and interest rates are set on fair terms.”
That seemed to convince Bernard. He pulled his gaze away from the charcoal and looked up at Ian, waving him closer to the desk.
Ilida lifted her pencil and gave them both a nod. As she left the room, she quietly closed the door behind her.
Ian used the pad of his finger to wipe the charcoal dust from the desk as he walked around to stand behind the treasurer.
Using a key from around his neck, Bernard unlocked a drawer on the desk itself and pulled out a massive tome.
When Ian left the small study an hour later, his mind was racing with ideas.
Taking the gold Robin had received each season from Frederich, Bernard had created an intricate system ofdisbursement throughout the local communities. The loans were small, just enough to purchase a farm animal or repair some equipment that allowed the recipient to expand their own business.
These loans were paid back on a very generous timeline with little to no interest. And as soon as the coin came back to Bernard, he immediately lent it out again, building an endless loop of gold that slowly uplifted the entire community.
It was a brilliant idea that had merit, but with the recent storms consistently destroying crops—and now Gareth’s thieving soldiers—the entire operation was under too much strain. They were out of coin to lend and could not count on any to come in for some time.
Still, however, Ian thought it was an incredible undertaking. If he could apply a similar venture in the capital city, it would take less than a season to see genuinely beneficial results.
But that was a plan for a future that they did not have yet. What he could do was find a way to support the already operable system that Bernard had created.
He only wished he had brought more gold from the castle to give to Bernard immediately.
Chapter 17
It was late afternoon three days later when Robin and Ulli rode back up to Lockwood Manor. Her saddle bags were lighter, her purse fuller, and her mind busy mulling over the information that Brother Elias had shared.
Her stomach, however, was empty.
Supper would be served at sundown, and while it would likely be meager, Robin could count on it being hot.
She left the horses in the stable with Jette, who offered to brush and feed them after their long journey.
Her sore muscles begged for a hot bath, but with Sol and Meena having taken over her room, she did not want to ask any of the hardworking members of her household to go through the trouble of both heating water for her and finding a private place in the crowded manor for her to bathe.
A quick rinse in the cold stream would do her good—and ensure she was done before supper was served.
A short while later, in a fresh pair of trousers that did not reek of horse, she made her way back to the manor just in time for supper.
On entering the main hall, Robin kept to the wall, not yet ready to join in the loud conversing happening all around her. She needed to find Ilida and give her the few coins she had managed to trade for. But Robin’s patience had no room for complaints or problems quite yet. She needed food in her belly before she would brave those conversations.
