by Kimbra Swain
I gathered myself, and replied, “Yes, do you ride?”
“It’s been a while, but I used to ride a lot. There was a rancher near Boulder that would house my horse and let me ride on his land. But once the horse passed away, I didn’t get another one.”
“We can take the riding tour if you would like,” I smiled.
“Yes, I’d like that.” I knew that George would be within ear shot and arrange for it if he hadn’t already. He had cleared his plate, and George entered as if on cue, and set a small flan custard before Tadeas, and his eyes lit up. “Flan!” he exclaimed, “how did you know it was my favorite from back home?”
I shook my head and said, “I didn’t.” I looked up at George and smiled.
“Well, it is. I mean the scallop dish was a pleasant surprise. I haven’t had them in years, and I really enjoy them. Hard to get them fresh in the middle of Colorado you know, but flan! This is great,” as he devoured the little custard covered in caramel.
“Would you like another, sir?” George asked.
“Oh yes please, if you have another,” he said. It was very childlike his delight in the simple dessert.
“Would you like one as well, Miss Davenport?”
“Yes, if we have enough after Master Duarte has devoured his share of them. If not, please give him mine.”
“No, no you have to have one, too. Do you like them?”
“I do like flan, but clearly you enjoy it far more than I do.”
“There is plenty, Miss Davenport,” George said. Of course, there was. George had handled everything. He knew exactly what Tadeas would like and arranged for it. I’d have to give him a raise. Only, I didn’t pay him. And why he lived here, was a topic he never answered for me personally. I didn’t ask, but it seemed as though it was the type of question he wouldn’t have answered. I just accepted it. Watchers were retired angels. After eons, occasionally an angel would grow weary of his duties and he would be afforded the option of spending his days in heaven or as a Watcher here on earth. I wasn’t sure exactly what his duties were, but occasionally one of the archangels would come by and speak to him privately. The only ones I ever had the pleasure of talking to personally were Uriel and Gabriel. And they were more vague than George in answering questions. The conversations never too in depth. I only knew of a half-dozen Watchers in the world. It was strange to me that one would be bound to this island. It was warded before I came here. I just added my own wards to it. Lincoln had added wards as well. When I shifted to magical sight, I could see them surrounding the outside of the island, the outside of the house and the inside of the house. Something about the ley line beneath the place powered the wards far past the lives of its makers. It was the one last remaining remnant I had of Lincoln. I would never leave this place. It was home.
I had gotten lost in my thoughts when George arrived with two more flan, one more for Tadeas and my first. “You sure you don’t want mine?” I asked him.
“You don’t take someone else’s flan, Abby. It’s just not right,” he laughed. I smiled at him and began to eat it. It was good. I hadn’t had one in a while. It wasn’t my go-to dessert for sure, but this one was particularly good. When we finished, he stood up and patted his belly like he was fat. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. He had to stay in shape for all the fighting he did in his instruction. “May I go back into the other room?”
“Of course, you can go anywhere you’d like here. All the doors are unlocked, except for two and I’ll show you those myself. But you are welcome to explore as you would like. I’m going to clean up these dishes, and I’ll join you shortly,” I said as I stood and started collecting plates.
“Oh, I thought you had someone to do that for you,” he said turning to pick up plates, too.
“No, it’s my house. George might be a great butler, but he’s not a kitchen maid. I’ll just get these washed up really quick.”
“I’ll help,” he offered.
“No, you are a guest. I can’t allow you to do your own dishes,” I replied as I took the couple he had in his hands and stacked them on top of mine. He reached over and pulled the whole stack from me and started walking toward the door George came out of with the flan earlier. “I said, you aren’t going to do your own dishes.”
I could hear him walking down the short hallway that led to the kitchen, “I’m sorry I can’t hear you. Would you mind bringing the rest of those dishes with you when you come this way?” he said.
I shook my head. Stubborn man. I gathered the rest of them and placed them on a cart that was stowed just across the room and pushed the cart down to the kitchen where he was already running water in the sink. He turned and looked at me, “Oh how convenient, a cart. You should have pointed it out before I walked all the way down here with that handful of dishes.” I threw my hands up in surrender and walked over to him.
“Wash or rinse and dry?”
“Wash.”
“Okay,” I conceded and grabbed a towel to dry as he washed.
We finished doing the dishes which didn’t take long. “Well, this is the beginning of the tour. Welcome to the kitchen,” I smirked.
“Yeah, I got that one,” he said.
“Come on, I’ll show you the rest. Inside or outside first?”
“Outside,” he said.
We walked back to the room opening up to the courtyard. And waiting on the cobblestone patio were two saddled horses. A deep chestnut brown horse with black hair and a golden-brown horse with blonde hair waited for us. I walked up to the dark one and stroked his nose. “This is Claudius, or Claude. He will be yours today. And this,” I said walking over to the lighter horse, “is Caprica, my horse. I mean, they are all mine, but she is my favorite.” I walked back over to Claude and held the reins while Tadeas climbed on his back. I slipped a wedge of apple I had picked up in the kitchen to him, and said, “Now Claude, you be nice. No more bucking friends off your back.” Tadeas’ eyes got wide.
