George Anne walked around the room with some dissatisfaction, and when she heard footsteps in the hallway, she stopped to look at the door, but to her disappointment, the people outside did not come in, but passed quickly.

George Anne felt a pang of chagrin in her heart, and although she knew that it was not very wise to disturb her brother at this time, she hesitated a little, but pushed open the door and walked to a room on the other side of the hallway.

After knocking lightly on the door, without waiting for a response from inside, George Anne pushed the door and walked in.

Count Mordillo, who was helping the servant to take off his coat, looked back at George Anne in some surprise, and then motioned for the servant to stand down.

"What's going on, don't you look very good," Modillo asked. 、

"I heard you're going to get Gewre out of Naples?" George Anne looked at her brother with some dissatisfaction: "Is there anything that must be done only by him?" ”

"Just leave for a while, knowing that he has been in Naples long enough, it is not good for people of his age, and seeing the world more should be what he should do now."

The Count of Mordillo casually remarked his sister, and although he knew that the reason was a bit far-fetched, he could not find any other excuse to send George Anne.

After all, George Anne is not other aristocrats, and as a mother, many of the statements that are perfectly reasonable to others are useless.

The stove against the wall was already full of split wood, and sometimes Modillo, who stayed up late, would light a few pieces of wood to keep warm.

The weather has gradually become colder, just look at the blurred mist on the glass windows.

Although it is not particularly cold on the Mediterranean coast in late autumn, it is not comfortable to feel as if you have fallen into a wind-filled alley at any time.

Modillo hoped that the grain would reach the French as soon as possible, otherwise it would be difficult for the French to live in the event of winter.

Agri was rich in wheat, but after all, a huge demand in Naples had taken up a lot of weight, and the deal with the French could not be revealed.

The last time James Columbus sent the grain, it didn't solve much suffering for the French, and it is even said that because of all the bad accidents along the way, some of them even became the spoils of war for the coalition forces.

And it takes time to prepare a new batch of food.

And Alexander did not provide wheat for free.

The price of wheat has gradually fallen with the arrival of the autumn harvest, and the Neapolitans, who have gradually recovered from the panic of running out of food, have gradually come to their senses, and they no longer blindly want to prepare some food at home for emergencies, but even if they have to buy them in large quantities and send them to places as far away as Upper Italy, they still have to pay a great price.

After all, in addition to the expensive shipping costs, the turbulent situation now also makes people have to pay more to recruit people.

Modillo rubbed his head, and he felt that the problem he was facing now was even more difficult to solve than the accusations he had faced with Frederick, after all, the deal with the French was not only a secret, but worse still, there was no guarantee that the deal would go smoothly except for the tacit understanding of those at the top of both sides.

For example, in addition to the food that James Columbus took away that fell into the hands of the coalition forces for various reasons, even those that were sent to the French did not go well, because neither James nor the men he hired knew who the real "buyer" was.

As a result, the French really "robbed" the food after a battle, and because of this, James even lost some men.

And the French did not get what they needed smoothly, after all, what they grabbed in the battle, more or less there will be a lot of losses.

This made Modillo feel that he could not go on like this, at least not just to let the French get a pitiful amount of food, and let him pay for it again and again.

There was another reason why he decided to let Alexandre leave Naples temporarily.

Frederick's coronation had already been scheduled, and unlike Ferdinand's hasty succession, Frederick's succession was not much close, if not a time of elevation, since the French had already been driven as far as Upper Italy, and their defeat was only a matter of time.

So there could have been more time to prepare, but Frederick still insisted on being crowned as soon as possible.

Modillo didn't know if Frederick's eagerness to wear the crown was due to fear that someone would challenge him, but he knew that at least the last time Alexander clashed with him at Ferdinand's funeral, it affected the future king's mood somewhat.

Therefore, the Count felt that it was a wise decision to let Alexander leave temporarily, he did not want the conflict with Frederick to affect his plans, so it would be in everyone's interest to avoid Frederick's edge now.

As for the future, the Count didn't think much about it, after all, the young man had made him have so many doubts that he even felt that even if Alexander was indeed that George Modillo, it would be meaningless if he could not become a real Modiglo.

