Chương 28: Chapter 27 - Business Proposal

When one of the house butlers handed her the letter, Kiara immediately tore the letter open to read it, her eyes moving quickly over the paper. She read it multiple times. To the Esteemed Lady Shian Yountal, The Honorable Lord Grivalt would like to invite you to dine at his estate on Saturday evening of next week to discuss matters of business. Dinner will be served at 6 in the evening.

Lord Grivalt runs the finest wine emporium in the region, and due to House Yountal's interest in the wine market, a business arrangement would be mutually beneficial to both House Yountal and House Grivalt. If it pleases your ladyship to dine with us, we kindly request a response as to the size of your party that will be attending. Best Wishes, Lord Grivalt Her heart beat fast in her chest. It was finally happening! All of their planning and execution had been geared towards this moment.

Well, all of Dustin's planning and execution, that is. She considered the contents of the letter. Honorable Lord Grivalt? She thought to herself. Honorable? Ha! What a joke. He'd asked about her party size. What size should her party be? That wasn't something she had even considered, but now that it was mentioned, there was no doubt in her mind that there was probably an optimal number, or at the very least an appropriate number, of people to bring.

Bringing too few or too many people with her might send the wrong message somehow. She had already committed to this course of action, and wanted to get this right. Her response to this initial contact would no doubt set the tone for the upcoming business meeting, along with any future correspondence. She thought back on the social etiquette books that Dustin had recommended to her.

They touched on common manners when dining, when dancing, and when at parties and events, but none of them seemed to mention how many people one should show up with. Would bringing too few people show that she was powerful, and unconcerned with her safety? Or would it put her in a position of weakness during the business meeting? Would bringing too many people be seen as rude, or possibly as a sign of aggression? Or would it show weakness, such that she needed a large group around her to protect her?

Maybe this type of situation was so commonly known among the noble and wealthy class that the books simply hadn't thought to touch on it. Or perhaps it didn't matter after all, and it was simply common courtesy to provide the hosting house with the number of mouths they would need to plan on feeding? She looked around wildly for Dustin, only to realize that it was the middle of the day, and he wouldn't be home for hours. She forced herself to calm down. Certainly waiting a few hours to reply wouldn't be an issue.

Right? She really had no idea. Either way, there wasn't much she could do about it now, except for wait. * Dustin scanned the letter with a relaxed expression when she handed it to him. He nodded once, then sat down at a desk to write a reply. Kiara crowded behind him, peering over his shoulder to see how he would respond. He glanced at her and leaned away, blinking a few times.

"Careful with the cheek on cheek action there Shian, someone might get the wrong idea." She blushed slightly and pulled back, feeling embarrassed. She decided to change the subject.

"So, what are you going to write? Is there a right or wrong size of party to bring? Does it matter how long it takes us to reply?" He grinned.

"You really are learning! Good. I'm impressed." She blushed again, this time with pride, and smiled.

"Thanks! Now answer the question," she said, moving her hands wildly to illustrate her impatience. He chuckled.

"Well, if we reply the same day, it might look like we're too eager, but tomorrow or the next day should be fine. Any longer, and he might take it as an insult. I'll write up the response tonight, and pay a courier tomorrow to have it delivered." He stroked his chin for a moment.

"As for the party size, it depends on the situation. For an invite like this, it's common to bring an advisor," he pointed to himself, "a few guards, maybe two or three, and a footman to drive the carriage. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Of course, as we're travelling over open roads, a larger guard unit wouldn't be out of the question, to protect us from any roaming bandits, but only two or three of them should accompany us inside. All of that being said, the fact that the invitation asks for the party size is probably referring to the number of people that will be eating. It isn't customary for the guards that accompany us to eat, they will simply stand by." Kiara furrowed her eyebrows.

"That doesn't seem fair. Why shouldn't they eat with us?" Dustin shrugged.

"That's just how it goes, usually. They would eat something before the trip, so they can remain vigilant during the outing, undistracted by food, conversation, or festivities of any kind." Ah, that makes sense, she thought to herself, nodding. Dustin continued, "Larger houses would never ask about your party size. This is good for us, it subtly reinforces that he doesn't have enough wealth to waste money on preparing exorbitant portion sizes able to accommodate whatever party size someone brings along.

