17. Kit Sweet and Simple
Kit: Sweet and Simple
Nelle hadn’t spoken a word since she’d met him back in the forest, and it was starting to worry Kit.
Her face had gone deathly pale and her shoulders were tense with anger or pain—he wasn’t sure which.
He’d tried to draw her into conversation several times, but each time, she just shook her head and the surprisingly mild temperature of the woods in the late fall dropped.
At last, Kit stopped trying, fearing that she might freeze if he kept pushing.
When they arrived back at the castle, Nelle spoke for the first time. “I’m going to go to the kitchen. Do you need anything?”
Kit started to shake his head, then stopped. He needed answers. And he would not get those if he just let her go. An idea popped into his brain. “I was thinking about making some Feyrie chocolate cookies. I think I saw some Feyrie chocolate down there. Can I check?”
Nelle didn’t meet his eyes. “Of course. It’s your castle.” She shuffled her feet. “I’ll just…wait up here until you’re done.” She gestured helplessly to one of the sitting rooms. “I’ll be…over there, I suppose.”
Kit shook his head and caught her wrist. She winced, and, glancing down, he noted a newly formed bruise. His heart ached, but he let her go. “Come on down with me. It’s your home as much as it is mine now.”
Nelle hesitated for a moment, then nodded and followed him down to the kitchen. For a few moments, they walked in silence, then she asked, “What’s special about Feyrie chocolate? I’ve heard about it, but I’ve never used it before.”
“It’s a treat,” Kit assured her. “Feyrie chocolate is infused with Fey magic. It’s sweet like regular chocolate, but it doesn’t have any sugar or milk—nothing that would cause an allergic reaction.
In the royal court, we’d always set out a batch of Feyrie chocolates for our visiting dignitaries. We never got any complaints.”
“Did you often have dignataries visiting?” Nelle wondered.
“I can’t remember a time when we didn’t have someone visiting.
Hopka has…had the best relation with Coleur of any of the Seven Kingdoms, so when ambassadors wanted to make treaties with Coleur, they always asked us to host. For the most part, it worked out well in Hopka’s favor,” Kit remembered.
“Because all of the goods had to pass through Hopka to get to Coleur, we always got a piece of the action, if that makes sense. So we got fruit from Camelot, clothing from Zaffyre, and art from Talon. There’s a reason that Hopka is one of the richest kingdoms in Afeyra. ”
“But there must have been bad things, too,” Nelle said softly.
Kit gave a regretful nod. “We also got all the negative parts of the trade. Tariffs are high with all the kingdoms, but we get hit the heaviest. And there are still days our people can’t sleep peacefully, because we know that if we let down our guard, Camelot would have soldiers marching through our borders to get to Coleur.
Right now, we’re at peace, but all it takes is one little crack to shatter our alliances.
And, from the rumors going around, several members of the various royal families have gone missing. That never bodes well.”
Nelle nodded. “We’d hear rumors about that in camp. You and Prince Robert are the most prominent missing persons, but I heard a princess went missing in Zaffyre not long ago.”
“And unless I miss my guess, she won’t be the last one. Someone is doing a very good job putting all the lands on high alert. I just wish I knew why.”
Nelle nodded, but lapsed into silence as they arrived in the kitchen. Kit sought to draw her out again. “So, have you made chocolate chip cookies before?”
Nelle gave another jerky nod. “It’s been a bit though. I don’t have a go-to recipe, the way I do with my snickerdoodles and cinnamon rolls.”
“You seem to like cinnamon,” Kit noted as he began pulling out ingredients.
“I do. It’s one of the few ingredients—” Suddenly, Nelle stopped, her words faltering.
“Nelle? What’s wrong?” Kit demanded, turning to her.
“It’s one of the few ingredients that I could always find in here,” Nelle finished, her eyes bright with unshed tears.
She marched to a nearby cupboard and threw it open to reveal a tall jar of cinnamon.
“The castle didn’t always have every ingredient, but I could always count on this jar having more cinnamon. ”
Kit met her eyes. “You remembered something?”
Nelle bit back a sob as she nodded. “It was just a little something, but it means so much,” she murmured.
Kit went to her side and lifted her chin. “I’m happy for you.” And he was, he realized.
Nelle gave a wobbly smile before turning her attention to the ingredients he’d pulled out. “So, what do we need to do first?”
“Cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Same as any other cookie, I suppose,” Kit said, rifling through the cupboards until he found a bowl big enough for their purposes. “I can’t remember the last time I made cookies.”
“I’m surprised you made them at all, you being a prince and all,” Nelle commented.
“My step-mother, Lady Quinn, grew up a commoner. It wasn’t until she was hired by…
Well, that doesn’t matter. Anyway, she always wanted to make sure my brother and I knew how to care for ourselves if we needed to.
That included learning how to cook and bake,” Kit explained.
He smiled a little as he pictured the short but fierce red-head his father had fallen in love with.
“Maybe one day I’ll introduce the two of you. She’s a bit of a force of nature.”
“I expect she’d have to be, to keep up with you and Robin,” Nelle murmured, carefully measuring out her ingredients. “Does she know about the Sherwood Company?”
“Well, I don’t know for sure…I haven’t seen her in almost two years, after all.
