Page 13 of Bargains with Benefits
I ducked and took silent steps up the staircase to the landing. They shouldn’t be able to see me from this angle. I only needed to peer around the short wall to glimpse them. Without much thought, I risked it, popping my head around the corner. The man’s back was to me, his arm resting along the railing, only the back of his head visible as he stared at the woman. I was sure it was Darius, though. The woman was a little to the left in the stairwell, her pinched expression clearly visible, though thankfully it was locked on Darius, not scanning the stairwell for eavesdroppers. I recognized her face immediately from a recent speech I’d attended.
“I am taking the time to research the impacts on this city, as is my duty. A magic school is no small matter,” Marion Smith, the human governor, said.
I sucked in a breath, unable to believe the conversation I’d stumbled onto.
“I agree.” His voice grew louder, and I knew he’d changed the direction of his face. I chanced another glance. This time, I could see his profile as he looked over the railing. It was absolutely Darius Pierce, and he looked as frustrated as the governor.
“Glad to hear it. Now, please leave. I have your contributions. You will hear when I’ve made a decision.”
He laughed. “And I thought it was the fae who were supposed to be controlling.”
“You’ve been doing it longer, but that doesn’t mean you own the skill. Not everything is about you.”
Darius pressed his lips into a thin line and turned to leave. Ineeded to get out of there. I stayed low and returned to the second-floor door, opening it loudly as if I were only now entering the stairwell. I began the descent as if I had nothing to hide and hadn’t been listening to their private conversation. Darius didn’t catch up to me as I left. I slipped my hands into my pockets, tucking in to the flow of people on the street, and headed for the paper office.
This matter was more confusing than I’d anticipated. I hadn’t heard anything that asserted guilt, but I couldn’t deny that the conversation echoed Patricia’s tip. My thoughts returned to Luna. If she was half-fae, this whole thing impacted her more than I’d initially realized. She’d gone through the work of adding herself to the Norden Court records, which meant, on some level, she wanted to be acknowledged for her magic. She wouldn’t have grown up with the resources a school like the one proposed could provide. If anything, she deserved an opinion on her family’s alleged involvement.
I had a list of excuses to justify what I’d already decided.
My wind ruffled my hair as if to point outYou just want to see her again.Maybe it was the way her hair caught the moonlight. Maybe it was because no one had made me feel like an ass like that in a long time. All I knew was that I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and it wasn’t only because of her surname.
7
Luna
The groundskeeper’s cottage was perfect for me. The bedroom was separate, but everything else was encompassed in a single room. Plants of all kinds hung in baskets from the rafters, and a fire crackled in the stove. When I was a girl, Mom would bring us here for vacation. I hadn’t thought it strange then that we didn’t stay at the big house. Instead, I’d imagined we were so special we couldn’t stay in the inn with everyone else—we required our own space. Or maybe Darius hadn’t wanted to give away one of the paid rooms to his ex and disavowed daughter.
I sighed and put more wood in the stove before setting a pot of water for tea atop it. The cupboards were full of mismatched dishware, and I pulled a bright red mug from the front of the stack. I needed a plan before approaching Vincent at the newspaper office. I may have decided to do it—to set aside my pride and approach the old fae for a favor—but my whole plan for the inn wouldn’t revolve around a single shot atgetting attention in the popular column. Cataloging and cleaning the inn, then executing my ideas about gaining new customers, suddenly seemed daunting. I’d had suggestions for years, but finally, no one stood in my way to implement them.
Darius hadn’t even asked to see a plan. He told me I had a modest budget and could do what I wanted. It might be modest in his mind, but when I looked at the number, it was…large. Large enough that if I did the cleaning myself, I could invest the rest in my improvement ideas. I’d need to go through each room today and determine what I could clean versus what might require professional assistance. I had my notebook open on the table while the water boiled. Sea air gave the place a fresh scent I couldn’t get enough of, but it did mean I left a window cracked all the time, no matter how cold it got.
