Beside the statue, something else caught my eye, and made me wince. It was a fig tree. A gnarled, spoiled tree with blackened bulbs. A fig tree riddled with sour rot. We had one, just like it, at Heather House. A tree which bent over the back door, never producing any edible figs because of the disease that ravished it.
How strange, I thought, to see a tree with the same affliction here.
“I don’t usually allow people inside the orangery, Grace,” came a voice that made me let out a yelp.
My heart thumped like a rabbit’s foot. I staggered back, my pulse racing as if I’d been caught stealing.
“I’m so sorry, Nicholas,” I stammered. “The door was open. I didn’t mean – ”
“It’s quite all right,” he said, holding up a hand.
I noticed, for the first time, a ring on the middle finger of his left hand. Its beaten gold casing held a large black onyx in its centre. On Nick’s lapel, a small gold brooch of a crow and a rose glinted in the pale light.
“I just wanted to explore, sir,” I said.
Nick smiled gently, as if amused by something. He looked to me like a professor listening to his student’s ideas, smirking fondly at their idealism.
“You needn’t call mesir, Grace. You seem to say it more when you think I’m telling you off,” he said, linking his hands behind his back. He watched the statue as he spoke to me, before his eyes moved back to mine. “ShallI call you madam?”
I smiled bashfully. “No, sir – sorry, Nicholas.”
“Or Nick, if you like.”
Nick. I liked that now. It seemed more familiar.
“Thank you, Nick.”
“I’ve instructed contractors to schedule the work on Heather House, to repair the damage from the fallen tree,” he said, his echoing voice ensnared by the overgrowth of the trees.
My heart leapt to think that he was keeping his promise. That he was really doing that for me.
“Nick, you mustn’t, really. I couldn’t possibly repay you for it. The damage to the house was extensive...oh, worse than you could imagine. We’d lived in a terrible state for years and years – ”
I worried on, panicking now that Nick would get a report of the state of the house and discover just what squalor we had lived in. Not only was I embarrassed, but I was confused. Why would he want to do this for me, a woman he’d just met?
“All you need to do is give me the key to mail out to the contractors,” he said, with a brief smile – as if, for him, it was as simple as that.
“Sir. Nick. I...I’m not sure...” I wasn’t sure what I was protesting at, either.
“Think nothing of it,” he said.
I sighed. I’d heard of what his father, Niles, had done for Maggie. I knew it was an exchange, a way to ensure loyalty. I may have been naive, but I wasn’t stupid. I’d learned, over the years, that true kindness, in and of itself, was rare.
What I really wanted to know is why this exchange – my work and services as his apprentice – were worth the cost of fixing Heather House. He was already footing the bill for my board and living here.
“Why are you doing this, Nick, when I couldn’t possibly earn out those costs?” I asked plainly.
His furrowed brow rose in slight surprise. Then his expression turned stern again, as he raised his eyes to the statue and watched it once more.
“Perhaps I’m kidding myself that I’m making amends for a person who can’t be helped any more,” he said, swaying on the spot. He moved a large chunk of glass aside with his polished shoe. “Perhaps the resemblance is clouding my judgement. I only know that I don’t care. I want to do this for you. That is, if you’re still content with the arrangement?”
Nothing has been set in stone, I thought to myself. This arrangement was still temporary. I had yet to prove myself, and had no indication that my trial was up, or that I could relax in any way.
“I am,” I said, keeping my thoughts to myself. “Will we go to the mortuary now?”
“We will,” said Nick, looking up as droplets of rain fell on our heads. “I’m going to show you more of the embalming process, involving an artery line in the neck. Do you feel ready to try it yourself?”
I nodded, of course, yes.
