Page 68 of Enchanted Kingdom
-Keir
My eyes were burning. Who was this man? He was entirely too good to me. Excited about the day, I raced to get ready. Fresh air. A carriage ride. Seeing mother. I had successfully avoided the king all week. Things with Keir were still beyond complicated but also looking up.
It was a good day.
“What is it with you and this forest?” Owen asked as we took the path to our rendezvous point with the carriage.
I shrugged and breathed in deep. It was one of those mornings that reminded you that fall was soon coming. And it was lovely. “It smells so good. I am used to the shore and all the sounds of waves and seagulls and dock noises. It’s just amazing to me that this forest is right next to the castle and yet is so quiet. Eerily quiet.”
Owen thought on that a moment. “It wasn’t always this quiet.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“When I was a boy, I can remember seeing a fox in the forest,” he told me.
“No wolves?” I asked.
He cocked his head. “No, but actually the wolves have always been here.”
“Wolves? Plural?”
He gave me a nod. “Yes. I always fancied them guardians of the forest.”
From that point on, I was looking around every tree branch and downed log for a glimpse of the gray wolf. Was he truly the last animal in the entire forest?
Evidently, the forest had as many secrets as the damned castle.
* * *
“Jorah!”my mother said happily. “You’re back.” She nodded toward Owen. “Mr. Raikes.”
“Mrs. Demir.”
“I can only stay for a few hours again,” I told her as she walked to flip the open sign on the door of the bakery to closed.
Before she could barrage me with the questions I was sure she had stored up for me, I slid the box of truffles across the counter to her spot.
“What is this?!” she asked as she walked back over
I shooed her with my hand. “Go on. Just try it.”
My mother gasped as she tried one, obviously as impressed as I was.
“Keir knows I love these and let me bring some to you. He said to say hello.”
She peeked in the box again as if to see how many there were, and her eyes went wide. “I may share with Flora. Or I may keep them all to myself. I haven’t yet decided.”
Owen snorted a laugh from his position at the window.
“Would you like one, Mr. Raikes?” my mother asked nicely. “I suppose I can stand to let one go.”
He shook his head. “No, thank you. Honestly, the two of you can bake better than the bakers at Kavan Keep. I don’t understand this fascination with the truffles.”
I smiled at his compliment. “Owen, we only get so much cocoa powder to work with here. The amount needed for a chocolate truffle, covered in a chocolate coating? It would never be justified in this bakery to use that much cocoa powder on one dessert. And if we did, it’d be for a client, not for ourselves.”
He went quiet at that.
Mother popped another one into her mouth. “But oh my goodness is it ever worth it.”