But I’d assume so. Most of her job is knowing everything about everyone.
She wouldn’t be a very good spy if she wasn’t at least aware of the Sherwood Company.
And Robin never could keep a secret from her.
” Kit frowned. It hadn’t occurred to him to ask before now, but did she know about his transformation?
Was she out there somewhere looking for him? He wasn’t sure.
“Well, I’m sure she’ll be around when I eventually figure out how to change you back and you lock me up for doing this to you.”
Kit froze and stared at Nelle, whose voice had gone tight. “You think I’m going to lock you up?” he repeated softly.
Nelle still avoided his gaze. “Well, yes. I don’t see why you wouldn’t.
I transformed you into a beast. And, if that weren’t enough, I took you away from your family for almost two years.
You have every right to lock me away.” Her jaw clenched.
“Plus, I ran away from you. I seem to remember you saying that if I did that, you’d throw me into the dungeons. ”
Kit hung his head. He had said that, hadn’t he? “Well, I think we can save all discussion of punishment for another day. Whatever happened to you in that camp, it was obviously punishment enough.”
Nelle’s shoulders hunched. “What…what are you talking about?”
Kit gave a shake of his head. “Come on, Nellie. Don’t try to pretend. You ran back to me like you were on fire, and you didn’t say a word the entire way home.”
“Don’t call me…” She cut herself off and lowered her head even further, if that was possible. “Sorry. I shouldn’t be ordering you around.” She pushed the bowl of cookie dough away from her. “Maybe you should finish these on your own. I don’t really want to bake right now.”
Kit watched her go. What had he done wrong?
“Nelle?” Kit knocked gently on her bedroom door, balancing the cookies in his other hand.
“Please go away.” The pain in Nelle’s voice was palpable. For a moment, Kit wished he could do as she ordered, but he steeled himself. He’d brought backup for a reason.
“Open the door, Nelle, or I’ll break it down myself!” Kemma yowled. Kit glared at her; he hadn’t wanted to threaten Nelle. He’d just wanted to check on her. But Kemma glared right back, unimpressed, and he realized belatedly this was not a battle he would win.
There was movement from inside the room, and the door opened a crack. The smell of chemicals and rot invaded Kit’s nostrils, and he had to force himself not to gag. Nelle kept her eyes trained to the floor as she murmured, “The door is open.”
Kemma nosed the door open a little wider so that she could fit inside. “By the Starkind, it’s freezing in here. What did you do, try to make your own personal skating rink?”
Nelle shrugged. “Something like that.”
“Well, this won’t do at all. It’s too cold in here to eat cookies. We’ll have to go to the parlor,” Kemma said. She took hold of Nelle’s sleeve with her teeth and pulled on it. “Come on, Nelle. Kit already gave me a cookie, and they’re fantastic. You’ve got to try them.”
Nelle stared at Kit as she let Kemma lead her into one of the warmer rooms. “You gave the tressym a cookie?”
“Yes. But don’t worry—Feyrie chocolate is safe for cats and dogs. No allergens, remember?” Kit said, as he followed the two at a safe distance.
Once the trio had reached the parlor and each of them had milk and cookies in hand, Kit turned to Nelle. “So, what happened out there? And if you try to run again, Kemma will catch you.”
“And my retribution will be swift and terrible!” the tressym warned.
Nelle hesitated for a moment, then blurted out, “I think I was played for a fool.”
A shiver ran down Kit’s spine, and he demanded, “What do you mean?”
Slowly, haltingly, Nelle explained what she had overheard standing outside the Big House’s door.
By the time she’d finished, tears were rolling down her face.
“I don’t know what hurts more—knowing the man I considered my closest friend at camp was only there because some queen ordered him to be there or hearing someone I had… hearing Will call me ‘Jelly Nellie.’”
Rage coursed through Kit’s veins and he struggled to keep his temper in check. He took a deep breath and pulled her into his arms. “Oh, Nelle,” he whispered, running his hand down her back. “I’m so sorry.”
She sniffled in response.
“Well, I think someone should give that Kai man what for,” Kemma snarled, hissing and spitting as she spoke. “What kind of nerve does he have, spying on you for your mother?”
In Kit’s arms, he was all-too-aware of Nelle going perfectly still. “My…mother?” she repeated.
“Yep. Her highness, Queen Snow White of Coleur. Or, as you used to call her, her high and bossiness,” Kemma giggled. “I knew she liked to keep an eye on you when she sent you here—it was obvious she didn’t like you having too much freedom. But I didn’t think she’d go this far.”
“But I didn’t…how did she know where I was? Kai arrived at the camp the same day I did, but I had no memory of her. How did she find me so quickly?” Nelle wondered.
Now it was Kit’s turn to shift uneasily. “I might know the answer to that.”
Both woman and tressym turned to look at him. “You?” Kemma asked, arching an eyebrow.
Kit nodded. “I was going over my memory of our discussion with the voice that took over your body last night, and I remembered a phrase. It sounded so familiar to me, and I realized that I’d heard it before. My ex-fiance said it to me once.”
“Your ex-fia—” Nelle stopped, her eyes wide. “My mother. My mother said it to you once.”