To my surprise, they left me alone for a few days. Cáit had made sure that I always had someone to talk to when she went on quests, but no one tried to force me to talk about what had happened. I was really grateful for that, because I could really use the time to myself. Just so there's no misunderstanding, I wasn't hiding in my room feeling sorry for myself. I had thrown myself into work and done something for my personal salvation: I had started tidying up the garden.

Hannah always kept an eye on me during this time - not because she was so interested in my emotional world, but because she saw the whole thing as a kind of "boot camp for the clueless girl from the North". In fact, most of the time she just sat reading on one of the little wooden benches and kept an eye on my ether consumption. I paid for most of the materials for all the repairs out of my own pocket - but the sums weren't really worth mentioning. Angus got the wood from a lumberjack friend, and I got the scrap parts from the local scrap dealers. With the help of my skills, all the repairs were done relatively quickly, but there was one last hurdle: the lawn. I had come up with something special for this - and today was the day. 

"The moment of truth," I shouted to Abby in the kitchen, "If this works, all the work of the last few days will have been worth it."
To my surprise, Abby wasn't alone, she had Angus with her, probably on his way to pick up a new quest. Those were the few moments we got to see the silent giant. 
"Angus was curious what you were using all that wood for," Abby laughed and I grinned, "you should be able to tell at first glance."
"Absolutely," Angus nodded, " First you fix the bathhouse, now the mismanaged garden. What are you going to do next?"
"Maybe I'll fix up the rest of the mansion," I said thoughtfully, " But I don't think I have enough savings for that at the moment."
Abby gave me an embarrassed look and said quietly, "You've done enough fixing up around here. Now it's our turn to help you."
"You just took me in and nursed me back to health," I said quietly, "You've done more than enough for me already."

Besides, I have told Abby several times now that I do these things for my own sanity. So I just ignored her other complaints and continued with my sales pitch, "Let me show you my latest invention."
"You mean our invention," Hannah replied from a safe distance, "Without my help you would never have understood how to make this engine work."
"And you wouldn't have been able to build it without my skills," I replied loudly, but Hannah was deep in her book again.
"Anyway, it's not my fault that you don't know anything about petrol engines," I muttered to myself.
I asked Abby and Angus to wait a moment and returned shortly afterwards with the prototype of a steam-powered lawn tractor. Why not a simple lawn mower? We couldn't make an engine small and light enough in such a short time. We also didn't have time to work on the mechanism that allowed the steam spiders to move almost infinitely. The device looked absolutely silly - but it worked and did its job.

Angus looked at the machine a little suspiciously and then asked, "And how does this thing work?"
"It doesn't quite work the way I'd like it to," I replied, "But basically you just sit in that ugly old leather chair, put your feet on the supports and flick the little switch. Then it should move by itself and all you have to do is steer."
Meanwhile Hannah had put down her book and joined us. 
"To be honest, our aim is to copy the mechanics of the Steam spiders, but we'll probably need a bit more time and help. This would allow us to make the core features of the machine move without any effort. But I have to admit that my speciality is reading ancient languages. I'm not good enough at engineering," she began, "At the moment you have to put wood in this huge container to make steam. Not very efficient - but it works."
"Whose help do you need for that?" asked Angus and Hannah replied apathetically, "Ideally the help from a researcher called Genevieve. She was in a different chamber to mine. I'm afraid I only know roughly where our other chambers are. Once Genevieve and I have finished our research, Em should be able to put the whole thing together without too much trouble. You wouldn't believe it, considering she has no idea about so many other things."
I stuck my tongue out at Hannah almost reflexively.
"I guess I'm not quite as stupid as you always make me out to be," I said sarcastically, swinging up on the chair to show the others that my idea worked. 

After a few laps I stopped beside the group again and grinned, "I still need to think about how to add a catch basket and how to make the blade height adjustable, but at least it saves you having to cut by hand."
"Impressive," Angus said, and Abby also seemed enthusiastic about this invention - but then asked a very interesting question, "I'm just wondering. Where did you two work on this?"
"That's something we wanted to talk to you about anyway," I said, "Hannah and I found an empty building on the grounds and as there was plenty of space, we used it to tinker around in."
"Apart from the bathhouse, there's only the old servants' quarters, isn't there?" Angus wondered, but Abby shook her head, "There's also an old shed and our grandpa's old clubhouse. Granny couldn't stand the smell of his cigars, so he built that little place a few yards away from the main building where he could meet with his noble friends. But we all know that he only built the little house so he wouldn't have to listen to Grandma's constant nagging."
"It certainly didn't smell of cold smoke in there," I replied quickly and Abby said, "Then it must be the old servants' quarters. They have been empty for over 50 years. Not even our beloved father looked after them as he had no use for them. But it should be completely run down by now."
"That explains why you didn't show me the building on the tour," Hannah muttered and Abby nodded, "I only show new residents the bathhouse and the mansion. The rest is just too intimidating."
"It's not that bad. A few windows need replacing and I need to put in some new pipes for the heating system. But the biggest problem is actually all the dust and dirt. Someone needs to give it a good sweep", I counted up.
"I think I can manage that," Abby winked, "You want to fix it up and use it for your purposes - don't you?"
Hannah and I nodded, "Since the building is empty anyway, we thought we could fix it up and put it to good use. I would set up my workshop and storage on the ground floor, Hannah would like to set up the guild library and a laboratory on the first floor."
"We can't keep all these books in this passage all the time. It's not good for them," Hannah explained and Abby nodded, "I can talk to Sara about it if you want."

"Wait a minute," Angus said suddenly, looking at me sternly, "Didn't you say in the Adventurers' Guild that you wanted to open your own shop?"
"Yeah?" I looked at him confused, "That would be the workshop? I made my living at home fixing broken things. I need two things for that - space and spare parts. And my peace and quiet. OK, that's three things. But you know what I mean."
"Using the building for business wouldn't be a problem as there should be direct access to a side alley. Our grandfather didn't want our servants to have to walk through the house to run errands," Abby thought, "but I'll have to check that as Sara and I have never been inside the building. We just haven't had the time. Or the interest. Or the money."
We weren't expecting it, but Angus suddenly said to Abby, "Why don't you just give them the building on behalf of the Guild? You said yourself you don't need it?"
"That's not the problem," Abby muttered, "they can start renovating it for all I care. But I don't know if Em is doing herself any favours by opening her shop on the O'Neill estate of all places."
It was the second time Abby had made such a comment and I looked at her a little confused.
"I see," Angus nodded, "looking at Em's face, it's probably time for you and Sara to come clean and tell them why two girls so young are owning such a run down mansion. The rest of us know anyway."
"I suppose if I'd had the slightest interest, all I'd have had to do was ask someone on the street," Hannah said in her usual indifferent way, and Angus nodded again, "You two don't seem like the truth would change anything for you either."