Michael Manning - The Line of Illeniel

“Oh no! That’s six percent ownership in the bank. Your accounts receive a small dividend on all bank profits each quarter. Now if you’d like to sell off your shares in the bank we could probably find a buyer rather quickly…” Aston’s eyes lit up with greed.

“No that’s quite alright,” I stopped him. “I think I’ll leave the hard assets alone for now. The numbers you’ve been quoting me are a lot more than I expected. Are all the nobility so rich?” I felt foolish for asking but the shock had given my self-control a blow.

Mister Aston snorted, “Hardly! Quite a few are in debt to the bank. You’re probably the fourth or fifth richest man in Lothion at present. The king has considerably more, and the duchies of Tremont and Lancaster are doing very well of course. Most of your monies come from your father’s accounts. The Cameron accounts were respectable but the Illeniels have been building wealth since the nation was founded.”

A thought occurred to me, if I had let… whatever that was… destroy the bank I would have been destroying my own property. I almost chuckled. “I’ll need to withdraw some money for my return home, about five thousand marks should do.”

The banker blanched at the figure but kept his thoughts to himself, “Very good.”

“I also would like a letter of credit written out for Lady Rose Hightower, so that she may draw upon the rest,” I continued.

“Excuse me?” he choked.

“Which part was unclear?”

“How much credit do you wish for her to be permitted to draw upon?” he asked carefully. It looked as though he had swallowed a bone.

“The ‘rest’ would imply all of it, except the hard assets of course,” I replied sarcastically.

“But… she could bankrupt you!” he was almost shouting. He might have made me angry but for the fact he was now trying to protect my interests. I thought harder then… he must be protecting his own interests as well. I didn’t know much about finances, but at a guess the bank might not have that much in available coin. He might be worried Rose would render the bank insolvent by withdrawing more than their available cash reserves. It would also partly explain his original efforts to slow down my access to my accounts.

“Mister Aston, I understand your fears. I trust Lady Rose implicitly, the bank however I am still not so sure of. I realize that were she to use the entirety of that money it might place the bank in an awkward situation. I do not think she will need to do so, at least not immediately. In the meantime I think it would be best for the bank if it were to spend the next month making sure it has sufficient cash reserves that it is not relying upon the balance in my accounts to remain solvent.”

He flushed, “Are you implying…”

I interrupted, “I’m not implying anything Mister Aston. You know your bank far better than I do. Make sure she has access to those funds. If she has any problems drawing on my accounts I will have to return to Albamarl, and I won’t be happy.” I gave him a hard stare.

“Very well my lord, I think we understand each other,” Aston wasn’t happy but he could tell when his back was against the wall.

After that he drew up the letter of credit and had it signed and notarized. Getting the five thousand marks out of the bank turned out to be a much larger chore than I had realized. That much coinage weighed nearly four hundred pounds. In the end we had to leave and purchase a couple of mules and some sturdy leather packs to load the money into. For some reason the task put me in a good mood. Something about the feeling of having several hundred pounds of gold, in my ‘pocket’ as it were, gave me a lighthearted feeling. Told you I’m a fool. Any sane man would have realized how dangerous having that much money around would be.

We went to the Lancaster’s city house. I had promised to meet Marcus and Rose there before we set out for Washbrook. Once again we had to rely on Cyhan’s knowledge of the city to find it. Neither Penny nor I had ever been there.

Cyhan seemed on edge the entire way. He kept turning to watch behind us. “This is the most foolish thing I’ve ever known any man to do,” he said finally.

“Try living with him,” Penny added.

“What?” I could only assume they were talking about me.

Penny’s eyes lit on me, “What do you think? We’re walking around the city with several hundred pounds of gold, casually loaded onto a couple of mules. You’re asking for trouble.”

Ahh, of course, they were worried about the gold, “As far as anyone knows it could be sacks of grain loaded on those mules. Assuming you can keep your voice down about it.” I had already put shields around both of them so I was hardly concerned. I couldn’t imagine any street thugs being able to threaten us in any meaningful way.

“Grain isn’t that heavy Mort. Besides, plenty of people already know exactly what we carried out of that bank,” she replied.

“Such as?”

“Such as Mister Aston and everyone else that works at the Royal Bank, idiot.”

“I hardly think the bankers have any reason to rob us, they hardly seemed the type anyway. What would they do? Threaten us with their ledger books?” I laughed.

Cyhan snorted, “Very likely they’d hire someone else to do the deed.”

“You can’t hire thieves to steal gold. They’d take it for themselves,” I pointed out.

“You’re right,” Cyhan agreed. “They would hire assassins and let them have the gold as a bonus.”

“At least you have some sense,” Penny put in.

“What would they have to gain from that?” I was genuinely curious.

“Your letter of credit would immediately cease to be of value and the rest of the money would remain safely in the bank,” Cyhan answered immediately.

I had to admit they had a point. I hadn’t considered all the possible motives. Not that there was much I could do about it at the moment. I expanded my awareness to keep a better watch around us. I would definitely have to give some more thought to our trip back home. They knew we were leaving, they knew where we were headed, and they knew when we would be traveling.

We arrived at the Lancaster’s house. I had expected it to be magnificent and I wasn’t disappointed. It was actually built slightly back from the road with a small stone wall circling the property to provide privacy and protection for the family. A heavy wrought iron gate blocked access to the property. A bell stood beside it to ring for attention if there wasn’t anyone standing watch. Luckily there was someone there so we didn’t have to use it.

“Mordecai is that you?” came the guardsman’s voice.

I looked at him carefully; he was a man of nearly forty years, slim and sun-browned. “Wallace?” I asked. I wasn’t entirely sure, as a boy memorizing all the guardsmen’s names wasn’t high on my list of priorities.

“Hah! It is you boy! Glad to see you. Hang on I’ll get the gate open in a moment. His grace said you would be coming by today.” He worked carefully to unlock the gate and then turned a small winch to swing the doors wide for us. He could have used a smaller door built into one side of the gate but the mules were too bulky to fit in that way.

It felt good to see someone who knew me from my childhood days. It took some of the foreignness out of the situation. I hadn’t realized how home-sick the capitol had made me until just then. As I relaxed I felt the wind swirling around us and it almost seemed as if it were whispering. The air plucked at my hair and sent small leaves twirling about in the small inner courtyard. I smiled and took a deep breath. As the wind murmured to me I could see the trees along the western edge of the city, where the royal preserve came down to almost meet the city walls. A light rain there had scented the air with the fresh smells of earth and growing things.