Chapter Twenty Four: A Moment Of Peace
Watching from behind the bushes, he kept a close eye on the surrounding area. No one was allowed to hurt her, and he'd be damned if they got a chance under his watch.
Over head he could hear her voice, laughing at a joke. Looking over he saw that she was still sitting on the bench with him, looking carefree for the first time in years.
"There you are." A voice muttered from behind him. Valek turned his head slightly, only to see Mark coming towards him.
"I've been looking around for you. We have a few men from Eucharista to go through tonight." His cousin informed him.
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten." Valek said, keeping an eye on the Queen. "Alexandra asked me to watch over her and Nicholas for a little while; since they both had some spare time."
Coming to stand next to him, Mark leaned against a tree.
"She looks happy for once." Valek said, sounding almost wistful, as they viewed the scene carefully.
"I guess it doesn't hurt to finally feel a little bit free." Mark remarked.
It was obvious that without certain people complicating matters, Alexandra looked a little more relaxed; the smile on her face showed them just how much of a difference it made. Although a part of Valek knew he would one day watch the one he and Mark loved most be taken away by someone else, but it didn't stop the small part of him that wanted to be the one making Alexandra happy. He knew Mark probably felt the same. The love she had for them, wasn't the same as the love she had for Nicholas.
Watching as the Queen and the chef-turned-Lord got up, to head back to the castle; Valek saw the Lord take her hand, leading her to the entrance.
"I always thought it would be Nick." He muttered, to no one in particular.
"I know...although I did doubt you when he first came back." Mark said, putting a hand on Valek's shoulder. Though it was sometimes a bit difficult to watch her with their best friend, both of them felt that he was a better choice than her previous suitor.
"I did too...especially after the blue paint incident. I thought for sure she would kill him." Valek said, trying to lighten the mood and clear his head. Laughing, Mark patted his shoulder.
"Those two..." His cousin trailed off. "Anyway, come on...we need to get back to the castle as well."
"Let's go." Valek nodded, as they set off behind the couple.
-----
"A word Nicholas!"
Looking up from where he was dusting flour on the counter, he saw her walk in. Unable to think of what he could have done to earn such a harsh expression, Nicholas caught her eye, but her look gave nothing away.
With the other staff looking around at her curiously, she stared them down.
"Alone, please." She glared.
They turned to give Nicholas a worried look, he nodded, allowing them to leave. He could hear their mumblings as they put their things back where they had been. 'Why is she so hard on him?' 'Sometimes the Queen can be such a tyrant...' 'I wonder what Lord Nicholas did wrong this time?' 'Do you think she wants to get rid of him?' 'I heard they're old friends...'
"Shouldn't you lot be on your winter holidays?" Alexandra asked, as they walked towards the kitchen door.
"We thought Her Majesty had canceled them, so we didn't go." Nicholas' sous chef answered.
"Unbelievable." Alexandra muttered, shaking her head. "Winter holidays have not been canceled, so I suggest you all go home and spend the two weeks with your families."
"Won't you need us to help with the castle?"
"It's nothing for you all to worry about, you all deserve a break." She told them, waving away their concerns.
"Thank you Majesty!" Nicholas watched as his kitchen staff headed off without so much as a look back at him.
No sooner had the door shut, Nicholas walked towards Alexandra.
"Lex? What was that ab-" He started to ask, when Alexandra cut him off.
"Pfft! I can't believe they bought that!" She started to laugh. "They really think you're in trouble. I'm a better actress than I thought."
Smiling, at the Queen's reaction, Nicholas couldn't help but chuckle at her actions.
"So you're not really angry with me then?" He asked to make sure.
"Nope. I came because we had something planned." She told him, a twinkle in her hazel eyes. "Remember, you were going to teach me how to cook?"
"I didn't forget, but I had thought we would do that on the weekend." He smiled, seeing how excited she was.
"I couldn't wait until then. Besides, if I didn't storm in here, everyone would think I was going soft."
Unable to help himself, he grinned, moving his hand to brush a strand of hair that had fallen onto her face.
"What would you like to learn?" He asked.
"What were you making when I came in?" She asked, as he took her hand and lead her to the counter where he had been working.
"I was about to roll out dough for a pie."
"Ooh...what kind?"
"What kind would you like to make, Lex?"
"Apple?"
Nodding in agreement, he went to the refrigerator to pull some apples and the dough he had left to set up. He had been planning to make turnovers with them, and make a cherry pie, but switching it around wouldn't make too much of a difference.
"Okay, so here is the dough." He said, putting it in on the lightly dusted counter. "And here are your apples."
"How did you make the dough?" Alexandra asked, sounding curious.
Describing the process, Nicholas was surprised at how attentive she was. Asking him about what certain ingredients did, and why he didn't use others; he had not been expecting her questions.
Pulling an extra chef's jacket from out of one of the closets, Nicholas helped Alexandra wear it over her gown, buttoning it up, so that her clothes wouldn't get dirty.
"Now, you're going peel the apples and cut them into small pieces." He told her, handing her a couple of apples, along with a peeler, and moving her to another counter close to the stove. Pulling out a pot, he poured in some water, setting it on the stove to warm to a boil.
Watching as she carefully peeled the apples, Nicholas saw that she had the apple peel trailing along, as she finished an apple. He smiled, as he watched, seeing that she was trying to keep the entire peel in one piece as she worked on the apples.
"Enjoying yourself?" He asked, as she started on her third apple.
"Yes. I always loved watching my Dad...he would tell me that the sign of patience was if I could get the peel off without it breaking...I failed miserably, many times." Alexandra laughed.
Once she was done peeling the fruit, he handed her a small knife to cut the apples.
