ㅤ
On Monday, I submitted the exhibition report with Evelyn's corrections in the margins and my calculations checked for the fourth time. Halden read the conclusion, drew a line through proved, and replaced it with suggested.
ㅤ
“Now it resembles research,” he said.
ㅤ
“That's the warmest thing you've said to me all month.”
ㅤ
“I can make it colder.”
ㅤ
I took the report before he could demonstrate. Halden reminded us that a signed exhibition record was not the same as a published study, and that any further tests would need their own schedule. I knew. I also knew Tuesday had no official reason to occupy so much of my attention. I checked my timetable anyway.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
By Tuesday morning, Mrs. Fenwick had confirmed she could keep Mira an extra hour after my classes. I'd set aside the additional payment and explained the change over breakfast.
ㅤ
“Are you working?” Mira asked.
ㅤ
“Not during that hour. I'm having lunch with Evelyn.”
ㅤ
“Without me?”
ㅤ
“Yes.”
ㅤ
She stared at the spoon in her hand. “Is she mad at me?”
ㅤ
“No. I asked her to spend some time with me. You and I do things together without Evelyn sometimes, don't we?”
ㅤ
“Like buying potatoes.”
ㅤ
“Exactly.”
ㅤ
Mira considered that. “You should buy Mommy something nicer than potatoes.”
ㅤ
“I'll see what I can manage.”
ㅤ
She returned to her porridge, but a minute later asked, “Will you both come home?”
ㅤ
“I'll collect you from Mrs. Fenwick afterward. Evelyn has her own plans today.”
ㅤ
“Okay.” She nudged Sir Flopsy away from her bowl. “Tell her I said have fun.”
ㅤ
I promised I would. Before we left, Mira checked that our key was on its hook, then handed it to me as though she were the one responsible for getting us home.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
I reached the little café near the academy ten minutes early. It had four tables indoors, two beneath an awning, and a chalkboard advertising a lunch plate that cost less than I'd feared. I chose the table by the window, then moved because the draft made it cold. By the time Evelyn entered, I was standing beside a chair, looking like someone who'd forgotten how chairs worked.
ㅤ
“You're early,” she said.
ㅤ
“I didn't want you to wait.”
ㅤ
“I wasn't worried.”
ㅤ
She wore a dark blue dress beneath a simple coat, her silver hair pinned back with a blue ribbon. Not her academy uniform. I realized I'd rarely seen her choose clothes for an ordinary afternoon away from lessons and research.
ㅤ
“You look nice,” I said.
ㅤ
“Thank you.” Her crimson eyes met mine. “So do you.”
ㅤ
I'd brushed my coat and persuaded the collar to sit straight. The compliment still caught me off guard. She noticed, but kindly let me pull out her chair without commenting.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
We ordered lunch. Evelyn chose a vegetable tart; I took the stew and bread. When the server left, I nearly asked about Halden's corrections. I caught myself before the first word escaped.
ㅤ
“We can talk about work,” Evelyn said.
ㅤ
“I know. I just don't want it to be the only thing we talk about.”
ㅤ
“Then tell me something I don't know about you.”
ㅤ
The request was reasonable. That made it difficult.
ㅤ
“I learned to cook because I couldn't afford to keep ruining ingredients,” I said. “It took me longer than it should have.”
ㅤ
“It's something I didn't know.”
ㅤ
“Your turn.”
ㅤ
She looked toward the window. “I used to hide in the conservatory when my father's guests visited. There was a bench behind a climbing rose. The gardener pretended not to see me.”
ㅤ
“Did you like the flowers?”
ㅤ
“Some. Mostly I liked that no one expected me to say the correct thing to a rose.”
ㅤ
“Mira would disagree. She talks to our marigolds.”
ㅤ
“Perhaps she'd have liked my gardener.”
ㅤ
“Did he ever tell your father?”
ㅤ
“Not once. He did bring me a blanket when it grew cold.”
ㅤ
I thought of Mr. Pell clearing the planter's drain, and Mrs. Alder coming back to help after we'd left her guesthouse. People could make a place easier to inhabit without demanding to be thanked for every small kindness.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
The food arrived before I could ask more. At the next table, two students debated whether an enchantment could keep tea hot without changing its taste. Evelyn listened for a moment, then leaned closer.
ㅤ
“They've been arguing about that since last term.”
ㅤ
“You know them?”
ㅤ
“No. I've heard the argument.”
ㅤ
I laughed, and the tightness in my shoulders finally eased.
ㅤ
I told her about the first meal I'd attempted after arriving in this world: a pot of rice I'd burned so thoroughly that the landlord had asked whether I'd been experimenting with fire magic. I left out the part about arriving from Earth. The story was true without it, though I disliked how often I had to measure the edges of my own past.
ㅤ
Evelyn told me she'd once tried to bake a cake for her mother's birthday. She'd followed a recipe copied by a servant but mistaken salt for sugar because the jars had been switched.
ㅤ
“Did anyone eat it?” I asked.
ㅤ
“My mother took a bite. She said the effort was sweet.”
ㅤ
“That was generous.”
ㅤ
“She laughed afterward. I was furious with her for about ten minutes.”
ㅤ
Evelyn smiled at the memory. I remembered the pale blue ribbon in her writing case, another detail Mira had known without being told. I didn't mention it. Her mother's birthday belonged to Evelyn, not to our investigation. Instead I asked whether she'd tried baking again.
ㅤ
“Eventually,” she said. “With the jars labeled.”
ㅤ
“An important advancement in culinary research.”
ㅤ
“I'll cite you if I publish the results.”
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
After lunch, we walked along the canal path behind the academy. Students and shopkeepers used it to reach the western streets. Yellow leaves had begun collecting along the water, and someone had tied a little bell to a narrow boat.
