Chapter 561: The Five-Year-Old Benefactor (Patreon)

Pennmerian Palace — Private Dining Hall — Philadelphia

"…was Alaric."

William Penn's final words settled over the dining hall with enough weight that nobody immediately touched the food in front of them.

Eleanor stared at him from across the table.

Leonard's expression had frozen somewhere between disbelief and confusion, while Bernard slowly leaned farther forward as though sitting several inches closer might somehow make William's explanation easier to understand. Linette had gone completely still, and Caroline's hand remained beside the leather portfolio she had opened earlier without turning another page.

Even Kassandra, who knew more about Alaric than everyone else at the table, watched William with renewed attention.

She knew her husband had lived another life before the one in which he became Alaric Jonathan Kenway.

She knew that impossible knowledge often rested behind the way his mind moved.

She had long since stopped being surprised when he understood inventions, economics, medicine, warfare, politics, or cultures far beyond what any single eighteenth-century man should reasonably possess.

Yet there was still a substantial difference between understanding why Alaric had always been unusual and discovering what he had actually been doing when he was five years old.

Eleanor finally broke the silence.

"My son?"

William nodded.

"Your son."

Leonard slowly looked toward Eleanor before returning his attention to William. "Alaric pulled us out of poverty."

"Yes."

Bernard's brow furrowed. "When he was a child…?"

"Yes."

"How young?"

William's expression changed.

The answer seemed to amuse him all over again, although something warmer now accompanied it.

"Five."

Bernard could only stare.

Leonard's mouth opened slightly.

Linette blinked once.

Caroline looked toward Kassandra.

Kassandra's eyebrows had risen.

William reached for his tea and took a slow drink before placing the cup back down. "You should probably hear the beginning, because without it, none of what came afterward makes much sense."

Eleanor leaned forward. "Then tell us."

William nodded.

His eyes dropped briefly toward the tea, but the room around him had already begun fading beneath an older memory.

A road outside Bristol.

A royal commission.

A carriage.

And a day that should have ended with both William Penn and his son dead.

"…"

"…"

"King William III had given me an assignment," William began. "Bristol's economy had begun drawing greater attention from the Crown, and I was expected to help improve commercial activity in and around the city."

Bernard nodded slowly.

He knew enough of William's history to recognize the period.

William continued, "My son was with me."

"William Junior," Eleanor said.

"Yes," His expression softened at the name. "We were traveling toward Bristol when the carriage was attacked."

Kassandra's eyes sharpened.

William's hand settled around the base of his teacup.

"It happened quickly. The road was quiet enough that we had very little warning before armed men came out of the surrounding woods."

"How many?" Caroline asked.

"Enough."

William's answer came with a distant grimness.

"The men accompanying us fought, but the attackers had chosen the position well. They knew where the carriage would be forced to slow, and they had enough numbers to overwhelm the escort."

He paused, thinking about what happened before he sighed.

"By the time the fighting stopped, my son and I were the only ones they had left alive."

Eleanor's face tightened.

Kassandra had become completely still.

"I could hear bodies being moved," William looked toward her. "I remember that more clearly than I would like."

His thumb moved once against the porcelain as he recalled that night.

"The bandits dragged William and me away from the carriage. They tied our hands behind us, covered our eyes, and took us into a camp farther from the road."

Leonard's expression hardened. "They wanted ransom?"

"I thought so at first," William shook his head. "Eventually, I realized they were debating whether keeping us alive created more trouble than profit."

The dining hall became quieter.

"I could hear them speaking beyond the cloth around my eyes. One recognized my name. Another argued that the Crown might search for me. A third suggested they should take whatever valuables remained and kill both of us before moving camp."

William leaned back slightly.

"I believed that was the end."

When he said that, nobody interrupted.

"I wasn't afraid of dying as much as I expected," William looked down at his hands as he is voice lowered. "My regret was that my son was there."

Kassandra's expression softened.

"I kept thinking that whatever poor decision had brought us onto that road, whatever responsibility belonged to me, William should not have been the one paying for it."

William exhaled slowly.

"He was beside me. I could hear him breathing, and I knew he was trying very hard not to sound afraid."

