4th Time Lucky

Whine and Cheese

"Your Grace," Thomas called out, his tone carrying both surprise and terror. The terror pinched his next sentence, popping in an unintended squeak. "You're early."

Duke Edgar Finneas finished the flight of stairs, slowly revealing a fine business suit and impeccable posture. He was grace personified.

Until his eye caught Katherine staring open-mouthed like a peasant and his heel caught the last step. He stumbled slightly and caught himself as if nothing happened.

Thomas pounced on the opening and grabbed Edgar's hand to shake it. "I will get that step looked at, your grace. May I introduce my guests - Lord James Cameron and his fiancé, Selah North; my cousin Naomi Kielgard and her beau Micah Dubonet; and my date for the afternoon, Katherine Sachar."

After retrieving his hand from Thomas's grasp, Duke Edgar nodded deeply at each in turn, until he met Katherine. Their eyes locked and he struggled to look away. Date? She was allowing this man to court her?

He tried to politely inquire, but his question didn't come out as conversational as he hoped it would. "How long have you been courting?"

Thomas stepped in front of Katherine, almost blocking her from Edgar's view. "I asked shortly after the debut, but this is the first time our schedules have matched."

Edgar looked confused. "I thought our wine tasting was at one."

"It is, of course it is," Thomas said, his words too hastily put together.

Behind him Katherine seethed. The idiot probably double booked himself but was too worried about saving face to admit he made a mistake.

"I thought our business would be more entertaining if there was an audience."

The other guests relaxed - they weren't being kicked out, and they could rub elbows with a Duke! Katherine, however, crossed her arms.

"Ah, but business is boring for ladies," Thomas continued. "Why don't I summon some cakes and sweets and allow the ladies to have their own private party with any wine of their choosing? Come join me over at the bar, lads, and we will have a proper look at high quality Keilgard wine."

The other women did well to hide any offense. Katherine, her societal chops withered to nothing with theoretical age, made a sour face instead. Apparently Thomas was of the opinion that wine wasn't her business after all.

But he wasn't stupid. He noticed the Duke looking at her with more care than the others. Katherine started piecing together his personality. If his standards weren't matched, she wasn't worth his attentions. But if someone more influential was interested - that lowly object became an item to use for personal gain.

This would have to be the last date.

Thomas stood too close to her, suddenly affectionate when the Duke was watching. "Sweetheart, I was thinking. Since you know wine, why not select a few from the bottom row and have your own ladies' wine tasting?"

She wanted to call him out - they were being ousted because of his poor planning. Even though a bottle held about 12 tastings, Thomas had poured the entire bottle out as servings. With the ladies added to his tasting plans, he wouldn't be able to offer full glasses to all.

Katherine put on her sweetest, fakest smile. It was only for another hour or so. There were two more suitors this round - Gregory and Preston. Maybe Eddie, if she said yes and decided to risk her fourth life on a whim.

"Of course. May I ask the servants for some small pairings?"

"Yes, yes, whatever you need, my darling," Thomas agreed in a too-loud voice. The men at the bar turned their heads.

"We will be just over here," Katherine said. She waved her fingers in Thomas's direction, resisting the urge to flip one over.

She retrieved her bottle of wine from the floor with a flourish of skirts and set off toward the corner.

For the next hour, bottles were opened and poured and slurped and sniffed and (in Micah's case) spilled. Katherine relaxed and got to know the ladies a bit better - she was always good at talking wine. Her entire first life was devoted to the craft; moments like this reminded her what a pleasure it was to share food and drink with others.

While she described wines that were usually reserved for servants - knowing that she was likely to catch ire if she reached any higher on the shelves - she eavesdropped on Thomas' group.

He described all the wines as if he memorized a trivia page. Either his wines all tasted like the textbook definition, or he didn't have a clue how his family differentiated their wines from the competition. Maybe they were purists, making wine the traditional way. Maybe Thomas's tastebuds were dead.

The women erupted into loud not-society-appropriate laughter. They had definitely not been using tasting-sized portions. The fancy cheeses had gone to the bar with the men. The only thing they had consumed a lot of was fruit and wine, likely creating their own sangria in their bellies.

This had to be the last bottle.

As a final screw you to Thomas and his opinions on servants' wine, Katherine opened the bottle of Tremaine's Best. She'd send the servants here a replacement and then some.

"And now," Katherine said, "the last of the bunch."

"Aw," Selah giggled. "He said whatever you wanted."

Naomi was flushed and looking a little too relaxed. "And you picked such good ones! I don't think I've ever tried that Marco... Marc... macaroni? Before." She leaned on the table, dropping her poise. "And I drink a lot of wine."

For whatever reason, this made Selah giggle more. She tried to cover her mouth, as if stuffing the laughter back in would restore some decorum.

Katherine peeked at the men. Three pairs of eyes looked curious. One set glared.

"Alright let's put our serious faces on. This one is important. It's from the second year of this vineyard's operation and the first to feature absolutely no grapes at all."

"Another servant wine?" Naomi asked, curious. She tried to peel at the label, but Katherine covered it.

"It has a complex flavor, with a richness compared a red grape-based wine. The best part about this wine," she continued as she poured it into clean glasses, "is the smell."

They all tipped the glasses toward their noses. Selah looked like she might tip into it face-first.

"Wow," Naomi said.

Katherine surveyed what they had left on their food pairing tray. "There's a pound cake and sweet cream there. If you paid that with the wine, they'll compliment each other so well. Although this is a flavorful enough wine on its own, even a lower quality version of this can be poured onto desserts to compliment flavors."

Before she could finish her sentence, Naomi already had a mouthful of cake, cream, and Tremaine's Best tucked away in her cheeks. They savored the flavors, trying the wine between mouthfuls of the other remaining treats.

Katherine was certainly edging toward more drunk-than-sober, but she was on her game today. Four mostly empty bottles sat on the table before them. Katherine's vision had tunneled directly forward, focusing on the ladies who were clearly drunk, happy, and quite possibly becoming her friends. If they were clients she'd never drink this much with them, but part of her wanted to show off  how much better she was at this than Thomas. How dare he sneer at servant wine. It was delicious.

A hand at her back made her jump.

"What the fuck are you doing?" was whispered in her ear.