Chapter 12
Una's skin burned. And it was not from the scorching sun that peeked over the tall hedges, or even from raised, itching welts that were now exposed to the open air.
It was the gentle touch of his hand, holding her wrist. The spot where his finger tips gently floated against the back of her upturned arm sent a new kind of heat up her arm.
It was both delightful and terrifying. Every thought in her head told her to turn and run, that she had exposed too much. This wasn't safe.
But that gentle touch on her arm kept her feet firmly glued in place. She did not want this moment to end.
Her eyes watched his face as understanding dawned.
He studied her wrist, his eyes narrowed. Then he tilted his face up, bringing his gaze to meet her own.
Una couldn't breathe, the crushing fear of the rising panic in her chest felt like a physical weight pressing down on her lungs. But she forced herself to meet his gaze.
She wanted to see his reaction. She wanted to have a reason to tear her arm from his hand, and never speak to this man again.
She waited for the truth in his eyes. Her own eyes narrowed now with judgment. Would he flinch? Would she see pity? Or would it be victory? That he finally knew her secret and could manipulate it for his own benefit.
But it was none of those things that she saw in the clear gaze he leveled toward her. It was far, far worse.
"Let go of me," she spat, yanking her arm away.
His soft grip instantly yielded. "Sugar. Butter. Eggs. Cream." His voice was calm and logical. "What else?"
Una shrugged, stepping backward to place some distance between them. "Does it matter? Now you know." She finished the thought inside of her head. Now you know that the inscrutable palate revered by an entire kingdom is built on a lie.
"Yes, it matters," Matthias replied. "That's terrible."
Una shrugged again. She didn't have to explain it to him. She didn't owe him anything. But still, her feet didn't turn and run even when her mind screamed at her to do so. "The physicians say it's gout."
Matthias eyebrows scrunched tightly at that, but she didn't care. It didn't matter what he thought.
"They said to stay away from rich foods." Una found the words tumbling out of her mouth against her will, like she wanted to finally talk about it. Like it had been exhausting to keep it a secret even if he could use this knowledge against her.
"But the bread," Matthias said. "Last night, from your father. He said he left out sugar, butter, eggs, and cream. But it still did this to you."
Una shrugged again. "I don't know that it was the bread." It was the bread. She knew it, she just didn't understand it.
Matthias appeared to know it, too. He looked over his shoulder, back toward the bench where the loaf now lay in crumbs on the ground.
"Now you know," Una said. Her feet started to step backward again, but this time it was her mind that told her to stay. He had a weapon now, knowledge he could level against her. And she needed to know how he planned to use it. "What will you do with that information?" she asked.
He looked back at her, his eyes narrowed again in that infuriating way.
Una pulled her sleeve back down over her arm and deftly buttoned the cuff back closed.
"Well," he said. "I will never offer you another bite which contains those ingredients. But you will have to give me the rest of the list."
Una looked up from her cuff. That was not the answer she had been expecting. "But you will need my approval to finish your apprenticeship."
"By asking you to do this to yourself?" He waved his hand at all of her. "I could never be so cruel. Why haven't you told them?" he asked.
She did not have to ask whom he was referring to.
"My father knows," Una replied, her voice defensive.
Matthias lifted his eyebrows. "That his loaf did this?"
"There were no rich ingredients in it," Una retorted. She inhaled loudly. She was done with this conversation. She turned.
"I am not here because I love the codex," Matthias said quickly, as though he were trying to keep her from leaving.
It worked. Una wanted to hear what he meant by that.
"I need to become a Codex Master so my parents can stop paying an exorbitant bakery fee to remain in business.
They have spent their lives feeding our entire town and nearly half of everything they earn goes to a stranger with a title because only a master can own a bakery but that is a title that only the rich can afford.
And we are not rich." He stopped speaking, looking as he wiped a bead of sweat from the skin above his right ear.
"Why are you telling me this?" Una asked, confused by his confession.
"So now you know something about me," he replied. "I am not proud of the things I did to get here." He smiled in that calculating way of his. "But I am here to become a Codex Master. And I'm sure I can get your father's approval without putting you through . . . this." He gestured to her again.
A soft rustle of wings from behind him momentarily demanded her attention. Sable had flown back into the garden and was on the ground, pecking at the discarded bread.
"I need to get back to the bakehouse," Matthias said. He gave her a small smile, less calculating this time, and walked around her to disappear through the open doorway.
Una watched him leave, but remained in the garden, not yet ready to face anyone.
Her heart raced as she sat down on the familiar bench, grateful for the shade of the leafy apple tree.
But of all the things that had happened that morning, the one her mind kept returning to was the look on his face when he first lifted his eyes from her exposed wrist to stare back at her.
He had looked at her with understanding. He had simply looked at her and seen her without pretense.
And that was terrifying.
But what was more terrifying was that she liked it.