I wrapped a knitted blanket around my shoulders and watched the pot for bubbles. A cool breeze slipped in through the cracked window, and I wrapped the blanket closer. The pattern was obnoxious, even to me—each square a different color, making it one of my loudest items—and I loved bright colors. When we stayed here in my youth, Mom always had activities for us. One year, we started this blanket. Mom was a seamstress, so we made each square from materials she had left over from other projects. She brought as many as she could reasonably travel with on our visits, and the tradition was born. We’d only half finished by the time she passed, but I let the spirit of the idea live on. The new seamstress in our village would sell me her scraps at a discount, and I added them to the pattern. A few years after Mom was gone, I’d ended up with this finished piece, and I thought Mom would have liked how it turned out.
The bubble of boiling water pulled my attention back toward the stovetop. The special moonflower tea blend I kept hidden was already on the counter. Byrd didn’t believe that the flowers bloomed on the property, so he didn’t miss them, but Ialso wasn’t one to draw attention to the fact that I harvested them for tea. The scent was immediately calming to my busy mind. With a final deep breath, I had nothing else to stop me from making my list.
As long as everything was on the list, it could be done. It didn’t matter how many items there were, they only needed to be prioritized. I moved to the couch, letting the comfort of the blanket fall from my shoulders as I leaned forward to write.
Taking stock of the inn seemed as good a place as any to start. If the office looked dirty to Darius, I couldn’t imagine how the guest rooms looked. Byrd didn’t like me in the inn, so I hadn’t been through the rooms in years.
I wroteclean and inventory bedroomson the list.
The library would need attention. I hadn’t checked it yesterday, too distracted by my conversation with Darius. It was a beautiful room leading to the back porch overlooking the sea. I’d always felt it was underutilized. Now that I was in charge, I needed to determine what that meant. My instinct had always been to make it a breakfast area. The inn didn’t serve meals. Byrd had said there were plenty of restaurants in Sandrin. This was true, but what about those earlier risers who wanted something comforting before heading out on their adventure for the day? The other major inns all served breakfast. It seemed a simple addition. I need only decide what to serve.
I addedexplore breakfast optionsto the list.
Of everything on the property, I was most proud of the grounds. They were the one thing I was allowed to maintain in my own way. I’d ensured healthy flowerbeds around the inn and had maintained a usable path from the cliff down to the seaside beachfront. It was over a hundred steps. Visiting when I was younger, I’d realized not many guests knew about it and even fewer used it, but the water was a feature of Cliff House. I loved going down there to listen to the sea crash against therocks. It was peaceful. I knew I wasn’t the only one who would love it once I got guests here.
So much relied on bringing awareness to new customers.
I moved to another part of my list. There were a couple of paths to get the word out. “Benefits of Magic” was one option—it might be a long shot, but I would try. Maybe Vincent would like this place. He seemed to enjoy things and places that weren’t new but could be represented in a new light. That was his angle with the Sweet Solstice Sip, the last clothing boutique, and even a furniture maker. My cheeks flushed as I remembered Earl’s words from last night. Maybe Iwashis biggest fan.
Wind whipped through the window crack, bringing the scent of sea and storm. At least Vincent’s magic would like it here, if I could get him to the property. I certainly hadn’t made the best first impression yesterday, but worrying about his reaction wouldn’t help. Seraphina had also said I could put signs in the tavern. I’d check with a few other taverns near the inroads to the city to see if they would allow the same. If I couldn’t make a big splash with a feature like “Benefits of Magic,” it was best to catch the visitors as they arrived.
My list looked as complete as it could for now. I’d expand on it when I determined what needed to be done in the guest rooms and the library. I took my teacup and pulled the blanket around my shoulders again as I trekked through the woods to the inn.
The rooms were worsethan I’d thought. Byrd really must have given up, and I wondered why Darius hadn’t tried to sell the inn sooner, even though my heart wrenched at the thought. I’d been through almost all the rooms, and while nothing was wrong with them other than the dust and dinge of disuse, theyweren’t welcoming. I hoped a good clean would help as I twisted the knob of the final door. It was my last to review. I stumbled into the door, realizing it hadn’t opened. Tilting my head, confused, I tried again. The handle turned, but the door didn’t budge. I gave it a little shake. The door seemed to mock me with its stillness. I got down on my knees to peer in the keyhole. It didn’t appear locked, but it was undoubtedly not opening.
I jiggled the handle once more, and nothing happened. With my hands on my hips, I glared at the unmoving door. I’d need to return to this one. I noted its stubbornness on the list next to the room needing a small leak repaired. I moved downstairs to the main floor, and a knock stopped me in my tracks as I passed the front door.
