Authors: Mackenzie Morgan
Chris looked around the little shed. “Not this trip, but I’ll get Marcus to come back with me. We’ll bring a couple of barrels and load them up.”
“Marcus?” Doreen asked.
“Myron’s associate,” Rigel explained. “He’s a sorcerer. Between the three of us, we can get this stuff packed up and back to Milhaven in a couple of trips. No problem.”
Doreen nodded. “Thank you. These I want to keep. I’ll need them.”
“Do you know how to use them?” Rigel asked hesitantly.
Doreen laughed. “I may not be able to make a decent cup of tea, but I can use every tool in this shed and then some. Who do you think helped my father build those boats? And this shed?” Doreen waved her arm around the room. “I’m not helpless, just useless as a woman.”
Rigel looked her up and down. “I wouldn’t say that.”
Doreen blushed. “Useless for woman’s work.”
Chris cleared his throat. “So what do you want to do about the boats?”
“I want them all, but I guess I’ll settle for two. I’ll need to sell them, and I don’t want to have to wait a year to do it. Jana wants her house back, and I don’t blame her.”
“All right. Why don’t we go see Jared?”
Doreen shook her head. “He’s not going to listen to a word I say. As far as he’s concerned, he has the boats and that’s that. My only choice was whether or not to marry him, and he made it clear the other night that if I said no then, we had nothing left to discuss.”
“He did say that,” Rigel agreed.
“Okay. Why don’t Rigel and I go see him then? Myron would like to stay out of this if at all possible, but I’m his assistant. That’ll get me in the door if nothing else.”
Doreen shrugged. “If you think it’ll work, I’m all for it. And I don’t have any problem not being there. If I never see that man again it’ll be fine with me.”
~ ~ ~ ~
When they got back to the castle, Rigel asked, “Why don’t I see if I can find Marcus? It might not hurt to have him with us when we go see Jared.”
“Think we might need reinforcements?” Chris asked.
“Maybe, but mainly because he knows his way around a boat. Didn’t I hear him say he used to be a fisherman?”
Chris nodded. “But I think he fished rivers, not open water.”
Rigel shrugged. “That’s still more experience with boats than I’ve had. What about you?”
“You’ve got a point. I’ve never been on one,” Chris admitted. “Go see if he’s around.” Then he turned to Doreen. “I want to let Myron look at the contract before we go. Would you mind waiting out here?”
“Sure,” Doreen said. “Think I could find some tea somewhere?”
Chris nodded towards Cameryn. “She’ll take care of it. Back in a minute.”
Chris knocked on Kevin’s door and then went in. After he shut it, he handed Kevin the contract. “She owns the boats, and I think if it went to court she’d get all four, at least she would on Earth. Should we show this to Laryn? Or Tyree?”
Kevin glanced over the contract. “I’d like to get their input before we insist he hand the boats over. Chances are we’ll be in for a fight, a legal fight.”
“That’s what I told her, and she’s agreed to let him keep two of them if she can get the other two back now, without any hassle.”
“Sounds more than fair to me. And feel free to tell him I’ve got her father’s copy of the contract and we’ll stand behind her if this thing goes to court.” Then he asked, “What’s she planning to do with the boats?”
“Sell them and use the money to start over here.”
“Doing what? I got the impression work’s not very high on her list.”
“I think she purposely gave us the wrong impression because she’s embarrassed about her lack of skills in, as she put it, women’s work. She knows how to use tools, even helped her father build the boats, but she never learned how to cook or take care of a house.”
Kevin nodded. “Back to my question. If she’s planning to live here, how’s she going to support herself? She can’t stay with Jana forever.”
“She knows that, but she needs to sell the boats before she can do anything else.”
“You don’t have any idea what she’s got in mind, do you?”
Chris shook his head. “But I do know there’s more to that woman than I saw the other day.”
Kevin thought for a moment. “Let’s get Cryslyn to handle the sale. She’ll get Doreen a good deal, and we’ll find out what Doreen’s thinking by what she wants Cryslyn to get out of the barter.”
Chris nodded. “Anything else before I head to Bushwell? Oh, and I’m taking Rigel and Marcus with me.”
Kevin laughed. “Back up?”
