Nadine Book 2

28. Banking

I run to my place and put the human dress on with flat shoes. Then I run back to Tre's office. The mom's are both leaving.

He smiles. "Let's go get some fish baby."

"Can I fish too?"

He kisses me on the head. "Of course you can. That is always fun to watch." He puts him arm around me and starts leading me out.

"Can I make the fire too? I haven't made one in forever."

He smiles. "You can do everything if you want. I will sit there and eat. I do like to eat."

We get out to the river and I make the fire while he catches a couple fish. He starts cleaning them getting ready to cook. "You going to fish?"

"Not today. We already know how that ends."

He starts laughing. We sit by the fire and cook the fish. We talk about nothing just like we use to. It's really nice sitting with him.

He lays down in the grass and grumbles. "I ate to much. I can't hardly move."

I lay down with him and lay my head on his chest. We both watch the clouds and point them out. It's amazing.

Dipak and Omar come out about 15 minutes before the next meeting.

"Having fun you 2?" Omar asks.

"He ate to much. He can't move Omar."

"Ah yes, that does happen."

Dipak crosses his arms. "One of us have to be with her in the safes. Her dad and Frode want her to see them, so she doesn't try to keep money in another drawer."

"I can do it. I'll show her some of the bookkeeping for the shop too. My mom will be calling you for the vacations as soon as we get in there."

"Ok I am excited about that. I've always wanted to go over there and see it all."

"Oh and I was talking to our mate earlier. When we go to China I'm going to put the feather in your arm. You'll be able to at least talk to her a bit and if anything weird happens here you can tell me."

Tre wraps his arms around me. "Thank you."

"You're going to have to specify weird for him, Dipak."

"How do you mean?"

"I had to have a table rotated so my dad could eat with his stab hole." We all bust out laughing. "This entire place is weird. He's going to be connecting to you every 10 seconds."

Dipak tries to stop laughing. "That is true. We'll come up with some guidelines."

I point up in the air at a cloud. "That one's a boob."

They all look up and Omar says "How do you get a boob out of that? It's not even round."

I laugh at them all staring up in the sky. "I wanted to see how long you would all search for a floating boob."

Dipak yells "WOMAN."

"Obviously a long time." I jump up laughing and run to get a bucket of water for the fire. The 3 of them stand in the grass laughing.

We get back to the kings office and Asa is already standing there. Dipak follows her right back out.

Frode walks up to me and Tre. "I take it you are going with her?"

"Yes."

"You are responsible for her in the safes and vaults."

"Yea I know."

Frode takes off and we follow him. I've got a death grip on Tre's hand. I don't know why I'm scared.

"It's not scary baby. You have to be careful. Don't touch anything ok?"

"Ok."

Frode gets out some papers. "I'm going to show her the vault here first. Then we will go over to the village."

"I'm not dressed to go to the village. I don't even have a veil or gloves with me."

Tre yells. "MARY BRING HER A VILLAGE OUTFIT. We can do the vault now still. She'll need a couple of minutes to change before we go over there."

"Right this way."

We go all the way down to the dungeons. I grab onto Tre again. I'm scared someone will jump out at me or something.

He wraps an arm around me and guides me behind Frode.

I hear noise down one of the hallways. I jump and try to run. Tre holds me tighter.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Mary pops out from a corner. "Mary I almost peed on myself again."

"I do believe you would have peed on Tre too. You have a death grip on him."

"I think that's better than puke sir."

He takes the clothes from Mary. "Thank you."

Frode nods. "Are you ok to continue?"

"Are there mean and bad people down here?"

"Who told you that?"

"Tre and Dipak."

"When did Dipak tell you that?"

"When he showed me the jail in the village, he said the terrible people are here where they can have more guards on them all the time."

Tre doesn't seem happy.

Frode shakes his head. "There are only a couple prisoners down here and we are no where near them."

I loosen my grip on Tre a bit.

We follow Frode to more stairs. This time they have to carry fire sticks.

I've got such a hold on Tre. "I don't like this. I can't see."

"You're almost there baby."

I start to shake.

"Stop. Frode take this and hold it where I can see her."

Tre grabs my face and looks in my eyes. "You are right here baby. That's the door." He points at it. "Don't be scared. Nothing in there can hurt you. You'll really like it, if you can make it. But I'm not going to force you." He gives me a hug and holds me for a minute. "She's really shaky. Just a second." I bury my face in his chest and he rubs my back. "Can you go in or do you want to go back?"

"I can go in."

He takes the torch from Frode and we go in. "You're ok baby."

There is money everywhere. Money as well as gold and jewels. I try to steal a big red one. "I need that one."

"You don't get to take any."

"BUT I NEED IT."

Frode laughs. "Take it up with your father. I'm sure you will get it."

"So we keep money in here? Cause it won't fit in the drawer?"

"This is a safe room. It's hidden and locked. It's much safer than any drawer. It would not be safe to keep this where everyone knows where it is. Someone would try to steal it."

"I have to keep my money somewhere safe and put a little in my drawer."

Tre smiles. "Right."

"Do I put my money in here too? Or do I get my own room?"

Frode looks at me. "You can put money in here. We can clear you a shelf for your own money. Or you can have something made for you. That choice is yours. You can think about it or talk to your mates."