Eleanor lowered her eyes.

William let several seconds pass.

"Then someone started screaming."

Bernard looked up.

William's mouth moved slightly.

"At first, I thought the bandits had begun killing prisoners somewhere else in the camp."

"What happened?" Leonard asked.

William looked toward him.

"The screaming moved."

Leonard frowned.

"One man shouted from my left. Something struck him, and the sound stopped. Another man yelled from farther away, then I heard someone hit the ground."

William's eyes narrowed slightly as the memory sharpened.

"Steel came out of a sheath. A man fired a pistol. Someone cursed because he had apparently missed."

Kassandra's eyes remained fixed upon him.

William continued, "Then there were several more impacts, another gunshot, and what sounded like someone crashing through a wooden table."

Bernard slowly raised an eyebrow.

William noticed.

"The entire thing lasted perhaps fifteen seconds."

Bernard's brow rose higher.

"Defeated?"

William chuckled.

"Well…"

He rubbed one thumb across his jaw.

"He killed them."

The table went silent again.

Bernard stared.

"All of them?"

"All of them."

"In fifteen seconds?"

"At most," William's amusement faded as he remembered what followed. "Then the camp became completely quiet."

He looked toward Eleanor.

"I heard footsteps approach."

Eleanor's hand tightened lightly around her napkin.

"They were small."

That detail landed differently.

William continued, "Someone crouched behind me, and a knife cut through the rope around my wrists."

Caroline looked toward Kassandra again.

Kassandra did not return the glance.

She already knew the answer.

William's expression warmed.

"Then the cloth over my eyes was pulled away."

He paused.

"I was expecting an armed traveler, perhaps a soldier who happened to be nearby, or an Assassin, although I did not understand enough about the Brotherhood at the time to seriously consider that possibility."

Linette leaned closer. "And?"

William smiled.

"And I found myself staring at a boy."

Eleanor's lips parted.

William raised one hand to roughly indicate the height he remembered.

"A little boy."

Leonard stared at the gesture.

William nodded.

"Five years old."

Nobody spoke.

"The camp was full of dead bandits," William's expression became almost incredulous even after all these years. "There was blood on the ground, several bodies around him, a pistol lying near one man's hand, and this child was looking at me as though what had happened required no explanation."

Eleanor whispered, "Alaric…"

"Yes," William smiled. "He asked whether I could stand."

Bernard leaned back slowly in his chair.

"My nephew killed an entire camp of armed bandits when he was five."

William glanced toward him. "Very quickly at that."

"That does not improve the sentence."

"No."

Kassandra's mouth curved faintly.

William continued, "Alaric freed William Junior next."

He paused as the memory shifted.

"My son stared at him for considerably longer than I did."

Caroline smiled slightly. "I can imagine."

"He eventually asked Alaric whether he was really a child."

William chuckled.

"What did Alaric say?" Leonard asked.

William looked toward him.

"He said yes."

That somehow made Bernard look even more disturbed.

William laughed quietly before continuing.

"We returned to the road. The carriage was still usable, although the horses had become badly frightened."

He lifted his cup again.

"Alaric helped us recover them."

Kassandra raised a brow. "He helped?"

William noticed her tone. "He mostly told me what to do."

That sounded more familiar.

Kassandra smiled.

William nodded toward her. "Yes. Even then."

A few quiet smiles appeared around the table.

"We began traveling toward Bristol again, and that was when the conversation became stranger."

Linette tilted her head.

"Stranger than a five-year-old killing bandits?"

"Much stranger in a different way, William settled farther into his chair. "Alaric told me he needed somewhere to stay."

Eleanor's brow furrowed.

William continued, "I asked where his family was."

The Kenways listened more carefully now.

"He told me they were staying at a house in Bristol, but that arrangement was about to disappear."

Leonard's expression changed.

"Helena."

William pointed toward him.

"Yes."

The family knew the name well now.

Helena and Solomon had returned to their lives much later, after the Kenways had already risen far beyond the poverty of those early Bristol years. By then, the family had learned the truth that had once been hidden from them.

Both were Assassins.

At the time, however, Helena had simply been someone whose home had temporarily given the Kenways shelter.

