He Dropped Three Women in One Night, Then We Took His Estate novel · Chapter 3 of 32
Chapter 3: The Attic Lodger
A Crown auditor knocks at the dower house at dawn and Calista rents him the attic, only to learn his order covers her ledgers too.
By morning there was a man in the garden, standing in the snow with a leather case, looking at the dower house.
Calista watched him from the kitchen window with a cup of tea going cold in her hand.
He was lean and of middle height, in a black coat with ink worn into the cuffs and round steel spectacles that kept slipping.
He had been standing there for some time.
He checked a paper, then the house, then the paper again.
"Is he lost?" Elowen asked, over her shoulder, with bread in her mouth.
"He's a Crown man. That's the King's black coat."
"Is he here for us?"
"I hope he's here for the gatehouse," Calista said. "That's the one the road goes to."
Ottilie, still wrapped in the blanket, gave a low whistle.
"The King's black coat. He'll want a bribe or a bed."
"He'll get neither."
Calista set down the cup and went to the door.
She opened it before he could knock.
The man started, and the spectacles slid right off his nose into the snow.
He caught them, wiped them on his sleeve, put them back on, and bowed all in one movement.
"Madam. I beg your pardon for the hour," he said. "I am looking for the offices of the Marquis of Voltraine."
"They're up the hill, a mile and a half," Calista said. "You walked past the drive."
"I was told the drive was lit."
"It was," Calista said. "It was lit for a ball. You're a night late."
He took this without blinking.
"I see. Then I wonder if you could tell me where in Larkmoor a man might rent a bed."
He pushed the spectacles up his nose. "The inn says it is shut for the Frost, and the carriage that brought me has gone."
"Why do you need a bed?" Calista asked.
"Because the King has asked me to read every ledger the Marquis of Voltraine has signed since his father died."
He said it simply. "I expect it will take six weeks."
Calista stood very still in the doorway.
Six weeks was exactly the time until the Thaw Festival.
"You're the auditor," she said.
"Evander Quist, madam. Of the Crown Treasury."
"Why is the King auditing a Marquis?" she asked.
"Because the Princess's father will not release her dowry until the books are clean. It is customary."
He frowned, noticing something. "You have a stove door covered in chalk."
He was looking past her shoulder at the kitchen.
Calista looked back.
The actress in her blanket and the girl in the overcoat sat side by side at the table, both staring at him.
"It's a house rule," she said.
"There are rules?" he asked.
"Four."
"May I read them?"
"No," Calista said. "Come in. You're letting in the cold."
He stepped over the threshold and stopped at the edge of the kitchen.
He took in the three women, the cracked cups, the basin on the floor, the satchel of papers on the bench.
Then he said, mildly, "I think I am in the wrong place."
"You are in the dower house," said Ottilie.
"Ah. The dowager's cottage."
"The cottage of the divorced wife," Calista said. "That is me."
His face changed a little.
It was not pity, which she would have hated.
It was careful attention.
"I read about the dissolution on the road," Evander said. "It is a terrible piece of drafting."
He took off the spectacles. "I am sorry for the way he did it."
"The drafting?" Calista said.
"The way he did it. I will take the drafting also."
Elowen made a noise that might have been a laugh.
Calista folded her arms.
"The attic is empty," Calista said. "It has a bed and one window, and the roof leaks when it thaws."
"A crown a night, paid on the first of the week. You'll eat what we eat."
"Is it good?" he asked.
"It's terrible."
"I have a tin of biscuits," Evander said, and held up the leather case. "I can offer them in trade."
"Then you can sleep in the attic."
He bowed again, a little lower.
A letter fell out of his sleeve as he straightened, and he caught it before it reached the floor.
It was stamped with a clerk's seal, and Calista saw the top line before he tucked it away.
By order of His Majesty, open all ledgers and papers of the House of Voltraine.
"All of them," she said.
"All of them, madam," said Evander.
"Mine as well?"
"I was about to say."
He hesitated, and she saw the effort it took him to say it plainly.
"I am told you kept the household books for three years, and the mill's."
"The order says every ledger the Marquis's house has ever signed. Yours is one of them, Lady Calista."
"I am not Lady Calista any longer," she said. "I signed that away last night."
"Then you have no reason to object," said Evander.
Ottilie put a hand over her mouth.
Calista felt something rise in her chest, hot and sudden, and did not know whether it was anger or the beginnings of a laugh.
She put out her palm.
"A crown," she said.
He paid her, a single silver coin, and she dropped it in the tin on the mantel.
Behind her Elowen whispered, loud enough to be heard, "I think I like him."
"He's the King's man," said Calista, not turning around. "Nobody likes the King's man."
"I do," said the King's man, mildly, and went up the stairs with his case.
← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend