abcnovels
Chapter 130
Chapter 130
Chapter 130
The day of the garden party event, I awoke early, dressed, and hurried down to the kitchens to warm my stuffed mushrooms. Many of the girls were already in there, and I had to wait my turn at the ovens.
I didn’t mind waiting this time, since the closer I heated my food to the start of the event, the more likely It would still be warm by the time the royal family came to our table.
With my appetizer warmed, I headed to the gardens and found Linda already at our station, fixing her
half of the display.
“Good morning. Linda,” I said as I approached.
She didn’t reply. I guessed she was still avoiding me. That was going to make this situation more difficult. How were we supposed to work together if we weren’t speaking to each other?
I resolved to do my best anyway, as much as I could without her support.
Noticing that she had already arranged her deviled eggs over the table, I started to intersperse my
stuffed mushrooms among them.
That, of all things, seemed to finally trigger her into speaking.
“Keep that garbage on your half of the table,” Linda snapped.
I pointed to the eggs that were obviously on my half. “Fair’s fair, Linda. Plus, it will look better if –
me what would look better.” She quickly grabbed her eggs and moved them to her own side.
“Don’t tell me
I noticed then, that she didn’t have any ice or anything to keep the eggs cool. Depending on how soon or late our table was visited, that could be a problem. Eggs that weren’t kept cool, could be prone to spoiling.
“Linda, do you have anything to
“I said, stop talking to me.”
I closed my mouth. That wasn’t actually what she had said, but I decided not to push my luck by pointing
that out.
my warm
Instead, I continued to set out my stuffed mushrooms. With her cold eggs on one side, and my
mushrooms on the other, and the drinks in between, our display was visually appealing, I supposed.
It didn’t feel in the spirit of the event, exactly. We were supposed to explore compromise and flex our
diplomatic abilities, showing how we could give and take with adversaries. Our display was split. But
since Linda would not budge, this would have to do.
+15 BONDS
only hoped I could find a way to talk around whatever questions the royal family might have for us. Linda was certain to try to pass all the blame onto me, for anything they disliked.
Across the gardens, the royal family, with a trail of cameras behind them, began the event. Lilliana’s table had been elected to go first.
From my distance, I couldn’t discern what Lilliana had made, but I could very clearly see the moment she decided to hand–feed it to Nicholas. He stood still as a statue, but he opened him mouth. He bit into
the food she offered. He chewed and chewed.
My stomach twisted inside of me. My ribcage felt too tight, like my chest had constricted.
I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. Surely feeding one of the judges was against the rules. But the King and Queen simply looked on, smilingly slightly. They nodded to one another.
Joyce seemed disinterested in the whole affair, looking off among the trees like he’d rather be
somewhere else.
Julian, however, watched for a moment, an amused expression on his face. Then he turned and looked directly at me. When he caught me staring, his smirk grew into a smile. He broke away from the rest and
began to approach me.
I wanted to hide, but during the competition, I couldn’t leave my station. I was entirely trapped until the
royal family had visited my table.
So I had nowhere to run to as Julian came to stand beside me. We both looked at where Lilliana was
handing Nicholas a flute of champagne.
“Interesting, isn’t it?” Julian said. “It’s like watching a train wreck. Repulsive, truly, but one cannot turn
away.”
READING FREE LIGHT NOVEL AT NOVEL BIN