Page 16 of Markets & Mooncakes

"All right, we'll try cheese, and we'll try butter." He reaches out to touch my arm before going to get them.

I let out a sigh and drink some more of my tea. This is nice, I hope we don't have to lose it when he no longer works in the kitchens. Though I have no reason to think that's true. I baked down here for years without him. I'm going to have to make sure that he doesn't lose access to the ability to bake here. Not the things that he has to make, but the things he wants to try and the experiments he wants to make. I know that those things are important to him and are the thing he loves the most about his job.

"What are you thinking about?" Nate asks, making me jump. I didn't hear him come back into the room.

"Nothing," I say quickly.

He raises an eyebrow.

"You. And us," I respond, not having any reason to keep it from him.

"Did I scare you by saying that I could be with you at court?" he asks as he butters small slices of tea loaf and hands one to me.

"No. I was thinking about how I still want to be able to do this. I mean, after...well, I'm not really sure what after." I take a bite of the tea loaf. It's still salty, but it's definitely soothed somewhat by the creaminess of the butter. "Better."

"It is," he responds, slicing some cheese and putting it on more small slices. "I'm not really sure what after either. Just...after."

I take a deep breath. "Should we know?"

He swallows hard. "Maybe? I'm not saying that I need you to proclaim that you love me to the entire court tomorrow. In fact, please don't. I'm not ready for that. But it's something that's up to you. You're the one who gets to decide when this is serious enough to bring into your world."

I look at him and try to work out precisely what that means. "How do I do that?"

"I don't know, Evie. I've never been in this position before."

"Right, yes." I pick up the piece of tea loaf with cheese and bite into it. "Good, but I prefer the butter."

"Me too," he responds. "Though maybe we'll just hope that the chocolate marshmallow domes are better."

"They can't exactly be bad," I point out.

"True." He smiles at me in a way that makes me think that the conversation is over, and I suppose that it is for now. We don't really have anything to say until he's ready to come into the royal court, and I'm ready to make that step with me. I just have no idea what we need to do in order to get to that point.

Chapter 7

The moulds full of chocolate domes sit in a line on the table, waiting to be filled with the marshmallow. I take one of the piping bags and begin swirling it into the chocolate, trying my best to keep it neat. I do a decent job, but it's nowhere near as good or as fast as Nate, whose experience shows as he easily fills his half of the shells.

For a moment, I'm annoyed at myself for being so much slower and not doing it with nearly as much finesse, before reminding myself that of course I can't. I'm not the one who has spent years practising this kind of thing every day. I have other things to focus on, particularly those that help with the running of the kingdom. Though technically, parliament does a lot of that, while my father just oversees things and makes sure that nothing is too wrong. But according to Veronica, we still have a vital role to play in the way that the world at large interacts with Falhaven, and we do still help negotiate treaties and do other important work like that.

I set down my piping bag and put the biscuits we made earlier on top, now all covered in the same chocolate as the domes are made from. Then all that remains is for us to pipe chocolate around the edges and to put them aside so that they can set. It's easy to see at a glance which ones Nate did, and which were me, but all that means is that it'll be easy to decide which ones we're eating as testers and which we'll be leaving for whatever it is that Nate intends to do with them after. Normally, he sends this kind of thing up on the trays for us when we request them.

Nate picks them up and moves them over to the coolest corner of the kitchen.

"You're not taking them to the ice house?" I ask.

"I don't think we need to in this weather. It's cold enough here, especially with the oven not being in use."

"I don't understand how the gas works for it," I admit.

He laughs. "Me neither, but I just know that it does. I'm sure they gave the people working here an explanation when they put it in."

"I can't remember. I was told not to come down here when they were putting it in."

"That makes sense. It probably wasn't safe for you."

"No, probably not." Even though I know they won't be ready yet, I find myself looking over to where the chocolate marshmallow domes are setting.

"It'll be another hour or so," Nate says.