Lora of Two Worlds

Lora’s face draining of color told Hugo everything: The steward had used the Countess’s seal, stolen the deeds, and pawned them for cash. No need to change ownership at the prefecture. Money in hand, and run. A dead pledge. Higher payout. If the pledge expired, the land became the lender’s. Effectively a fire sale. The crown protected noble land titles rigorously. As long as deed, document, seal, and receipt were in order, even the General couldn’t march in and reclaim the property by force. ”Dear sister ” Hugo hadn’t finished. Lora was already running, skirts hiked, for the Count’s study. Eleven deed copies from the prefecture. Two estates, two forests, the Countess’s dowry. Five more farms, the Countess had bought for the children. Roughly equal. Each farm: fifty to eighty tenant families. Two to three hundred people, farming, livestock, weaving, smithing. They fed themselves and supplied the Odenheim house. Two residences: one in Lohenheim (where the Horn siblings lived), one in Augustburg (where the Countess, Brendan, and Carl stayed). ”I’ve sent men to check. Felix is helping. The moneylenders know each other. If they took Odenheim land knowingly, the usual suspects.” Roland was near collapse. With Mother and Grandmother managing, the brothers had never touched household finances. The Count had never interfered with the inner household. The theft was so thorough, the family wouldn’t fall, but the interior was gutted. Starting over from scratch, unless the Odenheims abandoned their principles, recovery would be slow. To be blunt: the family was a shell. Even the five brothers’ marriages would be affected. A single copper coin could bring a hero to his knees. Highgarden was something, but distant water couldn’t quench a nearby fire. ”Pool your private funds. Don’t tell Father or Grandmother about the deeds. Stabilize first.” For the three brothers, inconceivable. They’d barely absorbed the gold and silver theft. Now the farms and houses too. At least the General’s mansion was a royal grant. Otherwise, a hundred people with nowhere to live. Gareth saw Lora staring at the deed copies, unblinking. He tried to lighten the mood: ”Little Lora’s dowry’s gone. Go ahead and cry. I’ll give you all my money.” He’d meant it as a joke. Instead, Lora leapt up, grabbed his arm: ”Promise! Give me the money now, I’ll redeem the two forests first!” She’d been calculating: the forests would have the lowest pledge amounts. Besides hunting and logging, not much value. ”Shouldn’t we redeem the house first? If Mother’s in Augustburg and the house gets seized, how humiliating? Grandmother’s already sick from anger. If Mother learns the farms are gone too ” Alvin said what all three brothers were thinking: protect the parents and grandmother first. ”The forests and the house, we can redeem both. If we’re short, I have more.” The speaker, wheeled in by Lyle, was Leon. He’d barely returned to the Grand Princess’s mansion when he heard about the steward’s flight. Then, from Hugo, the deeds had been pledged. This was serious. Lost gold was lost flesh. Lost land, lost limbs. On their salaries alone, they couldn’t maintain the household guards. Was someone trying to force them into the same trap as new commanders, skimming military pay, squeezing the locals? ”Leon? What brings you?” Leon smiled: ”Once the deeds are verified, let’s see how much is needed. Good thing we caught it early. If the pledges had expired, principal and interest would have multiplied. Also, look at who the lenders are. Some may be genuinely foolish. But some may be playing dumb. If someone behind the scenes is using this to force the Odenheims into corruption, that’s truly dangerous.” His words jolted the siblings awake. Even Lora hadn’t thought of that layer. A name hovered at the edge of her mind. Hugo, chubby but agile, took the front steps two at a time: ”Lord Alvin, all the deeds are found!” He was a nobleman in the same social circles. Finding information was easy. The eleven deeds, their destinations, quickly traced. Alvin scanned the list. These were all younger sons of noble houses, no Church university training, no official posts. They expanded family wealth privately and lined their own pockets. ”Sheffield... Moqing? Isn’t that Sheffield the Second? He lent five hundred purses, against the two forests?” Lora, reading over Alvin’s shoulder, spotted a familiar name. The day she’d fallen into the river, she remembered him. Quite refined-looking. Not like his my older brother, no merchant’s guile. ”Forests don’t fetch high prices, especially ones backed by wasteland, not connected to farmland. Five hundred from Sheffield Moqing, he probably thinks he’s helping you.” Rich men bought pelts directly from hunters. They hunted for sport on open land. No need to buy a whole mountain. Only princes, like Jasper, who hosted royal hunts, kept private forests. The Augustburg residence had been pledged for five thousand purses. Plus the forests, total principal: five thousand five hundred. Roughly five thousand ounces of silver. ”Pledged less than ten days ago. I’ll talk to the two lenders, get them to halve the interest.” Hugo added: ”My mother also says: if you need money urgently, draw from our treasury. Repay when you can.” ”Cousin, please thank the Grand Princess. If we truly need it, we’ll ask. For now, our pooled funds should cover it.” Alvin said: ”Please make one more trip to those two. Tell them, we’ll bring money tomorrow to redeem.” He didn’t know why his sister was so urgent about the two forests, but they were Great-grandfather’s dowry to Mother. And the amount was modest. He agreed. After Hugo left, Leon said: ”The six thousand purses, I’ll cover. Your funds need to keep the household and the guards stable. In half a year, Highgarden should yield returns. You can repay me then.” Alvin thought, then nodded. Leon was right. If the guards were stable, the family was stable. The Odenheims were a military family. Fallen for generations, but the faith in their blood remained: Spear in hand, standing between heaven and earth.Sword at hip, riding to win a lord’s commission.

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