“Wait, what?”
I winked at him, and climbed atop Caprica. I lead her to the edge of the open patio past the fountain and through an arched corridor to the rear of the house. It opened to a wide expanse of fields covered with rows of grape vines. They were all green and thriving. It took my breath away every time I saw it. I looked over at Tadeas, and he still had a worried look on his face.
“Don’t be a baby. He’s harmless.”
He shot me a look and said, “I’ve been thrown from a horse, and it’s not harmless.”
“One day you’ll learn when I’m joking,” I returned.
He took a deep breath and finally looked out to the field. “It really is beautiful. What’s the building just over the hill there?”
From this viewpoint, we could see the rooftop of the actual winery. “That’s where the wine is made, fermented, bottled and aged. The path between here and there is very stable. No danger in taking it full speed. Go ahead. Claude would love the exercise. I’ll follow.”
“I’ll race you,” he said daring me.
“You want to lose?” I asked.
“I just want a fair match. No throwing like yesterday.”
“I did not throw the match until the end.”
“You left yourself open. It gave me a way to get out of the choke hold,” he shifted on his saddle and looked at me.
“Well, I couldn’t put you down in front of your students. We weren’t really playing fair, you know. You had something on me. It caught me off guard. I had to counter that and yet, I felt bad all the same. So yeah, I left myself open.”
“Don’t ever do that again. If we fight, we fight fair. Agreed?”
“I won’t let you win. But it doesn’t mean I won’t cheat. Heeyah!” I slammed my heels into the side of Caprica, and she took off in a blaze. I heard him curse behind me and frantically urge Claude ahead. He gained on me. I leaned into the saddle and prompted Caprica again. She found the next gear. I turned my head slightly to the back. I still had 5 lengths on him. I reached the cres
t of the hill that hid the bulk of the winery building from site and eased a little on Caprica because I knew the backside of the hill was moderately steep at about 35 degrees from the crest to the bottom. He saw me slow and took the same cue before reaching the top. The path stopped in front of the winery building where there was a small cobbled patio and a hitching post with a water trough. I had beaten him. But, I cheated. And it was hilarious. I laughed most of the way and had finally caught myself by the time we both stopped in front of the winery. I waited for him to berate me, but he just looked me in the eye, and gave me that stern instructor look, he gives his students, “Next time you're mine,” and then he smiled.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” I returned, “Come in and taste a bit.”
We tied up the horses, and I showed him the process we had there to make the wine. We made several different variations on red and two whites. The process of making wine is far above my head. Thankfully, the people that work on the island and George were professionals. I just got to drink the benefits and enjoy the scenery. I knew a little about the process, but there was way too much chemistry involved. I preferred physics. Tadeas took it all in as we walked through the various processes. There were quite a few workers on the island. All of them tipped their hats to us and said hello as we passed through. I took him into the bottle storage room where they did packing in crates to ship back to the mainland and distribute. You can’t get Casa del Sol wine in any store. It was all privately shipped out to various patrons and partners of my grandfather’s business. I opened a couple of bottles and pulled sampling glasses out of a small cabinet. We tasted them and chatted about wine, our preferences and experiences with it. A good wine has been known bring people together, celebrate a victory or cap the end of an excellent day. Of course, it was good for drowning sorrows, as well, which is why I grabbed the open bottles that we had and placed them in Caprica’s saddle bag for later. If Tadeas refused to be my partner, at least I’d have wine.
“What’s next?” he asked.
“Well, the only other buildings on the property are a small chapel,” which I pointed to just to our east, “and the boathouse about two miles from the front door of the house back to our west. It’s not much to see though. The chapel is nice though. Want to see?” I asked.
“Um, yeah sure.”
We both got on the horses again, and I asked, “I meant to ask you if you had plans this evening. If you need to be back by a certain time or anything.”
“No. No plans today,” he said.
“Excellent,” I smiled and started walking Caprica toward the chapel.
“No race this time?” he asked.
“Nah, I’d hate to have to humiliate you twice in one day,” I said.
This time he laughed. “You wish,” he said.
“You are learning, Tadeas. Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Um, I mean cat. Do cats do tricks?”
He shifted in his saddle a bit, but returned my jab with, “No, but wizards do.”
“They do, indeed,” I agreed. During our banter, we had made our way to the small chapel. I dismounted the horse and went into my history lesson.
“It was built in the 17th century in the Spanish style to match the house. The doors are hand carved Spanish oak with iron accents. It only has 4 pews and a modest pulpit. The stained-glass window in the back above the altar though is quite beautiful.” I opened the doors and the mandala style glass window shone brightly in the dark little room. The sun hit it just right and it cast yellow and orange hues all over the room. “The sun represents the home here and the cross before it representing the Most High God and the sacrifice of his Son.”
“I didn’t know you were religious,” he said.
“I was raised a good little Catholic girl when I was very young. But I believe in God, just not in the religions of this world.”
“Your grandfather...” he started to say but stopped himself.
