Chapter 67

For a moment, I sat there in shock, looking at Elva and her wide, earnest eyes.

Nicholas wasn’t exactly the last person I thought she’d say. He had been visiting her a lot lately; he always seemed to make time for her. But I would have thought Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny would have taken higher priority for a three year old.

My face burned hot at the implication that Nicholas would… well, we would have to be married for Nicholas to be Elva’s father, wouldn’t we?

I cleared my throat. “Um, Elva, honey. Nicholas can’t be your dad.”

Elva tilted her head. “Why not?”

“Someday he’s going to have his own family to take care of. His own wife, and his own kids. He won’t have time to spend with you and me.”

Elva’s shoulders slumped. “Why?”

“We won’t be living here anymore then, and he’d have to travel away from them to see us. You wouldn’t want him to make his family sad, just so he’d come to see us?”

“But I’ll be sad…”

Her face fell and my heart ached.

“Someday, I’ll find a nice man that wants to be a part of our family, Elva. And he’ll be the best dad you could ever hope for.”

She looked down to the ground. “But I want Nick-lass…”

I wished there was more I could say to comfort her. I understood her attachment to Nicholas. He was a good man. The best, maybe. He was good with Elva. He was honest and kind.

I imagined he would make an excellent husband. I remembered our days together. He was ambitious and strong-willed with the rest of the world, but he always compromised with me. He was generous with both his time and his money.

Even on nights after we fought with one another, we would always make up before we went to sleep.

“I love you,” he had whispered as he caressed my cheek with his thumb. “I can’t sleep knowing you are unhappy.”

Bringing my image of that caring man into a future where we would be married and taking care of Elva? He’d tuck her in at night. He’d read her stories. He likely knew a few by heart.

Then he’d bid her goodnight and come to me. We’d hold each other through the night, just as we had done in the past, when one of us or the other snuck into the other’s room.

I remembered how warm he was. It haunted me.

I blinked, pulling myself back into the present. There, I chastised myself for thinking of Nicholas that way.

It was clear we would never be together. And for good reasons, too.

Nicholas was a prince. If I had known that three years ago, maybe I would have never pursued him then either. Our hearts had been so close, but our social classes were so far apart, he might as well have been standing on the moon.

“I’m sorry, Elva,” I told her now, pulling her into a hug. “Unfortunately, sometimes these things just don’t work out. It’s not anyone’s fault. It’s just… impossible.”

Her thin arms wrapped around my neck and she held me in return. Had she known I needed a hug too?

“We’ll survive,” I said. “Just like we always have before.”

Elva sniffled a little. “Okay, Mommy.”

That night, the other girls and I were sharing the kitchen to prepare our food items for the garden party event.

Linda still wasn’t speaking to me, so we hadn’t been able to pair our selections as well as the other girls. However, I could guess that she had chosen some kind of egg appetizer, since she had been so fond of those during our earlier meeting.

Since she was picking something with protein, I decided to pick a more veggie-type food. I scoured the cook books, skipping the ones that sounded too complicated, and settled on stuffed mushrooms.

I set to making the mushrooms, then I waited my turn for the ovens.

When the oven beeped, I withdrew my piping hot stuffed mushrooms and turned to place them on the counter for them to cool.

They smelled delicious. The appearance was a bit… lacking on some of the mushrooms. I would put those ones in the back of the display.

Still, I felt proud. I couldn’t wait for them to cool, so I could try one to test the taste.

One of the girls came close to me, peering at my selection. “Huh. I feel like you could have done better, Piper.”

She was mocking me, which I would not dignify. “I’m quite proud of this actually.”

“My friendly advice?” she said, smirking at me. I was fully prepared to ignore her, until I saw the large container in her hand. “Needs more salt.”

I reached, but I was too slow. She had already upturned the container of salt all over my stuffed mushrooms, totally ruining them. She poured the entire container until it was empty, and then dropped it carelessly on the floor.

“Oh, dear. That might have been too much. Sorry!” She giggled as she walked away.

I stared down at my ruined food. There was no saving it. Even if I removed the massive pile of salt from on top of the mushrooms, the taste surely had already been soaked in.

I would have to discard this batch and try again. However, since I had already used my turn at the ovens, I now would have to wait until everyone else had finished.

Sighing, I regathered my supplies and started anew. I did as much as I could until I needed to cook. Then I had to wait.

And I waited. And waited.

Some of the girls, I was starting to wonder, seemed like they had chosen appetizers that took extra-long to cook, just to mock me. Or maybe the waiting was just getting to me.

I was in the kitchens until late. By the time the others had finished and left, it was well after dark. Finally, the oven beeped at my set temperature and I placed my second batch of stuffed mushrooms within it.

At the very least, this batch didn’t look quite as ugly as the last. I refrained from thinking the sabotage was a good thing, however.

With the timer set, I sank onto a stool to wait again.

“There you are.”

I glanced up. Nicholas walked into the kitchen.

When I saw him, my face flushed, remembering my earlier daydreams about him as my husband. I cleared my throat and turned away.

“It’s hot in here,” I offered weakly, as an explanation.

“I suppose it is.” He came closer. “All the other girls finished some time ago.”

I shook my head. “My first batch didn’t turn out right.”

“Oh?”

“Too salty.”

I didn’t want to tell him about the sabotage. He might feel the need to do something about it. If he got involved to protect me, it would only end up with more resentment aimed towards me.

We were supposed to be proving to people that we didn’t still care about each other.

Nicholas picked up the empty salt container off the floor. “I don’t suppose this has anything to do with it.”

I looked at it, then at him, but kept my mouth firmly closed.

He stepped closer. “Piper –”

“It was just a joke, Nicholas. I can handle it. Honestly.”

He watched me a moment like he wanted to argue, but then he sighed. “Fine. But if it becomes more than that, I expect you to come forward.”

They could threaten my life and I doubted I would tell him, but I appreciated his concern regardless.

He walked to the oven and peeked inside. “It’s against the rules for me to help any candidate with their challenge.”

That hadn’t stopped him before, in the forest with the boar. I wondered if he would help me now, even saying that, if I only asked.

Fortunately, I didn’t need to find out.

“It only has to cook,” I said. “I’m afraid there’s not much help you could give now, even if you wanted to.”

He nodded. “Good. That eliminates my temptation, then.”

I lifted a brow. “Does it?”

His eyes held mine a touch too long. I felt drawn to him, a moth to a flame. I stood up from the chair and joined him in front of the oven.

I peeked in for myself. The food looked like it was cooking well.

“Piper, I –”

I turned to look at him again and he suddenly stopped. I was very close, closer than I had intended to be.

Like this, all he would have to do is lean down…

I only had to press up…

“Nicholas,” I said in a breath.

I wanted to kiss him.