Silke allowed herself a small smile when Galt confessed- albeit with a sense of humor- that he was dashing. She certainly wasn't in any position to disagree. Being handsome and charismatic was not strictly speaking necessary for him to play the part of a hero, however. It was usually enough to be in the right place and time, armed, and competent with a weapon. More than once she had been tempted to try to create a situation where her brother would look heroic to help bolster his social status. Unfortunately, skilled as he was with a blade, being propelled to a higher station was not a good idea for her only surviving sibling. He struggled enough as a count's heir, even with her notable help, and she couldn't bear him leaning on harder if he had additional responsibilities.

Without realizing what she was doing, she found herself staring at him as he explained his acting abilities. It would have been easier if she [i]could[/i] disagree with his assessment. No matter how much she'd flippantly avoid the topic (or, if cornered, deny it outright), she was a wretchedly single and lonely woman. It was only natural that she craved a sort of romantic companionship. She always resisted the urges to indulge her feelings, intimately aware of what a relationship could do if she met an untimely death as she believed was her destiny, yet every time he called to attention his finer qualities, he tempted her in ways she was certain he did not fully appreciate. Internally she sighed and tore her gaze away.

"Orphanages are easier than a hospital. It'll be doable, but it will take considerably more maneuvering to secure all the resources needed to make certain that it would last," she mused aloud. The nobility saw children without parents as a burden; none of them really wanted to take them in and spend any money helping them be raised. As far as the aristocracy was concerned, an orphan was the problem of the village, not them. They'd be all too happy to send street urchins to a central location for someone else to take care of. The sick was a more delicate matter because of the healers that would need to be employed by such an establishment. They could attract matrons for an orphanage with good wages, but many of the best physicians chased prestige and clout, and it could be difficult to staff a hospital appropriately without depriving a village or stepping on a favorite of the local gentry.

The questions about his funds, farms, goods, and subjects took her by surprise. Her eyebrows lifted as she looked at him curiously. "You own land now, as does all the nobility. The holdings aren't as big as a duke's of course, but they are substantial enough you won't be destitute unless you dedicate yourself to trying to find ways to live to excess. I can't speak as to specifics, I'd need to see the details of the documentation you have regarding your appointment, but most counts have fields, some have forests for hunting and lumber, mines for minerals and ore, lakes or rivers... it truly depends on what parcels were granted to you. Because you own the land, those who live on it and work the land will pay you for the right to do so, and you can also charge fees for hunting in your forests, or for the lumber that come for your forests, or any gems found in your mines- although gem mines are typically owned by the king or a duke at least." She shrugged.

"It's a lot of accounting to track," she conceded. "The first two weeks will be the hardest because nothing will be familiar and every day you will learn something new about your property. It will feel overwhelming initially when the people on your lands come to you for help because of flooding, or ruined roads, or bandits in the area," she continued with a wry smile, "so don't be shy about reaching out if you need advice. I'll let everyone believe it came to you naturally on the first day," Silke grinned with a coy wink.

"I've an idea how we might lure some of the bandits out of hiding with bait, but I'd like you to decide who you want to lure out first, and what is more enticing to them. I'll see if I can discreetly procure some maps of the locale to select an ambush site that will neither be too close nor too far away from safety should things go awry." With a purposeful pivot, suspiciously so, she returned to the topic of his financials. "Now, let me show you some of our older records and how I track our income, expenses, and seasonable variability." Silke opened a journal, the interior of which was covered in inked notes. The first few pages had one handwriting, and there was a notable shift to another part of the way through, as if two people had written in it rather than one.