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Mattias sat at a table in Hudson’s Hearth, relaxing a bit while Halima served drinks to some visiting merchants. The hired barmaid arrived to take over the work for the evening, and Halima joined Mattias at his table.
“What are your plans for the rest of the day?” she asked.
“It’s lovely weather out there, how about a walk through town?” he asked.
“If you’ll give me a few minutes to change, I would love that,” she smiled.
A few minutes later she returned, and they ventured outside. It was a fine spring afternoon, with just a hint of the warm summer weather around the corner, and the sunset many hours away.
There was some commotion by the harbor, and they walked over to get a closer look.
There had been a breakdown of some crane equipment next to a cargo ship, and some men were arguing over what they needed to fix it.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Mattias asked.
“Oh, hello General,” one of them said. “We’re having a bit of a disagreement over who was in charge of maintaining the machinery here. If we can resolve that, I think we’ll get this fixed soon enough.”
Mattias looked around. Nobody seemed to be injured, and the only problem was some broken rope and a shattered crate that had just been hoisted off a ship.
“Well,” said Halima, “I hope you’re not still fighting this evening, because I was going to offer you free grog at Hudson’s Hearth this evening. But I don’t like to see fights in my establishment.”
The men looked at each other, nodded, and got to work fixing the crane.
Halima looked up at Mattias with a bit of a smirk. “Shall we continue our walk?” she asked. “I think we have at most an hour before we should be back.’
Mattias smiled, and they continued back into town.