The job

Seoras looked at the parchment corner slowly catching fire as he held the paper to the flame of his candle.

He looked as the fine penmanship was devoured in slowly at first, but a few heartbeats later was gone, piled on his table as a mound of black ash.

This was going to be a game changer for him and the ragtag band called the Wulvers. He scoffed at the silly name. Something else he would have to change soon. This job was going to earn them more gold than any of these losers had ever seen before. He might even be able to buy himself a small estate or lordship of they managed to do the unthinkable.

The influx of newcomers promised by his contact were already making many of the old guard uncomfortable. Sooner or later many would simply pack their belongings one night and just leave. Still others would fall in line when they realised the plans he had for the group and the coin it could bring.

Others like Alexis, Iain and Marsili, would be harder or dislodge. ~Alexis Greyriver.~ he growled in his mind.

Stubborn like her old man. Foolishly deaf with notions of bravery and honour, blind to how the world around them was changing, how people in their line of work needed to make as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time to secure their future.

He should just put a baby in her belly and retire her from the life. She should be tending a home and a husband at her age, if not for the fool of her father that allowed her to live in that fantasy world of hers.

He looked at the flickering flame of his candle imagining her with a couple of bairns around her legs, washing and cooking meals for a drunken husband in an endless routine. That would show her the real world.

He sighed. He needed to keep her in the dark until the last possible moment. She would not ruin this opportunity for her.

His patrons were generous but they did not tolerate