Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Chapter 16: New Friends

Other young ladies went to Bath or Dover for a constitutional or a sea breeze -  but Liara had picked Wales with its promise of rolling hills and rugged shoreline. She felt unsettled as she sat atop a rocky cliff, and it wasn't the height that made for her unease.  She sat in the presence of divine beauty watching the sun set over the Bristol Channel and wondered how life had led her here.

Mina seemed to bound into London life almost as easily as she leapt on the cliff, from large boulder to large boulder, as though they were nothing more than pebbles beneath her boot. Then there was Verushka who held up her full skirts to dangle one slippered foot over the edge of a shallow puddle on the beach, with a dashing rake hanging off her arm and onto every giggle and anecdote.

The waves came charging to the shore and Liara finally understood how they could be likened to horses; their muscular bodies becoming the powerful curl of the sea and the spray of white foam hovering over every splash like manes.  It was magnificence but something made her ill at ease. She looked down at her rags and watched them transform into the lush gown of a Courtesan. The skin of her hands softened to a supple creamy white and a brilliant diamond adorned her left hand.

"Wha-  what's going on?!"  Liara exclaimed. But, the shoreline was now empty with her friends gone. She rushed to her feet and looked up at the cliff face to see a dark horse where the lighthouse should have been and a man who she should not have known as intimately as she did. The Captain of the Spanish Guard gazed down at her as a  spray of water from the crashing waves caressed her back. He opened his sardonic mouth and called to her- "You lazy sod, WAKE UP!"

Liara groaned and rolled over as the sunlight barely peeked through the kitchen window. Mina poked her with the toe of one shoe as Verushka's face twisted with mild irritation and said, "You're in my spot."

"And you're in my sun," Liara grated.

Mina rolled her eyes and pulled Liara to her feet . "If you and Ver are going to duel over the spot behind the bread oven, please do it some other time. We have only three quarters of an hour before Madam Shiela comes in to start pantry duty and Ver and I want pancakes while we all get caught up because I don't think we have talked since dinner TWO NIGHTS ago!"

Liara groaned, "Urgh, alright. After the main course I- "

"Uh uh uh," Verushka clamped a hand over her friends mouth. "Let Mina start- you stir," she said pushing a bowl into Liara's hand with an expectant stare that clearly said Pancakes.

While Liara began pottering around the pantry with sleep sealed eyes, her friends took  their seats across from the stove at the long wooden table perfectly poised for the first hot servings of syrup, crepes and gossip.

While Verushka started to assemble the condiments and plates haphazardly, Mina smiled a little private smile to herself remembering the touch of Jay's fingers along her jaw.

"What exactly are you smiling about Miss?" Ver bumped her friend on the arm playfully.

"Nothing, it's nothing" Mina insisted trying to smooth her face back into a placid mask, but instead bit her lower lip and nothing was more clear than that she had something to hide by that little gesture.

Ver's eyes widened and she bellowed to Liara, "Hurry up woman, just get the flour and get back here now! Mina is sitting on a HUGE secret."

Liara stumbled out of the pantry laden with flour and sugar and butter. "What? What happened? What did I miss? Don't start without me!"

Verushka ignored all the questions and turned resolutely to Mina. "Spill"

 A slow blush crept up her neck and she began confession with Priestess's Verushka and Liara. She told them everything in excruciating detail, from what was in the contents of the bowl she spilled when Jay had found her, to the specific branch selection method she chose to climb the apple tree in the orchard... and then things started to get a bit hazy. Whether Mina was shy or secretive - or both, she left wide yawning holes in the tale about all the kissing that had gone on the night before with the duke. Verushka noted clinically that the story seemed to have some gaps as to why Mina fell out of the tree, and even while stirring batter Liara realised that something in the story had the distinct smell of bullshit.