Tristan sat, staring at Lord Wells as he slowly taught his son, occasionally stopping to ask his son questions. The times when Edmund struggled to give an awnser, was when Tristan would step in, carefully nudging Edmund towards the answer without outright saying it. Although Edmund didn't seem to realise, Tristan could tell Lord Wells knew what he was doing, happily smiling.
"That will be all today." Lord Wells slammed the book shut and slipped it back into the bookshelf. "We will continue tomorrow." Edmund rose, letting out a large stretch, moaning as he did. "Tristan." Lord Wells called out to him with a small smile, "Please come with me for a second. Edmund, just wait for a while. I must talk with the Princeling alone."
Like a dutiful son, Edmund nodded and reached into the small satchel he had brought with him, pulling out a small wooden device and playing with it. Tristan watched and realised it was a puzzle that required someone to separate the pieces that made it up, soemthing he had played with many times before, to the point he could solve it in minutes now.
Shaking his head, Tristan quietly followed behind Wells as he turned the corner just out of earshot of his son, "I appreciate what you were doing for Edmund." Resting a hand on his chest, Wells lowered his head slightly, "He is a smart young boy, but struggles to think for himself sometimes."
"Lord Wells, please, there is no need." Tristan politely said, resting his hands behind his back, "All I did was nudge Edmund into the right direction. He was the one who eventually reached the correct answers." The older man nodded in agreement. Placing both hands atop his cane, his hands curled around it, making his leather gloves make a snapping sound.
"Tristan." Wells looked through the bookshelf at his son, a thin smile forming on his lips as he watched the boy's face light up at solving the first part of the puzzle he played with, "Why have you hidden yourself within these walls?" Wells asked with a calm, quiet voice. Looking back down at Tristan, he met the young man's gaze and smiled, "Watching you with my son, I can tell you are smart enough to get an official role. If what I have seen just now is the surface, you seem capable of acting as a steward to a Lord."
"You honour me, Lord Wells." Tristan said with a light chuckle, "But there is no need. I understand myself better than anyone. My ability to help Edmund simply came from the fact that I was already learning about the Flatlands."
"Tristan." Lord Wells chuckled, "Some things you spoke about can easily be explained by studying, but the ability to lead my son to the correct answer on his own. But reading about crop rotation and understanding it are two different things." Before Tristan could speak, Wells raised his hand to stop him, "My son has looked over those scrolls containing my finances of the previous year many times. Whilst he understood correctly how all the money was being distributed and spotted many of the purposeful mistakes I left, do you know what he missed that you didn't?"
Tristan's smile dropped ever so slightly. In a pursuit to make a friend, he realised he had let Wells see a little too much. It didn't take much thinking. Wells had provided his territores previous years expenditure and income for his son to get a grip of. Out of curiosity, Tristan looked over it with permission and noticed what Wells wanted to do. Some mistakes were obvious, such as numbers not adding up, but other things were different.
"Embezzlement through the servants' spending," Tristan said with a quiet voice, getting a nod from Wells. When he had looked over the scrolls, he didn't understand why, but he had felt the servants were spending too much, be it on food, wages, or sudden payments that always occurred throughout the year.
"It's very minor and usually accounted for by the Lords, knowing they can't stop it." Wells said with a light chuckle, "But one look at my yearly spending, and you spotted it. How?"
Tristan looked to the ground. "Your budget is made at the start of the year." Without a chance to lie, he answered honestly, "Then you have the budget for sudden payments you must make, for things like damage, I assume?" Wells nodded. "I live in the palace. I have seen how rare it is for things to be damaged or go missing. Maybe if your land were in a special climate like a swamp, it would be different, but your territory is not like that. Added to the fact that you are married to Aunt Mary, and I doubt her servants would be as clumsy as to have to use that much of your emergency budget. The only thing I could assume it was, was the servants pocketing some."
Wells nodded, "You are right, but you miss the key point. Feats, tournaments, and other activities which require an influx of gold will also drain this."
"But the spending would have been larger." Tristan countered, making Wells raise an eyebrow, "It was too consistent and too light to be spent on such things. As if trying not to arouse someone's attention to it." Wells smirked and patted a hand on Tristan's shoulder.
"You may be my son's friend. I hope you can help him in the future." Wells said, and slowly limped back over to Edmund, firmly grabbing the boy's shoulder and leading him away, talking to him about his lessons and recapping what he knew.
Tristan watched the two walk off and smiled to himself, feeling Annabell land on his shoulder and hug his cheek afterwards. "Did you become friends with him, Tristan?"
"Not yet, but I got permission for it." Annabell jumped up happily, rubbing he rhead into Tristan with more ferocity.
"Do you like him?" Annabell asked the most important question and made Tristan fall into thought.
"He's..." Thinking back to what he knew about Edmund, he couldn't help but smile. "He's a kind person and a quick learner. Yeah, I think I can like him." That was enough for Annabell, who nodded.
"Where are we going now?" Tristan thought for a moment and shrugged, walking off without a destination in mind.
-----------------------
The moonlight pierced through Wells. Stepping in, he saw Mary quietly reading a book in bed, before looking up at him with a loving smile, placing it to the side. Limping over, he rested his cane to the side and slowly undressed himself until he only wore a light vest, before climbing and reaching into the drawer, grabbing a vial of liquid and drinking it.
The discomfort in his leg slowly vanished as he could finally relax. Mary waited for her husband to get comfortable and put the book to the side, resting her head on his shoulder. "How were Edmund's studies?"
"They were good. He did better than he usually does." Mary sweetly smiled.
"Thats good. Do you think he is ready to go back to your lands now?" Wells noticed the double meaning in her tone, knowing she wished for her son to finally be taken away from the danger of the Palace.
"Soon. But for now, I want him to stay. He is making a friend who will be good for him." Wells said, thinking of Tristan. Mary looked up into his eyes, whilst her other hand played with Wells' shirt.
"Is that so. Did he get close to one of the servants or a courtier's child?" With a shake of the head, Wells grabbed Mary's blond hair and brought it to his lips, giving it a small kiss.
"No, it was one of his cousins. A boy named Tristan." Feeling his wife tense up, Wells looked at her and saw a strange look in her eyes as she looked across the room in deep thought. "Is there a problem, my love?" Wells asked, letting go of her hair and bringing Mary closer to him.
The woman let out a deep sigh and shook her head, "No. It's just, you know, how I had Edmund look into the thing my brothers wanted." Wells nodded, "That boy, Tristan, his name was brought up during the recounting. Apparently, Tristan saw Edmund during his investigation. A minor meeting where he introduced himself before reading."
Wells frowned, "There is hardly ever a conscience in this place." Mary nodded, "You think he is approaching Edmund for his own schemes."
"I do not know. I've never spoken to the boy. Inseat what do you think?" Wells closed his eyes, recounting the entire day in his mind.
"Potentially. It baffles me how such a child managed to stay hidden for so long. He a smart boy Mary, likely the smartest of his cousins." Mary's eyes widened in shock.
"You can't be serious."
"I am. I've met the majority of the princelings as well as the king's children. Forgive me for a moment, but most of them are lost causes, with a few showing the potential for advising. Out of them, a handful have the ability to truly be in charge." Wells narrowed his gaze, "He is one of those handful I've seen."
Mary took a deep breath and leaned into Wells, "I'll leave this to you. I trust you know what's best for Edmund. But the moment that boy steps too far, tell me." Wells nodded and smiled. With a kiss on her forehead, he leaned over and blew out the candle.