Chapter One
Unexpected Bird
"Nobody ordered a swan," said the man in the doorway.
"Then it's fortunate I'm not a delivery service."
Lena tightened her grip on the bird's tail. The left wheel had found a groove in the threshold, the right wheel had a private itinerary, and the golden beak was pointing at the stranger's shirt.
"It's coming back," she added. "Some of us have been invited."
He looked past the enormous cream neck to find her. That took a moment. Lena had been looking forward to arriving as a professional woman with a proposal. At present, she was mostly a pair of overalls behind a bottom.
"Are you Lena?"
"Depends how this goes."
"Toby Marrick. Ash said you'd be here."
"Did she mention the swan?"
"She mentioned a few items."
"She's always been modest."
He stepped aside. It was a sensible gesture, undermined by his placing himself exactly where the beak needed to go. Lena gave the base a gentle push. The swan kissed the pocket of his cobalt shirt.
Neither of them moved.
"Usually," he said, looking down, "there's dinner first."
Lena laughed before she could prevent it. An unfortunate beginning. She had prepared several excellent objections to this man during the walk from the borrowed van, and none of them benefited from his being funny.
Ash had hired him to make sense of the West Room. The phrase had appeared in a message as if sense were a substance that could be poured into a room once somebody removed the interesting things. Lena's proposal, sitting in her bag, required those interesting things. It also required a worktable, storage and the chance to finish a job without someone needing to lay out a buffet across it.
