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A group of fifteen was a bit much for the palace’s smallest kitchen, especially with fires burning in the fireplace and all the ovens and stoves. Fortunately, after the initial chaos of everybody showing up at the same time, there were never that many people in the room again. It still wasn’t long until I opened the window a crack to let the cold of an autumn night help reduce the stuffiness.
“No! You can’t sit there! I need that space!”
I glanced to my left at the sound of Yves’ outburst. Clavis, still the only person in pajamas, had seated himself on the counter right next to Yves’ cake-making zone. The sparkle in his golden eyes as he feigned a frown made it clear he was intentionally provoking his younger brother.
“But there’s nowhere else to sit,” he whined.
“There’s a spot right here,” Gilbert offered from the other side of the room.
The mischief in Clavis’ eyes dimmed a little. Gilbert and Obsidian may have become Rhodolite’s allies, but nobody really trusted the Conqueror Beast, and nobody was sitting next to him. Of course, his evasiveness about the state of affairs in Obsidian didn’t help, nor did the veiled threats he slipped into casual conversation whenever somebody broached a subject he didn’t want to talk about.
“That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen,” Leon commented. He drained his mug in one swallow and hopped onto the floor. “You can sit here, Clavis. Better to keep you and Gilbert apart. I don’t even wanna think about the schemes you two could come up with. Ivetta, you want me to take that to Luke and Arianna?”
“Yes, please.” I finished arranging the échaudés, darioles, and pain perdu on a tray and handed it off to him. “And ask if there’s anything they want me to make.”
“Wait, you’re taking requests?” Clavis asked hopefully.
“We all are,” Belle chimed in. She opened her mouth to say something else, but a volley of requests shouted in near-unison from all corners of the kitchen drowned out her voice. I caught one word in particular, though, and not just because it came from the person standing closest to me.
“Meatloaf?” I asked Leon, raising an eyebrow at him. “That isn’t a dessert.”
“You didn’t say it had to be a dessert,” he pointed out, flashing me a winning smile.
“We just had dinner,” Jin reminded him. “And you ate two steaks.”
“You need to eat more than meat,” Yves interjected. “Fruits and vegetables are important, too.”
“As long as they’re not carrots or bell peppers,” Nokto muttered.
Leon shrugged. “What can I say? I love meat. Please, Ivetta? Your meatloaf is so good.”
There was something very amusing about a man ten years my senior and nearly a foot taller than me begging and wheedling like a child, but baking nights had that effect on him and his brothers. All my experience babysitting the Stotts children came to the fore on these occasions. I sighed and looked past Yves to Licht, standing in the corner where the counter reached the wall, his arms crossed over his chest and his crimson eyes dark in an otherwise impassive face.
“This is your party, Licht. What do you think?”
“Before you make your decision, I’d like to add that I didn’t have dinner,” Gilbert interrupted.
“Neither did I,” Keith added. “I just got here.”
I frowned and swept the room with my eyes until I found Nokto and Silvio. “What about you two?” I asked. “Did you eat before you came here?”
Nokto, chewing a mouthful of échaudés, shook his head.
“Luke said we had to come here right away,” Silvio explained. “I ain’t even had time to get a room.”
“No wonder you’re so crabby,” Rio said cheerfully.
Silvio’s sea-blue eyes narrowed to a point, and I readied myself to intervene again, if necessary. They’d returned within a few minutes of me making them leave earlier, with no visible marks to say their argument had become physical, but their distaste for each other was still plainly evident. Since then, neither had spoken to or even acknowledged the other—until now.
“Have you eaten dinner, Ivetta?”
Licht’s quiet voice drew my attention, and that of the rest of the room, back to him. He hadn’t spoken since he first arrived. I had the feeling I’d made a mistake by even thinking he could handle this night.
A night I’d been so excited and anxious about that I’d forgotten to eat dinner, now that he mentioned it.
“Um…well…”
A collective groan sounded throughout the room, along with heads shaking, a cluster of admonishments that I needed to eat, and various questions asking how I could possibly forget to eat. My cheeks warmed with embarrassment. I was almost glad when Chevalier’s cool voice cut through it all.
“Five pounds of ground beef and two onions,” he said without even looking up from his book.
