Robert jumped awake, nearly strangling himself in his blankets as he jumped to his feet. Nearly falling several times as the stupid blanket wrapped itself around his ankles, he quickly made his way over to the door. Jerking it open, he stared dumbfoundedly at the s.h.i.+vering, storm-soaked orphans from earlier, and two very young adventurers.

"Sorry, sir, but may we step inside for a moment?" stammered one of the adventurers, holding her cloak around her tightly, as the freezing cold rain lashed at her.

Nodding as the cold wrapped itself around him, he pulled back and they all quickly shuffled inside. Robert pulled the door shut, and locked it, so no one else could come inside, then had everyone go back by the fireplace. He had taken to sleeping in front of it, since the weather had turned so much colder. This was looking to be a nasty winter.

"I'm so sorry that we've intruded on you," said the other young adventurer, a boy that couldn't be much older than Robert. His thick black hair was slicked down across his forehead from the rain.

"We just arrived in the city, and these children told us you might be able to help?" said the girl, she was s.h.i.+vering so bad, her teeth had started chattering.

"They said you might be able to tell us where we could stay the night, and maybe get a bite to eat?" added the boy.

The orphans looked miserable, huddling as close as they could to the meager fire in his fireplace. Robert looked around at them all, then as a crack of lightening made everyone jump, himself included, his sigh was drowned out by the following thunder.

"I suppose it's so late, you can all stay here tonight. But I better not have anything going missing, or I'll be reporting all of you to the guards in the morning," he said, staring at each of them in the eyes until they all nodded in understanding.

"I never knew it could be so hard, being an adventurer," admitted the girl, her eyes were a particular shade of dark purple, that Robert had never seen before.

"We only just left our village a week ago," confessed the boy, taking his soaked cloak off, and laying it out to dry, away from where everyone was, and far enough from the shelves that he wouldn't get any of them wet. The girl quickly followed suit.

Robert built the fire up, and then handed out some of the small bread rolls he had left over, that didn't sell the night before.

"We can pay for these," said the girl as she took one.

"Good, because I don't have a lot of money to be just handing things out for free," Robert grumbled.

"We don't have a lot of money. It's been really hard finding work as an adventurer. All of the good jobs are taken by the older, more experienced guys, and we've been left with the hard jobs that don't pay as well. We're incredibly grateful you're willing to let us stay here for the night."

"Well," said Robert, picking up his blanket and wrapping up in it, "I keep telling people that I can't become an inn, and here I am, letting people sleep under my roof anyways."

The girl ate her bread in silence, looking around curiously as the storm raged outside. Robert could only imagine what had happened to those who couldn't find shelter. His mind kept going to some of his best customers, who had bought sleeping rolls from him and often claimed to just sleep on the ground outside, rather than pay the expensive prices at the inns in the center of town.

"This is a nice little store, but why don't you want to run an inn? If people keep asking, then surely there's money to be made in it?" she asked, once her roll was gone.

"Look, I'm only twelve. I barely make enough money to pay for the new items I bring in. I don't have the money to pay for the additions to turn this place into an inn, nor do I have the skills to cook and clean for guests. And I certainly can't afford to hire anyone."

The four orphans had inhaled their rolls, then had formed a kind of puppy pile near the fireplace and had fallen fast asleep. The boy was looking at them curiously.

"They seem awfully loyal. When we asked them if they knew a place we could get out of the storm, they didn't hesitate to bring us here."

Robert looked over at them, noting their bare feet and thin clothes. Those kids probably wouldn't make it through the winter. But if he started letting all of the orphans in to stay warm, then his little shop would quickly become overrun. He sighed again.

"I was thinking of starting a soup kitchen, to help the poor people out this winter. It's been really hard on everyone lately. We had a really nasty plague break out, that caused the whole city to be closed up so it couldn't spread out over the countryside. That meant the food situation got really bad. Now that winter is. .h.i.tting, no one has any food or money stored up to get through the bad weather."

