To Love, Once Again

Chapter 86

"My Lady, how am I to protect you if you don't stay behind me!"

"But you were there to protect me, right?"

"Lady Sera, the King doesn't even want me, the Captain of the Guard to accompany you too long. Any man, for that matter." Sighing in defeat, Icaros finally releases his grip on his sword handle.

"Especially Dorne"

As a couple, the King and Queen were practically professionals at dragging him into situations Icaros didn't want to be in. Like what happened just now. Icaros rubs at his temples, already feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. When Lucien got wind of what happened just now...Icaros digs his knuckles harder into his scalp. At the very least, it was more training and vegetable-only meals.

Sera rolls her eyes at Icaros' theatrics. He was supposed to be the dashing Captain of the Guard, for goodness' sake. He didn't need to worry over her like some kind old grandmother.

Nodding out to the servants that continued to pass them in the hall, she smiles back at them when they curtsy to her in greeting.

"Dorne's not the type to do something so blatant in public. He wants to be noble. Or at least, appear noble." Sera had noticed that, aside from the challenge, Dorne had done all his evil deeds in secret. He'd never raised a hand to her in public.

"Even so.."

Exasperated, Icaros opens the doors to the kitchens for Sera.

"Thank you."

Sera's face was bathed in a blast of heat as she entered the kitchens. The whole kitchen was practically vibrating with sound as cooks shouted over each other, pots and pans clanged together, and meat sizzling as they were spun on spits over large fireplaces.

One portly cook stirring a large pot of soup looks up and meets her gaze, freezing.

Another cook, arms full of vegetables and other ingredients bustles up next to him"Ald! Is the soup done!? I need the fire next for my vegetables-" they too, freeze when they see Sera. It was a domino-effect, of one person freezing, and then the next, as all eyes focus upon her.

Or was it a strange game of freeze tag? Soap slides down the arms of a kitchen maid, elbows deep in a tub washing dishes, while another cook was stuck mid-slice, chopping up some carrots.

Well, this was quite awkward..

"Uhhhh..."

Sera sniffs the air. At this rate, something was going to get burned. Yet, no one moved when she spoke, frozen in place by the sudden appearance of the former Queen-maid-mistress-Queen? From the confusion and anxiety on their faces, Sera could tell they didn't know what to do with her.

Icaros stands in one corner, busy sending winks to the nearest kitchen maids. Sera doesn't bother to look back at him for help. It was obvious he had no intention of helping her out. That was fine. She was a big girl. Sera could handle things on her own.

Sera looks out over the people frozen in various positions in the kitchens. Who should she ask? Every person she looked at did their best to avoid meeting her gaze, sweat trailing down their foreheads in the warm kitchens.

Now, it was only the sound of food sizzling over the fire as Sera shifts on her feet. The last time she'd been here, she'd been in the cafeteria area out past the kitchens, eating lunch as a maid.

The wood door behind Sera creaks open as another servant enters. They wouldn't be able to see Sera, but it must be strange enough for the kitchens to be this quiet.

"Why is it so quiet in here? Did Mr. Ald's wife finally divorce him?" A young boy comes in, holding a wood tray piled high with dirtied plates.

The boy's joke riles out a response from one person among the group of kitchen worker statues.