Chapter 497: A Strange Meeting
That same night, hours after the sun had set on distant Lothian City, a carriage from Lothian Manor clattered across the well-worn cobblestone roadways, splashing through puddles from an afternoon rainstorm as it carried two unique guests of the manor into the heart of the merchant quarter of the city.
Master Isabell of Blackwell County’s Illustrious Guild of Engineers, and Master Tiernan of the Iron Monger’s Guild occupied an awkward position in the social order of Lothian Manor. Neither of them were nobles of any sort, and as such, they should be bound by the rules that required commoners, even commoners who had been invited by Marquis Bors Lothian, to find accommodations in one of the city’s many inns.
But it was an open secret among the servants of the manor that Marquis Bors intended to grant knighthood on the visiting Guild Masters, making them proper nobles as well as his personal vassals. So while their status as noblemen hadn’t been confirmed, and no one among the household staff would dare to address them as ’Sir Tiernan’ or ’Dame Isabell’, they were both treated with the same level of respect and privilege as a junior member of the peerage.
If things had ended there, then the servants of the manor could have adapted easily enough, but the visiting Guild Masters went even further in flaunting traditions, placing Master Isabell in charge of nearly everything while the taciturn Master Tiernan seemed content to only voice his opinions on matters directly related to his trade.
The strange arrangement had led to a number of unsavory rumors about the pair, with some even speculating that Master Tiernan had become a eunuch in some kind of unfortunate smelting accident. After all, to the hot-blooded men of the frontier, nothing else could explain the way such a physically imposing man would act so henpecked around a woman who wasn’t even his wife.
Neither master seemed to care much for what people whispered in the halls and servants’ quarters during their visit to Lothian City. Instead, both of them were more concerned with the strange request that one of Owain Lothian’s knights had brought them to meet with a merchant in the city.
"Who exactly is this Marcel?" Isabell had asked when Sir Hugo Hanrahan brought the invitation to a private dinner. "And why has he requested to meet privately with us?"
"Who he is is a little awkward to explain," the timid steward said. "He’s not a person of importance, but he represents one of the most well-connected businessmen of the frontier. Lord Owain had some business with his master now that we’ve returned to Lothian City, and while I was speaking with Mister Marcel, he mentioned that he would consider it a favor for his master if he could meet privately with the two of you."
"What nonsense," Master Tiernan had said at the time, folding his thickly muscled arms over his chest. "I don’t meet with people for no reason."
"I doubt it’s for no reason," Isabell said, placing a hand gently on the burly man’s shoulder. "I assume, Steward Hugo, that Lord Owain would consider it a favor from us if we were to accede to this request? In the interests of furthering his own business with the man that Mister Marcel represents?"
"Yes, yes," Hugo said, nodding his head like a chicken pecking at grain. "If you two would meet with Mister Marcel, I’m sure the goodwill Lord Owain would receive for making the arrangements would go a long way to smoothing out his other business. Very much so," he said with a relieved look on his face.