Quoted By:
"Let it never be said that I was unkind to any lady deserving of it. Though to be honest, I cannot imagine a kindness so outrageous as this … but if you are so certain that you can manage it, considering the circumstances … I suppose I must let you find your own way home."
Trying - and perhaps failing - to keep your composure, you stoop so you can gratefully slip your arm back inside of his.
“Oh, bless you Goodman Taker, bless you!”
Entwined again, the two of you close the remaining distance to the door.
"I must know though, just what business could you be conducting here?"
You are wincing - and not just on account of a goodly proportion of the man's weight bearing down on your left arm's still tender crook. Such a question was inevitable, not to mention completely reasonable, but you had found yourself hoping that he wouldn't ask. Which puts you on the spot once more - how much can you safely tell this man? Were you to tell him nothing, what would he do? What would he think? And besides of all this, just what exactly <span class="mu-i">do</span> you intend to do here? The plan, such as it is - or rather, such as it <span class="mu-i">was</span> - was to drive yourself away on your new stage with the Patent and bill of sale in hand. Of course, you never intended to arrive this late ...
> Please choose ONE of the following:
> This Taker has already had enough out of you - give him nothing more, lest he or one of his brothers turn that knowledge against you somehow.
> This Taker has much more of you than you would like - but to refuse him this answer, after he so magnanimously conceded to you ... it seems too unkind.
> Please choose ONE of the following:
> It cannot be gainsaid just how much the lateness of the hour is against you, making what was already going to be difficult all the more harder - but after all of this, you cannot leave here with hands merely half full. You will drive your stage out of here, and then immediately start looking for some other establishment that you can board the team at.
> It is a pill, for a surety, but one that must be swallowed. If you take delivery of stage and team right now, then you are going to be committing to boarding them - and while you have an idea on how you might manage that, you are still clueless as to where you might. Your time is like to be better spent inside the Landward Walls, instead of without - getting back to the Closet and your handcart, and making that final decision on planting the False Ball or not ...