"That young man is already famous in Naples, and he is jealous of the bohemian woman and the nephew of Córdoba," said Modillo, a little impatiently, feeling that Giorgio Anne was a little nervous, "so it is good for him to leave for a while at this time, you should know what that Gonzalo means to Naples, even Frederick has to be very careful in front of him." ”

"They are jealous, yes, they must be jealous, they are jealous of my son and they are jealous of his present reputation," retorted George Anne a little stubbornly, "I wish my children would always be by my side, and such a small wish cannot be fulfilled." ”

"There will come a day," said Mordillo, walking over and patting George Anne's arm, "your children will be with you, but now they will both have to endure a little bit of disappointment." ”

"Why, listening to your tone, is Jisha going to leave me too?" George Anne looked at her brother in amazement.

"I was about to tell you about it," Modillo, who felt like a good opportunity, simply sat down with George Anne, "I think you already know that Keisel was planning to marry Josa to Count Horsen of Taranto, and although Keisel was punished for his rebellion, I think he made a good choice." ”

"You want my daughter to marry that Horsen? Salen, you're crazy, that old man is even older than you. Lady George Anne looked at Mordillo with wide eyes.

"That's not a problem, knowing that our mother was even younger when she married her father," the Count interrupted George Anne impatiently, "Listen, I need Taranto, and if we can make an alliance with Horsen, it means that we can get more help from the sea, even if we don't depend on Venice." Those Venetians were so greedy that Frederick could swallow his anger for the sake of his throne, but I couldn't. The most important thing is that this will allow our two families to unite and become the most advantageous alliance in all of Lower Italy, when even the king will have to bow to the Modillos. ”

George Anne looked at Mordillo in a daze, perhaps moved by the scene he described, and after a while she asked, "Have you told Zha about this?" ”

"Not yet, I'll talk to her when Alexander leaves," Modillo tilted his head, "let her spend this happy time with her brother before that." ”

While the Modillo siblings were planning for the future of the other pair of "brother and sister", Alexander was on the balcony of his home, looking at the two people facing each other in the room.

After moving into the Mid-Levels Villa, Sophia was very happy to finally leave the oppressive Tuylan Palace for a few days, but it didn't take long for her to realize that even if she got here, she couldn't get rid of Alexander's annoying sister.

And Jisha seems to be deliberately angry with her, always coming to visit suddenly, even if it is late, she will come to the door unexpectedly, and as long as she stays for a long time, because it is too late, so that she has to stay overnight again and again.

Sophia would keep her eyes wide open at each of them, and although Alexander had said more than once that Josha was his sister, the almost magical instinct of the gypsies told her that there must be something wrong with the "brother and sister"!

Now, for example, even though it was still dark, Sophia struggled to get up from the warm bed, walked barefoot into the hallway, first looked at both sides habitually, and then crept out of Alexander's door like a cat.

But when she gently pushed the door open, and was about to whizz all the way down Alexander's bed, she was stunned to see what surprised her.

Most of the candles in the room were glowing yellow in the cold wind, and the tables and floors of the room were cluttered with papers, papers, and ledgers that seemed to be used for some unknown purposes.

Several new-looking muskets were crossed in the middle of the room, and on the low table next to it was a disassembled pile of unrecruegible parts.

However, these are not the reasons for Sophia's surprise and anger, the key is that she saw Alexander and Jisha actually lying on the bed and falling asleep!

Although both of them were neatly dressed, and there were all kinds of messy papers thrown around them, it seemed that they were too tired to fall asleep, but looking at Josha sleeping soundly on Alexander's arm, Sophia's anger could no longer be suppressed.

So when a large basin of cold water was poured down directly, the two people on the bed who woke up because they instantly turned into soup chickens heard Sophia's "haha" laughter in her characteristic hoarse throat.

Frightened by the attack, he rushed at the musket in the corner of the room almost without thinking, and so frightened Alexander that he immediately jumped out of bed desperately and hugged him from behind, who was also drenched wet.

"Let go of me, I'm going to kill this bohemian woman!"

"Calm down, calm down, you should go and change your clothes, you will catch a cold, you will get pneumonia," Alexander couldn't help but comfort incoherently, and at the same time turned around and glared at Sophia, who was still smiling, and then he helplessly opened his throat and shouted: "Someone~"

The servants in the villa were still very diligent, so they came quickly, and when they saw the scene in front of them, one of the two maids immediately ran up to help take care of them, while the other turned around and ran to the other room to get clothes.

This is also what makes Sophia unhappy, and Josha has a room in the villa that belongs to hers.