I sat down on one of the pews, and thought of the best way to explain it to him. “Yes, my grandfather is a construct of an ancient belief system. His power comes from those who believe in him and through the years that power comes through those who believe in The Agency and what we do there. However, I believe we all came from somewhere. A Master Creator who made all of this. That there is a purpose greater than ourselves, and that purpose is the continuance of mankind, His greatest creation. There of course is more to it than that. Just a summary of my basic beliefs.”
He slowly walked to the front of the room, “I don’t like the church. Not this one, but the Catholic Church.” I knew why he didn’t, and I didn’t want to bring that subject up to him. I knew it was not a happy story. He turned and looked at me, “You believe in God and Jesus and all that stuff?”
“Well, Jesus was real. I know someone who met him.”
He looked at me confused, “Who?”
“Jasper Samara.”
“Jasper Samara, the magi. Like one of the three that visited the baby like the story from the Bible?” he asked doubtfully.
“One in the same,” I said. “He was my master. He trained me. Taught me to use magic. I feel most days that I’m quite old, but Jasper is extremely old. He’s the only Master Wizard that I know. His skill, knowledge and experience is unmatched.” Tadeas looked shocked, but took it all in. “My grandfather arranged it, of course. He doesn’t speak of those days much. But I have heard him tell the story.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Yea, it is. I was honored to learn from him. Humbled actually.”
“And he’s still around?”
“Yes, but sometimes when I occasionally speak to him, I know he is getting weary of this world. I’m not sure he will be around much longer.” These thoughts brought a wave of sadness over me. It felt like all of those I counted on the most had left, or were leaving me. I looked up at Tadeas. I watched him contemplating all that I had told him. I needed him to join me in this. I needed a new someone to depend on. If he refused me after all of this, I’m not sure I’d bother trying to recruit someone else.
He looked up at me and caught me looking at him, “What is it?”
“I was just thinking about business,” I said.
“I suppose we should talk about that more,” he said.
“Yes, but not right now. Let me show you the house and perhaps you’ll stay for dinner, and then we can talk more. Is that okay?”
I thought he might try to get out of it, but instead he said, “Sure. It’s been a long time since I’ve had three non-cafeteria meals in one day.”
“I don’t count doughnuts as a meal.”
“I do! They were great.”
“They were good.”
“Did you go all the way into Boulder this morning and get them?”
“I cannot reveal to you all of my secrets in one day,” I teased as I got up to leave the little chapel. “But just this once, I’ll admit, that I had them delivered and just picked them up on the surface side of the compound at the main gate.”
“Who delivers doughnuts? That’s a brilliant business strategy. Wish I had thought of it.”
“Well actually, the brilliance is in an independent contract company who is like a food delivery Uber. I just call the company, tell them what I want, pay over the phone and they pick up and deliver it,” I said shutting the chapel door behind me.
“I’m going to need their phone number,” he said.
“Goodbye, cafeteria food!”
“Yes, at least sometimes,” he said, “I can’t afford to eat out all the time.”
“You have money,” I said.
“Not like you,” he said. I hated this subject. I already knew that he held my wealth in low regard.
“Money is money. You signed up for the company salary investment, didn’t you?” I knew that he had. I managed all the instructional staff’s accounts, just part of my regular job with The Agency when I wasn’t moonlighting as a vagabond orphan.
“Yea, but I have
n’t looked at any of it since I signed up. There can’t be much there,” he said.
“You’ve never looked at your account?”
“No. Why?”
“Tadeas, the Agency monitors all the financial markets across the world in an attempt to catch any anomalies that might lead to disaster or a global catastrophe. Those are the people managing your account. I highly suggest you look at it,” I said as I climbed back on Caprica.
He got back on Claude and eased up close next to me, “Abby, look at me.” I turned to face him. “You know exactly how much money is in that account, don’t you?”
He started to really get the full picture of who I was and what I do. Of course, I knew exactly how much money was in it.
“Not exactly right this moment. The market is constantly changing and the investments go up and down with the markets. The total fluctuates daily, and I couldn’t give you an exact amount right this minute. I mean it’s Saturday, no one is trading today. And I haven’t looked closely in the past three months, because….”
“How much, Abby?” he cut me off.
“Seven point four million,” I said. He gasped and about fell off the horse. I instinctively reached to him with my magic and uttered the word, “Stabilis.” He steadied on the saddle and shot me a look.
“I’m sorry. I just didn’t want you to fall off. I….” as I stammered out the apology he clicked his heel into Claude and trotted off toward the main house.
We reached the corridor archway and there was another hitching post just outside it, and he dismounted and stomped off down the corridor.
“Tadeas wait, please, I’m sorry.”
He stopped and spun on his heel to face me, and I stopped short.
“I don’t care about the magic, Abby.”
“Then what is it?”
“What else do you know about me? How much digging have you done into my life? It’s my life, Abby. It’s not yours to go poking around in. There are things I’d rather no one in this whole world know, and you’ve spent two years digging around in things I’d rather not share. I’d rather no one know,” he yelled.
