Tristan shrugged as he answered, "I am a businessman." He replied with a smile, "She chose to work here due to a nostalgic feeling, but I have come here to purchase something special for my wife."
Wife?
Did he really just say that?
The shopkeeper let out a soft laugh before replying with a smirk, "And I am just supposed to believe you? I don't know... I don't know if I should believe you..."
"It is true," Tristan stated as he stepped away from me and let me step up to the counter. "I would like to see your records of what you have for sale here aside from keys."
"Are you sure you want to waste your time here?" The shopkeeper asked as he looked at me with curiosity before glancing back at Tristan and shrugging. "We don't get many customers coming to this shop anymore."
Tristan frowned as he asked, "Why?"
The shopkeeper let out a heavy sigh before replying, "It is because we are just a pawn shop and not a fancy jewelry store or a fine dining restaurant."
"What do you mean?" Tristan asked him curiously.
The shopkeeper let out a small laugh before replying, "We have nothing that is of high value."
"What do you mean?" Tristan repeated it in a quiet voice that sounded confused. "You sell keys, but not jewels or gold?"
"I'm sure there must be something else you would like," the shopkeeper replied as he looked at me with wide eyes. "I might be able to help you out with that."
"Maybe we should get out of here before we become an even bigger disappointment to this man," I suggested as I watched Tristan take another step towards the shopkeeper before I grabbed him by the arm.
I was about to suggest that we leave when Tristan spoke up and said, "Wait." He stopped me and turned to face the shopkeeper, who was giving us a funny look.
"I think you are right." He started and then paused for a moment before saying quietly, "We can't find what we are looking for in this place. But there is something that we can do... You said that you don't have much here, right?"
The shopkeeper nodded slowly as he took in Tristan's words. He finally let out a heavy sigh as he muttered, "Yeah... I guess that is true."
Tristan smiled at him and then turned towards me with a curious look on his face.
He waited for me to ask him what he was thinking before he spoke, "I can help you." He told the shopkeeper and then turned to look at me as he added, "You can start by showing us everything you have in here, and we will see if it is something that we would like to purchase."
The shopkeeper stared at him for a few seconds before responding slowly, "That might be okay, but what if I don't have what you want?"
"Then I will just take something that I like," Tristan answered with a smile before turning back to me and whispering, "It is a great way to start our partnership here in this town."
I couldn't help but smile at his words. We hadn't even decided if this was something that we wanted to continue yet, but if this was how we could start my integration into everyday life in this town, then I was all for it.
The shopkeeper stared at Tristan for another second before sighing loudly and letting out a sigh as he said, "You better not screw me over with this man..."
Tristan laughed softly before replying, "Don't worry. Just show us your wares." He then looked back at me with a smile as he added, "I want to hear how it is done if I want to purchase something."
"Alright," the shopkeeper muttered before nodding. He then opened the drawer again and started pulling out different types of items.
As he did so, Tristan stood next to me and glanced at me from time to time, and I could feel him giving me small looks of approval when I was able to keep my eyes focused on the items instead of looking at him.
He had probably done this to keep me distracted and avoid any suspicion when we were here in town together.
This was a good thing, and I was happy that he cared enough about me to do this for me.
I wanted him to know that I was happy that he was doing this for me, even though I knew it was mostly for the money.
I also knew that I was glad that he was doing this to protect me, even though he knew it was just a disguise that I was donning.
It didn't feel wrong or uncomfortable in the slightest, and I knew that this was all about doing what needed to be done so that we could stay safe.
It made sense now that he had made me wear this dress. It had been easier for me to blend into society wearing this instead of my normal outfit of jeans and a t-shirt.
This would have been impossible if we had decided to stay here long enough to search for some information about this place.
This was one of the reasons he was helping me out with my investigation.
I didn't really know what was going on, but I could see how much he was willing to risk for my safety, and I was glad that he wasn't trying to hide that from me.
I wanted to be grateful to him and tell him that I'd slowly started considering the fact that maybe I truly loved him and how much I appreciated that he was doing everything he could to make sure that we would be able to stay safe here, but I couldn't bring myself to do so.
"Cecile..." Tristan whispered from beside me.
"Yeah?" I answered quickly and looked up at him with wide eyes as I turned towards him.
He smiled as he held my hand before squeezing it lightly. "It is time," he told me as he looked down at his watch. "Cadwell will be here soon."
I felt my breath catch in my throat as my heart skipped a beat when I saw him holding his watch in front of him. I had been so focused on what we were looking at that I forgot about the time.
I had completely forgotten that we had already spent too much time in this place and had yet to find anything of interest to us.
I had no idea if we would even find something worthwhile while we were here, or if we would even find anything of value here.
But I did know that in a place like a pawnshop, Tristan's men could covertly watch me while pretending to be customers.
They could keep a close eye on what I was doing and what I was looking at, so they would know if anything unusual came up and would know where to strike first if they needed to protect me.
"I apologize for my behavior earlier on," the shopkeeper said, speaking up from beside us with a slight hint of embarrassment in his voice. "My name is Jonas Cadwell, and I am the owner of this store after my father. And it is a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr..."