CHAPTER 9 #3
Any record of the 6:31 dispute with Celeste.
Romy forwarded the request into the project folder and began assembling the package.
Leo returned with tea.
“Can I help?”
“Sort the Blue Study emails by date.”
He sat.
For forty minutes they worked without talking.
Leo found the email where Romy had insisted the decorative panel remain spaced from the wall.
Then another where Celeste’s assistant acknowledged the requirement.
Then Adrian’s earlier building note identifying the high-level transfer route.
Documentation.
Facts.
Romy should have felt better.
She did not.
At 7:02, Leo stopped typing.
“I can withdraw.”
Romy looked at him.
“From what?”
“The placement.”
She stared.
He was not joking.
“If the insurer is worried about liability and clients are already nervous, having me here gives you another person to cover.”
“No.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“My stipend isn’t huge, but it’s still money.”
“No.”
“And if work stops, you don’t need to keep me because of some promise.”
Romy put down her pen.
“Leo.”
“I’m not quitting.”
“That is exactly what you just offered.”
“I’m saying you can pause it.”
“No.”
“You haven’t even looked at the numbers.”
“I don’t need to.”
“That isn’t very responsible.”
Romy stared.
Leo looked uncomfortable but continued.
“You said Pattern House surviving matters.”
“Yes.”
“So if I make that harder.”
“You are not a liability.”
He glanced toward the insurer email.
“Technically everyone is a liability.”
“Do not become clever now.”
“I’m trying to help.”
“I know.”
That took some of the fight out of him.
Romy leaned back.
“Do you know why your offer annoys me?”
“No.”
“Because you’re treating your placement as charity.”
“I’m not.”
“You are. You think when things get difficult, you should make yourself cheaper to keep.”
Leo said nothing.
“You work here.”
“For two days.”
“Officially.”
His mouth almost moved.
“You found the timeline distinction around Sebastian’s death before I did. You preserved the 6:52 photograph. You caught the object movement. You have done actual work.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He looked down.
There it was.
Not financial fear.
Confidence.
The question nobody needed to say aloud.
Maybe you are the problem.
Romy had fought that question in herself after Julian Staveley died.
Now Leo was offering to remove himself before anyone could decide he was unnecessary.
Training him did not only mean correcting his evidence logic and stopping him drowning custard creams in tea.
It meant teaching him not to disappear the moment his presence became expensive.
“You stay,” Romy said.
“What if the insurer suspends us?”
“Then we deal with that.”
“What if clients cancel?”
“We deal with that.”
“What if there isn’t enough work?”
“Then I tell you honestly.”
Leo looked at her.
“You’re not keeping me out of guilt.”
“No.”
“Or because it looks bad if I leave.”
“No.”
“Or because Nina will yell at you.”
Romy considered.
“That is a secondary factor.”
He laughed.
Good.
The tension broke.
Romy pushed a folder toward him.
“Finish the Blue Study correspondence index.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Never call me that.”
“Manager?”
“No.”
“Supreme Conservator?”
“Get out.”
He grinned and returned to work.
At seven forty, Nina arrived carrying a paper bag.
Neither had called her.
“How did you know we were here?” Romy asked.
“Lights.”
“That is disturbingly simple.”
“I brought soup.”
Leo appeared behind Romy.
“What kind?”
“Tomato.”
“Bread?”
Nina raised a second bag.
Leo looked reverent.
They ate from mismatched office bowls and tore pieces from a still-warm loaf while Nina complained about customers who believed a closed Show House meant the pub should somehow refund their lunch reservations.
For twenty minutes, nobody discussed charcoal.
Nobody discussed insurance.
Nina told Leo his railway-poster hobby made him sound seventy.
Leo defended lithography.
Romy ate too much bread.
Her shoulders finally dropped.
Then her laptop chimed.
One new email.
The insurer.
Romy stopped chewing.
Nina saw her face.
“Work?”
“Yes.”
Leo put down his spoon.
Romy opened the message.
The wording was formal, measured, designed to avoid panic.
It produced panic perfectly.
Following review of the preliminary incident notification and pending clarification of potential professional responsibility connected to the Asterleigh Rectory fatality, the underwriter reserved the right to impose temporary restrictions on Pattern House Conservation’s active field coverage.
Romy read further.
Any suspension would affect on-site conservation services at active client properties.
Not office work.
Not documentation.
Sites.
The work that paid.
The work Leo had joined Pattern House to learn.
The work Romy had spent years building a reputation to win.
Nina said, “Romy?”
She kept reading.
Pending receipt and review of complete project documentation, the insurer might suspend on-site coverage until responsibility for Sebastian Pryce’s death was determined.
Romy stared at the screen.
The murder had not taken Pattern House yet.
But now it had found the switch that could stop Romy walking through a client’s door.