Chapter 16
Fern
“If you’re quick, I can get your orders in first.” The serving woman we’d chattered with before had returned to our table, her eyes on the main one up on the dais. “Supposed to serve the officers first—”
“Lance is an officer,” Sparrow reminded her brightly.
“A junior officer,” he amended hastily.
“Well, whatever the rank, tell me what you want quickly.” Maggie eyed Sparrow. “I’ll make sure you get the good cuts of meat. So what’re you having?”
“Want me to order for you?” Sparrow asked. I nodded gratefully. She turned to the serving woman, rattling off instructions. “Don’t bother with the soup course,” she told the woman. “The kitchens do a mean soup, but everyone in the know skips the first course.”
“Fills you up too fast so you don’t have enough room for the good stuff?” Lance replied with a smile.
“Exactly!” Sparrow cried. “So we’ll have the roast meats.” A quick glance our way to confirm her selection, but Lance and I just shook our heads in amazement.
“I think we’ll bow to your expert opinion on these matters,” he told her.
“Wise choice, rider.” Sparrow turned back to the serving woman. “Roast meats, those little milk bread rolls. You know the ones?”
“Tied in knots and then glazed with milk?” The serving woman shook her head. “I might’ve seen a few of them today.”
“So milk bread, honey glazed carrots, roast potatoes…”
“Ahh, Sparrow?” I said, alarmed at the number of dishes she seemed to be ordering.
“Pumpkin, oh, and those balsamic onions? Did they make them tonight?”
“They certainly did,” the woman replied. “Some of those as well?”
“That and lashings of gravy.” Sparrow settled back in her chair, a look of anticipation on her face. “Though maybe put that on the side.”
“The other diners don’t like to drown out all the flavour of their food by smothering it in gravy?” The woman shot Sparrow a wry smile. “Coming right up.”
“I’m not sure I can do justice to that amount of food,” I said, as the serving woman bustled over to the doorway leading into the kitchen. “After days of eating whatever Auren caught and just lettuce and chicken breast before that…”
My voice trailed away. What had happened with my mother felt both a million years ago and just hours old.
“Lettuce and chicken breast?” Sparrow stared at me quizzically. “I thought you were a toff, Fern. Don’t you lot have cooks that make all the fancy dishes for you?”
“I…”
Before I could explain, the serving woman returned.
“There you go.” She set a plate before all of us and my eyes went wide at the sheer amount of food there. “I hope you enjoy your meals.”
Enjoy? When was the last time I’d actually enjoyed food? Glancing down at my plate, I was already mentally sorting the food on it into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ piles. The carrots should’ve been ‘good’, but the glaze of butter and honey relegated them into the bad book, according to my mother.
Which had me grabbing my utensils.
Sparrow had already tucked in, making small sounds of pleasure as she chewed, but Lance sat there, knife and fork poised, obviously waiting on me.
“Is the meal to your satisfaction, Fern? We can send the plate back and order another if you’d prefer something else,” he said.
Something with less butter, less rich sauces, that was my automatic reply, but it wasn’t mine.
I could almost conjure my mother from the thin air, her words echoing around in my head.
“A minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.” Her tutting lasted only as long as it took for me to slice into a potato.
The crunch, the softness inside, it exploded in my mouth as I took a bite.
“Well, that is far better than chicken and lettuce,” I said after I’d chewed and swallowed. “It’s very good. You should try it.”
It was only then that Lance would. Mother and her bile was shoved to one side, replaced instead by the much gentler sounds of hundreds of people enjoying a meal together.
Sparrow was like a machine, mowing through a truly shocking amount of food, only stopping to take a breath or to extol the virtues of various dishes.
I tried to listen, but they made it difficult.
Being watched as I ate was never a pleasant experience.
It felt like my mother had been doing that since the moment I was born, begrudging me every morsel, but there was no mistaking the attention I received from the silver riders as maternal.
It was as if every slice of my knife, every stab of my fork, was enthralling, an impression that only intensified as I pushed the food between my lips.
These males are arrogant, Auren informed me as a man ran forward, laying a side of beef before her.
Every single dragon was being fed the same way, but she disregarded her meal, staring across the courtyard at the silvers.
Their heads rose up, necks arching, forcing the humans to freeze on the spot.
I think they wondered then if these strange new dragons saw them as food, or the beef they hauled over. They think they are entitled to us.
“I’ll have a word with them if you like, milady.” I turned to see Lance was leaning closer, but it was his expression that surprised me. Eyes blazing, he made clear in what capacity he meant. “Get those insolent curs keeping their eyes to themselves.”
My knife dragged across my plate. I winced at the sound metal on ceramic made, then forced myself to smile at the rider.
