by A. R. Rend
“I slept fairly well,” Alice offered. “It’s… it’s been easier now that that windstorm has passed by. My cheeks felt rather swollen there for a bit.”
Nodding his head, Phillip said nothing.
Looking to his guards, then to Phillip, Alice was once more at a loss.
“Uhm, well, I’m going to go to work,” she said as if that needed to be stated.
“Have a good day,” said Phillip.
“Would… you come have lunch with me?” she asked, her hands tightening on her bag.
Raising his eyebrows at that, Phillip was now rather unnerved.
Of all the times he had asked to have lunch with her, she’d always declined. The only time he’d managed it was when he showed up unannounced.
Her answer had always been that she’d be busy.
“No thank you. I wouldn’t want to interrupt your work day. I’m sure you’re busy,” Phillip replied, keeping his tone civil and neutral.
His anger, disappointment, and sick feelings for Alice hadn’t dissipated at all. If anything he was rather proud of himself for keeping everything in check.
“I’m sure I could make time to have lunch with you,” countered Alice.
Staring at the woman, Phillip was just about done with this game.
“Leave us,” declared Phillip, glancing toward his guards. “Please?”
“Of course, my lord,” said both women, moving off some ways.
Mildred was off for the day thankfully. Having her watch this would be rather uncomfortable for him.
“Look,” Phillip said, turning his gaze back to Alice. “I don’t know what you want and I don’t want to play your game. Just tell me what it is you want or need.”
“I… beg your pardon?” Alice asked, her eyes widening.
“Alice, I have no idea what you’re doing, but it’s obvious you want something. You’ve spoken more to me in the last twenty-four hours than you did in a week,” said Phillip with some exasperation. “So just tell me what it is you want and we can go back to our routines.”
“I don’t want anything. I was just hoping you’d come have lunch with me,” Alice said firmly, her hands flexing as she clutched to her bag’s handle.
Fine. Play your game. I don’t care.
“Then no thank you,” Phillip said keeping his response simple.
“Are you busy or have something planned?” Alice asked. “I could come home for lunch if you just don’t want to leave the house.”
Unable to help himself, Phillip grimaced, his jaw flexing as he ground his teeth together.
“No, Alice. I have nothing planned. I’m not going anywhere. I’m perfectly fine. I just don’t want to have lunch with you. I’m going to return to my room now unless there’s something else?” Phillip said, standing up.
Wetting her lips, Alice looked like she was contemplating how to respond.
“No, there’s nothing else. But I’d like to-”
“Have a good day,” Phillip said, cutting her off. With a bow of his head to her he then promptly left. He didn’t need to hear anything more from her.
All he could see in his mind was how comfortable she was with Jay. That she’d once again sought out a meeting with him privately. Nor had she told him about it, or had a chaperon.
Doubly so when he honestly felt like their conversation was inappropriate from what pieces he’d heard of it.
And he, as her husband, couldn’t even convince her to have a conversation with him.
***
“Phil!” Lenore said happily, finding him in the backyard gardens.
“Lenny,” Phillip said with a grin, watching the young woman approach.
Wrinkling her nose at that, though grinning at the same time, she gave him an odd look.
“You know, I don’t think I like that name coming from you. Lenore will do quite well, please,” she said, walking up to him where he sat on the bench.
“Oh, not allowed to call you by your nickname, hm?” Phillip asked with a smile. “I see how it is.”
“The opposite, in fact. I prefer hearing my full name from you,” Lenore stated, then sat down next to him on the bench. “So! As your partner, I wanted to come ask you what we should do next. We have a good bit of coin and a whole city to spend it on.”
Phillip laughed at that, looking at the young woman next to him.
“Mildred asked me to reinvest her own money,” Phillip admitted, watching her for a response.
Lenore rolled her eyes, then bumped him with her shoulder.
“Course she did. She’d be a fool not to. Then again, she’s already earned more than enough to start a new life as anything but a guard,” said Lenore. “You nervous about losing her?”
“Of course. But she already told me she wanted to stay for the time being.”
“Good. Now. Our next deal?”
Laughing, Phillip shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know.”
“What? Liar,” Lenore declared, leaning into him, putting her shoulder up to his and staying there. “I’m sure you have ideas. My hammer idea didn’t turn out so bad but it was nowhere near profitable comparatively to what you put together for us.”
Sitting there, Phillip slowly looked out to the grounds in front of them.
Thinking, he turned over everything he knew about what was happening in the world right now.
Nothing jumped out at him though.
“Take me to work with you,” Phillip said, coming to a conclusion. “Let me serve you snacks and the like to your guests and I’ll help you like that. I’ve got a really good sense of who to work with.”
Lenore smiled at him and then nodded her head.
“Sure. Though people are going to assume you’re my husband if you’re doing things like that,” Lenore cautioned.
“Hmph. Let them assume. You can just correct them later on the matter. At least I’d get to actually host a meeting,” Phillip muttered.
A strange look flashed across Lenore’s face before she just shrugged her shoulders and smiled again.