William continued, "Helena intended to sell the house, and both she and Solomon had business taking them away from Bristol."

Bernard nodded slowly as older pieces finally moved into place.

William said, "Alaric told me quite plainly that if nothing changed, the Kenway family was going to be homeless."

Leonard looked at him.

"So you offered somewhere."

"I did."

Leonard's eyes widened slightly as the answer arrived before William spoke it. "The Penn Estate."

William smiled.

"Our estate in Bristol."

Linette's face changed.

Eleanor slowly leaned back.

Bernard blinked.

Leonard stared at William.

Then, almost together, the four older Kenways made the same sound.

"Ahhh…"

Caroline looked between them while Kassandra laughed quietly.

Linette pointed toward William.

"That was why?"

"Yes."

"We always thought you had simply decided to help after meeting Alaric."

"I had," William smiled. "But the order of events was different from what you were told."

Leonard rubbed one hand across his forehead. "We thought Alaric impressed you after we arrived."

"He impressed me before you arrived by preventing my murder."

Bernard slowly shook his head. "That explains far too much."

William's smile broadened. "The better part happened later."

Eleanor looked toward him suspiciously. "There is a better part?"

William began laughing before he answered. "Thulani."

Kassandra's expression immediately changed.

Caroline smiled.

The others looked toward William.

William leaned one elbow against the table.

"Alaric had not told me everything about who else he intended to bring into the estate."

Bernard groaned quietly.

"That sounds like him."

"One night, I as surprised because I heard movement," William's smile became impossible to hide. "I stepped into the corridor expecting a servant..."

He paused.

"Instead, Alaric appeared with a boy I had never seen before."

Kassandra already knew what Thulani had once looked like when Alaric found him.

Her amusement softened.

William continued, "Thulani was terribly malnourished. He looked exhausted, suspicious of nearly everything around him, and ready to fight despite having almost nothing left in his body."

Eleanor's expression became gentler.

William shook his head.

"I remember staring at Alaric and asking who this was."

"What did he say?" Caroline asked.

William smiled.

"Something to the effect of, 'He's staying here too.'"

Bernard laughed.

Leonard covered his mouth.

Linette shook her head.

William continued, "I asked when this had been decided."

He spread his hands.

"Apparently, it had been decided by Alaric shortly before he informed me."

Kassandra smiled knowingly.

"That still happens."

"I know," William sighed. "The boy saved my life once and immediately began treating my estate like an emergency shelter."

That drew laughter around the table.

Yet once it faded, William's expression became warmer.

"I let him."

He glanced toward Kassandra.

"I have never regretted that."

Kassandra nodded.

Neither had anyone else.

Thulani had long since become family.

William's attention returned to the older Kenways.

"That was how all of you came to stay at the Penn Estate."

Eleanor stared down at her plate for a moment.

"We thought you had done it because Alaric somehow convinced you."

"He did."

William smiled.

"By saving my life first."

Leonard exhaled.

"And then the money?"

William's expression changed again.

There was the part they had misunderstood most.

"The money began with something Alaric brought to me after we had been in Bristol for some time."

Linette already knew the answer.

"The Salve."

William nodded.

"The Celestial Salve."

He reached toward one of the papers on the table, although there was no need for a document to remember terms that had shaped the rest of his life.

"Alaric told me he had developed a medicinal salve."

Eleanor frowned slightly.

"At five?"

"Near enough… the very next day."

Caroline slowly turned toward Kassandra.

Kassandra met her gaze this time.

Both women looked equally aware of how absurd that sounded.

Kassandra was less shocked by the underlying explanation because she knew Alaric had knowledge that did not originate solely from this life.

She was still impressed by the execution.

Knowing something existed and convincing powerful adults to build an international business around it were entirely different talents.

William continued.

"I saw him cutting himself just to test it in front of m… which was ridiculous if I say so myself."

His face became serious.

"But the results were extraordinary."

Everyone at the table knew that already.

Celestial Salve was no longer merely a family product.

It had become one of the commodities that changed Pennmere's commercial history.

William looked toward Linette.

"The business arrangement, however, was entirely Alaric's idea."

