With His Kiss. Laurey Bright
and Magnus had always eaten together with the students and any tutors who chose to live in. Most of the current tutors preferred to commute from the city, and Arthur had taken his swollen nose home for his wife’s ministrations. Zed would be giving his children their evening meal in their own cottage while his wife fixed dinner at the house, helped by two of the boys rostered for kitchen duty.
One of the helpers looked the worse for wear, and all the boys were subdued. Triss saw that an extra hand in the kitchen was needed, and was ladling soup into bowls at the pass-through counter when Steve entered and took his place in the small queue.
“Thanks,” he said when she handed him a steaming bowl. “Anywhere?”
“Anywhere,” she confirmed. The tables were round, and as Magnus had made a point of sitting at a different place each evening, Triss had been relieved of any awkwardness over a special chair after his death.
She still missed his presence though, and was sure the boys did, too.
Steve chose a table and she assumed he was introducing himself, but before she sat down with her own bowl of soup at another table she rapped a spoon on the glass and waited for the subdued hum of talk to stop.
Some of the faces turned toward her were apprehensive, a few belligerent, and several showed swellings and bruises. She’d held an ice pack to her own cheekbone until it stung and then numbed, and used a cover-up makeup, but the spot was tender and slightly swollen.
“Some of you will have met Mr. Stevens,” she said, nodding toward Steve. At least a few had “met” him under less than friendly circumstances. “He’s a trustee of the House now, and he’ll be living here and helping out for a while.” She didn’t look to see what Steve made of that last bit. “I’m sure you’ll all make him welcome. After dinner he’d like to speak to you in the common room. So be there. Thanks.” They knew it was an order, not a matter of choice.
Triss didn’t have much appetite. The day had been stressful, and she discovered that her cheek throbbed when she chewed. She left the crusty bread on her plate and, after the soup, settled for potatoes, mashed carrots and gravy.
Whatever the boys were expecting, it didn’t seem to affect their need for food. Afterward they trooped into the room next door, where they lounged on chairs and a sofa or sprawled on the floor, with or without the cushions and bean bags provided.
Steve took a stance where they could all see him and simply waited in silence for them to stop shoving and joshing each other and fall quiet.
“When I arrived this afternoon,” he began, “I thought I’d entered a war zone.”
Uncertain laughter came from some of the boys. But Steve’s face was stern, his voice uncompromising. “Magnus would never have stood for that kind of thing and you all know it. If it happens again, anyone who takes part will be asked to leave. Is that clear?”
Shuffles and muttered acknowledgments.
“At least one of you owes Triss an apology,” Steve added grimly. “In fact it might not be a bad idea if you all apologized to her for your behavior this afternoon before you leave. But don’t go yet.”
He paused. One boy, arms folded, was tipping his chair dangerously far back, apparently ignoring Steve. After a few seconds the boy looked up, locked gazes with the man for a long moment, then let the chair thud into place.
Steve’s glance swept the room. “Magnus made both me and his wife trustees under his will,” he said. “That’s why I’m here, to carry out his work. You guys are lucky—you won’t know how lucky until after you leave. A lot of you haven’t had it easy up until now. We don’t promise you ever will, but we’ll do our damnedest to make sure you have the skills to make the most of what you have.”
Magnus’s creed, Triss thought, watching Steve catch each boy’s eyes in turn.
“I’m an old boy of Kurakaha myself, so don’t think I can’t understand your problems—and don’t think you can get away with anything either. I know all the tricks because I’ve pulled most of them myself.”
That drew another reluctant laugh and some assessing looks.
“I’m not going to bore you with long speeches. Anyone wants to talk to me, I’ll be around. I’m going to be around for a long time.”
Triss guessed that last was aimed at her.
Steve had impressed the boys, not so much by what he said as the way he said it, with unmistakable authority, his manner firm but approachable. Even the easy way he stood as he talked to them, neither parade-ground straight nor slouching, proclaimed confidence in his control of any situation. They’d reserve judgment but he’d made a good start.
The students began filing out, each one stopping to mutter an apology to her. “You’d better apologize to Mr. Gill,” she told the one who had punched the tutor. “If he comes back after what happened to him this afternoon.”
“Yeah, awright. Didden know it was him.” The boy slouched off.
When they had all left, Steve looked across the room at Triss. “How did I do?”
Surprised that he’d asked, and trying hard not to sound grudging, she said, “Very well. You don’t think we might have asked what started them off?”
“A disputed goal, the guys at my table told me. Any excuse to let off steam.” He grinned faintly. “Tears are shameful, but a good brawl can have a cathartic effect.”
Triss wondered if the forceful way he’d helped Zed break up the fight had been cathartic for him, too. She recalled the way he’d looked when he approached her afterward, his hair sleeked to his scalp and the wet shirt molding powerful shoulders and a broad chest. His face had been taut and energized, his eyes glinting like new metal, even before they’d taken in the revealing nature of her own wet clothes. When the glint had altered to a very specific and personal appraisal.
She swallowed, shaking off a ripple of disturbing sensation.
“Thanks for the intro at dinner,” Steve was saying.
“We always introduce guests…or new staff.” She paused. “You might have consulted me before threatening to throw them out.”
“Only if the same thing happened again. However,” he added, “point taken.”
And no sense in laboring it. Politely she asked, “I hope the annex is okay? If there’s anything you need let me know.”
“It’s fine. When can we go over the books?”
“The books?”
“Annual reports and balance sheets. I’d like to know what’s been happening over the past few years, and what exactly our financial situation is.”
“I can tell you that.” He knew she had been keeping the accounts ever since arriving at Kurakaha. She was just about to graciously concede that of course he could see the records if he wished, when he added, his voice unmistakably hardening, “I’d like to see them, all the same. And I’ll be bringing in an independent auditor.”
Triss went cold, then hot. The skin over her cheekbones burned, the bruised one throbbing painfully in time with the thudding of her heart that seemed to be hurting, too. “You don’t trust me.”
“I didn’t say that.” But he wasn’t saying he did, either.
“The books are audited every year.”
“I’m sure. Who chose the auditor?”
She wouldn’t dignify that with an answer. “You’re welcome to go through them,” she said stiffly. “You and your auditor.”
She felt like flying at him, starting a small private brawl of her own. Instead she wheeled and left him, not trusting herself to stay any longer in the same room.
After checking that