"Just cut around the core, and then cut those into small pieces." He said, as she started to cut them.
"You can put them in there." He said, pointing to the pot of water.
Once she was done, they put all the pieces of apple in to the pot, watching them boil off with the water.
"Is that it?" She asked him, taking a bite from one of the left over pieces.
"No. Here add cinnamon, and some sugar. You can taste it, to see if it's enough."
"Won't I get burned?" She asked, giving him a look as though he was hoping to watch her do something of the sort.
"Not if you wait for it to cool." He chuckled, handing her a wooden spoon, before lowering the heat to a simmer.
"Ahh...you conveniently left that part out." She pushed him, snickering. Alexandra took some of the mixture, and blew on it to cool it down, before tasting it.
"It's good..." She said, giving him a spoon of the mixture. Tasting it, she was right, he thought.
"Come on, we have to get the dough ready while those are getting cooked." He said, leading her to the other counter by pushing her by the shoulders.
"Roll out the dough with this." He handed her a rolling pin, after making sure the counter had enough flour so that the dough wouldn't stick, before placing the dough on it.
Alexandra did as she was told, he thought it was adorable for the Queen to be putting in so much effort. She was biting down on her lip, as she rolled out the dough. He could hear her frustrated click with her tongue when the dough would overlap and she'd be unable to fix it.
"Is this good?" She asked, after it had all been rolled out in a thin layer, using the back of her hand to push back her hair.
'That's perfect, Lex." He told her flipping the dough on the counter before flouring it again, smiling at the state of her.
"What?" She asked, curiously. "What did I do?"
"Nothing." He said, his reached to caress her cheek with flour covered fingers. "You did perfectly."
Leaning in he kissed her, unable to stop himself, Nicholas chuckled.
"Okay, seriously, what's funny?" She asked, pulling away, eyes narrowed.
When all he did was laugh, she looked at her reflection in the metal of the fridge.
"You're so funny, Nick." She shook her head. Coming over to him, he saw her smirk.
"What do we do now?" Alexandra asked him, not doing anything to get even with him.
Surprised, Nicholas turned around to get the pie plate from one of the cupboards.
"Now we're going set up the dough in the plate." He said turning to face her.
Before he could shield himself, she had pelted him with flour. Laughter filled the kitchen, as the two of them struggled. He tried to catch her, hoping to get her back, while she carefully avoided obstacles to get away from him.
"That was very smart of you, Lex." He said, having caught her, and was about sprinkle flour over her struggling form. Instead she looked up and blew some of the flour back at him. He pulled her down, as he sat on the floor.
Not letting her escape, he chucked the flour on her. The two of them laughing, at their predicament.
"That was mean!" Alexandra, as her laughter subsided.
"Like what you did was any kinder!" He retorted, pulling her into his lap, as he leaned against the cupboards. She leaned her head against his shoulder, a content sigh escaping her lips.
"You deserved it." She muttered, looking up. Her hands reached up to pull him closer. Softly kissing his lips, she grinned.
"Truce?"
"Fine...since I would have won..." He snickered, as she pushed him.
"Come on...we'd better finish before the apples burn!" He said, nodding towards the stove. Getting up, Alexandra helped him; before they walked together to finish making the pie.
-----
Sneaking into the dark room, Alexandra had to tip toe towards the bed. Normally she would never creep out of bed after Mark and Valek had checked her room, but knowing how close he was and having felt so light all week, she couldn't help but do something of the sort; having been good for so long.
Getting on to his bed lightly, she noticed the only light in the room came from the window. He hadn't bothered to pull the curtains, allowing a stream of moonlight into the room.
"Nick?"
"Hmm?" He said, sounding half-asleep. Looking over at her, he was about to turn back, when her presence registered. "Lex? What are you doing here?"
"Can't sleep." She told him, cheerily, as he raised his head to get a better look.
"And neither Mark and Valek know about it?"
"Pretty much."
"We're dead." He said, lying back into his pillow.
"Only if they catch me!" Her answer had him chuckling.
Pulling away the blanket, he motioned for her to get under it. Cuddling against him, she looked up to see his grey eyes glowing in the moonlight.
There were times when she wondered how she had gotten so lucky as to have him love her. The fact that he had been one of her closest friends, who understood her, usually left her in awe even more.
"So, are you going to clue me in as to why you've decided to visit so late at night?" He asked, with a grin.
"I wanted to surprise you...besides, I haven't done anything to bother Mark and Valek in a while. It's time I shook things up a bit...keep them on their toes." Her response had him laughing.
"First you scare my staff, then you let them on vacation, and now you're trying to give Mark and Valek a heart attack." He said, leaning in so their foreheads touched. His arms were already around her. "There's never a dull moment around you, Lex."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment." She said, resting a hand on his cheek.
"It is...you could never be boring." He told her, swiftly moving in to kiss her.
No matter how many times he kissed her, she felt electricity that surprised her each time. It was something she thought she would be used to, but Alexandra was wrong. Pulling away, she saw the sweet smile on his face.
"I love you, Nick." She told him.
For the first time in a long time, she was happy with how everything was going.
"I love you too, Lex." He murmured before kissing her once more.
"So what did you have in mind with this visit?" He asked her.
"I wanted to talk to you."
"About?"
"Anything...tell me something."
"Okay. Do you remember the time we snuck into the stables?"
She laughed as he retold the story. Both of them taking turns to share some of their most treasured memories; Alexandra huddled closer to him, listening to the intonation of his voice. Talking late into the night, she was amazed at how comfortable she was with him; talking about things around the castle, things that needed to be done, he even told her about how well Sophia was doing.
Soon, Alexandra drifted off in to a happy slumber in the arms of the one she loved.