Out of interest, can you remember exactly what happened when you were offered the escort job? I tried asking for one, then rejected it, then used fast travel to teleport out of the tavern before the merchant could reach the door. My version of "console.c" always has the 'DumpAttributes(PChar);' command, so I ran it, and it showed that the quest attributes for the escort mission had been properly cleared. As you're the second person to have this problem, I want to find out what is causing it.