He's already tipped his hand." Kiara was once again reminded of how astute Dustin was at reading between the lines to pick up on information that others would simply pass over.

"So what kind of reply would be appropriate in this situation?" Kiara asked out of curiosity.

"The image we want to project is of a large house, expanding their business operations into a new area. We aren't desperate for connections, but we're actively seeking them. We don't have time to write an extended reply, but we're courteous enough to provide the information he has requested. A short letter, straight and to the point, delivered tomorrow. That should be enough to smooth things along when we're there next Saturday." * Dustin was pleased with how things were progressing on the Lord Grivalt front.

He turned back to the desk and wrote out the reply. Lord Grivalt, Lady Yountal appreciates your invitation, and will plan on attending at the specified time. Plan on a party of 2, as I will attend as well to keep track of the minutia of any business agreements that are reached. Dustin Savage, House Yountal Estate Manager"From you?" Shian asked him, surprised. Dustin nodded.

"You don't know him personally, so it's quite common for a house of our pretend size to have an estate manager handle these types of things at first. After dining with him next Saturday, or possibly after entering into a business arrangement of some kind, then any future correspondence could be signed by either one of us." Shian nodded at his explanation, then moved to sit on the couch nearby. She seemed deep in thought. Dustin studied her for a minute, curious what was going on in that mind of hers.

Just who was she, really? Could she be telling the truth about her magic nullifying abilities? He had never heard of anything like that before. If it was true, that knowledge was very dangerous indeed. He knew plenty of powerful people that would either try to control or eliminate such a person. He leaned back in his chair, thinking. When he'd asked about who her family members were a few days ago, she had avoided the question.

She either was hesitant to give her full story, or was truly incapable, as she had implied the other day. He would have to pay attention at Lord Grivalt's estate, and see if she showed any particular interest in any of the servants. Something still didn't add up though. If Lord Grivalt had anyone from House Yountal in his staff, he certainly would have alluded to it in his letter. Perhaps they went by a different name? Or had Shian changed her name for some reason? Wouldn't Lord Grivalt recognize her?

Would she wear a disguise of some kind to the meeting? Maybe she had other powerful illusion magic at her fingertips, similar to the invisibility spell she had shown him before, except to alter her appearance. He was blindsided a month ago by the trust she had placed in him when she had hired him as an estate manager. Even with the large fortune she had at her disposal, simply trusting someone with hundreds of ruby coins like she had done was unheard of.

Perhaps a trusted family retainer that had spent years in the service of the house, or was under a soul oath of some kind, but certainly not a stranger that she had only known for a month. At first he had thought it might be some kind of test, and she had a way to track him down if he had run off with the money. He actually considered it a legitimate possibility that she could do that if she wanted, but he hadn't even thought about leaving. The job she had offered him was honestly a dream job for him.

Building and managing a business empire was the thing he missed most after leaving his family's estate in Chestara. He had done fine for himself in Livalia, near the war front, but he couldn't really build a name for himself there without attracting the attention of his family. He could only do that if he was serving another powerful house, one that could protect him if need be.

His family had too many powerful enemies otherwise, who might recognize him and attempt to eliminate him, not to mention he had no idea how his own parents viewed his running off. No, without the protection of a powerful house, he didn't dare build anything truly worthwhile. He felt safe building House Yountal up though, as long as he was near Shian. After that first show of trust, she had continued extending more and more as well, dissuading him of the notion that she had ever been testing his loyalty in any way.

He had tried justifying his daily activities and business decisions at first, but she had made it clear that she trusted him fully in that area. Either that, or she simply didn't care what happened on that front. Maybe both. And then she had finally opened up to him about some of her secrets. Whether she had been telling the whole truth or not remained to be seen, but Dustin was good at reading people. At the very least, she hadn't been actively deceiving him.

Dustin would never break the trust she had placed in him. Not in a million years. As long as she allowed him to, he would run House Yountal's estate wisely and faithfully. It was a win-win situation, really. He got to do what he loved, with… seemingly endless resources at his disposal, and Shian's wealth would grow exponentially once he got things moving. Already, he had a few small businesses up and running. Once he got the Yountal name out there, things would build faster and faster from there.

Speaking of which, he needed to address a few things with Shian.