Reborn As The Beggar Lord

008 Red and White

Ginny woke in a feather bed, warm and comfortable. After a year in a dark cell on cold stone, it felt like a dream.

The blanket was clean. Her hair had been washed, and the dirt was gone from her arms. She wore a grey dress that smelled of soap.

I died in that cell, she thought. This must be the afterlife.

She sat up, and her voice cracked from a year of disuse. "Grandma?"

The door opened, and a tall, handsome young man walked in.

Ginny's fingers rose on their own. The metal in the room groaned. The lamp bracket bent away from the wall, and the nails in the floorboards lifted.

Kingsley stopped and raised his hands in mock surrender. "Steady now. It's me. The Baron of Thornmere. Do you remember last night?"

She uncurled her fingers, and the memories returned.

Two slavers from Appleby had come to take her. Kingsley had freed her, and their daggers had pressed into his throat. He had spoken her grandmother's last words anyway.

The man before her was a noble, and he had nearly died for a cursed girl he had never met.

"Why did you save me?" Ginny asked. "What do you want from me?"

"Nothing. I made your grandmother a promise before she died. That I would free you, and I keep my promises."

Ginny stared at him. Then her face crumpled, and sobs shook her thin body. Kingsley stayed by the door and did not move.

"They bury Mara at sunrise," he said, when she was quiet. "I have to go. You don't have to."

"I want to see her one last time."

Kingsley set a length of dark cloth on the bed. "Then wear this. If the villagers recognize you, they'll jail you again and send word to the Dawn Temple."

Three hundred people filled the field behind Mara's house. Their eyes stayed on the grave as the first earth went down. No one looked back at Ginny. She stood at the edge of the crowd in a dark veil.

Kingsley took his place at the head of the grave.

"Mara Finch kept the village alive for forty years," he said. "She never once asked to be paid."

The crowd stood still.

"The Crown used and abandoned you. The Capital taxed and forgot you. I am not one of them. We will rise again, higher than before, and we will do it together."

"I will lead you as your Baron, but also support you as a friend. I promise I will neither abandon nor forget you."

An old man shouted his name first. Three hundred voices took it up, and the sound rolled down the empty street.

"Lord Kingsley! Lord Kingsley!"

[Citizen Rating] [Loyalty: 16%, Trust: 21%, Morale: 24%]

He raised an arm, and they quieted.

"I need ten able-bodied men working on the green field right away. Get it ready for planting seeds."

More than ten stepped forward and went to work.

Afterward, Kingsley walked Ginny out to the edge of the village, where the road bent south.

"Go around Appleby, not through it. Keep moving downhill for three days and don't stop to rest. I'll give you silver enough for a few months, and after that you will have to work under another name. It isn't much, but it is everything I can do for you."

"No," Ginny said. "This valley is my home."

Kingsley stopped walking.

"I'm the last survivor of the Finch family. I won't leave Thornmere unless you drive me out."

Kingsley smiled. He had expected this.

"If you live on my land, you'll take my orders. You will not use magic without my permission. Can you do that?"

Ginny looked him in the eye. "Why aren't you afraid of me? I nearly brought the whole mine down on us. Don't you see that I'm cursed?"

Kingsley read the letters floating over her head.

[Ginny Finch] [A-Grade Mage] [Talent: Iron Command]

She was younger than Lucan, but just as gifted. For touching the sacred Stone, he had received a knighthood and five hundred gold. Ginny had been eating scraps in a cell.

He met her eyes. "You are not cursed to me. You are Mara's granddaughter, and she was the first person in this village to feed me. I will be proud to have you at my side."

Ginny's lips parted. Her eyes filled with tears she did not bother to wipe away.

"What will be your orders for me?"

"You're strong," Kingsley said. "Strength like yours builds things or it kills people, and you don't get to be careless with it. But I know now that you love this land. Help me put Thornmere back on its feet."

"How?" Ginny's fists closed on her sleeves. "The moment the villagers see me, they'll finish what they started."

The Baron gave her a slanted smile.

"That can be easily handled. Your magic brought down the mine prison last night, and the jailer told the whole village what he saw. I have spread the news that Ginny Finch died under that stone."

"In the olden days, mages painted their faces. Yours will be red and white, in my house colors."

"From today you are Gina Carmine. My ward."

Ginny studied the baron who had gone this far for a cursed commoner.

"My grandmother was right in trusting you," she said. "You're a great leader."

She knelt in the dirt of the road.

"I swear to serve the Baron of Thornmere. I'll follow his orders and keep his secrets, and my magic is for his use alone."

He nodded at her. "Rise, Gina Carmine."

[Quest complete: Release Mara Finch's granddaughter]

[Reward: Reclamation tool x1] [Reward: Grain Seed Pouch x1]

Kingsley took a deep breath. Thornmere bought its food from Appleby at whatever price Baron Grubb felt like naming. The village had to grow its own, and soon.

"My lord," Gina said, and her chin came up. "What do we do now?"

Kingsley looked east, to the grey Mist Wall hanging over the hills. Then he faced the other way.

"Your grandmother said every attack on Thornmere came from the east, and not one from the north. She died before she told me why."

"Pack some supper for a trip. We're going north."