Page 37 of Enchanted Kingdom
I was stunned. So stunned I still hadn’t moved when he was three steps away. “You are taking me to a kitchen?”
He spun back toward me. “Yes. You aren’t caged up like a damn animal, Jorah. Wallace may have been a jackass, but I am not. You need a kitchen, so I’ll get you one.”
A tear slipped out of my eye. Why was he being so nice?
“Donotcry,” he snapped. “There will be no crying on my watch. No crying and no passing out. Both are equally terrifying.”
I sniffled and tried my best to shut it down. “Okay.”
He gestured for me to follow. “Now come on. Before the next woman in line sees us head in a different direction.”
Needing no further motivation, I began walking next to him. I was stressed out. I was constantly scared. And I was only a few days into this. If I couldn’t visit home yet, I could at least do one thing that made me feel as if I were at home.
* * *
“You will be wearingthatto bake inmykitchen?” The baker was none too pleased I was in her space.
I looked down at my yellow dress, realizing I maybe could’ve or should’ve changed first. “Yeah? Yes? Yep.”
She squinted at me. She was missing a few teeth and was tall. From the way she snapped at me and her overbearing energy, she was nothing like my mother. “Which is it?”
I looked her straight in the eyes. “Yes, I am going to wear this dress. And I am going to make some dinner rolls. Which are very delicious, if I do say so myself. Just give me a counter and some space and I’ll leave you alone if you leave me alone.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Come to the castle to live like a princess and you come down here?” She snorted her disgust but handed me a container of flour.
I smiled at Owen, who got settled on a stool on the other side of the counter.
“Do I at least get to sample the goods if you are going to keep me up all night?” he asked.
“You’ve been keeping me up all night for two nights now. We’ll call it even?”
He sighed. “Fine.”
As I got some sugar out of a bag on the counter, I added, “And yes, you can have some. I don’t even know what I’ll do with them all, I just know I need to busy my hands.”
He put a fist in the air in excitement.
I rolled my eyes. Then I thought of something. “Oh wait. Silvia. Is she up waiting to help me out of this gown?”
Owen nodded. “But I can send word that she can go since we will be late if you’d like?”
“That would be great, thank you.”
While he found a note and scribbled something down, I let routine take over. This was what I had done every day for years. Make bread. And though I didn’t always make this particular recipe, it was one of my father’s old favorites, so it felt right making it. Plus, it didn’t have to rise twice, only once for thirty minutes, so I wouldn’t be up until dawn working on it.
I dumped and poured, stirred and folded. The moment my hands went into the sticky dough felt like I was at home, in my mother’s kitchen. After the drama that evening, it was a welcome reminder of who I truly was. It wasn’t that I was from lowly Nerede, it was that I was the daughter of Eleanor and Griffith. I had a family and a life outside these walls. I was more than my level in the kingdom.
An hour later, I pulled the first batch of dinner rolls out of the oven.
Owen, who had unsurprisingly fallen asleep while I worked, woke up at once. “Finally done?”
I gave a nod.
The other baker also came on over. “Well, let’s see.”
I gave her a glare. “Think you need to try one? I thought I was an idiot for baking in a gown?”
She shrugged. “The way you work seems legitimate, but only the test will tell, girl.”
