Rose awoke early in the morning beneath a dark-blue sky. For some reason, she did not go through her morning routine with her usual lethargy. For some reason, she felt energized and full of life. For once she seemed to feel a sense of excitement; as though she was on the cusp of experiencing something good. Yes, she was going to be helping uncle Klaus and Ignazio today, but she never got this excited about that.

  Rose quickly scarfed down her breakfast, cleaned out two guest rooms, and retrieved a few loaves of fresh bread from the local bakery. Before she left for her uncle’s shop, she reported to her mother.

  “I’ve cleaned the two rooms and brought the bread just like you asked, mother,” she announced to her mother, who was busy sewing a hole she found in one of the sheets she had recently had returned to her from the laundress.

  “Okay,” Her mother said without looking up.

  “So I can go and spend the day with uncle Klaus, right?” Rose asked. Her mother remained expressionless and once again did not look up from the sheets.

  “Sure,” she replied. A big smile formed on Rose’s face.

  “Great! Thank you, mom!” she replied before starting to exit the tavern. Just as she was about to leave, she ran into her father, Fritz Zimmermann.

  “Hey, where do you think you’re going?” He barked. Rose stopped dead in her tracks.

  “To uncle Klaus’s workshop. Mom said that I could help him out today if I did all of my morning chores,” Rose answered.

  “Klaus? Why do you need to go to his workshop? You should be here learning to take over the inn. I don’t know what the hell you’re going to learn from him…”

  “Uncle Klaus is a really smart man and I learn a lot about carpentry from him…” Rose argued, struggling to string together an argument. Fritz was not at all moved by his daughter’s words.

  “Klaus… There is a lot about Klaus that you don’t understand and I don’t think you should be spending too much time with him,” Fritz said. A frown formed on Rose’s face.

  “I’ll let you go, but I’m going to talk to your mother about this. You don’t need bad influences like him in your life,” Fritz concluded.

  “Okay dad…” Rose responded. She then turned around and began to walk away. She felt as though her father, with just one brief conversation, had completely deflated; drained her of all of her energy. She wanted to cry as she dug her hands into her pockets. To her surprise, she felt a metallic disk in one of her pockets: the silver coin that Nashorn had given her the other night. She felt a little bit of hope return to her as she remembered that her father often talked big talk about cutting Klaus out of her life, but never really followed up on it. She then thought once again about that strange pale man from the other other night and what he made her feel. Maybe everything was going to be alright.

  A short time later

  Rose let herself into Klaus’s workshop. It was a large building made of wood and stone with a workspace on the first floor and private lodging for Klaus and Ignazio Caro, a journeyman carpenter that worked alongside him, on the second. The floor of the workspace was covered in sawdust and various tools hung on the wall. Rose could see various pieces of wood lying on a table. It took her a moment to figure it out, but she eventually deduced that this was a chair that had yet to be completed.

  Rose called out to her uncle. When she heard no response, she called out to Ignazio. He did not respond either. Rose began to grow concerned, as Klaus and Ignazio were usually fast at work at this time of the day and, in the event one of them had to leave the workshop, they would usually leave the other behind to keep an eye on things.

  Just as Rose began to consider turning back and going home, the door flung open as two men stumbled into the workshop.

  “I should have killed that piece of shit! I should have cut his tongue out right then and there! How dare he use what God gave him to speak of you like that!” A muscular man in his early thirties barked. He had olive skin and curly dark-brown hair. There were a number of bruises on his face as well as his fists. In addition to all of that, his right eye was bruised.

  “Goddammit Iganzio, you can’t keep getting into fights like this. This is not how we’re going to keep this fucking operation afloat…” the blonde-haired man holding him responded, only to be cut off by Rose.

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  “Ignazio! What the hell happened?” she exclaimed.

  “Rosie!” The two men blurted out simultaneously. The blonde-haired man quickly regained his composure.

  “Oh, thank God you’re here, Rosie. Ignazio got himself into a fight with one of our clients and I’m going to need some help. There are some clean rags and herbs in the backroom. Could you grab them for us?” the blonde-haired man asked.

