Chapter 4-1
1188 Words
4
Jack brought a tray with freshly made toast and reheated breakfast, and placed it on our table.
"I know you're not feeling very well today," he said, "so I convinced Mr. Bedwen to allow us some privacy this morning. He agreed."
I nodded and started buttering the toast before it got too cold.
My knee was hurting, so I raised my foot and placed it on one of the moving boxes that were still hanging around our living room. Much better.
Jack had moved with me while he was trying to sell his house. He'd been staying with me most nights before too, but, since Grandpa was kinda conservative, we didn't make it official.
However, now that we were married, we were covered.
Besides, Jack needed to sell his apartment.
We were moving to Kesteven, a county in the southernmost part of the Kalmari Republic, for six years.
I had to repay the debt I acquired to pay for my education, and, annoyingly, they tightened the screws just the year I graduated. I couldn't pay them in cash, with interest. I had to repay by working as an alchemist wherever I was sent to.
Which would be somewhere in the boonies, because they obviously don't need an indentured alchemist to go somewhere actually desirable.
Jack had been incredibly supportive when I came to him to explain we'd need to uproot our lives and move south a couple of months after we got married. I only hoped he wouldn't regret it.
"So, where are they sending you?" he asked, pointing at the big map of Kalmar that was hanging on the wall.
I pointed.
"Here," I said. "Right here, on the coast, on the other side of the continent. It's a week's travel by train."
"That far," Jack said, in a careful tone. "Well, it seems like I'll have to make arrangements with my superiors. I'm sure they'll be understanding."
He sounded way too upbeat. I wasn't sure he was getting it.
"Jack," I said, impatiently, pacing the room. "Moving to Kesteven will be the end of your career. You will never make it further than Detective. You do understand it, right?"
"I kissed my career goodbye the moment I married you, darling," Jack said. He rarely used such words for me.
"And you'll have to give up all the benefits of technology," I said. "A proper network of roads for cars—"
"We don't have a car," Jack said.
"A train station with daily transcontinental trains," I continued.
"Which we never used," Jack said.
"Street lighting, pubs that don't close at ten pm, a university, alchemical labs, access to research libraries and archives, machining shops, and a world-class hospital," I said.
"They have a hospital in Eaton, I know that since the Kesteven Regiment is based there," Jack said, "and in Hambleton, too. A decent one. As for the rest… That sounds like a list of things you'd miss, not me."
"I will…" I said, and stopped pacing, walking directly into Jack's embrace. He patted my shoulder as I hugged him tightly. "Oh, Jack, I will miss Ashford. I didn't leave Crow Hill to end up in another neck of the woods place. And for six years! Stupid magic — had to add an extra year because of it."
I was forced to study magic after my forced Initiation, and I wasn't too happy about that. Especially since it cost money.
"While it is an undeveloped place," Jack noted, "it might not be so for longer. I've heard there's a new tax scheme set up by the government. Regions with average weights below the national mean can opt for a program that gives tax exempt status to firms that move there. With you moving there, I'm sure you can arrange something."
Jack always had just the right words for the moment.
My head was spinning with ideas. Now that I wasn't despairing anymore, I could see the potential.
"Close to a major port," I said, releasing myself from his embrace and circling around the area of the map that symbolized Kesteven, "poor, which means cheap prices for land, and tax exemptions. Maybe I could convince my boss to open a factory there. I thought I would have to resign — but I may not have to. It would be nice to continue being the Head of the Alchemy Department. Especially now that the company has grown."
I turned away from the map, to face Jack.
"So many possibilities," I said. "Now I just have to convince Mr. Bamber."
Mr. Alec Bamber, my boss, was the one who hired me, on my friend Joe's uncle's recommendation.
"I'm glad," Jack said, in that tone he used when he managed to get me to do something.
"Wait," I said. "Weren't we talking about you?"
"I don't know," Jack said. "Were we?"
It sounded like he expected it. Like he had prepared for this conversation long ago.
"You were in on this, right?" I asked him, pointing my finger at his chest. "You knew they were sending me to that godforsaken place. That's why you aren't upset. You knew about it."
"I didn't know which godforsaken place they were going to send you to," Jack said, "but I knew about the policy changes in the Floyd Scholarship funds months ago, yes. Your Grandpa told me about it when he was trying to convince me not to marry you."
"I don't know why he did that," I said. "He seems to like you well enough."
"He has his misgivings," Jack said, "because of our past. And my profession. Your Grandpa doesn't like law enforcement in general."
Our past. When Jack monitored me, as they did with many young magicals, while we were dating. When I discovered it, we broke up, but got reunited after three years.
"He's got enough reasons to," I said.
Grandpa certainly had a history with law enforcement. Our entire family did.
"I will ask for a transfer," Jack said. "I'm sure there won't be many problems. Especially since rural areas also have a deficit of skilled police."
Rural areas seemed to have a deficit in everything. Makes sense, since who would voluntarily live there?
"I don't even know where to start," I said. "There will be so many things to do when we move. You know Grandpa is moving too? And the Major. We'll need to get a house — considering my taste for modern facilities, we'll have to renovate everything, so it's better to buy a house. Renting wouldn't make sense. Thankfully, I have my royalties. That should be enough to buy a small house."
"I'll sell my apartment," Jack said. "We'll be able to buy quite a big house."
"You sure?" I asked. "Housing in Ashford is a good investment."
"I didn't buy it as an investment," Jack said, shrugging. "I bought it as a home. And my home is wherever my wife is."
"It sounds like you love your wife a lot," I said, in a low voice, toying with the buttons of his coat.
He gently pulled my fingers away, brought them toward his mouth, and kissed them.
"I do," he said. "And I'm sure she'll be waiting for me after work at our favorite restaurant. But I need to finish work first."
And with that, he shooed me away, before things got more heated.
That was a pity.
I always fantasized about doing something naughty at a police station.
Alas, Jack wasn't game.
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