Page 6 of The Time Of Queens (An Afterlife Story #2)

6

COOKING UP TROUBLE

T he next day, I found myself in the drawing room talking with Sophia and Pip. The men had gone off hunting, although I wasn’t sure if it was for game, or the mysterious girl that slipped through a king’s fingers. Apparently, Draven had become obsessed, according to Sophia, and it was occupying quite a bit of his time. He had sent men out across the countryside, and no stone was being left unturned.

In fact, Sophia had just been about to say more when, in the end, she needed not bother. Because while I was sipping my first cup of tea of the day from the fancy tea set, the man himself walked in. I quickly lowered the cup, as I doubt Pip’s lady’s maid would have shared tea with her in front of others. Which was why I quickly picked up the teapot and started to pour it, giving me a reason for being here.

“Yes, yes, but she couldn’t have gone far on foot, and as we know, none of the horses were taken. No, she must have taken refuge somewhere… a house or farm, all of the innkeepers were questioned.”

I looked straight to Pip, the worry clear on my face, even as she shook her head at me. Draven was followed, one by one, by Vincent, Zagan, then Adam, into the drawing room. Although out the four of them, it was only Draven that paused a step when seeing me here also.

“Miss Williams,” he said as if surprised, making me say,

“My Lord.”

However, I started to make the tea overflow as I wasn’t concentrating on anything else but the way Draven entering a room made me feel.

“Oh!” I said when I felt it burn my hand. Before I could do anything, I saw the teacup being taking from me and placed down on the tray. Then my hand was taken in his. He then pulled a handkerchief from his jacket and dabbed gently at the red patch on my skin. I was just thankful it wasn’t the hand that had been cut, or it would have been more than easy to put two and two together.

However, the second he pushed my sleeve further up, I knew what he would see, and his eyes homed in on my scars, making me snatch my hand back.

“Thank you, but it is fine. I must go now,” I said, trying not to meet his intense gaze I could feel baring down at me. I then lifted my skirt and walked quickly from the room without saying another thing. My back found the wall outside the room as I tried to calm my beating heart.

“I am sure Miss Williams is quite fine, do sit down, Brother,” I heard Sophia say, coming to my rescue and no doubt stopping Draven from following me.

I had to wonder if he questioned why he was acting so out of character towards a maid. In fact, could I really be surprised that he was? Especially considering last time he fell for me without knowing who I was to him. Although unlike Persia, he hadn’t the temptation of believing he had already met his Chosen, so that no doubt complicated matters for him.

It must have been so confusing for him. To feel one way, only to stop yourself from feeling it for fear of ruining things with someone you were already certain was your Fated. That was if she was ever found. I couldn’t help it when my fingers found my lips as I remembered the kiss. Never a time would a single one simply pass me untouched by my heart. It had me wondering if he too had done the same when thinking back to it?

“Nice to see that some of us can take a break whenever we choose,” a maid snapped, drawing me out of my daydream. So, I ignored her dig and pushed away from the wall to make my way down into the kitchens. I hadn’t yet eaten, so thought I might as well find a piece of fruit or something. I vaguely remembered a maid telling me the times the servants took their meals when being shown around the place after first arriving. But for the life of me, I couldn’t remember a single word she had said. Not surprising really, seeing as I wasn’t really a lady’s maid and was only here for one purpose…

To steal from their Lord.

I hurried down to the kitchens, taking the stairs in between the red room and saloon until I reached the lower levels. This brought me out opposite the wine cellar, and I turned left towards the large kitchen. One that was in full swing in getting lunch ready, or I should have called it luncheon, as that seemed to be what they were fussing about.

But then as I rounded a corner, I gasped when watching a big woman who seemed to be the head cook slapping one of the maids. In fact, she had just picked up a wooden rolling pin and was about to start hitting her with that, when I rushed over. Instinct gripped me as I grabbed the wooden cylinder in my palm before it could make contact. Then I ripped it from her grasp.

“What do you think you are doing!?” she bellowed at me, and she was just about to hit me when I pushed her back against the wall and held the end of the rolling pin under her neck, snarling,

“I could ask you the same thing!”

“This little twerp dropped a whole pot of flour all over my worktop. Now unhand me this instant!” she shouted, making me take a step back and point out,

“Hardly a beatable offense, now, is it?!”

“Who are you to question me?!”