Chris nodded again. “I may be your assistant, but Rigel and Marcus both look dangerous. Maybe Jared will be a little more cooperative with those two along.”
~ ~ ~ ~
After dropping Doreen off in Cryslyn’s office, Chris, Rigel, and Marcus left for Bushwell. Since Rigel knew where they were going, he used the key to take them straight to Jared’s front porch. The timing couldn’t have been any better as Jared was walking up the steps as they emerged from the energy field not five feet in front of him.
“Good evening,” Chris said as he held out his hand. “I’m Chris, Master Sorcerer Myron’s assistant. It’s nice to meet you.”
Jared took Chris’s hand hesitantly and frowned. “Are you here about Doreen?”
“On her behalf,” Chris said.
“I’m sorry if she’s changed her mind, but I told her the other night if she refused me then, we had nothing left to discuss. I’m in the process of making arrangements to marry someone else now.”
“She hasn’t changed her mind, and we all wish you the best with your future wife. I’m here on a totally different matter,” Chris said in an authoritative manner. “We’re here about her boats.”
Jared’s eye’s narrowed. “She forfeited those boats when she backed out of the contract.”
“Well, I’ve read the contract, and so has Myron. At no point did her father give you ownership of any of his boats. He gave them to both of you upon your marriage. As the marriage didn’t happen, the ownership never changed hands. And even if it had, he gave controlling rights to his daughter, not to you, and only two of his four boats were involved in the deal. I understand you have all four.”
Jared squared his shoulders. “The boats were abandoned property. He was dead. She was gone. There was no one around to claim ownership, so I took them. After all, if that slaver raid had never occurred, they would have been mine anyway.”
Chris shook his head. “Not the way the contract reads.”
“So what are you proposing?” Jared glanced behind Chris to Rigel and Marcus. “To take them by force?”
Chris laughed. “Why would we do that when the courts will side with her? Chairman Tremayne can review the contract if you’d like, but he can’t rule on it until it reaches his court, probably sometime next fall. You’re free to come to Milhaven and argue your point. I’m sure he’d be willing to listen.”
“Milhaven? Are you going to come get me with that key of yours?”
Chris shook his head. “No, I’m sorry, but that would set an unfortunate precedent. We can’t go around collecting any and every person who has a case before the court. No, you’d have to get there on your own.”
“But I’d have to be gone for weeks to get there and back. That’s too much trouble. No, she needs to forget the boats. If they were that important to her, she could have married me. She refused, so she forfeits the boats.”
“We’ll leave that to the courts to decide. In the meantime, we’ll post some guards on all four boats to see that they remain in good shape while this works its way through the system. Now, if you’d be so kind as to show us where they are?”
Jared shook his head. “This is ridiculous. You’re going to waste your guards’ time to come down here and watch over four old boats that aren’t worth that much to start with. They’re little more than rowboats!”
“Well if they’re not much use, at least you won’t be inconvenienced by not having access to them until this gets sorted out. Where do you have them docked?”
Marcus cleared his throat. “I’ve had a good look around, Chris. There’s a harbor a few blocks north of here but I don’t see any other docks around.”
Chris raised his eyebrows at Jared and tilted his head towards the road.
Jared sighed, turned, and led the way.
Soon they were at a large harbor with twenty or more boats tied up to different docks. Jared pointed to some small boats meant for no more than three or four people. “Those down there are the ones that Doreen’s father had.”
Chris looked at Marcus who shook his head. Chris turned back to Jared. “I think you’re mistaken. I know it’s easy to lose track of where you got each one, but Doreen told us she and her father carved their initials into the wood of the bow right below the deck. Does that help?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jared said, “and I’m certainly not going to let you tear up the deck of these boats looking for some hypothetical initials.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Marcus said politely. “I used my seeing eye to check out the boats.” He pointed towards the other end of the harbor. “Those four right there have their initials. Those are the ones Doreen’s talking about.” They were the largest boats in the harbor. Two had two masts, the other two had three.
Chris looked over at Jared. “Not exactly rowboats, are they?”
“All right, all right,” Jared hissed. “The two largest ones are mine by forfeit. She walked away from them when she chose not to marry me. The other two were abandoned, and abandoned property belongs to whoever claims it.”
