Dante did the same and shouldered his bag.
Benjamin glanced at it. “Is that all you have?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t bring any kitchen supplies with you?”
“No.”
“Okay... well, you don’t have to worry about breakfast and lunch during the week, but you’ll have to feed yourself in the evenings. Do you have money to buy groceries? If not, we can—”
“I have money.”
Suspicion flickered in Benjamin’s gaze before he schooled his features. Dante could’ve showed him the discharge grant burning a hole in his pocket, but...no. Let the man think he’d robbed an old lady on his way here. Let him keep the scenario that made him the saviour and Dante the villain.
You are the villain.
Dante followed Benjamin out of the office and into the morning sun.
Benjamin pointed to the grand manor house. “Most of the exhibits and education resources are inside, but I’m afraid we’ll have to ask you not to use the main house. It’s trust policy that all staff that come into close contact with minors pass a DBS check.”
Dante nodded.
Benjamin waited a beat, then walked on, highlighting more landmarks that had nothing to do with why Dante was there until they came to a cluster of outbuildings and bungalows. “That’s yours,” he said, gesturing to the last in a row of three. “And the staff kitchen is in the barn over there, behind the greenhouses. Breakfast is served at seven, and lunch is at one, and your working day is eight till five, unless Sid says otherwise.”
“I can work whenever he needs me to. How many staff live on-site?”
The wariness in Benjamin’s regal gaze returned. “Around fifteen, and they work varied hours, so there’s always someone around.”
Irritation flared in the depths of Dante’s soul. He bit it back but couldn’t stomach another bland nod. He turned away from Benjamin and eyeballed the compact bungalow that was apparently his. It had a purple front door and a decked patio.How is this my life?
“Here are your keys.” Benjamin handed over a brass chain. “If you lose them there’s a charge, but we keep spares in the office... locked up, of course.”
“Don’t you think if I was going to steal things it would be from the big house with all the antiques?” The words escaped Dante before he could stop them. He softened them with a genial smile—the one Luis had always said made him look like a tyrannical lizard.
Benjamin’s eyes widened, a rabbit in headlights—or a rich boy caught in the glare of his own sweeping judgement. “You’re not allowed in the main house.”
Dante said nothing. He was good at that too—awkward silences that made other people squirm and make mistakes.
Benjamin shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Inside, his age had been hard to gauge, but with the sun exposing his smooth skin and patchy hipster stubble, it was clear he was barely twenty-five.Cute.Kind of. Dante preferred bigger men, in every sense of the word. Powerful men who could hold him down and show him how to do all the things he’d never done.
“I apologise,” Benjamin said. “I didn’t mean to be rude. Believe me, no one is happier you’re here than me, so I’m sorry if I’m coming across as a judgemental prick.”
The curse word sounded strange with Benjamin’s refined voice wrapped around it, and the abrupt one-eighty spun Dante’s head. He turned into the sun, glad the spring rays blocked out most of Benjamin’s face. “You’re not. I was genuinely curious.”
“Fair enough. Don’t tell Sid I was obnoxious to you, though. He gives me enough grief about being a privileged idiot.”
Dante was starting to appreciate Sid. He sounded like he had a vibe Dante recognised, and after three hours alone in the wild, Dante’s soul craved the familiar, even if it came from a grumpy old man.
“Right, that’s me,” Benjamin said. “I need to get back to the office. When you’ve put your bag inside, you’ll need to follow the path past the greenhouses and to the lake. Walk around the water until you come to the pavilion. The orchard is behind there.”
Dante tracked Benjamin’s gaze to the greenhouses a good hundred metres away. The lake was double that.
So much space.
Anxiety formed a bubble in his gut. He ached for the buzz of a loaded joint to chase it away, but buying weed was against his licensing conditions, and despite everything Benjamin had said, he hadn’t seen anyone so far who seemed the type to carry, and making new friends was an alien concept.
“Did you hear me?” Benjamin touched Dante’s arm.