Linette straightened. "He proposed the structure?"

"Yes."

William folded his hands.

"He did not want to publicly own the enterprise."

Bernard frowned.

"Because he was a child."

"Because he was a child with enemies he understood before most adults understood they existed."

William's gaze moved around the table.

"The government could question why a boy possessed valuable medicine. Merchants could pressure the family. The Crown could interfere. Templars could become interested."

Caroline nodded slowly. "So you became the face."

"Yes," William's voice carried no resentment. "I had the reputation, legal standing, business contacts, and age necessary to make the enterprise look ordinary."

He smiled before continuing.

"As ordinary as a miracle medicine could look."

Leonard leaned forward. "And Alaric?"

"Well, that lad?" William's smile returned. "He demanded fifteen pounds."

Bernard blinked.

"For what?"

"For every bottle sold."

Silence followed as William lifted one finger.

"Fifteen pounds to Alaric from every single bottle, regardless of how much I chose to mark up the final price."

Linette stared.

Leonard leaned slowly backward.

Eleanor looked toward Kassandra.

Caroline's eyes widened.

Kassandra raised both eyebrows.

"Five years old," she murmured.

William looked toward her. "Yes."

Kassandra slowly smiled. "That little bastard."

Eleanor gave her a look.

Kassandra's smile remained. "I married him. I'm allowed."

William laughed.

"He was very specific."

He began recreating the conversation from memory.

"I could set whatever price the market tolerated."

William tapped the table.

"I could handle distribution, negotiation, transport, sales, and political relationships."

Another tap.

"But every time one bottle moved into a buyer's hands, fifteen pounds belonged to Alaric."

Bernard stared.

"So you assumed the operational risk."

"Yes."

"And he collected a fixed amount regardless of your markup."

"Pretty much."

Linette slowly shook her head. "That is…"

"Brilliant?"

Linette looked toward William. "Infuriatingly brilliant."

William smiled. "That was approximately my opinion."

Caroline leaned forward. "How quickly did it grow?"

William's expression changed.

"Faster than either of us publicly admitted."

Demand spread through Britain first.

Then foreign merchants began asking.

Diplomats heard about it.

Nobles wanted personal supplies.

Military officers wanted access.

Royal households became interested.

Foreign governments began making inquiries.

The Salve healed too well to remain a local product.

William's hands moved across the table as he described the growth.

"Every bottle meant another fifteen pounds."

Leonard's face became increasingly incredulous.

"Hundreds of bottles."

"Yes."

"Thousands."

"Yes."

Bernard stared.

"Tens of thousands?"

William smiled.

"Yes."

Eleanor slowly turned her gaze toward nothing.

Memories returned.

A better house.

Money becoming strangely abundant.

Alaric purchasing things without the concern expected from a family that had recently worried about homelessness.

Investments.

Businesses.

Land.

The Kenway Estate.

The speed had always been explained through William Penn's patronage and Alaric's extraordinary apprenticeship.

Now the numbers changed meaning.

Leonard finally whispered, "He was already rich."

"Extremely," William nodded. "By the time the Kenway Estate became a serious discussion, Alaric could afford it without needing me."

"You know, Bernard looked almost offended on behalf of his younger self. "He complained about the price, I could hear him all the time muttering about it."

William laughed. "Oh, constantly."

Linette stared.

William leaned back, remembering.

"He would look at an expense, complain that someone was robbing him, argue over terms, then pay an amount that would have transformed another family's entire life."

Kassandra began laughing. "That has not changed."

William looked toward her. "I assumed it had not, but he's just too rich now. He just casually flexes a million dollars to my face."

Caroline smiled.

Eleanor covered part of her face with one hand. "My son was one of the richest people in Britain and complained about the price of an estate."

"Correct."

Leonard stared at the table.

"I remember agreeing with him."

William laughed harder.

Bernard pointed at him.

"We didn't know."

"I know."

That was the entire point.

William's laughter gradually faded.

Then his expression turned serious.

"Eventually, the Salve grew beyond even that."

The family knew what came next in broad terms.

What they had never understood was how early the foundation had been laid.

William continued, "Foreign countries began purchasing through Britain in enormous quantities."

