Masterson said, “You’re a fast one, Roo Avery. I think you’ll do fine with or without us. If you’re avid for a break, I’ll sell to you.”
Hume said, “This is all too much for me. I’m confused.” Crowley said, “Bah! This is just a trick to get me to step down as Presiding Officer of the Bitter Sea Company.”
“Sell me half your interests, gentlemen,” said Roo, “and I’ll make you rich. But I won’t put myself again in the position where I’m risking my life and my family’s future to protect your gold.”
Masterson laughed. “That’s right, Avery. I’ll tell you what: I’ll sell you just enough, if the others will, to give you control, but I won’t give you it all. It may have been your knack for a deal and your bloody damn luck that won us this wealth, but it was a lot of our gold at risk.”
Hume said, “I’ll do the same. I spend too much time here on Bitter Sea Company business and not enough on my other concerns.”
Crowley said, “Well, I won’t do it. Buy me out or sell to me, one or the other.”
Roo looked at Crowley and said, “What price?”
“To buy or to sell?”
The other three men laughed, and after a moment, Crowley did as well. “Very well,” said Crowley. “I’ll set you a price.” He picked up a quill and scribbled a total on it, then pushed it across to Roo.
Roo picked up the parchment, saw the figure was ridiculously high, and shook his head. He picked up the quill, drew a line through the total, wrote another one, and passed the parchment back to Brandon Crowley.
Crowley looked at the total. “That’s robbery!”
“Then I’ll take the first number as your offer to buy me out?” said Roo.
Masterson laughed. “He’s got you, Brandon.”
Crowley said, “I’ll take the difference between the two.”
Which was as Roo knew he would, so Roo said, “Done!” To Hume and Masterson he said, “You gentlemen bear witness.”
They quickly agreed on the transfer of ownership, and before he knew it, Masterson was breaking out his special brandy again. After the events of the last two days, Roo was emotionally and physically drained. The single brandy got him close to as drunk as he could remember being.
He struggled down to find Duncan waiting for him at the door. “Luis says to tell you the gold got to where it needed to go, and all is well.” He smiled.
Roo smiled in return. “You’re a good friend as well as my cousin, Duncan.” He gave his cousin a very unexpected hug. “I neglect to tell you that.”
Duncan laughed. “Been drinking?”
Roo nodded. “Yes. And you are now talking to the owner of the Bitter Sea Trading and Holding Company.” He signaled for his carriage. “I believe that makes me one of the richest men in Krondor, Duncan.”
Laughing, Duncan said, “Well, if you say so.”
The carriage rolled up and Duncan opened the door, then helped to get Roo inside. “Where to, sir?” asked the driver.
Roo leaned out the still-open door and said, “Duncan, I need a favor. I was to dine this night with Sylvia Estherbrook and I simply am ton exhausted. Would you be a friend and carry my regrets to her?”
Duncan grinned. “I think I can manage it.”
“You’re a good friend, Duncan. Have I told you that?”
“Yes,” said Duncan with a laugh. He closed the door and said, “Get home with you!”
The carriage rolled away and Duncan went to where his horse was tethered. He mounted and started to ride out toward the Estherbrook estate. After a block, he turned his horse and headed back toward the small house he now shared with a prostitute he had met at the docks after Luis had left.
He found the woman sleeping through the day and unceremoniously yanked the covers from her. She snorted and awoke, saying, “What?”
He stared at her nude body a moment, then reached down and pulled her dress off the floor. “Get your things and get out!” he commanded as he threw it at her.
“What?” asked the still-confused woman again, sitting up. “I said, get out!” he shouted. For emphasis, he slapped her hard across the face. “I need to bathe. Be gone by the time I’m done.”
He left the shocked and crying woman in the bedroom and moved down to the end of the hail, where a tub sat next to a small stove. He heated water and inspected his face in a polished metal mirror. Rubbing his hand over his chin, he decided he needed to shave. Stropping a razor, he hummed a nameless tune while in the next room the whore whose name he couldn’t recall gathered up her belongings and cursed him under her breath.