Almost glad, except his lack of eye contact made me nervous. Was he upset with me? Or did he just want to save whatever he had in mind until we were alone later? That was probably it. And why was I worried, anyway? Missing a meal here or there wasn’t a big deal. I wasn’t a child for him to scold because I didn’t—
Five pounds of ground beef?
I probably had the rest of the ingredients here in the kitchen somewhere, but that seemed a bit much. Then again, with Gilbert here…
“Got it,” Leon said, a broad smile lighting up his amber eyes. “I’ll take this to the lounge, grab that, and be right back.”
“And in the meantime,” Belle said, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the stack of pain perdu, “eat this.”
The night continued in a more or less usual manner, resuming the chaotic fun I’d hoped to achieve and worried all the unexpected guests would ruin. Luke and Arianna had opted to leave for the lounge right away, since we’d succeeded in overwhelming Arianna immediately, so one or another person made the trip back and forth whenever Yves, Belle, and I had another trayful of treats ready to share. Leon volunteered the first two times, but he didn’t come back the second time. Rio, who went the third time, informed us that Leon had convinced Theresa to join him, and they had cuddled up on a sofa together, chatting with Luke and Arianna like they were all best friends.
That made me happy, and it sparked a change in the conversational topic for a while. I noticed Jin was abnormally quiet until the subject changed again.
Licht's silence was not abnormal, but he and Nokto had been spending more time together recently, and tonight, they avoided even looking at each other. Nokto’s smile seemed forced, too. I wished there was something else I could do to help take their minds off of what happened sixteen years ago on this night. At least they weren’t leaving and isolating themselves in a vain attempt to deal with their pain alone.
Gradually, the crowded room emptied as everybody filled their stomachs and left for the lounge. Belle was the first to stop cooking, and Rio was quick to seize that opportunity to whisk her away. As for Yves, he baked alongside me until all the layers of Nokto’s cake had cooled, and then he dedicated himself to the elaborate frosting and decorating for which he was famous, while I made one last batch of cookies, started a pot of tea and a pot of coffee, and cleaned up.
“All done,” Yves announced proudly, stepping back and surveying his creation. Five levels of vanilla cake, coated in buttercream frosting and painted with icing roses, curlicues, and even a fox, rose from the marble countertop in front of him.
A thud on the wooden floor told me Chevalier had jumped down from his seat.
“It’s beautiful, Yves,” I said, pausing my dishwashing to admire his work. “You’re so much better at presentation than I am. We need to set aside a day where you can show me how to do that.”
“Oh, it’s not that hard,” he said, a hint of pink coloring his cheeks. “And you’re a fast learner, so I’m sure you could pick it up pretty quickly.”
Chevalier leaned back against the counter next to me, not looking at me, but crossing his arms over his chest with a clear message: he wanted to go. It surprised me he’d waited this long. But when I looked over at Gilbert, he was still eating. He’d never stopped eating. Or slowed down.
“Let me finish these dishes,” I told Chevalier, and then to Gilbert, I asked, “Do you not eat in Obsidian?”
He shrugged. “The food in Obsidian is neither so plentiful nor of such good quality as it is in Rhodolite.”
A straight answer? That was unusual.
“That still doesn’t explain how you can eat as much as you do in one sitting,” Yves pointed out. “Anyway, I think I’ll make a pot of tea, and then we can go, Licht.”
“Ivetta already made tea,” Licht replied.
“Oh.” Yves’ deep blue eyes widened with surprise, and I smiled to myself. He always got so engrossed in the decoration process.
“Wake Clavis up before you go,” I told them.
Clavis had simply stopped talking and fallen asleep as soon as the clock chimed midnight. Apparently, that was normal for him. I'd just never been around him at exactly midnight before. And he was still lying there, legs dangling over the edge of the counter, slumped on his right side and sighing softly.
“Do we have to?” Yves asked doubtfully, his rosebud lips pursing into a pout.
“If you stay close to Licht or Nokto, you should be fine,” I reassured him. “Clavis promised me he wouldn’t prank either of them tonight.”
I’d never seen Yves’ eyes light up with that much mischief and trickery.
“Oh,” he said, his lips curling into a smirk. “Well, in that case…”
I turned back to the dishes so I wouldn’t be a witness to whatever came next, but I heard a slap and a yelp, and I bit my tongue to hold back a laugh.
“Hey! What was—Yves? Did I…oh, no…”
Clavis sounded so confused and distraught. I bit down harder on my tongue.
