12 - Essie the Liar

Essie had always dreamt of one day ascendance from his peasant-born status to that of a high noble; lord of vast domain-or minor noble at least, lord of adequate domain; and if he was not to be born to it-by accident of birth-or earn entitlement to it-through blood, his own sacrificed for the duchy, or someone else's-he would buy himself the title and the lands.
Essie's family, being some of the oldest in the lord's service, had always enjoyed of a very good and close-almost familial-relationship; and so Essie had the privilege of being raised alongside the lord's children, as a first cousin or something akin, going so far as to receiving tutoring by a scholar brought from the capital.
The teachings of the hoary senility-inclined man consisted of a myriad subjects: poetry, prose, rhetoric, philosophy, and, last but never least(for Essie's schemes), numbers.
Numbers was how he benefited of being inducted into the intricacies of the esoteric knowledge concerning those smooth-edged gears responsible for the movings and turnings of the world: coin; of humble but always welcome copper; of elegant, gorgeous, and splendid silver; of magnificent but unpretentious, grin-broadening and soul-gladdening, life exalting indispensable! gold. Gold!
These three metal siblings, if available to a man in enough supply, could mean that: a knight would never see a single battlefield; a sinner could divest himself from the most damning sin; an usurper could suddenly find himself in possession of legitimate crown; and a merchant, well, a merchant could avail himself from the hands of man of anything in his heart's desire(for the right price). Everything on sale, for anyone to buy-even love.
But these thoughts-observations-ambitions-he kept to himself.