“Great. Let’s go then. I have a meeting just after lunch at the office, and then two more later in the day. You can help me with those first,” Lenore said, patting Phillip’s knee.
“Sure,” agreed Phillip.
“We’ll have lunch in my office and then talk about it a bit,” she said, squeezing his knee. “For now, we’ll just… wait here for a bit. If that’s okay?”
“Of course. I enjoy spending time with you,” admitted Phillip without any guilt.
He owed Alice nothing more than duty.
***
Wincing, Lenore put a hand to her brow just moments after her door closed.
“You don’t even need to say anything. The fact that they couldn’t answer your questions alone was enough to seal that one up for me,” assured Lenore.
“Yes, that wasn’t a very good one,” Phillip admitted, standing near the door. Shrugging his shoulders, he moved to the small table that Lenore had brought her visitors to, one after another, and began clearing it.
The small plates were inspected, and put into the used section of his carts; napkins were placed into the container for soiled cloth, and dirty utensils into their own. Then he rearranged the clean settings he had available, and checked the tea pot critically.
I’ll need to refresh it just to be sure. One should never serve tea that’s already been served to a new guest.
It would only take him minutes to prepare another pot. Thankfully the Rias office had a wood-stove that was already heating his next kettle on a low setting. He had assumed he’d need another already.
“Phil… remind me not to eat lunch next time. Your sandwiches and biscuits are far more than enough and honestly taste better,” complained Lenore. “I just feel so heavy now from lunch and then adding your delicious bits on top.”
“Then don’t eat another sandwich, you silly thing, have one of the fresh fruit scones. They’re much lighter,” Phillip said with a grin. �
�It’s basically just half a tart with no filling.”
“But the sandwiches are so good,” moaned Lenore.
“I’ll make you more next time, you glutton,” Phillip admonished. “Now, how much time before the next meeting?”
“Oh, as soon as we’re ready. They weren’t scheduled. Just showed up this morning and asked to be fit in,” Lenore admitted. “Everyone else turned them away but I saw no reason not to see them.”
“Then go to the restroom. You had three cups of tea. You’ll need to go sooner rather than later. I’m going to get the next kettle,” Phillip said, finishing emptying out his teapot, and re-setting it.
Humming to himself, Phillip left Lenore’s office and went into the servant area in the back.
Finding his kettle right where he left it, he moved it to the center of the stove. He only needed to wait a minute for it to reach a boil.
Taking no time at all, he retrieved the kettle and went back to Lenore’s office. Who hadn’t returned yet, but a young woman had entered the office. She was sitting rather awkwardly in one of the chairs in front of Lenore’s desk.
Taking her in quickly, Phillip was able to piece together that she was likely a commoner who had a fallen noble as a parent. That or someone very well educated and had learned noble mannerisms.
The way she held herself was spot on for a young noble-woman. Her dark-amber hair was pulled back from her face into a rather artful arrangement. Her clear moss-colored eyes were wide and she was clearly wearing just enough makeup.
Dressed in tasteful, if economical clothes, she was someone Phillip would pay attention to. For good or ill, she was a determined individual.
Her appearance had clearly been put together for this meeting.
“Ah, hello. Are you Miss Rias’ next appointment?” Phillip asked casually, moving over to his trolley.
“Err, yes. Hello. And you are…?” asked the young woman, her entire body posture turning toward him.
“Phillip Curis Rias,” he replied giving the woman a smile.
“I… didn’t know Lenore was married,” murmured the woman, watching Phillip now.
“Well-”
“Ah! I’m so sorry,” Lenore said, entering her own office, interrupting Phillip. “I’m Lenore Rias.”
“Madeline Bair,” said the young woman, standing up from her chair and shaking Lenore’s hand.
Phillip quietly arranged two settings at the small table, putting out two small plates and napkins.
“-discuss an opportunity?” Lenore asked. She looked at her desk, then decided against it and moved straight to her table.
Noticing the door was still open, Phillip walked over to it and closed it.
As he did so he spotted Alice walking down the hall toward her own office.
His heart felt chilled at the very sight of her. He took extra caution to make sure he closed the door without slamming it.
“-spinning wheel,” said Madeline, apparently having launched straight into the discussion.
“I see. And you believe this… pedal… will make it that much easier?” Lenore said, her eyes moving to Phillip.
“I do. It’ll make it much easier to get the work done and free up the hands,” she said with more than a little enthusiasm. “It’s just as big as it was as well. It just changes the wheel.”
Phillip listened carefully while setting out two tea settings. He deliberately put the fresh-fruit scone on Lenore’s plate, not giving her the opportunity to eat another sandwich.
For Madeline however, he held out a tray and let her select her own item.
“The sandwich,” Lenore suggested when Madeline looked to her after staring at the tray. “Trust me. He’s just being stingy with me because I already ate… five, I think.”
“Seven, sandwiches,” Phillip countered and waited on Madeline with a grin. He could practically feel Lenore sticking her tongue out at him. At times, she was still quite young. “And would the cost go up to manufacture this new wheel?”
