Chapter Ten #2
Once I finished dressing, Karrida reluctantly let me pull her off the bed and slipped into the clothes she’d been wearing yesterday.
It was a similar attire to my own, with dark brown pants and a tighter white shirt that hugged her curves.
A dark brown corset pinched her waist in and made her cleavage spill out the top of her shirt.
Part of me wanted to rip those clothes off her as soon as she’d finished putting them on, but I shoved that primal part of me down and focused on the tasks we needed to do today.
I got Ellyn’s chestpiece and vambraces out, just like she’d asked, and I picked a pair of tan pants and a long white-sleeved shirt for her, as well as a thick woolen sweater that used to be my mom’s.
Once that was done, we headed back into the kitchen, where Ellyn was depositing the molded goat cheese into large trays to take to Josee.
“I’ll take it from here,” I said as I stood beside her. “You can go and get dressed.”
“They’re all molded and ready, you just need to put them in the crate,” my wife said, promptly followed by a soft kiss on my cheek.
I watched her whisk herself away toward the bedroom and resumed the task of depositing the goat cheese into the tray.
I’d been a farmer long enough to roughly guess how much ten pounds was in weight. It was the same weight as a large sack of potatoes, or how much Nelly had weighed when we first took her in.
Ellyn had shaped enough goat cheese blocks to make up around that much in weight, with a little extra to take to Midhallow as a sample.
If Thror agreed to the trade, and if Josee sold enough of what we already had, I could start making wheels and charging them both by the dozen.
Once the tray was filled with various blocks of cheese, I slid it into a small crate and carried it outside to put on the back of Ethel’s wagon. We were going to need the storage, depending on what we managed to find in Midhallow.
I hooked my horse into her harness and attached it to the wagon. Then I steered her out of the barn into the cool, open air.
She huffed and blew a raspberry with her pink lips before she shook her long mane of glossy black hair.
Ethel was covered in a thick layer of brown hair, with fluffy white feet to keep her ankles warm. Summer had probably been hell for her, even though she’d been groomed and taken care of. But I knew winter wasn’t going to be a problem when it came down to being cold.
Once Ethel was ready to go, I whistled for Ellyn and Karrida to come out. Fang trotted out behind them, but I stopped him before he could hop into the back of the wagon alongside Karrida.
“Hold up,” I said as I pulled him back by the scruff of his neck. “You know what time it is.”
Fang whined and tried to sneak around me, but I pulled him back again and pointed my finger in warning.
“You’ve got to stay here today, buddy,” I said in a stern voice I never liked using. “We’re going to Midhallow, which means I need someone here to help protect the farmhands and the animals.”
The sulking sound that came out of Fang almost made me laugh, but I kept a straight face so he knew I was being serious.
“Please?” I asked. “I’ll pick something up for you on the way home to sweeten the deal?”
The wolf’s demeanor immediately changed. He turned his ass around and bounded back into the house with only one last fleeting glimpse of his tail before he disappeared entirely.
“Well, that was easy,” I commented as I stared at the empty space in front of me.
“It’s because Bathilda’s spoiled him,” Ellyn teased from her position on the bench.
“At least you know the way to get him to listen to you now,” Karrida said as she settled next to the crate of goat cheese.
“At the cost of my hard-earned gold,” I joked as I climbed up beside Ellyn.
I didn’t actually mind spoiling him, but I couldn’t believe it had gotten to the point of bribery just to get the cheeky wolf to listen to me.
“He’s going through his teenage phase,” my wife said as she passed me the reins. “He’ll get out of it, eventually.”
“I hope so, otherwise there’ll be no juicy bones left in this side of Mystica,” I grumbled as I whipped the reins once to get Ethel to move.
The wagon rattled as we began the slow journey toward Gladewood. The gate behind us sealed shut with a squelch, and with the knowledge that my farm would be safe until we came back, I focused on the tasks of the day.
The watchtower by the main entrance had been half-erected. The wooden structure was raised slightly above the wall of vines, and three dwarves were hammering wooden boards to make up the floor of the perch.
We each sent them nods of acknowledgement, and I was glad to not see Alaek among them just so I could avoid a potential dispute about taking Karrida out of Gladewood for the day.
By the time we made it to the market strip, Josee was already outside in a long baby-blue dress and a thick fur coat. The small human was standing on her tiptoes trying to hang a wooden sign onto a newly-placed hook.
