Neither the words nor the polite knock on the doorframe had any effect. The newcomer blinked a couple of times, then realized that more direct measures would be needed if he wanted to get any attention, and his gaze swept around the large room in search of someone to talk to.
Two men in overalls were busy working on the staircase to his left, and more noise could be heard from somewhere overhead. Right ahead of him, behind a row of slim pillars that separated one part of the large room from the rest, was the most promising sight: three men, looking at something on the wall and talking eagerly to each other.
Encouraged, the man walked towards the little group.
"Excuse me!" He raised his voice and the trio turned to look at him. "This is Number 12, Hillside Alley, right?"
"That's right," confirmed the blond who looked the youngest of the three.
"Then I'm in the right place!" The newcomer smiled. "My name's Samiel and I heard from my cousin that you might soon be needing a chef here?"
The others looked astonished.
"Heard?" echoed the older man in a stained white coat. "Heard from where?"
"From my cousin," the man explained. "Canna. She works at the Honey Pot."
"Oh, right!" The blond's face brightened and he extended a hand. "Sorry, you took us completely by surprise, I haven't had time to even start really looking – my name's Loren and I'm the, uh..."
"The boss," supplied the other young man helpfully. "Don't let looks deceive you. We own this place together, Loren and me, but he's the boss around here and no mistake! This is my father Karos, my name's Arjan, and I'm sure you'll excuse us for not shaking hands with you."
"That's all right," Samiel assured after a glance at Arjan's hands that seemed to be in dire need of thorough washing. "I hope I'm not disturbing too badly, though? I can come back at another time, if –"
"No, no, this is as good a time as any!" Loren hurried to say. "I think we might leave the artists to their work and find a place where we could talk without fearing that we'll get hit with a hammer or paintbrush or something."
"Exactly, especially as the artists must go on before the plaster gets too dry," Karos put in. "Arjan my boy, shall we now turn our eyes and thoughts once more to the task at hand? I'd hate to spoil this wall by sloppy work."
"Yes, Dad!" Arjan saluted smartly.
Samiel followed their gaze and his eyes went wide.
This part of the room had one only solid wall unbroken by windows or doors, and that very wall was in the process of being transformed into a mural. Some of it had already been painted and colored, a large section still only showed the outlines of what was to come, but the subject was obvious: a glimpse into a lush garden, in fact much like the one he'd seen outside the house.
He whistled. "That's gorgeous!"
"Isn't it?" Loren looked pleased and so did the two artists. "We thought this wall needed something special, and Arjan suggested a mural. It's going to be wonderful when it's all ready."
"I sure hope so." Karos dried his forehead with a sleeve. "First time after the Academy when I'm painting in fresco, and that was over twenty years ago!"
"My very first time," Arjan added. "I think we're doing fine, though, technique-wise."
"Otherwise as well," Loren stated. "Now, let's go over here, shall we?"
Samiel took one more glance at the emerging mural over his shoulder before following Loren to the other side of the pillars. There the blond stopped and took a deep breath, then turned to give him an assessing look.
"I think first of all I'd like to know what you've heard," he said. "I mean, of course quite a few people know what's going on here, but anyway. Especially as we haven't put out any ads or anything yet."
"Sure thing," Samiel nodded. "Canna told me that you're going to have a little hotel here, and I figured that even if a hotel didn't have an actual restaurant that's open to outsiders, even the smallest of them usually offer at least half board. So I thought to come and ask, just in case you'd be interested."
"Well, you're quite right – we are going to need a chef," Loren said. "There'll be only six rooms so it won't be exactly huge, but we were thinking that we'd have the restaurant open around lunchtime as well, and then in the evenings, till ten or eleven or so."
"What about the breakfasts?"
"Oh, we live here, Arjan and me." Loren gestured towards a door in the only windowless wall of the big room. "And we thought that we'd at least try to take care of breakfast by ourselves, so that our chef wouldn't have to work around the clock. Six rooms, with a breakfast menu that we can handle. Shouldn't be impossible."
