Keira Adams (keiraadams) wrote in shadowlands_ic, @ 2018-03-28 20:47:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | cassius corbet, keira adams |
Who: Keira and Cassius
What: Making decisions, talking about a dangerous job
When: 1889
Where: Hidden Treasures
Warning: None
Cassius gave Mrs Adams the allotted week to consider his offer, and then a day more, because he didn't want her to have an excuse of his cheating her of a matter of hours or minutes, and also because he had rather a lot to do that day.
When he entered the bakery, it was with the expectation of being greeted by the heady scent of fresh bread and a glowering mermaid, although Mrs Adams did like to surprise him.
"Mrs Adams," Cassius said pleasantly. "I trust you've been well since our last visit."
Keira had had quite a lot to think about in the past week. She had suffered in silence for a couple of days, trying to make the decision on her own. Then she went to see Gabriel. Her initial reason for going to see him was to find out why he had been avoiding her and Caspian. They had talked for a good while and after finding out his reasons, she then offered him her help. Keeping himself locked away was not going to help him, he needed to keep his face in the public and with a woman on his arm from time to time, she also offered to help him find his blackmailer. Then, she shared to him what was going on in her life and asked for his advice. He was the one and only person that she knew outside of the Sisterhood that knew who and what she was, the only person that could tell all and get full advice.
And he had given it to her.
Instead of leaving Gabriel’s with a decision, she ended up with just another choice. To begin with, it was leave the Sisterhood and go to work for Cassius, but Gabriel had given her the option to be independent and offer her services to those who needed them. That choice was scary, but freeing and no one else would own her, she would not have to play by anyone else’s rules. She considered her choices for the few days she had left and the decision she had made had been one she was still second-guessing when Cassius made his way back into her shop.
“I have, Lord Ravensworth, as I hope you have as well,” she gave a friendly smile and then set about making them both a cuppa. “When you did not come yesterday, I thought perhaps you had changed your mind.”
It was probably childish to think that he'd delayed just to spark the fire in her eyes, and more so to say as much. Instead, Cassius said simply, "Business, I'm afraid. But no, I haven't. My mind is quite made up." He arched an eyebrow at her. "Should I hope that yours is the same? Only if the decision is in my favour, mind you--if it isn't, I might rather have you undecided."
Keira chuckled. “In any other case, I would have been upset at being held up,” she admitted. “But I think the extra helped me in my decision,” she put their cups of tea on a tray and then motioned for him to follow her. “Do you mind joining me in the kitchen? I have muffins that need to be watched and I would rather prying eyes keep to themselves.” This was the second day in a weeks span that he had visited her; the first time she had sat with him at a table, but to do so again might spark some gossip, especially since he was married.
Cassius followed without comment. It would be her reputation damaged by any whispers, but for what they were about to discuss, privacy would be essential.
"If I'm very lucky," Cassius observed, "I should aspire to both a muffin and a commitment from the baker. Will I get any credit for them if I assist in watching them?"
Keira laughed as she pushed her way through the swinging door, holding it open with a foot for Cassius to enter through and then she released it. It would give them the privacy that they needed, she could watch her muffins, and if anyone came into her shop she would hear them from the bell on the door. “Do you bake, Lord Ravensworth?” She led them to a table and set the tray of tea down before going to check on the muffins. Her kitchen was not too big, but not entirely too small either and smelled of bread most of the time. It was warm and cozy and immaculate. She kept it clean to where one could eat off the floor if one chose to. “I learned to bake when I was married to my late husband,” she said, turning back from the muffins. “In the sea, baking and cooking is not something one learns, but on land a woman must know how if she wishes to make a man happy; something about the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” she chuckled. “Anyway, it came easy to me, and it blossomed into this,” she murmured and took a seat. She was stalling from giving her answer, she knew, but a little bit of chat wouldn’t hurt anything.
Cassius considered that. "I suppose there is some truth to that, but no, I have never set foot in a kitchen apart from unusual circumstances, and my wife would never be expected to either." He wondered if he ought to ask Una if she knew how to bake. Somehow he couldn't picture it, but then women were full of surprises and mysteries.
"I am, however, accustomed to being very fond of my cooks." Cassius gave Mrs Adams a small smile, thinking of those he'd had in France, and the staff now at Ravensworth. "I'm afraid I am, at heart, exceedingly French, and our pastries are beyond compare."