“Come on. Everybody’s going to the lounge,” Yves told him. “Gilbert, just bring that with.”
“I think I’d rather finish it here,” Gilbert replied. “Unless that’s a problem?”
I knew he'd directed that question toward Chevalier and me, and everybody else did, too. Chevalier’s response was immediate.
“Go,” he commanded.
There was no room for argument in his frigid voice, and he received none. I listened to booted feet tromping across the wood floor, followed by the creak of door hinges and the thud of the door closing. Then there was silence. Just the soft splashing of my hands in hot, soapy water and the light clinking of dishes.
“How much longer?” he asked.
I’d been cleaning as the evening progressed out of necessity as much as habit—washing dirty dishes for immediate reuse, cleaning up spills so nobody slipped and fell—but there was still plenty more to do. Chevalier wouldn’t let me do it all, of course. Maybe I could at least finish the dishes.
“I’m almost done with this load of dishes, and finishing up the rest shouldn’t take me too long…” I mused aloud.
He reached across my stomach and hooked a hand around my waist, yanking me away from the dishes and in front of him before I realized what he was doing. I pushed back from him with soapy hands, but he shifted his stance and wrapped his other arm around me, leaning back and sliding his feet forward, so he held me trapped against his chest and between his legs. The smug look on his face reminded me of a cat who’d caught a mouse. Or, in this case, a tiger who’d caught a dove.
“Chevalier,” I protested, warmth creeping into my cheeks.
“You’ve been in constant motion for over six hours,” he said, brushing a few strands of sweaty hair back from my face. “Cleaning up is not your job anymore.”
“But I don’t mind doing it,” I said, dropping my gaze to my wet hands on his chest. “And I hate leaving this place such a mess.”
He took one of my wrists in his hand and pulled it away from him, studying my red, wrinkly fingers. “Your hands were rough and calloused when we met,” he murmured. “That didn’t suit you.”
“Well, one night of dishwashing won’t make them rough and calloused again,” I muttered, and then a thought struck me. I looked up at him curiously and asked, “Is that what you thought then? Or just what you think now?”
His crystal blue eyes locked on mine, making my heart flutter in anticipation. He smiled and leaned in to kiss me. I closed my eyes and let him place my hand on the back of his neck, sliding my fingers up into his hair while he cupped my cheek in his hand. The savory taste of pastry and the sweetness of sugar blended with a hint of alcohol on his lips, creating a flavor far better than anything else I’d tasted that night. My wet hand on his chest curled into the fabric of his jacket, and he slid his hand around to the back of my head, both of us tilting our heads a little to change the angle of the kiss. He tugged on my hair ribbon, freeing my hair from its ponytail. His fingers tangled in my hair and dug into my waist; his teeth grazed my lip; my heart pounded against his as I lost myself in that kiss. And the next one. And the next…
“Coffee’s really easy to make. Ya just gotta—oh! Sorry. Never mind.”
Luke’s voice interrupted the moment, and although the slamming door marked his quick retreat, I still pulled back from Chevalier in embarrassment, looking anywhere but at him. He sighed in frustration and released me from his embrace.
“Let’s go.”
“But—”
“No.”
He grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the door. I gave up on the sink full of dirty dishwater and the forgotten coffee pot and followed him into the hallway, where Luke and Arianna stood; him in a purple shirt and black pants; her in a dressing gown with her long blonde curls loose around her shoulders. Both avoided direct eye contact with us, but I gave them a friendly wave as we left. Luke would see the coffee and realize he didn’t have to make it, so that took care of that problem.
“I didn’t think she’d feel comfortable enough to join in the ‘pajama’ part of the evening,” I told Chevalier after we turned a corner.
“It was your fourth day,” he replied.
I looked up at him, confused. “What was my fourth day?”
“When I noticed your hands.”
I thought back to my first days at the palace. The fourth day was when I met Leon after he and Chevalier had that fight in the library. I hadn’t liked or trusted Chevalier, or anybody else, at that point, but he noticed something as small as the calluses on my hands. Of course, he wouldn’t miss a detail like that. And yet I felt a warmth in my chest as I thought about it.
“And?” I asked, smiling up at him.
He gave me a sideways glance and smiled, too. “And they didn’t suit you."19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvtDGGVgJl2