  “No problem, uncle,” Rose responded. She quickly bolted through a door and returned with the supplies Klaus requested. They both got to work patching Ignazio up.

  Neither Rose nor Klaus were doctors by any means, but they were able to clean and dress Iganzio’s wounds sufficiently. Upon closer inspection, even a layperson like Klaus could see that Ignazio’s wounds were not at all severe enough to leave lasting issues; provided that they did not become infected. Once Ignazio was patched up, Rose began to speak.

  “Uncle, what happened? Why did your client beat up Ignazio?” she asked.

  “Well actually, I’ll have you know that it was the other way around: I beat him up. He was on the ground by the time your uncle pulled me off of him,” Ignazio interjected.

  “Goddammit Iggy, this is not the sort of thing you should be bragging about; especially in front of Rose,” Klaus snapped. Ignazio sighed.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry,” Ignazio said. He then turned to Rose, “One of our clients said some very bad things about your uncle and… well I lost my cool and attacked him,” he explained.

  “What did he say about you, uncle?” Rose asked. Klaus shook his head.

  “I’d rather not say. It’s best if you don’t worry about it Rosie. We need to go get back to work anyways,” He said. Rose smiled.

  “Alright then, what should I do?” She asked.

  “Well, you can start by sweeping this place up…” Klaus responded.

  Some time later

  After some time, Klaus had finished sanding down the pieces of Count Claudius’ chair and Rose had swept up the floor. During this time, Ignazio worked on an end table for another client. Once Klaus was sure that the chair was sanded down to perfection, he called out to Rose.

  “Hey Rosie, could you get me some varnish?” he called.

  “Okay, uncle!” She responded. Rose then went to the back room to retrieve it. She then handed it to her uncle.

  “Here it is,” She said. Klaus took the varnish from her.

  “Thank you, Rosie,” He remarked. He then began to apply the varnish to the pieces of the chair.

  “Uh.. uncle?” Rose began to speak. There was a great deal of hesitancy in her voice. Klaus stopped what he was doing to look up at Rose.

  “Yes, Rose?” he responded.

  “I want to talk to you about something that happened to me the other night…” She began. Klaus’s eyes widened. For a moment it looked as though he had just put some foul-tasting thing into his mouth.

  “Was it something bad?” He asked. Rose shook her head.

  “No, no, not at all! It was something good, actually; something really good,” she explained. Klaus immediately loosened up and relaxed.

  “Oh really? What happened?”

  “I… I met this guy. Him and his friends came to the inn the other night and I… I think I like him. I think I really like him…” Rose tried to explain.

  “Tell me more,” Klaus asked. Rose proceeded to tell him all about how she met Nashorn and his associates.

  “Hmm… and you said that his name was ‘Nashorn’ right?” Klaus asked. Rose nodded her head.

  “Yes, uncle.”

  “Well, that’s a strange name. I don’t like what you’ve said about the company he keeps, though I have to admit that he doesn’t sound like a bad guy,” Klaus commented.

  “What do you think I should do, uncle?” Rose asked. Klaus scratched his chin.

  “I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t think you should go around throwing yourself at every cute guy you see, but that doesn’t mean that you should just ignore all men. Try to get to know him when he comes back; see what he’s like without his friends around, but…” Klaus said as he leaned in close to his niece and pointed his finger at her, “... do not let him make you do anything that you don’t want to do,” He commanded. He spoke those words very slowly, clearly, and authoritatively.

  “Of course, uncle!” Rose responded.

  “Good,” Klaus said, “And, if you decide that you still like him, introduce him to me. I would like to size him up myself, though based on what you’ve said, I think we might be able to get along.”

  “I can definitely do that, uncle. I’m sure he would love to meet you,” Rose replied. Klaus smiled.

  “Good. I’m glad that you’ve decided to handle this in the way that you did. I know that your parents don’t approve of him regardless of whether or not he is as good as you say he is, but they need to learn to stop standing in the way of love,” Klaus remarked.

  “Thank you, uncle,” Rose said. She then moved in to give Klaus a hug.

  ‘She might have just found someone that understands her,’ Klaus thought, ‘I don’t know why, but I feel like this Nashorn might just be the man that will change Rosie’s life’.