Rogue of Taurus

Livia got back in her car and made the fifteen-minute drive to Hyrum’s work. The cabin that housed the offices for the Department of Public Agriculture was tiny and old. Livia had helped Hyrum build an addition on the side last summer to make it more functional. They had also replaced the entire bathroom from top to bottom together, but the place still needed a lot of work.

To her surprise, when she arrived all the parking was full. More cars had even pulled off into the grass. With no other option, Livia pulled into the grass too. When Livia entered the cabin, it swarmed with people—half of them official-looking adults, and the other half looked like a group of school kids. Hyrum looked like he might start yelling at both groups at any moment. She considered it a serendipitous arrival and didn’t hesitate to walk up to her brother.

“What can I do, Hyrum?”

“Liv! What are you doing here?”

“I’m done with finals. Surprise! What are these kids doing here?”

Hyrum ran his hand over the top of his head. “My partner, Alivinus, called out sick today. He planned to deal with the Senate committee, and I planned to give a tour to the school kids—”

Livia grinned a bit. Separa et impera was one of Hyrum’s favorite maxims. It seemed to be good advice here.

Livia offered, “You deal with the Senate committee, and I’ll take the kids over to the hives and give them a spiel. No big deal.”

The relief was clear on Hyrum’s face. “I owe you, Liv. Big time.”

“No, that’s what family is for,” Livia patted his arm and stepped in front of the school kids. She waved her arms over her head. “Hey! Guess what I know that you don’t know?”

The kids quieted.

Livia whispered dramatically, “Everything about bees. Let’s hike over to the beehives, and I will answer every question you can think of—”

After 30 minutes of being in the cold, the kids weren’t interested in bee facts anymore. Livia had answered all their questions and showed them some of the basics of beekeeping, so she considered it a win. She marched them back to the office.

Hyrum had things settled down in there. The Senate committee was sitting and reading from file folders. Hyrum came to her when they trooped back in. “I need to show the kids the greenhouses. The plan was to give them hot cider when they got back, but I didn’t get here early enough….”

“Go,” Livia pushed him. “I can mix up a batch—”

Livia slipped into the full industrial kitchen Hyrum had installed in the addition they’d built that summer. She surveyed the situation. Hyrum had abandoned the cider ingredients on the counter beside the stove top. The senators had interrupted him in the middle of making the cider. Livia finished up the recipe and put it on the stove to boil. She cleaned up the mess in the kitchen and set up the serving center, placing dozens of paper cups in straight rows. Then she went and stirred the cider. The warm aroma was starting to fill the kitchen and waft out into the office. Livia prepared a tray with the nicer cups from the cupboard and surprised the Senate committee with hot drinks.

They were grateful and mentioned how cold it was in the office. Livia hadn’t noticed the chill, but she was Taurus, so she wasn’t surprised. She knew there were a couple of space heaters in here. She searched and found them in the utility closet. She set them out and plugged them in, directing the heat vents toward the Senators.

She stood up straight. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

They waved her away, but she frowned. All the window shades were closed. The room was dark, and the view of the public lands was hidden. She remembered how bright and open this room felt when all the windows were open in the summer. The Senators had dismissed her, but she went through the room and lifted all the shades so they could read by natural light and enjoy the view.

Then she opened the partition between the office and the kitchen. Now, the kids could have space in the kitchen instead of crowding the Senators. She moved some of the tables around so that crowd control would be easier. She peered out one of the windows and noticed Hyrum was on his way back with the kids. So she started filling paper cups with hot cider.

When Hyrum returned, he praised her. “Thank you, Liv, this is perfect. I forgot about heating the place. I’m going to get another heater for the kitchen area. The kids are cold.”

Livia kept the kids in the kitchen and handed out hot cider as Hyrum set the heater on high. Hyrum retreated to speak to the teacher. “I am so sorry—”

“No, no, they’re happy and the cider is very good. We learned so much about bees, and those new greenhouses are exciting. It was almost like summer again to be inside.”

“I’m so grateful Livia showed up. She knows so much about animals—”

The teacher agreed. “She was quite knowledgeable, yes. She said you all were responsible for hives since she was small.”

“Yes, my mother learned the art of beekeeping here in Caesarea on those hives Livia showed you. Later, she used that knowledge to start a small business.”

“Amazing how things come full circle,” the teacher smiled.

“Raising up the next generation and all that—” Hyrum said. “But I am hoping to improve so many things—”

Livia watched as the Senators lifted their heads and listened to Hyrum speak about his plans without reservation. Livia doubted he’d be as open with them as he was with this teacher.

“So, you’ll have to come back in the spring,” Hyrum said. “I want to expand the tour to include the vegetable gardens and orchards. And we’ll have some hens and chicks by then. I’ll try to get some of the local farmers to display some baby goats and sheep at the same time. We’ll even send you home with some peas to plant.”

The teacher was thrilled. “Wonderful! It’s so hard to find educational programs that appeal to all children. Most educational experiences focus on the aptitudes of Lupus house. I hope we can come back. I didn’t know that beekeeping could be so complex. Since the educational board approved your internship programs in agricultural and apiary science, the kids need to visit. Then they can be familiar with the place and make informed decisions later on. You’re going to do a world of good here, Hyrum.”