"No, not at all," Samiel agreed. "You seem to have thought things through pretty well... I must say that I'm a bit surprised."
Loren tilted his head and the corner of his mouth twitched. "Do I look too young for that or what?"
"Frankly, yes. No offence."
"None taken!" Loren grinned affably. "And before you ask, no, I'm not that much older than I look. The thing is that I've grown up in a very busy inn, so I know a good deal about customer service and stuff, and recently I've also been doing my best to get this thing planned properly."
"Well, that explains a lot!" Samiel said, delighted. "For my part I'd definitely be interested in working here. I'm currently working as a sous-chef at The Regalia – that's one of the big hotels on the Second, as you might know – and I'd love to find something where I'd be a little bit more my own master."
"Oh, I do understand." Loren nodded towards the door. "Hey, let's go over there. That's where the kitchen is. If we reach an agreement, you might even help us with getting it arranged the way you want it. I hope you're not in a hurry?"
"No, I'm not. Having a day-off now. What, would I get to have a say in what my kitchen would look like?"
Samiel followed Loren into the kitchen and the closing door soon muted their voices. Arjan, who'd been listening to them as best he could while working on the painting, sighed and glanced at his father.
"I sure hope they reach an agreement," he said. "He appears to be very nice."
"Hmm, yes, and did I hear that he's currently working at The Regalia?" Karos took a step back from the wall and gave it a critical look. "By all accounts he should be pretty good, too. But hey, so you're going to run a restaurant as well?"
"That's the plan. Nothing fancy, though, just a daily menu of two or three lunchtime courses, plus a small list for the evenings." Arjan considered this for a while, then thought it wise to add: "At least that was the plan when we last talked about this."
"Now let's just hope that your new chef doesn't have much more grandiose things in mind!" Karos chuckled. "Honestly, son, Loren seems to be turning into a real hotel manager, and pretty fast too! Are you sure he won't be running both of you to the ground with all this?"
"I appreciate your concern, Dad." Arjan granted his father a warm smile and sat down on the floor to work on some details in the lower part of the wall. "But I must say that he's surprised me recently. Ever since Reonn gave him that little talk, he's made an honest effort to be realistic. Sure we're going do quite a lot ourselves, but just the other day we spent a good while estimating how much work it all amounts to, how long it'll take to get everything done, and how many people are needed to do it all. That plan even included a good chunk of unwinding time every day."
"Excluding the nights?" Karos specified. Arjan laughed.
"Yes, father dear, the 'unwinding time' wasn't scheduled for the nights!"
"Just thought to make sure," Karos grumbled. "After all, I'm still hoping to use him as a model every now and then, and I'd rather not paint in candlelight if I can avoid it."
"Selfish," Arjan accused. "Just so you remember, I have first dibs!"
"Yes, yes, I know, but you know damn well that I have more than one customer who are rather partial to male nudes who bear a resemblance to him." Karos glanced at his son and raised a brush in warning. "And yes, I definitely prefer to paint from a live model rather than from memory – or imagination, for that matter. A model inspires me in a wholly different way. As you well know."
"I know, I know," Arjan chuckled. "It's just the same with me, and the model doesn't even have to be Loren to inspire me... though of course he's a very special case. Hey, what are we going to do about these tree trunks over here? Moss or no moss?"
His father frowned in thought. "Hmm, now that would actually be a rather attractive idea... Come over here and see for yourself."
Arjan scrambled on his feet and joined Karos in the middle of the room. He pursed his lips thoughtfully.
"Yeah, it might look pretty nice if there was some moss growing on the shadow side. Maybe we ought to ask Loren, though?"
"Didn't he say you're the artistic director in this?" Karos asked slyly. Arjan rolled his eyes.
"Sure I am, but I want to hear his opinion as well!" He contemplated the mural for a while, then happened to glance at Karos and raised his eyebrows at the knowing expression. "What?"
