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What do you do? Do you give up on trying to plead your way out of this mess, and try vague threats of legal action instead? Or do you give it a proper try before throwing it in like that? And what happens when both fail you? What then? What do you -
“What are you doing here?”
Both you and the young Master are shocked to the point that you both start at the intrusion. Upon seeing that the new arrival is his father, the young Master speaks up first.
“F-father, I thought that you … weren't you off visiting a friend?”
“They were taken ill.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Yes. What I don't see is why you are back here instead of minding the common room.”
In less than a moment, in less than a flash, inspiration strikes you like a Slaughterer's sledge-axe. As the young Master starts to stammer out some answer, you speak up and bull right over him with a confidence that you certainly don't feel.
“I was just thanking the young Master. Out of the kindness of his heart, he had my had my Mistress and Master's things taken out of the room, and brought up to his own, so if the guest showed up, it wouldn't be an issue.”
“Is that right?”
You just nod. The young master looks taken aback and more than a little frustrated – which as far as you are concerned is a good sign. If his father approved of this sort of thing, you'd be no worse off than you were when he interrupted ... but if he doesn't – and judging by his reaction to your fib, he doesn't – then he'd be smart to back off, before his father clued in to his actual attentions.
“Well now, Ambrose, you have gone and put me in quite a bit of a spot, haven't you?”
You are still trembling, but at least for now, the risk of tears seems to have passed. So it is with relative numbness that you watch the Master of the house fumble through his pockets. It seems at the moment, all of your cleverness has been spent – shocked as you are that your deception worked, you cannot puzzle out what he is talking about or looking for.
“I was already wondering if I could really charge someone for this, but not that her Mistress and Master's orders weren't even in the room for the full time, I cannot in good conscience charge for it. Especially as it would undermine your good deed,”
With that, he finally manages to find the twenty-talent he took from you, and without so much as a second glance at it, he just hands it right over. You take it from him, noticing how the dentures that he bit it with have left deep gouges into the body of the coin. You don't know what to say, but at least you have enough presence of mind to get your fingers out of view as quickly as possible by tucking them and the coin into one of the pockets on your apron.
“Now Ambrose, I'll take care of her … and the front. But right now, I need you to go head down Benedetto's shop and arrange to have those chamber pots brought over.”
“I – but father, can't one of our men go instead?”