"Yea I'll talk to them." I point at the red gem again. "I want that one."

Tre kisses my cheek. "Take it up with your daddy."

"I'm really surprised we never found this place as kids, Tre."

"It's really hidden and damn near impossible to find if you don't know where it is baby."

I smile. Then we all go back up.

I take the clothes from Tre and change in an empty office. I come out with the veil in my mouth and putting the gloves on.

Tre takes the veil out of my mouth. "Frode went out to grab a couple guard horses. It'll be easier than walking."

"What's in the village if the money is here?"

"We'll show you. It'll be easier to explain once we get there, and you see it."

Tre throws the veil over my head as we get outside. Then he pulls me up on a horse and I relax right into his warm chest. I always loved riding with him. "When we were kids, I would always like this too, Tre. I never knew when I would get to touch you again. But I always liked riding with you. You made me feel so safe. I always looked forward to being able to do it again."

He kisses my head and wraps his arms around me tighter.

We ride close like that all the way to the village and hop down at a big building.

We end up back in another dungeon. I grab onto Tre again.

"Nothing scary here baby. No bad guys at all. Only a bunch of vaults."

We get to another vault it has more money in it. But this is only money and not near as much. And there is no gold or gems.

"This money is fast moving. We pay for things with it, we buy supplies, this is the money we use all the time. When there gets to be to much in here, we buy gold or gems and put them in the other vault."

"Why not put more money in the other vault?"

"Currency changes over the years. In 500 years, all this will be worthless. Another kind of money will be made. But gold and gems will still be worth a lot. So we protect them a lot more."

"So my soap store will have one of these. And I will buy my supplies to restock them with that money. Then whatever is left, I give you 10% and I keep the rest. When I get a lot saved up in my room like this one, I can buy some gold and put in a vault in the castle?"

Tre smiles. "Not exactly. The room you have, like this one, will be yours. Not the stores. At the end of every 30 days. I do the paperwork for the store. I see how much it made. I buy the supplies for the next month out of it's money. I pay for anything it needs out of the money it made. I see what's left, and I assign this vault 10%, and then you get 90%. You will have a room like this one that your 90% will go to. You will use it all the time. The gold you save up. You won't ever touch it unless, for some reason, your room here goes empty. Then you can sell a bit of it to put more in here."

"And I keep a tiny bit in my room for shopping and going out with Thora or Mary."

Frode smiles. "Perfect."

"Do I have 1 like this for me now?"

Tre shakes his head and Frode says "Yes. I set it up when we set the store up. I was trying to hurry and get it done. You and Dipak are both on it. But that's all. Her dads not on it."

"Can I see it?"

"It's like this but empty."

Tre smiles at me. "It won't be for long though. I do have to close out the books for your stores first 30 days. Do you want to help me, so you can see how it all works out? Then we can come back here and put your money in it?"

I smile and nod.

"We may have to make some adjustments on pricing. Don't worry if you don't make a lot. It's only the first section."

"It'll be neat to see how it works. And I really want to see if I made any money at all. I haven't got to work at the store at all either. Can we go see it again?"

"Sure baby."

Frode nods. "You understood everything I wanted to show you. So I'm going back and remember do not keep that much in a drawer again."

"I won't. I promise sir."

"We're going to walk over to the market baby. Having a horse in there is terrible. We'll come back and get it when we're done."

"Ok."

We get over to the market area. "Who owns my store?"

"You are the primary. I am on it as the titleholder." I look down. "You can't have a business being so young. That's the only reason. As soon as you're old enough, I will remove myself from it, if that's what you want. But either me or Dipak had to do it for now. He said since I was doing all the paperwork for it, I should hold the title too."

"Yea he hates paperwork."

"I promise, it's only because you're to young to hold it on your own. One of us had to take responsibility for it. Do the books and stuff. It had to be done this way. But I will never take any money from you, and it is all yours the second you come of age."

"But I can help with the books, and you'll show me how to do them?"

"Once I show you, you can do them yourself. I'll have to check and submit them."

"Thank you Tre."

"You're welcome."

We go in my store, and it's got 5 people in it shopping. I grab him and start crying like last time. He chuckles a little bit and leads me back outside. I hold him and cry.

Dipak comes over to us. "Frode said you came here."

I let go of Tre and grab Dipak. I cry on him for a couple minutes. Then I go back to Tre.

"Why are you crying?"

"My store has people in it." Then I start sobbing everywhere.

Tre pulls me back into his chest and puts his arms around me. "Every time. We can't even get in the door."

Dipak laughs. "If you want to work in there, you are going to have to be able to get in the door."

I stand up straight and stop crying. "I can do this." I turn around and go in.

I make it all the way to the soap. I touch it and it's real. I pick it up and smell. It smells like mine. It's perfect. I take it to Dipak. I cry again. "It's perfect."

"Well we got to the soap this time. That's an improvement."

Dipak puts his arms around me and we get out. He leads me to the side of the store and Tre is right with us.

I wipe my eyes. "I was trying. It's so overwhelming."

"We get it baby. Take your time. You'll get there eventually." Tre kisses my head.

I put an arm around both of them.

Then I hear it.

"IT'S THE PRINCESS."