Scamming the Prince (In major edit)

Scamming the Prince: Chapter 9

"And you are?" asked the woman who opened the door for us. She had glanced once at our culinary uniforms and, though she tried to hide it, disgust was clear on her face. It was as though we were beneath her and were to be treated as such.

"You called us to prepare the food for the King's dinner in an hour. We come from Antony's Catering," Emilee answered for all of us.

Her voice had a bit of an edge to it, she didn't care for the woman's attitude either. Her smile was very forced. The woman scanned all three of us once more before waving someone over. A girl no older than me in modest maid's uniform arrived at the door and smiled genuinely at us.

"Welcome, I'll show you to the kitchen," she said opening the door wider.

The other woman looked at us suspiciously for a moment before walking away with her head held high. It seemed almost everyone at the palace thought they were high and mighty, judging on my past experience. "That was Jennifer, she was King James' most trusted adviser," she said smiling apologetically, "I am Camille, one of the house-cleaners here. If you would follow me."

We were led down a long corridor that seemed to go on for miles before reaching the dining area. I was surprised, to say the least. Honestly, I was expecting a long exaggerated table that could set hundreds of people. This table only had twenty chairs. Camille saw me staring at the room in wonder and she laughed lightly,

"There are more but the King requires this room tonight." she faced the others, "I'm hoping you got the list for tonight?"

"Of course." Joe answered.

"I have a question. This is the palace, don't you already have chefs to serve the King tonight?"

If looks could kill, the look Joe was giving me should've surely murdered me. "Ignore her," he hissed sending eye missiles my way, "She doesn't understand anything."

"No, it's alright. To be honest I was wondering the same thing but Jennifer--" she paused and looked off to the distance for a while before smiling at us, "She likes to go the extra mile.

Camille began walking again and we followed closely behind her. She stopped in front of two white double doors and pushed them open dramatically while looking back at us, beaming. Inside was a magnificent kitchen that looked so beautiful, it seemed surreal. "I'll be back to check on you later," she said looking approvingly at our expressions and turning to walk away.

Joe and Emilee went straight to work, acquainting themselves with chefs and ordering them around before cooking themselves. I looked outside again and saw Jennifer talking to Camille--well it looked like she was shouting. She dragged her finger against the wood table and stuck it Camille's face. More shouting.

When Jennifer's head turned toward me I ducked my head and went straight to work. Moments later the door opened and I felt someone near me. I turned my head slightly to see Jennifer looming over my head. "I actually have another job for you. There seems to be plenty of cooks here already," she said. 

I didn't really have much of an option so I nodded and followed her out the kitchen. She went into the dining room and opened a glass china with all kinds of porcelain plates and dishes. She stepped to the side to allow me to look at them. "I need you to set up the dishes on the table. And you better do it well, we're paying your company quite a lot."

She stalked out the room and left me alone with the glasses and plates. Cautiously, I picked out one of the dishes and arranged them in a formal manner, I made sure to line them up perfectly, I have half-way finished when Jennifer popped in again. Her face was now relaxed and for once it didn't look like she was in command, when I looked to the side of her I saw why.

"As you can see, my King, I have everything control. The caters are already here, everything's set for your guests tonight," she said in a low cool voice. I hid my face behind my hair and kept my head down as I walked back and forth from the China to the table. I was grateful it was small table. 

King Nicholas stepped up to the table and looked at the empty dishes, "Right. Where is my mother?"

"In her room."

"Is she not coming tonight?"

"Er--no, she sends her apologies."

"Right. Will you send for me my father's notes? If I want to understand an ounce of what these people will be saying, I'd better read them now."

"Of course," Jennifer scampered out the room and the King simply turned around to look at the portraits on the wall. I only had one spot left. I picked up another dish and began to walk when he began talking, 

"This was his favorite, my father would come in here and sit for ages just looking at the picture." He didn't look at me as said that but I couldn't help but look at the picture myself. It was only a plain picture of the sky with a few white puffy clouds painted over the blue. "I used to ask him, 'why this picture? It's so boring' he told me sometimes you don't need complicated, fancy stuff. I don't exactly know why I'm telling you this," he continued.

I was still staring at the picture when he turned around. As soon as he did, he froze and looked at me in utter shock. It was then I realized my mistake, I lifted my head, he still remembered me from the break-in.

We just stood there for a few moments, staring at each other. Finally he said, "What are you doing here?"

"I--I come with the caters."

"Really."

"Yes, I'll leave now."

"What's your name?" he asked abruptly.

"Melanie," I answered as my breathing became quicker. Thankfully, Jennifer chose that moment to walk into the room with a small brown leather book. She walked over to Nicholas and handed him the book, oblivious to the tension in the room.

"You will not believe how much trouble I went to find this, your father hid this well," she chuckled. As if on cue she turned on saw me, her eyes became hard again, "Why are you just standing there?! You're not being paid to stand!" 

"Of course, I apologize," I scampered into the kitchen and looked into the window. King Nicholas said something and walked away, Jennifer stood there looking confused. I turned and almost collided into Emilee, 

"Will you help Joe, please? I need you to begin on the cherry pie."

"Right, I'll start on that," I stepped past her and began cooking, losing myself in the work.

I apologize for the crappish ending...it'll get better, I was just having a major writer's block on this chapter