This made Sophia feel that her territory had been violated from the beginning, and Sophia sat on the ground with some annoyance as she watched the maid scramble to help the maid back to her room wrapped in a dry blanket to change her clothes.

Alexander had a headache at this time, especially when he saw Sophia casually tearing a piece of paper into several pieces and throwing it aside, he couldn't help but sigh softly.

However, when he was about to raise his hand to touch the top of Sophia's head, some numb arms made him look back at the big bed behind him.

He really wanted to explain to Sophia, but he didn't know where to start, after all, this was not "catching rape in bed", and if he said more, he would be suspected of getting darker and darker.

"That's about 10,000 Durants," Alexander pointed to the shredded scraps of paper on the ground, and saw Sophia open her mouth in a daze when he heard his words, he knew that this trick should work, "You know, you lose a lot of money if you lose your temper casually, if you want to make us bankrupt, just keep losing your temper." ”

Sophia jumped up at once, and she lay on the ground and scrambled to pick up the scraps of paper and try to put them back together, but she couldn't put them together because she was too hard to tear them together.

Sophia looked like she was about to cry with a look of frustration on her face until Alexander gently pulled her up from behind.

"Okay, don't cry, don't cry, I'll assume you know it's wrong."

Alexander was about to pat Sophia on the top of her head, but before his hand touched the end of her hair, Sophia suddenly grabbed it, and then he saw Sophia staring at him suspiciously, and that look was clearly saying: I was almost deceived by you.

Alexander sighed helplessly, he knew that Sophia had discovered the trick he had wanted to fool, but he didn't want to stop there.

"Well, listen to me," Alexander lifted Sophia off the ground and made her look into her eyes at a height with himself, "We read those documents too late yesterday, so we were a little sleepy and wanted to lie comfortably in bed, and then fell asleep, that's all, you don't have to think about it, don't forget that she is my sister." ”

Sophia still looked at Alexander with suspicion, and then she held up the confetti in her hand and shook it.

"That's worth about 10,000 Durants," Alexander looked at the confetti distressedly, "We're doing a big deal right now, selling grain, vegetables and animal skins, buying all kinds of things we need, you probably can't imagine what Agri is like, you don't understand it yet, but you'll know when we get to Agri." ”

Sophia patted Alexander on the cheek with some annoyance, as if she was a little angry at him for perfunctory herself.

"Well, then I hear," Alexander said with a slight lift to seat Sophia on the table, and then chuckled, "our Agri has enough food to feed many people in the south, and now that it is the autumn harvest season, whether it is wheat rye or even unpalatable oats, these grains are in high demand, because people need enough food to store for the coming winter, and we need more than money, what Agri lacks, iron and coal, And the craftsmen who are important to us, can you imagine how important that is Sophia? ”

Sophia shook her head in confusion, she really couldn't understand what Alexander was saying, she remembered that sometimes when Josha was with him, the two of them were talking about things that she was not interested in, let alone understand.

This made Sophia frustrated.

Seeing that the girl was not in a good mood, Alexander hugged her gently and said, "Well, don't be upset about this, you will soon see Agri, it is very beautiful and big, I am sure you will like that place, and maybe Nashan will come by then, and you will be able to meet Nashan." ”

Although Alexander had already told her the news about Nashan, Sophia was immediately happy when she heard this, she hugged Alexander's neck and kissed him on the face, and then hurriedly began to ask him to change his wet clothes, forgetting for a moment why he was angry.

In another room, Josha's maid was wiping her body.

"That bohemian woman is so hateful, young lady, you should let Master Alexander teach that barbarian a good lesson." The maid grumbled under her breath.

Ji Sha glanced at the maid and didn't say anything, but looked at herself in the mirror and frowned slightly, and asked with some hesitation: "How many years younger is that Sophia than me, right?" ”

"It seems so," said the maid, then lowered her voice, "Master Alexander seems to like young girls. ”

"But she's in better shape than mine," said Tsusha, whispering to herself, "it's hard to imagine that a little girl who is not yet 13 years old can be that big." ”

"But she's a fool," said the maid disagreeing, "not to mention she's still a dumb person, and it's strange how the young master could be so obsessed with a dumb person." ”

"She's not smart enough," said Josa this time agreeing with the maid, "at least she doesn't know what's important to Alexander." ”

As she spoke, her gaze looked at a delicate wooden box in the corner of the room.