“Really? I’ve never heard that. I’ll check that out with Chairman Tremayne when I get back and see what he says.” Then Chris shook his head. “On second thought, there’s no point in bothering him with this today. Since all of this is going to end up in court anyway, he can rule on all four at the same time.” Chris turned to Rigel and Marcus. “Would you be willing to stay here and keep an eye on these boats until I can get back with some guards?”
“Sure,” Marcus said as Rigel nodded. “No problem.”
Chris started to turn the key, but Jared said, “No! Wait a minute. What about the men who work those boats. What’s going to happen to them?”
“Well, if they’re fishermen, I’m sure they can find work with someone else. But I’ll tell the guards to let us know if anyone needs any help finding work. We’ll help them relocate if need be. We’re certainly not trying to put anyone out of work.” Then he held up his key and asked, “Anything else?”
Jared frowned. “What if I were to give her something for them. You know, buy them from her. Just the two that were abandoned. I don’t owe her a thing for the two that were promised to me in the contract.”
Chris didn’t say anything for a moment and then he gave a slow nod. “I might be able to convince her to go along with that in order to get this settled quickly. But I can’t promise anything until I talk to her.”
“Well, you can talk to her, but I don’t want to deal with her. I told her the other night if she walked out we were done, that we had nothing else to say to each other. We can come to a deal through someone else.”
Chris bit back a smile, but he noticed the corner of Rigel’s mouth tilt up. “If she’s willing to consider settling with you, I’m sure I can find someone to represent her. I’ll let you know something one way or the other after I talk to her.” And with a twist of the key, Chris left for home.
~ ~ ~ ~
After Chris took some guards to Bushwell to keep an eye on the boats, he, Marcus, and Rigel went back to Parson’s Branch and packed up all of Doreen’s tools. Since he couldn’t think of any place else to store them, he took them to the island and stashed them in one of the empty rooms in the main cave. By the time he made it back to the castle, he was bushed, but he stopped by the kitchen for a couple of mugs of scog before heading upstairs.
Kevin was on the floor brushing Nikki when Chris walked in. He handed Kevin a mug of scog and sat down. “I wasn’t sure you’d want one, but I did.”
“Thanks.” Kevin took a sip. Fatigue was written all over Chris’s face. “Long day?”
“You don’t know the half of it.” Chris leaned back and shut his eyes for a moment.
“So? How did things go with Jared? And what did you think of him?”
“I think Doreen’s lucky to have escaped that marriage, and I’m glad he’s down at the coast.” Then Chris sat up and asked, “Have you ever met anyone who struck you as slimy? That made you feel like you needed a shower after being around them, just in case some of the slime rubbed off on you?”
Kevin laughed. “Well, Rolan comes to mind, but other than that, no, I can’t say I have.”
“Well, I have. You get all kinds in the advertising world, and he reminded me of some of the worst. But with a little luck, I think we’re about done with him.”
“Is he willing to settle without taking it to court?”
“Believe it or not, he brought up the idea, even suggested buying the boats from her, although he did stress he was only talking about the two that weren’t covered by the contract.”
“That surprises me. I was expecting him to try to bluff his way out of this, but it’ll make things a lot easier for Cryslyn if it’s what he wants.”
“He knows he’s on shaky ground with the way the contract’s worded, and he doesn’t want to risk losing all four boats. Can’t say I blame him either. They’re beautiful. Reminded me of the ones they used to cross the oceans back in the 1500’s.”
“Masts and all?”
Chris nodded. “She wasn’t exaggerating when she said those boats were seaworthy. They were made to sail the oceans.” Then Chris shook his head. “It’s a good thing she and her father put their initials on them though. He pointed out four little dinghy-type boats and said they were the ones. Fortunately Marcus was with us. He checked out all the boats in the harbor and spotted hers right off. There was no way Jared could argue with him about it and he knew it.” Chris took another swallow of scog. “You know, it comes in handy having Marcus along. He looks like he could take care of himself without magic, and when you add that pendant, he’s downright intimidating.”
Kevin smiled. “I know. That’s why I’ve sent him with Theresa every time she’s had to go somewhere for Sister Brena. Do you think Jared’s going to be willing to negotiate with Cryslyn? Or will he insist on dealing with Doreen?”