"A soup kitchen would be great for the adventurers, too," said the girl. "I don't think we introduced ourselves. I'm Trudy, and this is Liam, my betrothed. We came from a long way away, and were hoping to be adventurers."

"I'm Robert," he said, "It's nice to meet you. Not a lot of the adventurers are so friendly. They are mostly interested in what will make them more money, or grabbing what they need so they can get back to making money."

"I can understand where they're coming from. I'm just not sure we're cut out for it. Maybe we'll just get us some jobs here in town, and settle down?" suggested Liam as the wind outside really started to howl. It almost sounded like hail was starting to hit the roof.

"I don't know," mused Trudy, looking over at Robert. "Your name is weird to me. It reminds me of a robber, like a thief. Do you mind if I call you something else?"

Robert laughed, scratching his head. "I've never had anyone say that before. I guess you could?"

"How about Bob? That's a shortened form of the name from where we live," said Liam. Trudy nodded in agreement.

"Bob? That sounds," Robert thought about it, "That sounds short and easy to remember."

"Then it's settled. You will be called Bob from now on," confirmed Trudy stretching out her arms and legs now that the store had warmed up some.

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"You mentioned wanting to start a soup kitchen," said Liam, gazing at the fire. "Why isn't there one in the town? Surely a town of this size would have several?"

"There's a lord here who wants to get rid of the poor people. He's managed to get rid of all of the soup kitchens, and I don't even know what else he's done to make their lives hard. There's been some talk of opening an orphanage, but I'm not sure that would be a very good idea."

"That would get these kids off the streets, under a roof and out of the cold," said Trudy.

"But they would all be cooped up, after being used to running where ever they wanted. Plus, after all the sickness we've had, I know that when you put a lot of people into a small s.p.a.ce, there's going to be even more sickness." Robert shook his head.

"But how would you open a soup kitchen, if this lord doesn't want any in the city?" asked Liam.

"If I charge for the soup, then he can't tell me to stop selling it. Under the merchant rules of the city, I can sell anything that isn't illegal as a legal merchant."

"So, you would charge per bowl?" asked Liam.

"Yes, a copper piece, or a contribution to the pot. Some of the vegetables or other things could be cheaper than a copper. If they brought something like that, then I would still let them get a bowl, because it would still fall under the merchant clause of bartering."

"You've really thought this out," said Trudy, obviously impressed.

"The problem is that I don't have the time to cook the soup and sell it, much less know how to make soup."

"You would have a lot of people coming and going, and that would mean more thieves could steal your stuff, too," said Trudy, looking at the layout of his store.

"Would you make people bring their own bowls?" asked Liam, "That way you wouldn't have to wash any dishes."

Robert nodded. "My dad owns a lot of other stores in the town, and he said I could buy all of the things he can't sell, to sell here, or use, if I do the soup kitchen, but I can't afford the charges for s.h.i.+pping. There are two men my dad likes to use, to haul things around town for him, but I don't make enough money to be able to afford them."

Liam and Trudy looked at each other, and Robert narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"We were just thinking, that if you helped us out, we could help you out?" suggested Trudy.

"What kind of help?" he asked, his disturbed rest was starting to catch up with him. He would need to sleep soon, if he was going to be able to function tomorrow.

"We need a place to stay, and work, to afford to stay. What if we helped you out with this soup kitchen, and you let us stay and eat some of the soup?" asked Liam. "I'm pretty good with cooking."

"And I can help keep the kids here working, hauling those things back and forth from your dad's other stores?" added Trudy. "They would probably love you to death if you let them sleep on the floor by the fire, and gave them warm food every night."

Robert shook his head. He was falling for more of the adventurer tricks. What was going to keep them from stealing him blind in the night? This was such a bad idea!

"I don't know," he said, trying to think of a polite way of telling them no.

"Alright, how about you sleep on it, and we can discuss this more in the morning," said Liam, as Trudy lay down near the fire.

Robert watched Liam snuggle up to Trudy, pulling his blanket tighter around himself, as he lay back down, too. First thing in the morning he was going to kick them all out and be done with this madness.