and then he fell Three pairs of arms grabbed him at the same time They all belonged to soldiers of the guard He tried hard to defend himself Let go of me I didn’t do anything Hurry go after them The guilty ones are going to escape Bento was given a huge shove while the soldier who seemed to be in charge answered him What guilty ones There’s nobody else here Only you and you’re going to stay tied up while the innkeeper serves us a good wine to thank us for restoring order That was too much Already angry Bento became furious There’s no one here because everyone has fled Are you going to let them escape Run after them Hurry up you cowards One of the soldiers drew his sword menacingly Two others bound Bento’s wrists with a rope and forced him to sit on the stairs But this still didn’t silence the boy Bloodied and angry he continued to fight with words Surely His Majesty doesn’t pay your wages so you can sip wine for free instead of chasing hoodlums We’re holding the only troublemaker we found a troublemaker who can barely stand up he’s been drinking so much Not to mention he’s nearly destroyed the workplace that supports a family And now he’s incurred
what had happened He’s ri-i-i-ight sirs He’s t-t-telling the t-t-truth The guard commander’s response was sharp Don’t argue man Bring us our wine right away Or do you want us to take you in too new crimes disregarding the guards authority and even managing to insult His Majesty Bento knew better than to continue to rant It would only complicate his situation It was better to remain silent Stammering with fear the tavern owner tried to explain Even though he was Bento’s boss the innkeeper knew that he was helpless against this brutality There was no use trying to explain anything Quietly sitting on the step his wrists tied his head aching and bleeding Bento was beginning to understand the full extent of the danger he was in But gripped by an older brother’s concern he remembered his father’s advice He was responsible He couldn’t let anything bad happen to Manu Careful not to turn his head he looked through the wooden banister and spotted the small figure crouching behind the chest He did what he could Pretending to scratch his face he raised his tied hands and held his right index finger in front of his mouth It was an eloquent plea for silence A silent piece of brotherly advice and
protection His guidance was understood and followed Wavering between wanting to run off and a rash desire to attack the guards the hidden figure shrank a little into the shadows It was from there that Manu watched the soldiers take Bento away Where he didn’t know but he would find out Even if it meant searching all over Lisbon
2 Manu Manu was exhausted and hungry very hungry A little cold too He needed to get something to eat and find a place to spend the night that was sheltered from the wind The past few days had been difficult the day before particularly upsetting Things had improved when Manu came to Lisbon with Bento but recently everything had turned bad again Very bad At first right after the fight and Bento’s arrest Manu managed to stay at the tavern working hard helping to serve tables carrying water washing dishes sweeping the floor In return he had enough to eat and a place to sleep There was more work now that Bento wasn’t there The innkeeper and his wife agreed to let Manu continue because they needed help even if it was a child’s help A kid’s work is only a trifle but anyone who doesn’t take advantage of it is crazy the boss would always say And his wife would sometimes acknowledge in a