He didn't know whether that news would be a surprise to her; Cassius had lost his accent over time, and no one would know his history without reason. It was a personal revelation--a small gesture of trust.
Cassius pursed his lips. "I suppose baking in the sea would be difficult, without a fire. Everything would be terribly soggy." The smile twitched back into life. "Steamed buns, perhaps?"
“Some truth…” Keira murmured more to herself than Cassius. “Alas, my late husband, he had no heart.” Talking of her late husband was not something she did, though over time she was learning if she let the fear and anger go with a few little words about him here and there, he would no longer hold control over her. Gabriel had helped her figure that out, when she’d laid out all of her past to him. “But, plenty of men apparently do,” she smiled.
“France?” She quipped an eyebrow at him, serving him his tea if he wished to have any and then poured some herself. “I have never been, but it is on my list of places to go,” she nodded. “When I do, I’ll have to stay long enough to learn a few recipes. Is it lovely there? In France? How long has it been for you?” It was not lost on her that he had given her a little piece of himself, a bit of information she may never have known otherwise.
“I’m afraid steamed buns would not even make it,” she chuckled. “The sea is a great many things, but a place for a home cooked meal it is not...unless you have an appetite for creatures of the sea.”
Cassius' smile was a little tight, but it was only the melancholy feeling of exile coming over him again. "Nearly a century." He knew the number of years exactly, but that grew less important with each decade that passed. "You may recall, my country had some...difficulties...back then." A bloody, violent revolution that had seized Paris and overthrown everything from government to society. Cassius had been an early casualty; he supposed he was lucky to have missed most of it. By the time the revolutionaries were chopping off heads, he was safe in England, learning to drink blood.
"It is a truly lovely country. I think you would do well there, should you ever wish to go. They know a great many secrets of baking, of which I have a poor knowledge." Cassius paused, then remarked, "If the man you married had no heart, then I'm glad you are rid of him. You deserve far better."
“I’m sorry,” Keira said softly. He had left his home and had never been back, at least not yet. It had to hurt, to make one homesick. She knew that if she could not return to the sea whenever she wished, that she would feel...almost homeless. She also knew of the difficulties he mentioned, in any case she had read of them. Though she was a mermaid who would live to be centuries old, she was still considered an infant, having not even broken 30 yet.
“Oh, I wish to go,” she smiled. “One day, perhaps, one day.” And maybe, one day, she would persuade him to visit his old home, but that was a discussion for another time she imagined. “I do, I believe, deserve much better than he ever was.” Though she said the words, the look in her eyes did not fully mean them. She was still growing, changing, learning, and though she was better now than she had been it was still sometimes hard to believe that she deserved better than what she had had. It was part of the abuse, the mental anguish of it all, that was the most difficult to shake.
“So...my decision,” she smiled as she situated herself in her chair and stirred her tea with the tiny spoon. “It was a difficult decision to come by. You see, I’ve always been under someone’s thumb in some way after stepping foot on land. My late husband, Lady Di Palermo… all by choice, of course, and the lady has been very good to me other than to make up stories that were perhaps a way to keep things underwraps,” she tilted her head just slightly to the right and set her brown eyes upon him. “I’ve realized that, perhaps, I need to be on my own. To be my own individual and play by my own rules and no one else’s,” a sly smirk crossed her lips. “I admit as frightening as it seems, that I do not want to be under the full employ of someone else and be entirely my own person.” She paused to let that sink in with him. “So, I have an alternative route that a friend of mine brought to me. I have many, many skills that I have learned over the past few years some on my own and others…” she trailed off. “I would like to work for you in a way that...I would not be a permanent employee, if that makes sense? I am going to offer my services to those in need, but I will be independent from any one else. Am I making sense?” She shook her head and gave a slight frown. It had all sounded good within her own head, but as she spoke she wasn’t sure it was coming out as it should.
Cassius paused a moment. "To be clear: You're willing to be in my employ, but not to join my estate. I would be hiring you as a contractor for a job, after which..." He paused again, and rephrased. "Our association would be strictly limited to the work we would agree upon in advance, and my payment for your services. Is that what you're asking? Or..." He frowned, not unwilling to consider an alternative, but uncertain of its guarantee, without a more binding contract. "...are you saying you volunteer your services to help those in need, as I myself am doing, without any question of payment beyond what the job itself would provide?"
