Chapter 129: No Patient, No Emergency

The last expense tally was less interesting than the tannery and harder to kill.

Severin stood at the threshold of Greycross’s west strongroom while Marienne checked the final marks against the senior clerk’s receipts. The treasury chest sat open behind her. On the long table outside, Packet A and Packet B sat apart from the working folio, with clear space between all 3 bundles.

"The company sits at 3,696 Stellar Gold before tonight’s payments," Marienne said. "We pay 140 now. Household, treatment, clerks, food, security. Everything accrued from 31 October through today that belongs to us."

Severin looked from the receipts to the open chest. "None of the captive purses?"

"Separate. Untouched." Marienne tapped a different tied stack with a fingertip. "This is ours."

The clerk rubbed ink from the side of his thumb. "The last supplier marked his own copy too. He complained about the security charge until I reminded him whose carts stopped disappearing."

Marienne’s mouth barely moved. "How tragic for him."

Severin looked at the receipts. "Paid?"

"Paid." She set the last slip down. "And accounted for."

She counted 140 Stellar Gold from the chest into the company’s ordinary payment case, closed the chest, and turned the key. Only after the strongroom door was locked did she hand the case to the senior clerk.

"Same route," she said. "Bring the empty case back with every mark. If somebody suddenly forgets how to sign, bring them with it."

The clerk glanced at Severin, decided she wasn’t joking, and tucked the case under his arm. "I’ll encourage their memory."

He left.

Marienne waited until his footsteps disappeared down the corridor before looking at Severin. "You dislike this part."

"I dislike paying for the same thing again."

"Then you’ll enjoy the result. We don’t."

That earned her the smallest lift of his brow.

They had larger problems under the tannery. Those problems still ate food, used lamp oil, needed guards, and left ordinary costs behind them.

By the time the clerk returned, the daylight in the west windows had thinned toward evening. He brought the empty case and a tied stack of marked receipts. Marienne checked enough to satisfy herself, then carried the 3 tannery bundles back into the strongroom separately and set each apart on top of the locked chest.

"That leaves 3,556 Stellar Gold on the books," she said as she relocked the strongroom.

"Good."

Marienne rested a shoulder against the locked strongroom door. "That was almost praise."

"Don’t get greedy."

Her mouth curved. "From you? Never."

A light knock came from the records-room door.

Nyra leaned inside. She had changed out of yesterday’s road cloak, but nothing about her expression suggested she had come to relax.

"I can settle something before the 3rd bell," she said.

Severin turned toward her. "Which thing?"

"The front door. My source can follow a supply cart from arrival to departure without hunting for anything hidden. We see whether that load ever crosses the door everyone can see."

"Bring me the answer."

Nyra’s ear tipped. "Already moving."

"If it matters, I’m going to Copperglass."

"I know where to find you."

She was gone again before Marienne could comment.

Marienne watched the empty doorway for a moment. "Useful woman."

"Very."

"And still keeping her source."

Severin met her eyes.

Marienne lifted both hands. "Not my business. I prefer my ledgers to my mysteries."

"Don’t carry it farther."

Her smile was thin and entirely unrepentant.

They crossed the manor as the light faded.

At the south gate, Marienne used her key on the west leaf and stayed inside the boundary with it in hand. The household driver already held the reins. Alicia climbed into the carriage after Severin, silver tail curling clear of the door.

The horses started forward.

As the carriage crossed the gate line, the Perimeter Ward touched Severin’s awareness.

South side. Outbound. No matching key.

Marienne remained inside the gate with the key. Once the carriage cleared the contour, she pulled the leaf shut and locked it again.

The driver took the known road to Copperglass.

Alicia sat beside Severin, looking out through the carriage window at the lamps beginning to wake along the road.

"Master?" Alicia turned from the window.

Severin looked over. "Mm."

Her tail shifted across the seat. "Are we hunting the tannery tonight?"

"We’re finding the way in. Hunting comes after."

Her bright blue eyes sharpened. "Then I’ll stay close."

"You always do."

Alicia smiled and faced the road again.

