Dusti Levun welcomed Amondo home and was introduced to the rest of his party.
"I have sent word to Baroness Nazma that you have arrived, I'm afraid she may not be feeling well enough to receive visitors, the pregnancy weights heavy on her. Until I hear back on this matter how may I be of service to you?", he enquired
"Please could you find rooms for my companion's constable and have them escorted theirs. I will be visiting the castle chapel while you await word from my brother's widow. I will for now at least reside in my old rooms if they are currently available that is. Have a room made up for my squire as close to them as possible."
"Your brother in law Primoz Meten was staying there until his untimely death and no one else has moved in since so expecting your request I had them made ready for you."
"I have already informed Quinten the Porter that the six of us are just the advanced party and that the main party should arrive tomorrow. I also informed him of its makeup please get with him to arrange for their arrival."
After dismissing the constable and saying goodby to his companions he headed to the castle's chapel and it wasn't until eleven minutes later that a servant informed him that his sister in law was ready to see him.
He had spent the time in between praying to the Gods for them to look after the soul of his brother and all the other who had died when his family lost the two lordships of Antwa and Ruehasen that had until recently been a part of their domains. To grant him the strength of will to guide the remaining parts of the domain well, regain all that was lost and make Eugene Haas pay for his actions.
When the servant came to get him he was shown to Nazma's sitting room where she was awaiting his arrival in the presence of one of her ladies maids.
"Milady I wish to offer you my heartfelt condolences upon the loss of your husband the baron and hope that the upcoming birth of your child can in some way compensate you for his loss. My brother and I didn't always see eye to eye but his passing leaves me deeply saddened just the same."
"Thank you, milord, for your kind words and I bid you a welcomed homecoming, how was your journey."
"It was in the main part problem-free, we only really ran into a single group of bandits. We thankfully greatly outnumbered them so in the end, they didn't even bother springing the trap they had engineered to ensnare unsuspecting travellers with, upon our party.
Even then one of my men noticed one of theirs hiding in some bushes so we travelled ahead of them for a while. I then took most of my men back to find the rest and we took care of them. We handed the survivors over to the local lord and fortunately didn't lose a single man."
"I hope this didn't occur anywhere nearby, bandit I think you will agree are the last thing we need given our present situation."
"No, it was five days ago in the Barony of Fitzway, which is far enough away that we needn't be too concerned and not close enough for us to worry about."
"I'm sure that you have been riding all day so you must be as tired as I am so I won't keep you, until tomorrow then."
"God day then?", he replied before leaving the sitting room at which point he was approached by a servant whom he quickly dismissed, already being familiar with the way to his rooms. His squire was waiting there for him, ready if required to protect him from his enemies or well anything else.
His name was Vete Taom, the second son of Sir Randul Taom a banner knight in the service of Sir Ash Duisk, the Earl of Erwan. He was a rather slender fifteen-year-old who had yet to stop growing. He had become his squire nearly six months ago as a favour to his father after Sir Stilbur Destry Amondo's last squire had been knighted.
He had previously been a page in the Earls household before becoming the squire of a knight who had gotten himself killed in a duel shortly thereafter, after being caught in the bed of someone else's wife. He had then squired for a knight who had fallen off his horse while hunting a month into his term of service. This was bad enough but he then started squiring for a knight who a week later died suddenly for no apparent reason. After this, as you can imagine his father found it hard to find someone else to take him on.
Omondo owed him a huge favour that dated to the beginning of his career, needed a squire and was not at all superstitious. He was also a betting man and many people wagered with him that he wouldn't still be alive six months after taking the lad into his service. With only ten more days to go until the date in question he was set to win big, that was if he managed to stay alive that long.
He proved to be a good squire, not perhaps as good as his previous one had been at the same age but far better than his first, who had been a complete disaster and died in a training accident while jousting. He proved to be an excellent rider, showed promise as a swordsman, was ok with the lance. He had mastered the basic cantrips at such a young age and was on the road to becoming a competent archer. His only real failing was his terrible penmanship and that wasn't even an impediment to him being knighted one day.
"Sir the constable had some supper brought up for you, I've already had mine. I set yours up in your antechamber is there anything else I can do for you before retiring for the night?"
"No squire I won't be needing you, I'll see you bright and early in the morning."
Once his squire had exited the chamber Amondo went into his antechamber and ate the super that had been provided. A slice of mutton pie, a good-sized slice of buttered bread, some cheese and a good-sized mug of beer. While he was eating his thoughts turned to making plans for what he needed to do on the morrow.
Before going to bed he removed one of the floorboards under his bed to reveal his old childhood hiding place. The room having been occupied by others since he had last resided there he was unsure if the marble he had left there back then would still be about. He was thus surprised to find that his hidy-hole now contained a sizable purse of money and the remains of a letter.
Upon counting the money in the purse he was even more surprised at how much it had contained, sixty-nine gold and ninety-three silver. The undated letter which was written in even worse penmanship than his squire seemed to indicate that this sum was what remained of a larger amount that had been paid to the unnamed individual this letter had been sent to as his share of the proceeds of an unspecified yet illegal endeavour.
His first thought was that the unnamed crime must have been the mining scam and that the recipient of the letter had been his now-deceased brother in law. Either that or his brother in law had stolen the letter and money from the real recipient and then perhaps killed or blackmailed them. It was even possible that the unmentioned crime from the letter had occurred before Primoz had taken service with Leonid. He needed to find out who else might have lived in his rooms since he had left home and then take it from there.
Before heading to bed for the night he prayed to the gods for the soul of his brother and replaced the letter in his hidy hole, adding the contents of the purse to his own.