The Vampire & Her Witch

"Before I begin," Isabell said as she set aside her meal to retrieve a small leatherbound notebook that contained several pages of notes.

Hugo’s fingers tightened on his own ledger. The woman hadn’t even glanced in his direction, but somehow he felt like she knew exactly how incomplete his preparations were. His eyes darted from Isabell to Owain and back again, looking at the calm, collected engineer as she adjusted her spectacles like she could see through to a man’s heart through them.

"I know that you only intended to meat with Master Sebastian today," Isabell said calmly as she considered how hard she should press Owain on this point. From what she had seen so far, he was both fragile and offbalance, as though he’d never considered battles fought in dining halls rather than battlefields. Since that was the case, she decided to cut directly to the heart of the matter as she doubted he had the skills to manage a more subtle conversation. "Do you have a chest like that one for each of the guilds you had planned to meet with?"

Thanks to Ashlynn’s letter, she knew that he didn’t, but whether or not he admitted to it, the way he handled her question would tell her much about the Lothian heir and how he intended to proceed. Thus far, her impression of his understanding of business was... poor. It seemed like Lady Ashlynn had taken his measure quite well and she hadn’t hesitated to lay bare the arrogant nobleman’s shortcomings.

"I wouldn’t dare to bring so many chests of treasures on such a long journey," Owain said casually. "This one was carefully crafted to demonstrate the wealth to be had in our campaign to capture Airgead Mountain and its riches. Of course, a Holy War will do far more than capture a single mountain but you needn’t concern yourself with other objectives. After all, the most interesting gains should be treasures like these, shouldn’t they?"

"You would be surprised at what we would find worth negotiating for, Lord Owain," Isabell said with a smile before she turned to the short, balding Assessor for Blackwell County. "Assessor Adrian, what price has the crown currently set on a low peerage? How much land must be secured and held in order to grant a title?"

"The cost is not low, Master Isabell," the assessor said with a heavy sigh. Of course, he’d discussed this matter with Master Isabell in advance but he never expected that the Lothian heir would arrive so hat-in-hand that she would have an opportunity to make this move. Since he had, however, he saw no reason to go easy on the young man.

"A knight should not be granted less than one thousand acres of land, though some may wish for more, and it must be purchased from the granting lord at a fair price," Adrian said. "Further, a sum of twenty thousand sovereigns must be paid to the granting lord and a sum of ten thousand sovereigns must be given as tithe to the crown upon creation of the title. This completely ignores the costs of constructing a fortified manor, establishing a village and raising soldiers to serve in the lord’s army during time of war."

As the man spoke, Hugo’s hands were busy in the margins of his ledger, making careful notes and calculating quick sums. Owain had told him of his intention to recruit ship captains as new knights but he’d never mentioned how much money was involved in conferring a title! Now, as he stared at the growing sum once he added the cost of the land and everything else involved, his heart began to race in his chest.

Was Owain expecting the Lothian treasury to bear these costs or did he think that he could extract this money from the captains themselves? Just the few names that Lady Jocelynn had given them would already amount to more than a hundred thousand sovereigns... where was this money going to come from?

"You see? There are other treasures to be had in Lothian March besides the ones to be mined on Airgead Mountain," Isabell said with a smile as she looked at the horrified expressions on Sir Hugo and Sir Rian’s faces.