“No need.” Finn headed toward their sitting room. “Won’t take me five minutes.”
He heard Gordon’s sharp intake of breath behind him, and imagined the weight of his adviser’s disapproval even without seeing his face. The familiar shame started to rise -inappropriate, beneath your station, embarrassing- but Darragh’s voice cut through it.
“King Consort Finn has valuable skills, and we’re not going to waste them.”
Finn turned. Darragh hadn’t looked up from his papers, his tone casual, but the authority in it was unmistakable.
Gordon blinked. “Of course, Your Majesty. My apologies.”
“None needed.” Darragh met Finn’s eyes and smiled. “Though if you’re fixing things, that loose board in the hallway outside the library has been driving me mad for weeks.”
Something loosened in Finn’s chest. “I’ll add it to the list.”
He found his old toolbox buried once more in the back of his wardrobe beneath the formal coats he’d forced himself to wear.The tools were still sharp. Finn ran his thumb over the handle of his favorite chisel, the wood worn smooth from years of use.
When did I stop being myself?
The window latch was a simple fix - the screw had worked loose again, nothing more. Finn tightened it, tested the mechanism, and adjusted the alignment until it moved smoothly. His hands remembered the work even if his mind had tried to forget it. When he finished, he stood back, admiring the small repair with satisfaction that felt disproportionate to the task.
It wasn’t about the latch. It was about remembering that he was good at something, and that his skills had value even if they didn’t involve memorizing delegation hierarchies or navigating political minefields.
“All fixed?”
Finn turned. Darragh leaned against the doorframe, watching him with an expression Finn couldn’t quite read.
“I did tell you it wouldn’t take long.”
“I’ve missed seeing you like this.” Darragh crossed to him and touched Finn’s cheek. “Confident. In your element.”
“It’s fixing a window latch, not building a cathedral.”
“It’s you being yourself instead of pretending to be someone you’re not.” Darragh kissed him softly. “I’ll take it.”
/~/~/~/~/
The water damage in the east wing started as a small dark patch on the wallpaper, barely noticeable. Finn spotted it when he was checking on the guest suites. He could have reported it to Gordon and had it added to the endless list of castle maintenance issues that someone else would handle. Threemonths ago, that’s exactly what he would have done. Hell, two weeks ago, he would have.
Instead, Finn found Trent in the servants’ hall, sharing tea with the castle’s head of maintenance, a grizzled man named Marcus who’d worked at the castle for forty years.
“That wall in the east wing.” Finn pulled up a chair, ignoring the startled looks from nearby servants. “The one near the guest quarters. I take it you’ve seen it?”
Marcus nodded slowly. “Aye, Your Grace. I noticed it last week, and it’s on the schedule to be investigated.”
“Do you mind if I help? I’d like to understand the building better, and I’ve got some experience tracing leaks.”
Marcus exchanged a glance with Trent, who grinned. “Your Grace, we’d be honored.”
They spent the next two hours methodically tracing the source of the water damage. Finn climbed into the crawl space above the ceiling - ignoring Marcus’s protests about propriety and that some “boy” could do it - and found the problem. It was, as he suspected, a cracked pipe that had been dripping for months, hidden behind old insulation.
“We’ll need to replace this whole section.” Finn backed out of the space, cobwebs in his hair, dust on his formal coat. “And check the others while we’re at it. If one’s cracked, odds are the rest aren’t far behind.”
“I’ll get a crew together.” Marcus looked at Finn with new respect. “Thank you, Your Grace. We’d have found it eventually, but by then the damage would’ve been much worse.”
“Just doing what makes sense.” Finn brushed dust off his sleeves. “Marcus, I’d like to spend some time each weeklearning more about the building’s infrastructure. Would that be possible?”
“You want to work with the maintenance crew?” Marcus’s eyebrows shot up.
“I want to understand how things work. I can’t make good decisions about the castle if I don’t know what I’m talking about.” Finn met his eyes steadily. “And I miss working with my hands. It helps me think.”