Oh, how I wished in that moment I could have said I was her master’s wife. But instead, I decided to play the only card I had. So, I stepped back into her and hissed,

“I am the lady’s maid to Miss Draven’s dearest friend, and you know us lady’s maids and how we all like to talk gossip. Now how would you like the source of that gossip to find its way down here, hmm? No, I thought not!” I said. She flinched, knowing what I was threatening her with. I then tossed her rolling pin to the side and snapped,

“I think you have some flour to clean up, and an apology to give.”

Then I snatched up an apple from the basket in the larder she was beating the poor girl in, and took a bite, staring her down, unflinching before turning on my heel and walking away. I couldn’t help but grin to myself, especially when everyone in the room had witnessed me sticking up for the poor pretty maid. The nods of respect were certainly appreciated.

Although, it was in my cockiness that I was still grinning down at my apple when I rounded a corner, not looking where I was going. Which meant I bumped straight into a large body, and I would have bounced off it had I not been saved by a pair of strong hands.

However, instead of being concerned with who those hands belonged to, I was more concerned with choking, as the piece of apple I had been chewing on shot down the wrong way. I started coughing instantly, trying to bring it back up and only achieving this when that same large hand slapped my back.

“Ahem… ack ah!” I shouted as it finally came up in my hand, making me look down at it with mortification. Then my eyes rose to find a pair of dark ones looking down at me with concern.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his voice gentle and anxious. Yet, before I could answer I started coughing again, making him shout to a passing servant,

“You there! Fetch some water at once!”

“Right away, Sir,” the servant replied before racing off to do his master’s bidding.

Meanwhile, I was still trying to hide my embarrassment and looking around for where I could dump the piece of apple. As for Draven, he began rubbing soothing circles on my back as I continued to cough, unable to meet his gaze.

I swear, my cheeks could have melted I was so hot, but then I felt a glass being lifted to my lips and tender command being spoken.

“Drink.”

I did as he asked, unable to stop myself, and my hand covered his as he continued to hold the glass to my lips. My other hand was still concealing the gross, coughed up piece of fruit firmly behind my back.

“Is that better?” he asked once I had finished it off, and I released his hand.

“Much better, I thank you,” I replied, still unable to look at him, instead giving into my impulse to bite my bottom lip. Something I still found myself doing around my husband in my own time. Only, usually, it was for other reasons, like when we were in company, and he wanted to torture me with whispering in my ear. Listing all the bad things he wanted to do to me was a sure way to get us to retire early or leave wherever we were. Sometimes we never even made it home, finding some dark corner somewhere, a bathroom stall, or even in the back seat of the car with nothing but a privacy screen between us and the driver.

However, when I still wouldn’t look up, he spoke my name for the first time and I swear, I couldn’t help but gasp. It was the only small freedom I would allow my bottom lip.

“Keira.”

Then I felt my chin taken hold between his thumb and finger, before he forced my gaze to his. The second our eyes met I became entrapped, the purple hint starting to take hold of the dark brown. The years spent together did nothing to calm our need for each other, which was why looking up at him now was dangerous. Because there were so many times between us, I forgot that I was looking at my husband from the past, easily getting lost in those eyes. Eyes I knew so well, so intimately. They spoke to me and lured me back to a time when he was mine.

But then his gaze slipped down to my lips, and he used his thumb to pull the bottom one free of my teeth. The slight narrowing of his eyes made me wonder what he was thinking. I feared whether he had recognised it from the other night, as my lips were all he had seen.

Had I been biting them then also?

“Are you well?” he asked, and his words broke the spell enough for me to nervously laugh.

“Oh yes… Oops!” I said as I stepped back, bumping into the sideboard enough for the vase of flowers to wobble. So, I turned and grabbed it, taking the opportunity to dispose of the piece of apple inside it.

“I fear I am a liability today,” I said, making him grin down at me as I smoothed out my dress now that I was free to do so, no longer having the piece of chewed apple in my hand. Although it seemed as if I hadn’t been as conspicuous as I had hoped, as he glanced back to the staircase and said,

“A liability, you say, I wouldn’t say that, Miss Williams, although you are something, though I am yet to discover what.”

I swallowed hard and told him,

“I am nothing but a simple lady’s maid, my Lord.”

“I very much doubt that… good day, miss,” he said, and he was about to walk away but paused. Doing so long enough to look back over his shoulder and say, “Oh, and that seemed like a good enough place to hide it.”

He then nodded at the vase, making my cheek turn cherry red as I looked back at the flowers. But then I looked back to him in time to see him smirk. A devastating grin gifted to me before he disappeared up the staircase, leaving me to sag against the sideboard.

That and to mutter hopelessly…

“Oh boy, I’m in trouble now.”