Stewart had made them biscuits with ham and eggs, and Bob was enjoying them immensely after all of the soup he had been eating lately.

"Vivian is the daughter of my aunt, Georgianna. She was able to get a job working for Lord Clark as a paid servant, after he married the City Lord's daughter to his son instead of her," explained Bob again, from the top.

"Okay, I got that part. What I don't understand is why your cousin went to you, instead of her mother when she got in trouble?"

"Apparently, Aunt Georgianna is of the opinion that her children should never stoop to that of a servant, and thus refuses to even acknowledge her."

"That sounds like Georgianna," grumbled his father.

"I don't think Vivian realized she was my cousin until last night when we sat down and talked about what all Clark has been doing. Did you know that he now requires his paid servants to pay for their room and board?"

"What! That's against the law!" his father exclaimed, his fork halfway to his mouth, forgotten in his disbelief.

"She traded me a ring, the servant ring with his sigil on it, in exchange for a tinderbox, because she didn't have the full 5 silver for it. She was supposed to get that last 2 silver, that she owed me, and get the ring back, but because he started charging his servants, she wasn't able to earn it after a whole month."

"What's a servant of that house needing to buy a tinderbox for?" wondered Hector.

"I was wondering that same thing. I wonder if the new wife of his son had something to do with it, not liking that she was working there, when she had wanted to marry Clark's son."

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"So, the girl was set up. Is that what all this nonsense about a thief is? I heard he had a bounty of 10 gold out for her. At that price, the adventurers are bound to get involved."

"That's what I was wanting to talk to you about," said Bob, taking a sip of his drink to wash the last of the biscuit down.

"All right, go ahead."

"Because she owes me 2 silver from a month ago, I was wondering if I could claim her as a debt slave. That would protect her from Clark, and tick him off at the same time."

Hector leaned back in his chair, running his hands over his chin as he thought about it. "Clark is a pretty powerful enemy. I'm not sure you're up to fighting his level of adversary. Let me check on a few things before you do anything, to make sure that we do this right. Because she's your cousin, you can keep her hidden for only so long before someone searches your place for her. I should know by this evening if you can do that."

"Alright. I also have my month's rent for you, as well as payment for the things you sent last week, and a list of things I would like for next week," he said, sliding a pouch of coins towards his dad along with a piece of rolled parchment.

Unrolling it to read it, he nodded and slid it into his pouch. "I'll work on this, and should have it ready for pickup on Wednesday. What else do you have planned for today?"

Bob smiled handing his empty plate to Edith. "I'm going to see the builder's guild again. Sam said winter was slow for them, so I could get a discount if I wanted to expand."

"Again? Didn't you just add on a shed to the side for the soup kitchen?"

"Yep, and I've made enough again to build a larger room. I want to let my customers have sitting room, and be able to make a proper kitchen to serve more than just the soup. I want breads and biscuits, too."

"If you've thought this out, I won't stop you. How are all those kids you hired working out? I see them running all over town every day."

"The only problem I've had, is that people don't recognize them as official workers. I'm thinking of getting them overs.h.i.+rts with my sigil on them."

"You've talked with the clerks about getting your own sigil?" Hector asked with a start.

"I was going to surprise you, but I guess you can come see it," said Bob with a grin.

"Of course, I want to see it! Let's go!" cried Hector in excitement, jumping up from the table and grabbing his cloak from the chair by the front door, where he had thrown it when he came in.

Bob couldn't get the grin off his face as he rushed to keep up with his dad. They were soon at the clerk's office.

"Ah, Bob! So good to see you again. I have that sigil all ready for you to take and get your ring made by a blacksmith," said the old man at the front desk, perking up when they entered.

"Bob?" asked his dad with a puzzled look.

"Hi, Paul. How are you doing today?" asked Bob, setting down a gold coin on the desk.

"Much better today. The wife was doing poorly yesterday, but that soup you had delivered seemed to perk her right up."

"Well, when you mentioned how sick she was, it was the least I could do," Bob said, giving the balding man a kind smile.

"Master Hector, what can I do for you today?" asked Paul, turning to his father with a smile.

"Oh, uh, nothing today, sir. Thank you."

Paul nodded to him, looking puzzled as they left.

"Since when do you go by Bob?" asked his father as they paused just outside the door to look at the new sigil.

"When I hired Trudy, she said that Robert reminded her of a robber from where she came from, and wanted to call me Bob. The adventurers and poor picked up on it and now that's what everyone's calling me."

"An owl and a fox?" asked Hector, looking at the paper in Bob's hand.

"I wanted something to represent intelligence and cunning," Bob said grinning.

"Well, that does convey that well. Alright, I have to go. I'll stop by this evening to let you know what I found out."

Bob watched his father hurry off, wondering what he really thought, and knowing that he wouldn't find out immediately. His father was never one to tell his thoughts immediately. Rolling the paper up carefully, he headed over to the blacksmith's at the end of the road.

The first three were busy, but the last one was only working on horseshoes.

"h.e.l.lo?" asked Bob, to get his attention.

The man looked up, pouring sweat in the cool air, and wiped his brow. His right arm was twice the size of his left one, from repeatedly pounding the hammer against the metal.

"Whatcha need?" he asked gruffly.

"I was wondering if you did sigil rings?"

"I don't normally do those," the man said dismissively, turning back to the fire.

"Are you Orson?" asked Bob, as the man paused.

"How do you know my name?"

"I heard you do the best work in the city."

"Who would be stupid enough to say that?"

"I also heard that you absolutely loved to make sigil rings, back in the day, but that you couldn't keep up with the other blacksmiths, so you quit."

"Of course, I did! I actually care about my work, but all anyone cares about is how fast they can get their blasted stuff done. There's no respect for proper made stuff anymore!"

"If I provided you with the material, would you be willing to make my sigil? I only want the best, not some cheap quick knock-off," said Bob, holding up the pouch of ore he had gotten off a dwarven adventurer trying to lighten his load before returning home.

When Orson grabbed the parchment, Bob knew he had him and hid his smile, lest he scare him off. An hour later, he was making his way towards the builders' guild. He was there for three hours working out a deal with the builders who didn't have much to do with winter on its way. Within the week he would have the start of a dining hall, and a proper kitchen built, as well as an addition to his actual store, that would let him increase his stock and allow the n.o.ble servants to enter by a different door from the adventurers and poor people.

Bob was on his way back to the store, when he spied Martha, the woman who had made the kids their new clothes.

"Hey Martha!"

She paused to see who was calling her and perked up when she saw it was him. "Bob! How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, how are the kids?"

"Little Jared has made a complete recovery, and Anna should be well enough to start helping around the house again soon. I'm loving your new soup kitchen. The soup is so tasty!"

"I'm glad you like it! I wanted to thank you for those clothes you made my kids, but I was wondering if you had the time to make some overs.h.i.+rts for them? I just received my new sigil and I was wanting some made for each of them."

She smiled and nodded, "I would love to. The money you paid for them was so helpful! I know my work isn't as nice as some of the tailors around town, but I've had a lot of practice st.i.tching clothes up for my kids."

"That's great. Do you have time to run with me over to the cloth merchant to pick out fabric?"