The blacksmith wanted to retire, Beryl had the goods to trade for the business. 
Still people might trust Solomon more as a more familiar face anyway.
Nice, but previously more general smithing than specialist gun smithing? Or possibly Solomon even gets supplies from town smith?
I think Iām interested in whether the townies are a really close-knit group and how they interact with new people and strangers. Thereās been a few mentions of family businesses which to me implies a sense of tradition etc. obviously they are a trading town, so relatively welcoming of strangers, but a stranger moving in is a different thing?
And solomon specifially makes high end guns - so his services are likely to be complimentary, not competition to the local smith, unless they also happen to be a master gunsmith.
Which she is. Still sheās not so interested in plying those skills. Sheās trying to settle into the general smithing business more than the guns.
The town is pretty close-knit so far. Who counts as part of the town and who doesnāt sometimes comes under debate, and of course there are the thousand twisted tangles of allaiances and petty feuds which form when a medium sized number of people live close to each ther for long periods of time. From the outside i suspect most of these arenāt visible or at least itās not apparent how deep the undercurrents are.
Nah, Iām all good. I donāt expect that Crosspire has much need of Tomās tinkering skills. He mainly uses those out in the isolated farmsteads and smaller villages he passes through. When heās in Crosspire itās more for trade.