It took her a while to find Logan. He was currently negotiating with the blacksmith when Marie finally spotted him.
“… And it’s a good animal. Young, healthy…”
“I don’t care if it was shitting pure gold. One silver. Take it or leave it,” blacksmith said firmly.
“One silver and a place to stay over a month?” Marie proposed. Both men looked up from the mule they had been staring at.
“And who are you?” Blacksmith asked.
“My wife.”
“You let her run her mouth like that?” Blacksmith asked. Marie started to regret her abrupt participation to the conversation. Logan’s gaze darkened.
“Let her? She’s my wife. Not my dog. She doesn’t need my permission to speak her mind.” For a moment blacksmith stood, eyes darting back and forth between them. He seemed to become to some sort of conclusion.
“Women should be seen, not heard. But you seem like a decent folks. One silver, and a room for a month. She’s helping Catherine around the house as well, and we have a deal.” Marie opened her mouth to protest, but Logan nodded and shook hands with the blacksmith.
“We have a deal.”
“There’s something wrong around here,” she said when they walked off from the blacksmith.
“Yes. I noticed it as soon as we rode in,” Logan said.
“It’s too quiet. No merchants. People are staying in their homes. Everybody seems to be afraid of something.”
“Man running the tavern told that it isn’t safe around here at night.”
“That’s what the blacksmith said. When I asked him about it, he started to babble about robbers and muggers. What ever it really is, they are not willing to talk about it,” Logan whispered when they skirted past a herd of children playing on the street.
“It’s weird. They don’t seem to mind their children playing out here…”
“Noticed something? They’re all girls,” Logan said scrunching his forehead.
“What does that have to do with anything? Boys are probably helping their fathers at the fields.”
“They might be. I hope they are…”
Marie visited the church in under pretense of a need to pray, and managed to fill a small flask with holy water. Garlic they could acquire from the Wild Goose, or from some of the farms surrounding the town. Silver dust was a bit more complicated. Since town wasn’t big enough to support a jeweler, Logan doubted if they could find what they needed from Ravensholm.
“There’s a bigger town due north from here. Two days on horse. Tirgoviste. There’s several jewelers in there.”
“Tirgoviste? That’s a strange name…” Marie wondered. Logan nodded.
“Founder of the place came across the sea about hundred years ago. Foreigner. Named the place after his home village. Name stuck.”
“Have you been there before?” Marie asked. Again Logan nodded.
“Few times. Not a pleasant place…”
“When do we leave?” Marie asked.
“We?”
“You’re not taking me with you?”
“I think it’s better if you stayed here with John and Catherine. It’s safer that way.” Thought of spending her time alone at the mercies of the blacksmith made a shiver run down Marie’s spine.
“You’re not serious!” She exclaimed. Logan sighed.
“I am. Tirgoviste is not a nice place. You think blacksmith was disgusting?” He asked. Marie nodded.
“He wasn’t half as bad as people in Tirgoviste. They still believe in slavery. In here a woman can expect to get some sort of compensation of the work she’s putting in, but in Tirgoviste it’s whole an other issue. They would probably kidnap you and sell you to highest bidder. You’re young, healthy, good-looking…”
“I think I stay here and help Catharine.” Marie was many things but she wasn’t stupid.
“Good choice. I won’t be leaving right away. We have to find out first what’s going on in here.”
They ate at the tavern before they returned to blacksmith’s house. John was still working at his shop, but his wife, Catharine was already waiting for them.
“John told me you were coming when he came to eat. I have your room ready…” small woman, probably close to Marie’s age explained while guiding them through the house.
“It’s not big, but…” She pushed open a door, revealing small room with a narrow bed and small cabinet for clothes.
“This will do just nicely, ma’am,” Logan said smiling.
“I leave you two to settle down. When you’re ready, you can find me from the kitchen,” Catharine said and left them.
“She seemed nice,” Marie noted when they started putting away their clothes and other belongings to the cabinet.
“She has to be nice. John would probably spank her black and blue if she did something wrong…” Logan muttered and Marie gasped.
“Are you sure?” She asked. Logan frowned.
“I’m not sure about anything. Usually, when I come in to town, I can get a hang of things pretty quickly. I can blend in. Now… This whole thing’s a mess. Things are out of place. Everything seems little too normal. Little too perfect. And there are many things that make absolutely no sense at all.”
Marie started to think about their short trek through the town. Small houses built from stone. Shingled roofs. Narrow streets paved with cobblestones. Horses with carts and carriages. Cows. Chickens. Muck and filth on the ground. Few people still braving the potential danger shying away from them when they passed rather than taking an interest to the obvious strangers. Children playing… Had they actually been playing? Or had they just stood there, whispering quietly to each other?
“They all seem somehow reluctant to have us here. And yet…”
“Yet you got the feeling that they wouldn’t let you go even if you wanted to leave?” Logan asked.
“Like they were all talking about you behind your back? Staring at you?”
“What is going on in here?” Marie whispered. Logan sat on the bed, sighing heavily.
“I don’t know. I have never experienced anything like this. On the surface everything seems perfectly normal, but beneath… There’s something so wrong, so goddamned wrong that it’s pushing through no matter how hard they try to hide it.”
”And you think this is better place to stay for me, than coming with you in to Tirgoviste?” Marie asked. Logan snorted.
“Even Hell would be a better place than Tirgoviste…”
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