“Uhm, slightly. But not enough that it would matter. Maybe a hundred chits,” Madeline said, taking a sandwich from the tray.
“You’d be building them?” Phillip asked, putting his tray back. His question was almost a statement. He was fairly certain he was correct.
“N-no. That is, yes? My husband and I would be making them,” confessed Madeline.
Ah. I imagine some people might be offended by a man doing such work.
Though… I think if we can get ahead of this one, it could work out for us.
Watching Madeline, Phillip had a good feeling about her.
A very good feeling.
Turning to Lenore, he gave her an honest smile, then leaned in over her shoulder as if he were kissing her cheek.
“Buy the technology and her silence, get her to a warehouse, have them start making them as fast as they can for us,” Phillip whispered, and then planted a warm and somewhat loud kiss on Lenore’s cheek.
“Thank you, Phil,” Lenore said, as he moved over to stand next to his trolley. “Now, Madeline. How much were you looking for, and what were you pledging in return?”
“And did you make the clothes you’re wearing with the spinning wheel in question?” Phillip asked, taking a seat next to Lenore.
Likely a seamstress in the family. That bodes quite well. We can hire them to produce cloth as well.
Maybe take a long run at the market for cloth.
Or… bandages? The army will need bandages.
Hm.
Maybe we could leverage the same contact who bought our barrels.
Taking in a shaky breath, Madeline nodded her head and gave Lenore a bright smile.
***
In the end, they invested heavily into Madeline, her business, and her goals. Lenore was convinced by Phillip’s words, but she was also very interested in the whole thing before he’d said anything.
She was excited by the possibility of new technology.
Especially technology that built on existing things. That one could track and plot accordingly given existing trends and markets.
Today had gone very well.
Incredibly well.
He wasn’t sure how much of that was due to the fact that he had more or less ignored Alice, or that he Lenore had invited him to work with her.
That for the first time since he came here, he felt like he was invited in as an equal.
They’d stayed out for quite a while after finishing work. Having dinner together, going for a rather long walk, and then finally back home after the sun had long since set.
“Shame I’m not married to Lenore,” Phillip said somewhat wistfully.
Pulling off his coat, he stuck a hanger through it and hung it up in his wardrobe.
A timid knock on his door caused him to pause. It was the door that led to where his guards were.
Milly…? Is she… coming for me after all?
So bold.
Walking over to the door rather than calling out, he opened it.
Mim stood in front of him with a grin that showed all her lovely teeth off.
“I got permission from Alice to see you,” Mim said, hooking a thumb back toward the hallway. Mildred was standing off to one side looking uncomfortable.
She nodded her head, and shrugged her shoulders at Phillip. Then she pointed at herself, and then her own feet.
In other words, Milly’s not going to leave, Mim does have permission, and she’s going to make a scene if she doesn’t get let in.
Right.
“By all means then, come in,” Phillip said, standing to one side.
“Thank you!” Mim said, quite happily darting into his room.
“If you need me,” murmured Mildred, catching his eyes with her own.
Smiling at her, he winked and then closed the door.
“Ugh, I hate that he actually has a soft spot for you, Dread. Like a damn fairy tale,” grumbled one of his other guards.
“Shush, he’ll hear you,” said the second.<
br />
“He’s probably heard us all along, he just doesn’t care,” said the first again.
“Probably right,” replied the second. “But that’s why I like him. That and uh… doesn’t that mean he approves of it?”
It does indeed.
Nodding his head, Phillip turned back to Mim. She was nowhere in sight.
Raising his eyebrows, he entered the room fully and looked around.
There was no sign of her.
Then he knew the answer already.
Holding back a sigh he could barely contain, he walked over to his bedroom.
Mim was under his covers, his blankets held up to her chin.
Glancing around, he didn’t see any of her clothes scattered around, so he was at least thankful she wasn’t naked and in his bed.
Wait… maybe…
Leaning down, he looked under his bed and found no clothes there either.
Huh, alright.
Standing back up, he found Mim watching him. The smile was gone, and her eyes had a heavy look to them.
“You gave up on Allie,” she accused.
Unable to formulate a response to that statement, Phillip just stared back at her.
Taking several breaths, he finally managed to round up his thoughts.
“I did. She was alone with Jay yesterday and I walked in on it,” Phillip admitted. “I’m almost positive they were having a conversation they wouldn’t dare have in front of me. The way they sat together, spoke to one another, touched… it was too much for me.
“I couldn’t even talk Alice into having lunch with me. But she makes private alone time for herself and Jay. To talk in a location that no one visits.”
Mim winced at that, her eyes slowly moving down toward the covers she was hiding beneath.
“She… told me she was pretty sure you’d caught them like that,” agreed Mim.
“How?” Phillip asked, curious. “I left while they were still playing touchy-feely.”
“You ran into a servant apparently. He also turned the book you had over to Alice. A book only you could have dropped. No one else would be interested in the Rias family other than say… a loving husband who was doing his best,” Mim murmured.
“Hmph.”
Phillip didn’t bother to try and continue the conversation. He had no idea what to say and he honestly didn’t want to hear it.