“Fresh air and hard work do everyone a world of good,” Hyrum said. “So does knowing the practical realities of providing for yourself. I hope we can prepare people to do that here.”

The teacher gathered up the kids shortly after that and loaded them onto a small bus parked at the backside of the cabin. Livia cleaned up the place while Hyrum saw the children off. Hyrum returned.

“Liv, you saved me,” he said, overwhelmed. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Glad I was here.”

“I didn’t expect you,” he said.

“I got so busy with finals I forgot to call.”

“Did you drive all morning?”

“Yeah, and when I got here, the house was locked.”

Hyrum pulled his keys from his pocket. He removed his house key and pressed it into her palm. “Go home and rest.”

“You sure you don’t need…” Livia gestured to the Senators. “Someone to take care of the cleanup?”

“No. Thank you, Liv. I can take care of it. The rest of the afternoon should be slow.”

“Where’s Cil?” Livia asked.

“She went to visit her sister. Get away from the stress for a while. She’ll be back for dinner.”

Livia nodded. “Will you be back by then?”

Hyrum often worked late into the evening. “Yes. Today, I’ll be home for dinner.”

“See you then,” Livia said.

She returned to her car and then drove back to Hyrum’s house. She opened the door with the key and sighed in relief. She rolled her suitcase through the door and locked the door behind her. Hyrum lived in a small three-bedroom house that he’d inherited from Quinn. The downstairs had a living area, a bathroom, and a den. The upstairs had two bedrooms and a master suite. Livia opened the door where she usually stayed and froze.

A crib stood in the corner of the room. The twin bed she slept in was still in the corner. The dresser and trunk she used to store her things were still in the room, but they’d been moved only to take up half the room. Livia swallowed down the emotions that slammed through her. She pulled her suitcase into the room and sat down on the bed as reality hit her. After the baby came where was she going to stay in Caesarea?

She needed to find her own place for the next summer. That meant staying at Cornelia or finding roommates here. Livia quelled her alarm, but that was a huge change.

Change is the only thing in life you can depend on.

For the first time in a long time, Livia’s favorite maxim did nothing to comfort her. She didn’t like it. She wanted to talk things out with someone. She decided to call Corvin to give him an update. Even if he were still upset with her, it’d be a distraction.

Corvin answered right away. “Liv, how are Hyrum and Caecilia?”

“I went to help Hyrum out at work. It was complete chaos. There was a school bus full of kids there and a Senate committee.”

“Whoa,” Corvin said.

“He was there alone. Can you believe that? His partner called in sick that morning.”

“So what did you do?” Corvin said.

“I took the kids over to the hives and taught them how to take care of the bees. Then I went back in and made hot cider while I heated the place for the senators.”

“The place wasn’t heated?” Corvin asked, surprised.

“Hyrum and I didn’t notice until the senators said something—”

Corvin chuckled. “Taurus.”

“Yeah, so then after we took care of the kids and sent them off, Hyrum sent me home.”

“What a wild day, Liv,” Corvin said.

“There’s a crib here in the room where I stay.” Livia’s voice quavered.

“Do you have a spot to sleep?” Corvin asked.

“My stuff is still here. I guess the bed, not my bed,” Livia corrected. She smoothed out a crinkle in the coverlet.

“You feel like you don’t have a spot there anymore, Liv?” Corvin asked.

“Well, I won’t for long. This might be the last time I stay in Hyrum’s house.” Livia paced in the small room, distressed at the appearance of a problem she hadn’t considered. She didn’t react well to stressful surprises.

“That’s hard,” Corvin said. “Tell me what you’re thinking about your options.”

“Do I stay at Cornelia? I didn’t think about this. I didn’t plan to pay for summer housing. I’m going to need a job.”

“I’m sure you’ll find something,” Corvin said.

“I’m a little relieved about that part—”

“Which part?” Corvin asked.

“Hyrum said I should do the first semester without a job to adjust and cause…it might be the only time I ever had the luxury. I don’t like it, Corvin.”

“Not having a job?” he asked.

“Yes, I hate not having a job. It was fun the first four weeks, and since then….” Livia didn’t know how to describe it.

The past semester had been the only time Livia hadn’t held down a job of some sort. She had thought about spending time over the next four weeks of winter break finding a part-time job on campus for the next semester. She wanted to work again. She didn’t like living off her savings. It made her count every cent she spent with an unhealthy amount of obsession.

During finals week, she started having a recurring dream about adding up a ledger only to find she’d overspent by hundreds of dollars. Then she’d wake up in the middle of a panic attack. Livia put a hand over her heart, remembering.

“You anxious about it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Livia said. “I don’t like it.”

“Hey, I’ll be there tomorrow, and we’ll figure it out. There are a lot of temporary jobs in Caesarea this time of year. There is a job board on Tabula. Check there first.”

Livia was skeptical of the warm encouragement in Corvin’s voice. They had cleared up the whole misunderstanding around Bella’s job. She’d believed for so long that he didn’t support women working that it was hard to figure out where he really stood on the matter.

“I’ll check. Thanks, Corvin.”