ㅤ
“Did you choose this route?” Evelyn asked.
ㅤ
“I walked it yesterday to make sure it didn't end at a locked gate.”
ㅤ
“You planned a walk?”
ㅤ
“I planned an option. I wasn't sure whether you'd want to stay in the café.”
ㅤ
“I like walking.”
ㅤ
“I'll remember that.”
ㅤ
We passed a stall selling paper flowers. Evelyn stopped to inspect a blue one made from folded scraps. I offered to buy it, then hesitated. I didn't want her to think I was trying to make the afternoon more significant by spending money.
ㅤ
“You don't have to,” she said.
ㅤ
“I know. I wanted to.”
ㅤ
She chose a small yellow flower instead. “This one looks like Mira's marigolds.”
ㅤ
I paid the vendor. Evelyn tucked it carefully into her book, keeping the petals from catching between the pages. We continued toward the footbridge without hurrying.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
At the bridge, Evelyn rested her hands on the railing. For a while we watched the water and spoke about nothing important. I liked the silence more than I'd expected. I wasn't searching for a question to keep her from leaving, and she didn't seem to be waiting for me to produce one.
ㅤ
“Adrian,” she said eventually, “why did you ask me?”
ㅤ
I knew what she meant. I could have answered with the exhibition, or how much Mira liked her, or the fact that we'd spent weeks working together. All of those were true and none was enough.
ㅤ
“Because when something happens, I want to tell you about it,” I said. “Not only when I need your help. I wanted an afternoon that didn't belong to a problem we were solving.”
ㅤ
She looked at me. “I wanted that too.”
ㅤ
A boat passed beneath us. We watched it go, close enough that our sleeves touched in the breeze. I could feel myself smiling and made no effort to hide it.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
Evelyn glanced at the clock above the canal office. “You need to collect Mira.”
ㅤ
“In twenty minutes.”
ㅤ
“Then we should turn back.”
ㅤ
We walked toward the academy at an unhurried pace. Near the café, our hands brushed when we moved aside for a delivery cart. I could have pretended not to notice. Instead, I offered mine.
ㅤ
Evelyn looked at it, then took it.
ㅤ
We walked that way to the corner. There, she let go to adjust the book under her arm, and neither of us made a speech about it.
ㅤ
“I'd like to do this again,” she said.
ㅤ
“So would I.”
ㅤ
“Perhaps somewhere with fewer students discussing tea.”
ㅤ
“I'll research our options.”
ㅤ
“Don't make a report.”
ㅤ
“No tables or diagrams. I promise.”
ㅤ
At the academy gate, she opened her book, took out the yellow paper flower, and held it toward me.
ㅤ
“For the window, if there's room.”
ㅤ
“Are you sure? You chose it.”
ㅤ
“I know. I'd like Mira to see it.”
ㅤ
I accepted it carefully, keeping the folded petals clear of my coat buttons. “She'll find a place.”
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
Mrs. Fenwick opened the door before I knocked twice. Mira was kneeling on the floor, building a house for Sir Flopsy out of wooden spools.
ㅤ
“You came back.”
ㅤ
“I said I would.”
ㅤ
“Did you have fun?”
ㅤ
“I did.”
ㅤ
She studied my face. “Did Mommy?”
ㅤ
“She said she'd like to go again.”
ㅤ
“Good.” Mira held up a spool. “The rabbit needs a chimney.”
ㅤ
Mrs. Fenwick handed me Mira's bag. “Everything was fine. She asked about you twice, then made me inspect the foundation.”
ㅤ
“Was it sound?”
ㅤ
“Better than some houses I've lived in.”
ㅤ
I thanked her, paid the agreed extra hour, confirmed our regular arrangement for the next day, and took Mira home. On the way, she explained why Sir Flopsy's house needed a second door. Apparently knights had to be able to escape when dragons arrived.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
At the apartment, I showed Mira the paper flower Evelyn had given me.
ㅤ
“For the window?” she asked.
ㅤ
“That's what Evelyn said.”
ㅤ
Mira held it up to the light. “Mommy remembered.”
ㅤ
“She did.”
ㅤ
We found a place beside the drawings. The yellow paper looked almost orange in the late sun. Mira adjusted it three times until she was satisfied.
ㅤ
“Did you buy Mommy a flower too?”
ㅤ
“I bought that one. She sent it home with us.”
ㅤ
Mira frowned. “Then she needs one.”
ㅤ
“We can ask what she'd like next time.”
ㅤ
“She likes blue.”
ㅤ
“I've noticed.”
ㅤ
Mira gave me a long look. “You're getting better at noticing.”
ㅤ
I couldn't argue. She fetched Sir Flopsy so he could inspect the new decoration, then informed me that paper flowers didn't need drainage. At least one problem in the apartment had become simpler.
ㅤ
***
ㅤ
That evening I checked the budget after Mira went to bed. Lina's next lesson was scheduled, but its payment wasn't in my purse yet. Halden's grading wages were due soon. I still needed to plan carefully. Lunch and Mrs. Fenwick's additional hour had cost what I'd set aside for them; I recorded both without borrowing from rent or groceries.
ㅤ
I set the notebook beside the exhibition report. There was a reply still to come from the specialist Miss Vale had contacted, another welfare review ahead, and more work than my timetable comfortably held. None of that had changed because Evelyn and I had eaten together.
ㅤ
What had changed was smaller and harder to put in a column. I'd asked her to spend time with me. She'd said yes. When I'd offered my hand, she'd taken it.
ㅤ
I checked the door, covered Mira's feet with her blanket, and turned down the lamp. I didn't know when Evelyn and I would find another afternoon that belonged only to us.
