The Matter of A Debt

[DoS Archive]

From: leducblanc@aol.com (LeDucBlanc)
Date: 30 Apr 2001 01:19:15 EDT

After his final duel in the Arena on Saturday night, Duc Percival Marchand de Clermont made his way to a small room in a poor inn on the far side of town. There, without words to any of the rather poor quality staff of the meager establishment, he strode up the stairs to the top floor. Upon reaching the long hallway at the end of the staircase, he slowly strode
all the way to the very end. There he knocked on the door of the only suite in this entire excuse for an establishment. It was not a long wait before the door was opened, as this was, after all, not unexpected.
"Hello, Jean-Claude," the duke said with a polite smile before asking, "Might I come in and do some business with you?"
The unprepossessing, dark bearded face behind the door broke into a broad, even ingratiating, smile of its own, "Of course, your grace. I certainly think we can do some excellent business indeed."
Jean-Claude opened the door widely, stepping out of the nobleman's way as he held the door quite deferentially. Percival stepped into the room, then graciously waved to Jean-Claude to take his seat first, not one to stand on ceremony in such informal surroundings. The other man bowed deeply, and obeyed the gesture quite willingly.
"Thank you, your grace," he replied with another smile, "It is good to see you again. I imagine you wish to replenish your stocks again? Or perhaps you merely heard about the bottle of your grandfather's that I have in my possession?"
This brought a laugh from the nobleman's throat, and a broad grin. "Jean-Claude, you really are too sure of yourself. For that matter, you are far too miserly to be a Frenchman as well." Percy waved a hand about the room, adding, "This is far beneath even your low standards, my good man. Couldn't you have afforded, at the very least, a second rate inn like the Golden Ivy Tavern instead of a tenth rate one like this?"
"Ahhh, your grace, I would rather not pay more than I wish to pay in such surroundings as this. Especially since this particular universe is not at all my cup of tea. I am emrely here to do business. With your grace my only real customer here, I have no real desire to spend more money than I plan to make here."
The nobleman shook his head with a laugh. "Actually, you will make quite a bit of money from me tonight. However, I wish to give a gift to a friend. My grandfather's bottle, actually. Kindly make sure it arrives at the following address." The duke jotted the destination for the scotch down, then quickly wrote out a letter of credit for the bottle's price. "Take this to any financial facility at just about any of the stops on your route, and you will
find my credit very good indeed.
"Of course, your grace."