The Book of Firsts

Six

Friday was a perfect day to test out the Cheshire app, along with the new route, as it was positively pouring. But a check of the app showed no cancellations, and so I dutifully made my way down to the dovecote and poked my phone’s screen to indicate my location. After only a couple of minutes a green dot appeared in the image of the garden.

It was not a day to be outside, and though my folding umbrella kept most of the wet off me as I navigated my way behind trees and hedges, I was still feeling a little damp by the time I reached the removable bars.

Rin must have been waiting just inside the gate, since it opened as I reached the fence. "Let me get that for you, Cheshire."

He unscrewed the bars, and held his own umbrella high so I could fold mine and duck through.

"I’ve no idea whether this was by accident or design," he said, returning the bars to their proper place. "But I thoroughly appreciate the convenience."

"Not a day for wall climbing," I agreed, part of my attention on the long stretch of path to a pair of double doors that could emit teachers at any time. The hedge shielded most of our activities, but this was still a tiny moment of risk.

"Tuck your umbrella just outside the door," Rin said, after locking the gate and ushering me to the summer house. "I’ll just get something for the floor."

I hesitated in the shelter of the eaves as Rin fetched a couple of towels out of a storage space beneath one of the seats, and used them to mop up his damp footprints before folding them into a pad before the door.

"There really should be a mat here," he said. "I’ll bring one in. It didn’t occur to me when I was putting in supplies."

I slipped off my shoes, and crossed to inspect the space beneath the seat. Too small for hiding in. "This didn’t come with the summer house?"

"Some of it. The glasses and the table and so forth. The rest is ours."

There was a basin, a couple of bath sponges and some shower gel in with the towels. For challenges that required cleaning up after, I presumed, and grimaced wryly.

Rin was watching with the gentle smile he wore in official photographs. "If there’s anything you want kept here, let me know."

I suspected a spare underwear stash would not be wise, and just nodded. "The app came in handy right away," I noted.

"One of Kyou’s better notions, and Bran put it together without problem."

A faint undertone caught my attention, and I examined his expression as he checked the level of water in the jug and set it to boil.

"You’re still worried about him?" I asked, and he shrugged, a simple gesture made beautiful by his natural grace.

"I didn’t expect to win the race yesterday—I was behind."

Sitting down, I considered. "This isn’t something you’d want to force anyone into."

"I didn’t think I was. Bran doesn’t go along with things he doesn’t want to do, and he was definitely fascinated by the idea."

"Anyone can have second thoughts. But if he does keep losing—deliberately or not—then it’s going to be a little difficult to score these challenges."

"And since the entire point was a comparison with Bran…" He hummed softly, then turned to pour tea. "No point wasting energy on that. If Bran is no further in a month, we can reconsider." His long lashes shaded his eyes—and his thoughts—and then he said: "How are you finding the school, Cheshire?"

We chatted lightly about the need for more lunch places, particularly inside to cope with the crowds that crammed into the refectories on wet days. Then he folded a blanket into a pad, sat me on the floor between his feet, and fell silent, concentrating on rubbing any hint of tension out of my shoulders.

Rin was strictly circumspect, but also very good at finding knots, and I let out a long breath and melted. His efforts left me beautifully relaxed all weekend, despite a constant downpour that would otherwise be less than amusing. It put me in an excellent frame of mind for study, and I made solid progress on catching up. Literature was a weak point for me here, since every country had its own set of books it considered important, and I was going through works studied in previous years so I had the same foundation as the rest of the class.

If Bran continued to not participate… Well, it was better not to think of that right now.