Perilous Partnership (8 page)

“You could probably name the job you wanted and get it,” Raymond reminded her. “Sarraute was impressed with the job you did helping his officers round up the remaining dissidents after the war.”

“But that would mean moving to Paris, and my home is here,” Adèle said.

“I lived there during the war, but this is where I belong. There‟s just something about the freshness of the air. Can‟t you smell the difference? And even in the summer, when it‟s miserably hot in the capital, there‟s a cool breeze here.”

Jean could not help but wonder how much of Adèle‟s insistence on staying in le Morvan came from Leighton‟s presence in Paris, but he did not bring it up.

She was entitled to her privacy, and he had no idea what he would gain by forcing her to admit it anyway.

“So obviously this is the entrance,” Raymond said, letting the conversation slide away from Adèle‟s personal life and back to business. She had always been a private one, and he had no desire to make her uncomfortable. “This is the one place where people need to be able to approach the building directly because we may have unexpected visitors. Other than that, you can put the wards at whatever distance you think is best.”

Adèle nodded again, running her hand over the frame of the door, calculating how best to provide the security Raymond wanted. “Okay, the door will be pretty straightforward, and the walls provide an easy delineation of „inside‟ and „outside‟ as far as my magic is concerned. Do you want them to extend beyond the edge of the walls on this side at all?”

Raymond had not gotten that far in his thoughts, so they walked along the outer wall of the complex to the corner. “Not all of this is exterior wall,” Adèle commented as they walked. “Some of this is actually part of buildings.”

“That was fairly typical,” Jean said. “To save on money and labor, the monks built the individual buildings along the periphery of the abbey and then filled in between them with an outside wall to limit access to the interior.”

Adèle looked up, surprised. “How did you know that?”

“Because I helped build one in Paris before I was turned,” Jean revealed, fingering the rosary in his pocket given to him by Père Emmanuel, his spiritual advisor. Even before Raymond had turned it into his repère, he kept it with him most of the time. Now he kept it with him always, knowing Raymond could always use it to find him.

“You were a monk?” Adèle asked incredulously.

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Raymond snorted as Jean shook his head. “No, but I was in the seminary. It was a different time, and if you weren‟t born into the aristocracy—and sometimes even if you were—your choices were a lot more limited than they are now. I could enter the seminary or I could starve. It wasn‟t a hard choice. At least as a priest, I would be assured of a roof over my head and something in my belly. I was turned about six months before my ordination would have taken place.”

“Yes, but poverty, chastity, and all that? I just don‟t see it,” Adèle laughed.

“I guess I don‟t have to see it.”

“The Church was different then too,” Jean reminded her. “Poverty, yes, because everyone was poor then, even the king because the Vikings raided every summer, but while I wouldn‟t have been able to marry, I knew very few priests who were actually celibate. They simply didn‟t talk about it, and they gave their lovers enough perks that the lovers didn‟t either.”

Adèle just shook her head. “If you say so. So, Raymond, have you decided where you want the wards to stop?”

Raymond smiled at the abrupt change of subject, but he had grown used to Adèle‟s ways. “Here along the approach from the road, I think it should go at least to the tree line, maybe a little inside. We want people to come to the front gate, not go searching for a side entrance.”

Adèle mentally calculated distances as they rounded the far corner of the wall and started down the side toward the lake. “You‟ll want to get those walls patched quickly,” she warned as they walked past a place where the stones had tumbled inward, leaving an unintended entrance into the cloister.

“That‟s first on my list,” Raymond assured her. “I think we should follow the outer walls and then continue all the way down to the lake. That way the entire area behind the abbey will be protected for any kind of outdoor activities people want to undertake.”

“Pétanque?” Jean teased.

“Football,” Adèle and Raymond said in unison, sending all three of them into peals of laughter.

“Mon Dieu, it feels good to laugh like this,” Raymond said after they calmed down. “I think you‟re right about being away from Paris, Adèle. I can feel my stress disappearing just standing here. My feet are freezing, but my stress is going.”

“I have an idea of what needs to be done out here,” Adèle said, looking down at Raymond‟s thin loafers. “Go inside and think about what you want done in there. I‟ll find you when I‟m done outside.”

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Raymond tucked his hands under his arms as the wind picked up a little and took her advice. The inside of the building was only marginally warmer, the heat having been turned off to save energy, but at least they were out of the breeze.

“I thought your coat was spelled to keep you warm.”

“It is,” Raymond said, “but I didn‟t spell my shoes. My coat only goes to my knees.” He murmured another incantation, and the foyer to the abbey warmed up slightly. “I don‟t even know where to start.”

“With a floor plan of the building,” Jean said. “Then we can start looking at how we want to distribute space, and from there we can set our priorities. We need an office.”

“
An
office?” Raymond grinned at his lover.

“An office,” Jean repeated. “We may have to maintain certain appearances in the public sphere, but l‟Institut isn‟t public. If we need to meet with someone from outside our respective communities, we can do that in Paris. We don‟t need to hide here.”

Raymond was not sure he agreed, but it was not worth the discussion. “So a headmaster‟s office, then. It would make sense to use the abbot‟s quarters for that. Surely he had some sort of an office or receiving room.”

“It would depend on when the abbey was built and who his guests were,”

Jean replied. “There would have been an Hostellerie for distinguished guests, another one for visiting monks, and a third one for the poor, although it doesn‟t look like all three of those survived or possibly were ever built here. I‟m not sure how many distinguished guests made it this far into the wilderness. He would have had space in his lodging as well, if you don‟t mind our office being in a separate building.”

“For now, I think I‟d rather it be over here where we can oversee everything,” Raymond replied after a moment‟s thought. “Besides, that way we can focus on getting this building usable first. Later, once we‟re up and running and can focus on the other buildings, we can always move the office.”