He looked toward Caroline.

"You manage Tea now, so you understand what happens when a product moves beyond private merchants and becomes something governments themselves want."

Caroline nodded. "Volume changes everything."

"Exactly."

William rested his hands on the table.

"Britain collected taxes from the exports. Ports handled increasing quantities. Merchants earned commissions. Ships carried shipments outward. The Crown began receiving income simply because Alaric had created something the rest of the world wanted."

Linette's expression became thoughtful.

"So Celestial Salve was strengthening Crown revenue before Celestial was even what it is today."

"Yes," William nodded. "And that eventually became part of our leverage."

Queen Anne.

Bristol.

The slave trade.

Everyone at the table already knew that story.

William did not need to explain the entire agreement from nothing.

Still, the origin changed how it felt.

He continued, "When Queen Anne was alive, Alaric and I used that dependence."

Eleanor's face tightened slightly.

The old anger had never completely disappeared.

William looked toward her.

"You already know the arrangement."

They did.

Britain would move against Bristol's slave-trade system.

In return, the Crown would continue receiving enormous quantities of Celestial Salve and the export-tax revenue surrounding it.

Thousands upon thousands of bottles would continue moving through British commerce, replacing part of what entrenched interests claimed Bristol's slave trade contributed to Crown revenue.

Queen Anne had signed.

William had signed.

Alaric had signed.

The agreement was supposed to survive politics, but then Queen Anne died, and George inherited the Crown.

Promises became inconvenient.

Contracts that had once benefited Britain became things powerful people believed they could reinterpret because the young merchant behind them had grown threateningly independent.

William's jaw tightened.

"Then George decided that signed agreements apparently mattered only when they inconvenienced other people."

Bernard gave a humorless smile. "That went well for him."

"No," William's expression became dry. "It did not."

Everyone knew what followed.

Betrayal.

The attack on Bristol.

Two thousand soldiers.

Kassandra seeing Alaric's restrained Phoenix power for herself.

Later conflict with Britain.

The eventual rise of Pennmere beyond anything George could have imagined.

William shook his head. "The stupidity was remarkable."

He looked around the table and chuckled.

"Britain was earning from a product Alaric invented. The Crown had received commercial stability from a deal Alaric helped design. The slave-trade agreement gave Britain a path to abandon an immoral system without accepting the financial catastrophe its supporters claimed would follow."

His fingers tightened lightly.

"And George's government still chose to antagonize the person making the entire arrangement possible."

Caroline exhaled slowly. "When you explain it from the beginning…"

"It becomes worse," William finished.

"Yes."

Eleanor had gone quiet.

Her attention rested on the table, although she was no longer seeing luncheon.

She was remembering a boy.

Her boy.

A child who had returned home carrying ideas she could not understand.

A child who somehow always seemed to know where money should go.

A child she believed had simply been fortunate enough to impress William Penn.

She slowly looked toward William. "Why did he never tell us?"

William's expression softened.

"I cannot answer for him."

He considered the question.

"But I can tell you what I believed."

Eleanor waited.

"He wanted you safe."

William's voice became quieter.

"If the Kenway family suddenly became wealthy because a five-year-old child had created a medicine worth fortunes, people would ask questions."

He looked toward Leonard.

"Merchants would want control."

Toward Bernard.

"Government officials would want access."

Toward Linette.

"Competitors would want the formula."

Then toward the whole family.

"And the Templars would want the boy."

That removed the last trace of amusement from the room.

Everyone there understood what Templars did with valuable people and valuable knowledge.

William continued, "So Alaric needed an adult with enough social weight to absorb attention."

Leonard stared at him. "You."

"Yes," William nodded. "If anyone asked why the Kenways suddenly had money, William Penn had invested in them."

He spread one hand.

"If anyone asked why young Alaric understood commerce, William Penn was teaching him."

Another small movement.

"If anyone asked why merchants took him seriously, William Penn stood behind him."

Linette's eyes narrowed with understanding. "You weren't his benefactor."

William smiled faintly. "That is what the world needed to believe."

Caroline finished the thought. "You were his shield."

William looked toward her. "Yes."