Jesper’s old house, which Alden had given to her, was located in the heart of the market strip, so there was no way anyone was going to miss her store when they walked through the town.
She was so wrapped up in her impossible mission that she didn’t even hear me pull up on Ethel next to her, or when I dropped down on my feet behind her.
“Need a hand?” I asked, only for the mahogany-skinned woman to jump two feet in the air.
“Hell’s taint!” Josee gasped as she clutched the wooden sign to her chest. “Noah… you scared the life out of me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said as I fought back a smile. “I’ve brought the goat cheese, and it looked like you needed a hand.”
“Well, that’s very kind of you,” Josee said in a breathless tone as she handed me the sign.
I glanced down at it before I hung it up and saw the word ‘GROCERS’ hand-painted in golden swirls at the very top of the dark wood slab. Below it was a cute painting of a radish, with vibrant pinks and reds that bled into the white bottom, and two bright green leaves were poking out of the top.
“Did you bring this with you from Burnberry?” I asked as I leaned on my tiptoes and hooked the sign onto the post.
“I certainly did,” the grocer said as she took a step back to admire the swinging sign. “It’s one of the few things I wanted to bring with me. I figured I could save a bit of gold by not getting a new one painted.”
“And I’m sure it will feel good to have something from your old life here, too,” I said. “A little piece of the past.”
“I suppose so,” Josee agreed as her smile softened. “I do miss Burnberry, but I’m very excited about what Gladewood will offer me.”
“Well, for one, goat cheese,” I joked as I walked to the back of the cart. “Ten pounds as promised.”
Karrida slid the crate over to me, and I pulled out the top tray for Josee to take. The middle-aged woman’s oak-brown eyes widened, and a toothy grin tugged at her lips.
“Marvelous,” she breathed as she took the tray from my hands. “How much for the lot?”
“I’m not too sure how rare this stuff is, so maybe three gold for every pound?” I suggested.
“It’s Emberhorn goat milk, I’d say that’s more than generous,” Josee said. “I’ll sell it for one extra gold so I can get some revenue, but it will still be accessible to the people of Gladewood.”
“So, we’ve officially got ourselves a deal?” I asked.
“We do.” Josee nodded and readjusted the weight of the full tray in her arms. “I would shake your hand, but alas.”
“Our word is enough.” I chuckled. “Let me get the door for you.”
Josee shimmied out of the way and allowed me to open her front door.
Inside, the interior had changed from a normal, cozy living room into a spacious storefront. There was a makeshift counter toward the far end of the room with a bronze chest on top that probably acted as her till.
Shelves lined the walls and were filled with the various fruits and vegetables the human had brought with her, as well as a steeped shelf showcasing the finest crops on the windowsill.
There were two wooden cases in the center of the room pressed back to back, but there wasn’t anything within the small cubbies just yet.
The door behind the counter probably led to the rest of the house, and I’d never known Jesper well enough to see what it had looked like before he was killed. But I could tell Josee had transformed this place in the short amount of time she’d been here.
“Nice work,” I commented as the dark-haired human shuffled over to the counter.
“Thank you,” she grunted as she placed the tray on the table. “It was certainly a task, but I managed.”
“Did Alden help?” I smirked.
“W-Well, he did offer,” Josee stuttered as a flush coated her cheeks. “He’s a very kind man.”
Josee cleared her throat and wiped her hands on her coat before she busied herself with fetching some gold coins out of her bronze chest.
“How much was it? Three gold per pound?” Josee mumbled under her breath before she started counting out the coins into her hand.
I could tell she was just trying to keep the subject far away from the Overseer, but it was clear as day that whatever Alden was feeling wasn’t one-sided anymore.
I decided not to tease her about it anymore. The last thing I wanted was to embarrass her to the point that she cut things off with Alden. And I doubt Alden would ever forgive me if I crushed his one shot at romance with the new town grocer.
Once Josee had counted out the coins, she slipped the hefty amount into a small pouch and shuffled back over to me.
“Thirty gold, all accounted for,” she said as she held the weighty sack out to me. “I hope to see you again next week.”
“If you end up selling out before then, just give the message to Alden,” I said as I took the pouch and slipped it into my pocket. “He can tell one of my farmhands before they head over to my farm for work.”
“That sounds like a good plan to me,” Josee said as she guided me back out the door.