The Adventure in Repaying a Debt

Chapter Three

I walked out into the lobby and headed towards the bar. I noticed several patrons sitting at tables in small groups, laughing and dining together, and smiled in spite of my anger. Sitting down on a stool, I talked to the bartender, and arranged to have dinner brought up to our room in an hour. I wasn't in the mood to go wait in the hotel room alone, so I stayed downstairs and figured I would wait on him to get out of the meeting, and we could take a walk. Meetings of this nature didn't usually take longer than forty-five minutes, and I suspected this would be a particularly short one. I asked the bar tender for a glass of water to sip on while I waited, and resigned myself to watching the other company in the bar.

There were two women laughing and pointing at letters that had been scattered on the table, each one picking up and pointing at certain points in different letters. From what I gathered some unwanted suitor had made a fool of himself by professing his love in several different letters, some of which were poetry, but he did this to three other women, who had turned him down. An old couple sat quietly near the door, mumbling to each other and eating soup, judging by their faces, it wasn't very good. Finally, a very heavy man the looked half like a barbarian sat in the corner of the bar, smoking a cigar and drinking a bottle of whisky. Yes, I mean bottle, not glass. His hair was dirty, his clothes were dirty, he was generally just filthy looking. As I took in his appearance, I accidently caught his eye, and he smiled at me, displaying smoke rotten teeth. He heaved himself out of his chair, and walked over to me, plopping down on the stool beside me.

"Well hello there gorgeous, why might I have the pleasure of seeing you here?" he leered.

"I'm here on business, with my husband" I made sure to include.

"Oh? What sort of business? People don't often this close to the ocean for business." he inhaled a large drag, and blew the smoke in my direction.

I coughed, "He runs a cargo ship, we topped here to pick up supplies."

The man nodded, "Well surely you don't go with him, you must have little ones to take care of around here somewhere?" He looked around jokingly.

I startled, "How rude of you to assume, and that isn't any of your business."

He laughed, "My humblest apologies," he jeered, "Let me pour you a drink to right my wrongs." he took my mostly empty glass and dumped the small bit left out on the floor before pouring the whole glass full of amber colored liquid.

"Oh, no thank you," I pushed the glass towards him, "I don't like to drink, It gives me headaches, and I don't accept drinks from strangers." I stood up to leave, "Good day sir-"

He grabbed my wrist harshly, "I poured you a drink. I expect you to drink it. Now sit down."

I yanked my arm out of his grasp, "I'll thank you to keep your hands off of me-"

He reached out to grab me again, and I took a step back. He stood up and approached me.

"Now you listen here-"

I reached into the folds of my dress and grasped for my knife, prepared to retaliate if things escalated much further.

"Hey! Cut it out."

The bartender, thank goodness. The filthy man turned to him, "I wasn't giving her no trouble. Just offering her a drink is all." he smiled.

"Miss, is this man bothering you?" the tender asked me.

I swallowed my pride and released my knife back into the pocket, "Yes I'm afraid he is."

The tender nodded, "You've bothered too many women here before. I won't allow it any longer. Get out of my bar. And don't come back you filthy drunk!" he said.