“Then it‟s simply a question of choosing one of the copyists‟ chambers and making it our office,” Jean said. “It won‟t be a large room, but it will be larger than your old office in Milice headquarters.”

“That wasn‟t an office,” Raymond said with a laugh. “That was a broom closet, and it was far, far away from everyone who wanted to pretend I didn‟t exist.”

“I have very fond memories of that broom closet,” Jean said, his voice dropping in pitch as he remembered the hours spent in the cluttered room, racing against time to find answers and sneaking a few minutes for a quick

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feeding or fumble in the dark. He did not miss the fear that had been so prevalent in those days, but he sometimes missed the freedom of being out of the limelight.

“Raymond?”

Adèle‟s voice startled them out of their reminiscing. “Yes?”

“I‟ve done the majority of the wards, but the one across the lakefront is a larger distance than I can handle on my own,” Adèle explained. “Do you have time to give me a hand?”

“Of course,” Raymond said, rubbing his hands together before he put his gloves back on. “We can finish up the interior planning later. We don‟t want you to have to make an extra trip.”

“It‟s only a fifteen-minute drive,” Adèle reminded him. “I didn‟t even bother using a displacement spell. Besides, the wards will need to be adjusted as you expand the number of buildings you‟re using and the number of people you want to admit without question, so it‟s not like I won‟t be back again, probably fairly often at first.”

Raymond and Jean followed her back outside and down to the lake. “The wards on either side end at the two oak trees. The problem is connecting them with a barrier strong enough to do the job.”

“What do you need from me?” Raymond asked.

“All the power you can give me,” Adèle replied.

Without waiting to be asked, Jean reached for Raymond‟s hand, folding up the edge of his coat sleeve and easing down the cuff of his glove to bare the wizard‟s wrist. Raymond glanced at him in surprise, but Jean simply smiled and lifted the smooth skin to his lips, licking it once before biting down deeply. He did not need to feed in earnest, but the connection between them would augment Raymond‟s energy exponentially. Of all the wards on the property, Jean wanted this one to be the strongest.

Raymond focused his magic, pushing the energy outward to Adèle, who harnessed it and made swift work of the spell. Even concentrating as he was on keeping control of the stronger surge of power, Raymond did not miss the flicker of sadness that crossed Adèle‟s face at the sight of Jean feeding from his wrist. He did not want to break her concentration by asking about it now, but he resolved to check on how she was doing without her partner as soon as they returned inside.

With the influx of magical energy from Raymond—Adèle forcefully repressed the wayward thought that if she had a partner she could stand to be around, she would not have needed his help in the first place—it took only a

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matter of minutes to finish the wards. “Thank you,” she said when she released control of Raymond‟s magic back to him.

“Come inside for a few minutes,” Raymond said as Jean released his fangs‟

hold and licked the small punctures to heal them. “It‟s cold out here and you‟re flushed from it.”

Adèle shrugged. “I‟m used to it.”

“Come inside anyway. I‟d like to talk to you, if Jean will excuse us for a bit.”

Jean looked surprised, but he nodded. “I want to check on the abbot‟s lodge to see if there‟s suitable space for an office.”

Raymond recognized the offer for what it was, since they had already decided to have their office in the main building for now, which just made him appreciate his lover all the more. “Shall we go inside?”

Adèle followed Raymond without comment, but he could see her tensing.

“How are you doing, Adèle?”

“I‟m well,” Adèle replied automatically. “I told you that on the phone when you first called.”

“Now tell me the rest of it,” Raymond pressed. “Are you still feeling the tug of the partnership bond?”

“I told Marcel a year ago I want nothing to do with that salaud,” Adèle spat.

“I haven‟t seen or heard anything since then to change my mind.”

“You still aren‟t answering my question,” Raymond said quietly, afraid that in itself was his answer.

“What do you want me to say?” Adèle retorted. “That I still dream of him at night? That I‟ve caught myself comparing every man I‟ve slept with since then to him? That if he walked in here right now I don‟t know whether I‟d slap him or throw myself at him?”

“I don‟t
want
you to say any of those things,” Raymond replied, “but if that‟s what you‟re feeling, I‟d rather know so I can try to help you than be kept unaware.”

“I‟m fine. I stay down here and I ignore the pull when it gets bad and I go on with my life. If you find a cure for my affliction, I won‟t say no, but until then, I‟m fine practicing avoidance,” Adèle said. She caught her fingers trailing over the scar, though she knew Raymond could not see it beneath the layers of clothing. She had asked a friend to heal the rest of the marks her partner had left on her body, but she had left that one as a reminder of what he had done— could do—to her. Without it, she feared she would forget and give in to the lure of the partnership bond. “No one can come inside without your permission at

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this point. I‟ll come back once you‟re ready to open l‟Institut to set the privacy wards and whatever else you need.”

Before Raymond could protest or ask another question, she had disappeared.

“Merde,” Raymond muttered. It seemed avoidance was not the solution he had hoped it would be.

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“ALAIN, Orlando, Thierry, Sebastien, thank you for joining us,” Raymond said as the four men came into his and Jean‟s apartment. “I hope you don‟t mind that we‟re meeting here rather than at l‟ANS offices. This is much more comfortable.”

“Indeed,” Sebastien said, looking around the apartment. His tense past with Jean meant that this was his first visit. His eyes grew wider with each new antique he sighted. It seemed the entire apartment could have been taken from a museum. “Are all of these originals?”

“That would be a question for Jean,” Raymond replied, “but I believe they are. It‟s quite a collection.”

“Certes,” Sebastien agreed.

“You mentioned having something to discuss,” Thierry interjected.