A newcomer to the scene in the last two years, the Drake Merchant Group's trade house in Elgin was sited at 4 Immer Street.
There was a fork in the prosperous flower street, only a hundred meters away from the small theater where the auction was held. Standing outside the door of the small theater, a glance at the teak wood chipped large signboard, pointing to the small building of red bricks and black tiles, full of flavor.
The small building has three floors.
On the first floor is the trading floor, where glass cases with exhibits that change according to inventory are now displaying swords and furs from Northern Europe and cocoa and tobacco from the New World.
The general rule in the trade houses is that small purchases and sales are cleared on the spot, with larger purchases or bookings going to the parlor at the back for further details of the deal to be agreed upon.
The same can be said for the Drake Trading House.
On the second floor and up were the seamen's quarters.
There were two suites on the second floor, with Haina on the left and Noa on the right, and then up on the third floor, Lorraine's office and bedroom.
Pierce and Crane don't live in the building.
At the rear of the building were the Merchant Guild's warehouses and a separate dependency building, in which the two boys lived.
The genus building had a not-so-small yard, which was convenient for Pierce to practice his fighting and physical fitness, but also suitable for the occasional large crafts and daily design drafting that Keren performed.
Such an environment cannot be called lenient.
In all sincerity, Lorraine had indeed made a lot of money in the last two years. However, the merchant group was still far from being wealthy enough to separate public and private, and lodging at the exchange was also based on the principle of saving as much as possible.
After all, the Merchant Guild was in its infancy, and the guys didn't have too many shifts.
Pierce strides into the exchange, no semblance of virginity on the tiny child's face, frowning like a teenager experiencing his first emotional problems.
The young clerk ran up with a smile, "Vice President ..."
"Jeanne, where's brother?"
"Mr. Drake? He's meeting guests in the parlor ..."
"The parlor ... I'll get him!"
Not caring about the embarrassment on Miss Jeanne's face, Pierce hurriedly pushed his way in, and as soon as he entered, he shouted out, "Brother ..."
The four men who were climbing looked up in unison, three in amazement and one disgruntled.
The disgruntled one is naturally Lorraine.
Lorraine, who was already eighteen years old, was taller than she had been two years ago, basically already as tall as Keren, and with her scampering height slowing down over the past two years, her well-proportioned muscles were finally starting to show a bit of shape, and she looked lanky, or at least she didn't give off the impression that she was wasting away any more.
It also made him extra majestic when he was disgruntled.
"Pierce. Artis ..."
Pierce's heart thumped in his chest, and he cried out that it was going to be bad.
"What does England require of a gentleman?"
"Always calm, always cool, always confident, sir!"
"Look at yourself ..." Lorraine said in a single word as she looked at him sullenly, "Go and pack neatly, this meeting is important."
"Eh? Yes!"
Little Pierce dusted himself off and ran as fast as he could back to the belongings building, showered himself, and changed into his full regalia of shirt, vest, bow tie, suit pants, shoes, and tuxedo.
Because he wasn't even a teenager at his age, his shirt still had lace that had to be smoothed out at the cuffs one crease at a time to avoid looking frivolous.
If it's frivolous, why don't you get rid of the lace?
With his mind chanting and his face free of complaint, he dressed up and returned to the parlor, calling softly to the door, "Sir, I'm ready."
"Enter."
Pierce gently pushed the door open and crossed the crowd to take a seat on the small stool behind Lorraine, sitting up straight.
There were four people in the house besides him.
Lorraine, who was beginning to take on the majesty of his majesty, needless to say, and Ramos, the agent of Mr. Piddick of Port Elgin, and Eddie, the agent of Sir Stavanger Garman.
The only lady in the room Pierce had never seen before, dark-haired, dark-telted, with deep sockets, and appearing to be a Castilian, or Spaniard, of partly Moorish blood.
She was very young, she should be around twenty, wearing a colorful red dress, revealing a large area of snowy skin on her front and arms, beautiful and sexy, generous and moving.
Lorraine gently tapped the back of the couch, "Ms. Xavier is meeting Pierce for the first time, let me introduce you."
"Pierce. Artis, shareholder and vice-president of the Drake Merchant Guild, my seaman trainee, and owner of the Artis Beauty."
"Carmen. Xavier, Viscount Alfonso's agent and our partner on the Belmeo side. She's very capable, and after only eight months on the job, the Belmeo line's profits are up thirty percent."
Pierce hastened to rise and salute Carmen, who, for some reason, always felt the name, as if he had heard it somewhere ...
Two years was too long ago, so long that Pierce couldn't remember the country cousin from back then at all.
Two years ago, Carmen moved into the Viscount's estate chasing love.
She is intent on her name and insists on pre-marital holiness, while the Viscountess wants only her belly, explicitly, implicitly, forcing her to become the Viscount's mistress.
Physically and emotionally exhausted, she chooses to show her hand to the Viscount. It turns out that the Viscount has nothing but left and right on his mind and scoffs at Carmen's period wings.
The two sides are at odds over this, and the road to love has come to an end.
This long fruitless love affair lasted five years after all.
Either because of guilt or because of the trust that the long time together had built for her with the Viscount.
In short, she had transformed herself into Lorraine's employee as the Viscount's agent, officially taking over all of the Merchant Guild's operations in Spain from eight months ago, and had also demonstrated incomparable business talent, as well as a talent for socializing.
Carmen Xavier. Xavier is now the most beautiful flower in Bilbao's high society, admired by everyone, and yet unattainable.
Pierce didn't remember her, and Lorraine had no intention of mentioning that hurtful past, but simply continued.
"Pierce is a stockholder in the Merchant Guild, and having originally sailed away, I did not expect him to return; now that he has caught up, I suggest that he be invited to take part in this deliberation as well."
His searching gaze swept over the three partners, who all graciously agreed.
Pierce, sensing the formal nature of this talk, said, in a hasty manner, "Brother, I can't be of much help ... or even see that I can understand ..."
"Just listen." Lorraine reassured him warmly, "It's part of the internship, and don't forget that you're not only a seaman, you're also a merchant."
Pierce nodded heavily.
Sorting out Pierce's qualifications for attendance, Lorraine crossed her fingers.
"A brief excerpt of what we talked about earlier, so that Pierce has it in mind." He said, "After two years and one month, the Drake Merchant Guild now has assets of 11,800 pounds, three other trading houses, and four ships of the Kirk class, the Artis Beauty, the Beverly Merchant, the Cavell Drunkard, and the Knight of Northrend."
"In the last year, the average monthly trade of the Merchant Guild was £2,900, with a profit of £1,600, which, after a three-part moistening, gave the Merchant Guild a profit of £1,120."
"And because of Ms. Xavier's outstanding performance, we have drastically improved our merchandise category and quality, and have already established trade with several legitimate chambers of commerce."
"In addition to this, six months ago Mr. Piddick contested for the office of Maryland County Councillor, and we made a political contribution of £2,000 to him, and were handsomely rewarded for his success."
Speaking of which, Lorraine took a deep breath.
"Half a month ago, I made a trip to London and obtained all the requirements for registering a full-fledged chamber of commerce in England."
"I. A formal written application to the Guild of Peers; II. a bond of £1,000; III. the recommendation of not less than three gentlemen; and IV. the recommendation of three chambers of commerce having trading rights in England."
"I'll write the application, and we have the money; I've got the recommendation of the Chamber of Commerce, and as for the gentleman's recommendation, Mr. Piddick has secured two for us from his parliamentary friends, and he can write one himself."
"The conditions for Drake to establish a Chamber of Commerce are in place, so I am ready, officially, to register in England and establish a Chamber of Commerce!"