Cassius took a sip of his tea and asked, almost idly, "Should I take this to mean you are no longer in the employ - or possession - of DiPalermo?"
“As enticing as being a part of your estate sounds, I’m unsure that it would be a good move on my part,” Keira started with a small smile. “Not that you would not treat me well, I am sure you would, but I just think that I need to be an independent contractor,” she nodded. “Our association with each other can go past that, of course, but not as employee and employer,” she tried to explain. “I need to be my own woman, stand on my own two feet…” she trailed off and looked down into her tea. “I...have not made decisions on payments or whatnot,” she looked up and gave him a sheepish look. She had not thought much beyond making her decision, and even now she wasn’t sure if it were the right one.
She nodded to his last question. “As of tonight, I will be looking for a new residence,” she answered.
Cassius nodded his understanding. "Perhaps, then," he suggested, "I should reconsider the nature of my request. What if I were to approach you not as a potential employer, but as someone who knew of a great wrong being done, and asked your aid in righting it? It would cost your time, but you would be compensated with regular wages, should you be given the job. It would be dangerous," he cautioned, "but I and others have considered it worth the risk. If you're willing to consider such employment, as a spy in our confederacy, I would tell you the nature of our concern."
Keira smiled and then picked up her cup of tea and took a sip. “Of course,” she looked at Cassius. “I had already agreed to help you, regardless of what path I decided to take,” she said with a soft smile. “To...take you on as a client, per se.” She would operate as a business, take on clients and do the things they could not do themselves. “As for danger, well, let’s just say that danger excites me,” she chuckled. “I will be your spy, for whatever it is. I give you my word that anything spoken between us will stay as such.”
Cassius traced a finger around the rim of his teacup. He'd planned what to say in advance, but now that they had come to it, he found himself reluctant. Perhaps it was Mrs Adams' easy agreement, when she didn't yet know the danger he was asking her to put herself in.
"If you are caught, it may mean your life," he warned after a moment. "I'm far more protected in my role, and by my title and the coven. What little protection I can offer is yours, but I will not be there with you, if you are found out."
Cassius set down his cup and pursed his lips. "Mrs Adams, I would like you to apply for a job at the Institute."
Keira understood. She put her teacup down and placed one hand over the other on the table, her attention on Cassius. When he brought up what it was he wanted her to do, her head tilted to the side just slightly. “The Institute? I have to admit, that was not what I was expecting.” She could apply, but she wasn’t sure she would get the job, whatever it was that he wanted her to get. “What job, exactly?”
"Something minor. We could look at your skill set and available positions, determine what would be most fitting. There is someone already at work there who would be able to recommend you, and if necessary, I can arrange for something to...open up."
Cassius smiled tightly. "You might be surprised what money can buy. People can be quite opportunistic when offered the right incentive. It shouldn't be too difficult to place you."
Retrieving his tea, he continued, "Ideally, you would have access to a great deal of the building, while staying beneath the notice of anyone likely to be suspicious. I would put you in contact with the man already on the inside to work out the details."
“Okay,” Keira responded. It wasn’t a terrific response, but she was still trying to figure out why Cassius would need her on the inside of the institute, especially since there was obviously someone there that was helping. “Can you explain to me why? You said there was a wrong being done that needed righted, earlier. What is that wrong? Why do you need my help in this?”
This was what Cassius had meant to lead with, had Mrs Adams not been so amenable as she had. His lips thinned, not in anger at her but at the situation that had brought him here at the start.
"I ask that this go no further than between us," Cassius said, his tone not making it much of a request. "There are lives at stake, and should a careless word fall in the wrong ear, they may be forfeit. If I find you have been careless..." Cassius grimaced, but his tone was unapologetic, the importance of this confidence overriding any other scruples. “I will do what I must to tidy up any loose ends you may have left behind.”
He paused one moment longer, listening to be certain they were alone in the shop, with no one lurking at an oven or shop counter to hear them, before he finished. When he did speak, there was cold anger in his voice, frost and ice.
"Supernatural trafficking."
