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I hurried back to the lesson, hiding my excitement as best I could. Focusing on the minutia of the place settings was nice, actually. It gave me something to focus on besides watching the clock until the lesson was over.
When the lunch hour finally arrived, I was so excited that I thought I might explode.
“I do not want to get too ahead of myself,” Giselle said. “But you made some progress.”
“Keep it up,” Oscar added. “We might just make a princess out of you yet.”
“Thanks!” The word shot out of my mouth as I bounded from my chair and hurried out of the dining room.
I slowed my pace once I reached the hall, not wanting to fly through the palace like a kid hopped up on sugar. Before too long, I was at the door to the palace kitchen. I heard the sounds of slow, measured movement inside, bowls and cups being set here and there.
The kitchen was amazing, of course. The ceilings were tall, with a massive island in the center of the room, the floor covered in tile. Copper cookware hung on the walls, and a quick scan of the space revealed that, while the palace was ancient, the appliances in the kitchen were anything but. Three big, arched windows looked out onto the gardens, a perfect backdrop for cooking.
My attention, however, was on the man standing with his back to me. He was dressed in jeans and a gray T-shirt that clung to the wide spread of his muscular upper back and shoulders.
“Welcome,” he said as he set out ingredients from a big bag close at hand. “How was the lesson?”
“Good. Learned about forks.”
He chuckled. It was still odd to hear him laugh. My first impression of Luc had been a man as serious as they came. While he most definitely was still that, he seemed to be loosening up with me as the days went on. Was I bringing something out of him?
“Forks are important. You use them to bring food to your face.”
“Very true. I reminded Oscar and Giselle that hands worked just as well.”
He chuckled again. “I’m sure that went over well.”
“Surprisingly, they weren’t crazy about the idea.”
I stopped a dozen feet from Luc, taking a look at the spread of ingredients. As my eyes jumped from one item to another, I realized how familiar they all were.
“Wait a second,” I said. “This stuff…” I hurried over to the counter, picking up one thing and then another. “Jumbo lump crab meat from Seattle, Dijon mustard, parsley… shit, you’ve even got saltine crackers instead of breadcrumbs! This is—”
“Everything you need to make your crab cakes.” He turned toward me with a shy smile on his face. He had on a clean, white apron over his shirt. I could still see the big, toned muscles of his arms, the square outline of his pecs. “I’m not normally one for surprises, but in this case, I couldn’t resist.”
I was still stunned by what I was seeing. “OK, hold on…how? I mean, you don’t just havesomeof the right ingredients; you haveallof them!” I put my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes in skepticism. “You didn’t, like, hack into my phone or something, did you?”
“Didn’t need to. Did you know you walk in your sleep? You came right into my room last night, mumbling the list of ingredients.”
“Funny. But seriously, how did you find out?”
“Got in touch with your sister Hailey. She was reluctant at first to reveal the ingredients, but when I told her my reasoning for wanting to know the secret recipe, she changed her tune.”
“And… what was your reasoning?”
He crossed his arms, leaning against the counter. “Because you’re homesick. I don’t blame you. What’s going on right now is the culture shock to end all culture shocks. Now, I can’tun-princessyou, but I can do a little bit to make you feel more at home. For example, gathering all of the ingredients that you need to make your crab cakes.”
I shook my head, having a hell of a time believing what was in front of me.
“You did all of this?” I asked. “How?”
He laughed. “Look around you, Princess. Being royalty doesn’t mean living in a gilded cage. Power comes along with life as a royal. Now, for someone like you, it’d be a mere matter of snapping your fingers and having whatever you need or want brought to you.”
“But not you.”
“Well, I do have my staff. But I’m the sort of man that likes to make sure things are done to my satisfaction. With a recipe with such… precise ingredients, I saw to it personally that everything was correct.”
“So, what, you went into town to get everything yourself?”
