Chương 58: Enough

Nessa left her personal ledger open through most of the morning. Seventy-four thousand, three hundred and seventy-five kamera sat beside her name. She had checked the transfer yesterday and once more before breakfast. There was nothing left to verify, but her eyes kept returning to the number. The Second Spark was quiet between services. Sunlight reached across the tables near the windows, and somewhere upstairs charcoal scratched against plaster.

Joe had cleared most of his things from the second floor, leaving the rooms hollow enough that every stool scrape carried through the ceiling. A year ago, Nessa would have known exactly where unexpected money belonged. Rent. Food. Whatever remained went somewhere safe. Now she had enough that losing a job would not become an emergency by the end of the week. That was harder to get used to. The kitchen door opened, and Nessa closed the ledger. Tovan came through carrying several empty bowls.

He looked at the book beneath her hand, then at her.

"You know the number isn't changing."

"I know." He gathered two cups from the counter.

"You could stop working." Nessa gave him a look. Tovan shrugged.

"So could I. I don't intend to."

"Neither do I." He nodded once.

"Good." Then he carried the cups back into the kitchen. From the rear room came Evelyn's voice as she counted vegetable sacks with a supplier. She had arrived with damp hair and tired eyes that morning, but she had been humming while setting up the cupboard records. Nessa had noticed and left it alone. The front door opened. Joe came in with a long object wrapped in cloth under one arm and a paper bag in the other. Dust marked his sleeve, and grease darkened one hand. Nessa looked at the bundle.

"Please put whatever that is against the wall." Joe glanced down at it.

"It's clean."

"Your hand isn't." He considered that, then carried it where she had pointed. The paper bag went on the table. Warm bread scented the room.

"You passed Mara's?" Nessa asked. Joe nodded and sat down. She pushed a folder toward him.

"Building transfer. Evelyn's ownership papers are almost finished too. Jacob and I also settled how the auction accounts will work from now on." Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Joe opened the folder and began signing where she had marked. Nessa watched him reach the second page without asking a question.

"You're not curious what I agreed to?"

"You said you settled it."

"That is several hundred thousand kamera." Joe paused with the pen against the paper.

"Do I need to know something?"

"No."

"Then I trust you." He continued signing. Nessa leaned back in her chair. She should probably have found that reassuring. Mostly, it was irritating.

"You tried to spend the Kerrin royalty on a cooling cabinet."

"We needed the cabinet."

"The restaurant needed it." Joe looked up.

"It was still useful." Unfortunately, it was. Nessa glanced toward the kitchen. This morning's custard had started as yesterday's bread. Near the wall sat Joe's wrapped bundle, apparently another thing in need of fixing.

"What happens if the next auction makes you a millionaire?" Joe thought about it longer than she expected.

"Probably the same things. Training. Batteries. Travel supplies. Research." His eyes shifted toward the wall.

"Repairs, apparently."

"You already need repairs?"

"Something moved."

"That sounds suspiciously like breaking."

"It still works." Nessa let that answer sit where it was. Joe finished the last signature and pushed the folder back. She noticed a dark mark near his collar and reached across to rub at it. It stayed.

"You're filthy."

"I was fixing the shed door." Nessa looked at him.

"You have two hundred and thirty-eight thousand kamera."

"The door still needed fixing." There was no defensible response to that. Joe opened the bread bag, broke a roll in half, and offered her some. Nessa took it. The middle was still warm.

"What are you doing with yours?" he asked. She glanced toward the closed ledger. Property had crossed her mind. Investments. A larger reserve. Something through Rook's, perhaps, though speaking to her mother about that would create an entire second problem.

"I don't know yet." Joe chewed for a moment.

"Then leave it." Nessa frowned at him.

"Until you know," he added. Coming from anyone else, it would have sounded obvious. Coming from Joe, who could usually find a use for spare money before it reached the account, it took her a moment.

"You never leave money alone."

"I leave it alone when I don't need anything."

"You always need something." Joe looked toward the wrapped bundle again.

"I usually needed it first." Nessa took another bite of bread. That, annoyingly, was true too. For a while they sat without speaking. A pot lid settled in the kitchen. Evelyn thanked the supplier at the rear door. Upstairs, the charcoal began scratching again. Nessa opened the ledger one last time. The number waited where she had left it. She closed the book and slid it beneath the accounts. It could stay there. Joe stood and collected the wrapped bundle.

"Holt and Bera?"

"Yeah."

"Normal training?" His hesitation answered before he did.

"I'm asking them about increasing it." Nessa sighed and followed him outside. Midday traffic had filled the street. A flour wagon waited at the corner, and two apprentices carried a long plank through the crowd. Before Joe stepped away, Nessa caught his coat and straightened the collar she had failed to clean.

"Come back in one piece."

"I'm only training."

"I know." She let go.

"I'm practicing." Joe's mouth moved slightly.

"That seems useful." He crossed the street with the bundle under one arm and the rest of the roll in the other.

"Nessa?" Evelyn called from inside. Nessa watched Joe reach the corner, then turned back toward the restaurant. Lunch would start soon.