A shiver touched her spine at the look and tone of Cassius, but Keira fought it off so that it did not show. She gave a nod to say that she would not say a word before following that nod with words. “You have my word, Lord Ravensworth,” she met his eyes with her own, willing him to believe her. She was true to her word, always. Secrets were something she kept well, and she would keep this one. “I promise there will be no mess to clean up of my doing,” she said with a small shake of her head.
She waited in the pause, listening as well though she knew her hearing was not as great as his. When the two words left his lips, she inhaled quickly through her nose and went completely still as she held his gaze. The chill turned into heat and rushed through her, making her cheeks flush with the anger that now touched her.
“You are serious?” She asked, though it was rhetoric. Cassius, she was sure, would not tease of a matter like this. It was no kidding matter, this was definitely life or death and if she were caught… She did not think of the consequences, though she knew them. “I will help,” she said, her tone sure and confident. “I understand the danger, but I would rather give my life in order to save a few if I can. I’ll move quickly and secure me a position as soon as possible,” she said with a nod. “Can you give me more details? Tell me anything that you may know?”
Cassius exhaled quietly. He had half-expected Mrs Adams to freeze, and been prepared to wait for her to process what he'd told her, but she had risen again above his expectations. Her fire was admirable.
"I know very little of the details, which seems safest at present. I will put you in touch with someone who does, and they will explain how you can best help, and what to look for. Mrs Adams..." Cassius paused, pursing his lips. "We believe this has been going on for quite some time. This is not an organization that will be easy to infiltrate, even with the knowledge we have. Those we consider our enemies are clever, and experienced. They have held prisoner as their slaves those with far more power than you or I. It is not a simple task we have set ourselves."
He nodded his head slowly, once. "Though I am grateful for your courage in agreeing to face them."
Keira lifted a hand to swipe at a stray red hair that crossed her cheek, tucking it back behind an ear. The news of what it was he needed her help for did shock her, but she was not the type of woman to be ruled by her feelings. She needed more information, and she definitely wanted to help. Men, women, children...they were being harmed. It did not matter whether they were supernatural or not, they were people that were being wronged in such a horrible, horrible way.
“I would think that our enemy would be highly informidable,” she said in response that the organization would not be easy to infiltrate. “I would expect a rather difficult challenge at the least,” she nodded slowly. “Especially if they are able to overpower supernaturals as it seems that they are to do as they are doing.” There had to be something that these people held over others, she was sure of it.
“It is not courage, Lord Ravensworth,” she gave a small hint of a smile. “It is the need to do what is right, to help others who cannot help themselves. I do not think I am any more courageous than you or anyone else, I simply just have skills that may be of use.” She looked across to where her muffins where and then with a slight ‘excuse me’ she rose to her feet to remove the muffins from the fire and set to cool.
“Whoever is doing this, they work within the Institute?” She questioned as she worked, glancing over at Cassius over her shoulder. “Will working there help? Or do you need me to find myself...captured?” She was rather nonchalant about it. It would worry her more if she were to be captured, there would have to be precautions in place as she would like to come out on the other side of this alive, but she would do it.
That wasn't a plan of action that had occurred to Cassius, and he found himself surprised that it hadn't. After considering for a brief moment, however, he shook his head. "There is no value to losing you, Mrs Adams. Rather, I would ask you to put your--other--skills to work. You have some experience being light-fingered, and your observations about those people and places you may encounter will be valuable enough. For now, let us try to keep you from disappearing, and simply see what we can learn."
He would let Mr Green dictate the other details of Mrs Adams' work and information, so Cassius added only, "We know very little at this time, but we believe the source is within the Institute, yes. I'll let your contact explain the rest. Shall we move forward, then, and I'll have him contact you to set up a meeting?"
After Keira set the muffins down and took care of what needed to be, she then joined Cassius back at the small table and took her seat back. “I would hope that you would not lose me.” But she understood his words and the look on her face said as much. If she did go ‘undercover’, it was a good belief that she could get lost. She could do everything else with ease, she had worked considerably harder on her ‘light fingers’ since the issue with Cassius and had become much better, not that she had been that horrible at it, but as he had caught her she had needed more training.
“Yes, let’s move forward,” she nodded. “Perhaps having gone to University will help me with placement. I do hope that I can help and get you what it is you need,” she nodded.
Cassius nodded gravely. "For all our sakes, Mrs Adams," he said, "I hope so as well."