Silence followed.

Kassandra sat back slowly.

Her eyes remained on William, but her thoughts had moved toward Alaric.

Five years old.

Already constructing layers between himself and the institutions that might investigate him.

Already understanding that obvious wealth would attract dangerous attention.

Already using a respected adult as the public explanation while arranging fixed profit behind the scenes.

The knowledge from another life explained part of it, but it did not explain the nerve.

Kassandra smiled faintly.

"He was already planning around powerful people before he could properly reach half their desks."

William laughed softly.

"That is one way to describe it."

Bernard slowly rubbed his forehead. "I spent years thanking you."

William raised an eyebrow.

"You should have."

Bernard looked at him.

"Don't give me that look," William smiled. "I gave you somewhere to live."

That brought laughter back into the room.

Bernard nodded with a smile. "Fair."

William continued, "I helped with introductions, business structures, legal protections, political relationships, and enough paperwork to kill a less stubborn man."

Linette smiled.

"So you did help."

"Of course," William's expression became warmer. "But the first fortune was Alaric's."

Leonard looked toward Eleanor, and Eleanor looked back.

For years, they had understood their family's rise as a sequence beginning with William Penn noticing an unusual child.

Now the sequence had reversed.

William had not found Alaric. No, Alaric had found William.

Literally… tied up in a bandit camp.

Bernard suddenly started laughing.

Everyone looked toward him.

He covered his mouth for a moment, though that did little to stop it.

Leonard raised a brow. "What?"

Bernard pointed toward William.

"So the future King of Pennmere and one of the most influential merchants in the world began his relationship with our family because my five-year-old nephew found him tied to a tree."

William's eyes narrowed. "I was not tied to a tree."

Bernard's laughter worsened. "That's the part you're correcting?"

"I was tied at the wrists."

Caroline laughed.

Linette shook her head.

Even Eleanor finally smiled.

Kassandra leaned back in her chair with clear amusement.

"You know what," William sighed. "I regret telling all of you this."

"No, you don't," Kassandra said.

William looked toward her.

She smiled.

"No," He eventually smiled too.

The amusement gradually settled.

Linette looked again at the maps spread across the dining table.

The territories.

The proposed businesses.

The land request.

The private capital their family intended to spend.

Her expression changed.

"So perhaps we're doing what he did."

William followed her gaze.

Linette continued, "Use our money to create stability first, then earn from whatever grows afterward."

William considered that. "In a less secretive manner."

"Yes."

"And with considerably more paperwork."

Linette smiled. "Unfortunately."

William nodded toward the maps. "Then I suppose your proposal makes even more sense now."

Eleanor looked toward him.

"You approve?"

"I have not approved the land amounts yet."

Bernard sighed.

William pointed toward him. "I am still King."

Bernard nodded.

"Of course."

William's mouth curved. "But I understand the logic."

His eyes moved across the family.

"Alaric built the first Kenway fortune by understanding that a product could create value before anyone else understood how large that value would become."

He looked down at Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Isle Saint Jean. "You're trying to do something similar with land."

Linette nodded.

"Except the value this time is not simply what the land costs now."

"No."

William understood.

It was what could exist there generations later.

Perhaps centuries… or perhaps longer.

He looked toward Kassandra.

The immortal Spartan met his gaze.

For most families, planning beyond a century was abstract.

For this family, a woman at the table could personally be present to see whether the decision had been wise.

William exhaled slowly.

"Alaric is going to be insufferable when he discovers I finally told you."

Kassandra smiled. "I won't tell him you enjoyed it."

"I did not."

"You laughed through half of it."

"That proves nothing."

Caroline looked toward Eleanor.

Eleanor smiled.

Leonard shook his head.

For several moments, the private dining hall felt less like a palace and more like one of the old family tables in Bristol, except the people around it now commanded banks, armies, businesses, fleets, and a country that had not existed when William first met the five-year-old boy who cut him free from a bandit camp.

William reached for his tea and took a drink.

Then his gaze returned to the maps.

"Now," he said while placing the cup down, "we should probably determine exactly how much of the Atlantic you people expect me to give you."

Linette smiled.

The family leaned toward the maps again.