“There’s no need for that.” One of the silver dragons took a step towards Auren, but her roar echoed across the courtyard, communicating how unwanted this attention was.
The brown dragon beside her bristled, standing up on his claws, revealing his considerable size.
The silver dragon made a rattling sound of discontent, then stepped backwards, but not before he snatched the meat from the nearest human’s grip.
“Giving them the attention they so obviously desire will just fuel whatever madness rides them.”
“Madness…” Sparrow swallowed with effort. “Yes, that’s what it is.”
Without a second word, she turned back to her food, freeing us to do the same.
Dinner went by relatively uneventfully. Our bellies were filled and that and the slight buzz a glass of wine had me sitting back with a flop when the plates were cleared away.
I just didn’t expect to see the tables go with it.
Tablecloths were stripped, lamps moved to the perimeter of the courtyard and the same hulking lads that brought the dragons their food now came to retrieve the tables. I was forced to scramble backwards, and as soon as I was up from my chair, that was removed as well.
“Dancing…” Sparrow sighed, holding her hands folded against her chest. “Gods, I love to dance and under the moonlight, while an orchestra plays?”
“Gods, I forgot about this part.” Lance looked slightly flustered.
“Lance!” Before the rider could elaborate, several riders appeared. One slung his arm around the man’s shoulders, the others thrusting a glass into his hand, and then filling it with a golden liquid. “You’ve got to come and drink with us.”
“Lads—” Lance shot me a frazzled look.
“It’s tradition!” Another insisted, drinking straight from the bottle, then offering it to the others. “A glass for every stripe you earn.”
The first man turned to us.
“Ladies.” His bow was a little sloppy and he grinned in recognition of that as he straightened up. “We just need to borrow Lance for just a moment.”
The man himself shot us a wide-eyed look, right as he was steered away.
“Well.” Sparrow came to stand beside me. “That was interesting. I was sure the lieutenant and those silver riders were going to fight for your honour before the entire keep.”
“No.” I said that far too fast. “No, that’s ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous?” she spluttered. “Obsessed is what I’d call it. Lance barely ate a thing, but I supposed it’d be hard to pine for you, mentally plot the silver riders’ demise, and eat dinner at the same time.”
“Oh no, that wasn’t what happened.”
I like this one, Auren said, forcing me to look up and meet her golden gaze across the flagstone.
“Wasn’t it?” Sparrow grinned. “Or maybe it was plot the silver rider’s demise, then pine for you.
I couldn’t tell.” Without waiting for a response from me, she turned towards the silver riders who were the last to be dislodged from their table.
“So do you dare dance with one of them? I admit I don’t remember blood being shed on the dance floor before this, but there’s always the first time for something. ”
“Blood… shed…?” I croaked.
“Here comes some other cadet.” Sparrow seemed to be enjoying herself far too much. “Perhaps we have a third contingent ready to make a play for your hand.”
But he wasn’t here for me. With a smile and perfectly polite bow, he turned to Sparrow.
“Miss Sparrow, can I have the honour of this dance?”
She looked at me, a mix of hope and concern in her eyes, but I gave her a little push.
“Go,” I urged. “Dance. This is your chance, remember?”
“But what will you do?” she asked, leaving the poor man standing there. “Sisters before misters, that’s what my mum always said.”
“Well, this sister wants you to enjoy yourself dancing with…” I glanced at the man.
“Frederick,” he replied. “Mr. Frederick Carlton.”
“Dance with Mr. Frederick Carlton,” I said. Another nudge and she was moving towards the man. “I’ll see you back at our rooms.”
Turn on my heel and march out of the courtyard, that was my plan.
Sometimes it felt like there was a candle inside me and it was lit the moment I was around others, burning down lower with each second.
Pleasant company or not, it still ate away at the wax, the wick of me, until there was nothing left to burn.
With a shuddering sigh, I made from the entrance to the keep, ready to step into its stony depths.
Only to be intercepted by a large male presence.
For such a tall man, he managed to step into my path in seconds, my hands going up too late, landing on Kael’s chest. With a gasp, I snatched them back, but he was there, gripping them tight, before I managed it. Tight as manacles, they held my wrists, pulling me back against him.
“And where are you off to, little bird?” His smile spread slowly as he gazed down at me. “Dancing? Not something I usually engage in, but for you…?” I stiffened as he looked down the line of my body. “I think I’ll make an exception.”
I’d spent my life waiting for a man to ask me to dance and when it came, I felt rush of anger, not appreciation. That arrogant smile, those hard, blue eyes, they had my teeth grinding together.
“Kael of Blackreach.” His head bent only slightly in my direction. “Dance with me, Lady Fern. If the only way I can get you in my arms tonight is on that dance floor?” I was spun around and then marched back across the courtyard. “Then that’s exactly what we’ll do.”