CHAPTER 17 #2
The pun was not lost on me, but I hesitantly took his arm, knowing I didn’t have a choice and had to make the walk to the dining room one way or another. He tightened his grip to steady me as I let go of the wall with my other hand.
“Take small steps, don’t rush, and hold on tight.” His voice was low, so others could not hear.
We shuffled the first couple of steps until I gained what little bit of balance I could, and then took small steps, one foot after the other.
We walked towards the dining hall, but we didn’t go in; we continued past the doors.
“Where are we going?” My knees wobbled, and his grip tightened to catch me.
“Zen thought it might be more comfortable in the private dining room.”
A wave of relief rushed through me, and I let out a big sigh.
“I guess he thought right then.”
We made it to the private dining room, which was quite small compared to the other dining hall, though the table still fit eight people comfortably.
Zendryk was already sitting in his chair, leg dangling over the arm.
It was ironic that he was going to be teaching me etiquette classes, but seemed to need them himself.
He stood as we walked towards the table, and I held onto Ulric’s arm tightly, but before we got any closer, I leaned in and whispered, “Thank you.”
He smiled in response and gave my arm a little squeeze with his chiseled muscles.
Maybe he wasn’t a big bad wolf after all.
He walked me to the chair across from Zendryks and released my arm, but offered his hand to make sure I made it into the chair safely, before taking a seat a couple of chairs down from us.
“Well, don’t you look ravishing tonight,” Zendryk said while motioning with both hands towards me.
“Are you always going to pick out my clothes for me?” I asked him, deflecting his compliment.
His brow quirked up, and a handsome smirk tugged at his mouth; his lips parted to show a sliver of white teeth. “I only picked a couple of things today so you knew what to wear; you can pick whatever you want from now on.”
Oh. I guess that made sense. “Well then, I guess I owe you a thank you, so thank you.”
His smile widened, “You’re welcome, Sweetheart.” Followed by a wink.
My heart fluttered a little alongside a building irritation, and I cleared my throat. “Shall we start the lesson?”
Anything to distract me from his stunning smile that was making my heart do backflips. Get your shit together, Avyn! He was the Prince and was off limits! Not to mention, he is an arrogant asshole.
“We will start with the cutlery; the small plate and knife are for any bread items. You can use the knife for spreads, jams, and butter.”
Looking to the top left corner of my plate, the utensils he had mentioned sat together.
I sure did not miss polishing them anymore.
It was funny: the number of times I’ve set tables or had my hands on them, I had never known what they were for; The Academy only ever focused on the placement, never on what they were used for.
“After that, if you’re eating a salad, you would use the bigger one closest to your plate, the one beside that, moving outwards is for your entree, if we had any fish, you would use the next one.”
Pointing to each fork, I repeated what he had said in my head, trying to store it away somewhere among the other bundles of information I had learned today.
“The fork farthest on the right is for oysters.”
“Oysters!? Yuck!” My face matched my words.
“Have you ever had an oyster?” He sat back in his chair, looking at me in speculation.
“….no.”
“Well then, how can you say they are 'Yuck'?” he mocked, raising his pitch to a higher tone to try to match mine. “Plus, many say they are an aphrodisiac.” He leaned towards me.
What did he say? “A what?”
“Aphrodisiac. It’s supposed to stimulate one’s arousal.” A darkness settled over his eyes that caused the thrumming between my legs to start.
My cheeks burned, and I instinctively pressed my thighs together again, which did nothing to smother the sensation. He made his move, daring me to respond. “I guess we won’t be needing any oysters then.” Answering him with a move just as bold.
“Do you two need a room?” Ulric piped in.
Ulric! I had completely forgotten that he was here.
“No need, Ulric, it’s just a lesson,” Zendryk replied, keeping his eyes on me.
Just a lesson? If this is how lessons have been going so far, I’m fucked.
“The last fork,” he continued, “is the dessert fork, which happens to be my favorite one.”
“Okay, so bread plate and knife, then salad, fish, entree.” Trying to remember them all, but my mind was still on the oysters.
“Salad, entree, then fish.” He corrected.
“Salad, entree, fish, oyster.” I swallowed and moved on, “then dessert.”
“Good, she gets it. Can we eat now, Zen? I’m starving!” Ulric patted his muscled belly. “I’m withering away to nothing.”
Zendryk raised his hand, flagging the servants. They began with drink service, pouring red wine into our glasses. I had never had wine before.
I picked up the glass as a servant walked by, offering me a bread roll as they did. “No, thank you.” And they continued to Ulric.
Bringing the glass to my nose, I took a small sniff, and it smelled fruity with hints of floral.
“You don’t want to sniff your drinks at a normal dinner,” Zendryk said to me, “but I’ll let it slide this time. Have you not had wine before?”
“No, my mother and I only had water to drink in Vryndhal, and Madam would never have let that come to The Academy. We practiced service with empty bottles filled with water.”
I brought the wine to my lips and closed my eyes as I took a small sip. Sweetness danced on my tongue with a hint of acidity, and then the bitterness hit. The bite of the alcohol caused me to scrunch my eyes closed so I could swallow.
“Don’t worry, the more you drink, the better it tastes.” Ulric took a sizeable sip of his. Impressive.
Lifting the drink again for another tentative sip, I scrunched my eyes closed again. The servants continued to offer salads, meats, vegetables, and some foods I’m not even sure what they were.
I only took a couple of the items offered; well, only the ones I knew what fork to use with them, and I began to eat.
“Elbows off the table and sit up straight.” Zendryk chimed.
I opened my mouth to retort, but he fired back, “And don’t talk with your mouth full.”
I swallowed and took another sip of the wine to wash it down and tilted my head in response as if to say, ‘better?’
He responded with a laugh and ate a piece of roast that I was slowly regretting saying no to.
The rest of dinner was filled with remarks here and there, about what I should or shouldn’t do, which were usually met with a sarcastic comment from me.
After we finished dessert, which was the most amazing lemon pie that has ever graced my palate, Ulric said his goodbyes and retired to his room for the night.
A moment passed, and I cursed under my breath.
“Shit.” How was I supposed to walk to my next lesson without him?
A servant walked up to me, leaned down, and whispered in my ear, “Ulric asked me to grab these for you.” And placed a pair of satin slippers on the ground for me.
“Just leave the other pair under the table, and I will take care of them.”
I sent a silent blessing to Ulric and made a mental note to thank him tomorrow.
“Thank you,” I whispered back to her as I slid the dreaded heeled shoes off my feet and stepped into the soft, satin ones.
A relieved breath slipped from my lips, and the soreness in my feet slowly eased.
“Shall we?” Zendryk stood and stretched. He really was handsome. Dammit Avyn!
“Shall we what?” Lost in his beauty and the relief in my feet, I had forgotten about our next lesson.
“Our last lesson for the day. Power exploration.” He made his way around the table to where I sat.
“Oh, right.” I stood, and my stomach felt so full; I would much rather crawl into bed and hibernate for the next month.