Allister Hale's Story Graveyard.

Lord Regent Alexander shocked Chel at breakfast the next morning. “There is no way I could keep things in order in that tiny office of yours. You do you, I’m going to focus on putting together a proper office for us. On that note I need to have some furniture made, filing cabinets, desks and such.”

Ginny suspected her lady cousin was still too intent on Alexander being her enemy to realize he wanted more than one desk. It was possible that he would want to hire some men to aid him in running the barony and the estate, but Ginny doubted it. After Chel retired for the evening Ginny followed Alexander around the building trying to figure out what kind of person he was.

At one point during the evening he berated an off duty man at arms for calling one of the maids to clean up a spilled tankard of beer. In Alexander’s eyes the man had nothing better to do, and had made the mess, and that meant he should be the one to clean it up. The warrior complained about having to do a woman’s work. Alexander answered the complaint saying, “Tough shit.”

On his way to breakfast Alexander was asking one of the senior maids how she did her work. As they approached a door he took a couple large steps and opened the door for the maid without interrupting the conversation.

Ginny watched Chel as she debated whether she wanted to be left to her work or if she wanted to make sure Alexander didn't do anything nefarious in her absence. “Lady Chel? Perhaps I should accompany the Lord Regent today.”

Chel smiled, “That seems like an excellent idea. In fact, as I recall your uncle is a carpenter.”

When Alexander returned from his chambers, dressed for their trip to Ginny’s uncle’s village, he had on another one of his strange shirts. His pants were done in a strange fashion that Ginny felt must have been designed for a noble who wanted a fashion inspired by a pauper's clothes. There were clearly new but had been patched in a bizarre place in addition to the decorative slits Ginny had noticed on his other clothes.

Most of their walk passed in a peaceful silence as Ginny led him along the road to the village where her family lived. “Say, Ginny. How are the roads built around here?”

Ginny considered his question for a while. To her knowledge roads were just something that happened. “I suppose If you had to say they were built then the answer would be that they get worn down from travel. Does that make sense as an answer?”

Ginny slowed down a few steps so that she could watch the man as he considered her answer. “What do the nobles even do?”

This question surprised Ginny. She couldn’t understand what it had to do with their conversation. “They collect taxes in order to organize us should we have to fight for our interests outside of the fief, and to defend the fief should we be attacked. Though many of them take advantage of their position and simply live in luxury. Well…. even the worst of them do the minimum amount of work, if only to keep their positions.”

“In fact Lady Chelsea is one of the better nobles to the best of my knowledge. Her grandfather and uncle were both gifted governors. The fief has a sizable treasury though I would expect Chel will be quite unhappy if you try to dig too deeply into it.”

Alexander laughed at her explanation. “I can’t believe it, I landed on the wrong side of noble greed.”

This comment annoyed Ginny, “The Engle line is hardly greedy. We descend from a long line of righteous Kings. Lady Chel’s uncle may have had trouble keeping his pants on, but he never took what wasn’t offered. In only two generations the fiefs treasure has gone from completely empty to one of the largest in the Kingdom!”