By the time they reached Copperglass, the lower ward had settled into the quieter rhythm of night work.

A helper Severin recognized crossed the room carrying folded cloth, checked a lamp on the way, nudged a water jug farther from the edge of a table, and kept moving without asking Tressa what came next. Nobody called for Tressa.

Tressa’s work apron already hung from its peg.

She stood near the end of the ward with clean, dry hands and her chestnut hair tied back. There was no blood on her sleeves. No strain pulled at her face. When she saw Severin, her hazel eyes moved over him, then toward Alicia.

"You’re late enough that I nearly found something useful to do," she said.

"Nearly?"

"I resisted."

Her mouth twitched.

Severin stopped in front of her. "Don’t make a habit of that."

"I can survive it for an hour." Tressa glanced toward the short corridor behind her, then back to him. "I want you in my room."

Severin caught her chin between his fingers and tipped her face up. "You practiced that?"

"No." Her cheeks warmed. "If I had, it would’ve sounded prettier."

"Good thing I don’t need pretty."

Her eyes softened. "You’ve never needed it."

He released her chin and looked at Alicia.

"Take the corridor approach and the lower-ward door. Nobody gets to Tressa’s room without going through you. If Nyra comes, you call me."

Alicia’s tail snapped against the side of her boot.

Then it went still.

"Yes, Master."

She moved immediately to the position he had given her.

Tressa’s gaze flicked to the single sharp movement of that silver tail. She said nothing and turned toward the corridor.

Severin followed.

The same narrow room waited off the short corridor, warm under the wall lamp. The bed took up most of the wall on his left. The washstand faced it, and the sturdy chair stood beside the door.

Severin entered far enough to clear the doorway. Tressa came in behind him, shut the door, and turned the key already sitting in the lock.

Then she faced him. For a heartbeat, neither moved. Tressa’s hands weren’t trembling. Her breathing was.

Severin crossed the open strip of floor beside the foot of the bed, catching her waist.

She rose onto her toes before he kissed her.

"Mmh..."

Her mouth opened under his. A hand slid behind his neck while the other caught the front of his coat. She kissed him harder than her usual careful first touch, then made a soft, frustrated sound when he slowed her down.

"Hnh... Severin." Her grip tightened on his coat.

"You asked for time."

Tressa chased his mouth when he drew back. "I asked."

"Then stop trying to spend it all in a minute."

A quiet laugh broke against his mouth. "You really do enjoy ordering me around."

Severin pinched her chin. "You noticed."

Tressa answered with a breathless smile. "Impossible not to."

"Keep up."

He cut off her reply with another kiss.

This time he took his time with her mouth. Slow pressure. A deeper kiss. His thumb under her jaw while his other hand settled at the small of her back. Tressa leaned into him and let him set the rhythm, lips softening, tongue meeting his when he wanted more.

"Mmm..."

Severin moved from her mouth to the corner of her jaw.

She tipped her head without being told.

"Ah..."

His lips traveled down the side of her neck. Tressa’s fingers tightened in his coat when his teeth grazed the warm skin beneath her ear.

"Hah... again."

He did, slower, and her knees softened under him.

Severin caught her before she could drift backward and used the movement to guide her toward the chair. Tressa stepped out of her low shoes, nudging them beneath it. Her stockings followed, then the simple dress, but he never let the undressing become its own task. A kiss interrupted a button. His hand slid beneath fabric. Her dress ended folded over the chair seat because she managed it between breaths, not because either of them cared about neatness.

His coat went over the chair back. His boots settled beside her shoes. The rest of his clothes landed in a separate dry pile near the chair while Tressa’s underclothes joined her dress.

When the last cloth left her body, she faced him bare.

Warm lamplight softened the ivory pallor of her skin. She was compact and softly curved, full through the breasts and rounded hips, her waist narrow above strong thighs. Her nipples had already tightened from his mouth and the cool air.

Severin cupped both breasts.

Tressa sucked in a breath.

"Ahn..."

His thumbs rolled over her nipples. She pressed her chest into his hands instead of backing away.