"You're completely under his thumb, is all," Karos grinned. "Well, I can understand that you don't want to interrupt his talks with your potential new chef, but if you really want to hear his opinion, hadn't you better go and ask before this batch gets too dry to paint on?"
Arjan grunted and squared his shoulders. "We'll put the moss there."
"Right," Karos said mildly and continued painting.
He was grateful that Arjan was so quickly absorbed once more in the work and didn't notice how his lips kept twitching despite his best efforts.
On the other side of the wall, moss was the last thing on Loren's mind. If he hadn't been too busy scribbling down Samiel's wishes concerning the kitchen, he'd probably have congratulated himself on the decision to always carry a small notebook and pen in his pocket for this kind of situations.
The cook was enthusiastic, water-green eyes shining as he looked around and shook his head, as if unable to fully believe his good luck.
"You mean you would actually have it fitted the way I suggested?" he asked for about the fourth time.
"Why not?" Loren countered. "You're a chef, you know about cooking and how this place needs to be arranged so that it's easy to work in. I'll be happy to oblige, especially as it won't require tearing anything down. Besides, haven't we already agreed that you'll be our chef? The pay you suggested is well in the range I was thinking of, and your period of notice at The Regalia means we'll have just enough time to get the kitchen mostly ready in time. To me it seems lika miracle, the way everything's just falling into place."
"I guess we have a deal then," Samiel said with a grin. "Quite frankly I can't wait to get started. Planning the menu and all that..."
"Well, this means then that I'll make some changes to the guys' instructions," Loren said and closed the notebook. "The upstairs rooms are not that much in a hurry. We might even open the restaurant as soon as we have the downstairs ready and the kitchen up and running, and start with the hotel a bit later. Provided, of course, that the works upstairs don't make too much noise."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Samiel nodded. "As soon as I'm free, I'll be here trying out recipes for our menu and getting the hang of my new kitchen."
He looked dreamy for a while, then took a deep breath and added: "I'm going to need another pair of hands there besides myself, though."
"I was just about to ask," Loren said. "Is one person enough or should we be looking for two? Oh, and do you perhaps have someone you could suggest?"
"Give me a few days and I'm sure I can come up with someone," Samiel said confidently. "One is enough, at least to start with, but that's likely to change if this place gets awfully busy."
"Sure, sure. And you get to pick your assistant anyway, you're the one who'll be working with him," Loren assured him, then added almost as an afterthought: "Or her, of course."
"I'd better pick a guy," Samiel chuckled. "I'll be spending a lot of time here, and my girlfriend is a bit jealous."
"She's not in need of a job by any chance?"
"No, and that wouldn't be a good solution anyway. We'd just fight!" Samiel grinned at Loren's incredulous expression. "Seriously, believe me. I'll rather have someone I can order around without having to fear the payback."
For a moment Loren looked thoughtful, then shook his head and took a deep breath. "Well, I leave all that to you! So, if you're all right with the pay and working hours and other stuff we talked about, I'll get the papers ready for signing. Could you drop by in a couple of days or so?"
"Sure thing!" Samiel promised. "Man, I can hardly believe this is true! Not that I'd hate my job in The Regalia or anything, but it's going to be no end exciting to have my own kitchen, to develop my own recipes…"
Loren laughed. "You know what? I have a feeling that this might be great fun!"
"True word," Samiel said emphatically. "Hmm, and I have tomorrow morning off as well – might go down to the fish market and see around a bit. Oh and let's see now, I live on the Third and if I only need to be here in time to make the lunch, I could go down in the mornings to shop ingredients for each day's lunch and dinner, so that everything would be fresh and topnotch and…"
When the side door finally closed behind the blond chef-to-be, Loren turned around with a broad smile on his face.
He glanced around in the kitchen, mouthed a silent 'yesss!', then marched briskly to the ballroom. This was definitely too much good news to be celebrated all alone.
