They all were. Iskandar and Wolfgang, too—desperately.
“Fine. Why do you look like you haven’t eaten for days?” I asked, laughing.
Wolfgang smiled sheepishly. “We haven’t had a good homecooked meal in days. The restaurant food here is so greasy—”
“Thank you for the invitation, miss,” Iskandar cut in.
“Wait, you all have been eating out every day? For breakfast, lunch, and dinner?” I asked, and they all just nodded.
“Yes, all restaurants by your place, so it was not a problem,” Gale replied, but he gave Wolfgang a stern look. “And the food was perfectly adequate.”
“Do none of you know how to cook?”
“Iskandar can make some breakfast foods,” Gale answered but then shrugged. “Wolfgang is almost as unless as I am. You remember my last attempt at cooking.”
Yes, the burn marks would most likely like still be on my stove to prove it. “Was that your first time in a kitchen?”
“Of course not.”
I gave him a look, not believing him and causing him to frown.
“Iskandar, tell her I have been in a kitchen. I can see her judging me right now.”
“He has been in the kitchen before, miss,” Wolfgang came to his aid quickly. “In fact, he knows all the ways through it. We sneak back into the palace through—”
“Stop talking!” Gale snapped at him.
“Oh,” I grinned, moving closer to him, my arms crossed. “You were lying to me?”
“No.” He tilted his head. “You asked me if it was my first time in a kitchen, not if it was my first time cooking.”
“You’re using lawyer tricks on me?”
“It is not my fault you do not ask clarifying questions.”
“Fine, let me be clear,” I said, holding up my chin, and he stood proudly, too. “Have you ever cooked a meal before?”
He opened his mouth to say something, but I held up my hand, stopping him.
“Let me be even clearer. Did you ever cook a meal before you tried at my place?” I asked him.
He cracked his jaw to the side. “No.”
“Have you ever even gone grocery shopping?”
“No,” he muttered.
I snorted, trying not to laugh. “You are such a prince.”
“Oh, leave him alone. The only reason you know how to cook even a little bit is that you had such a huge crush on Chef Tremaine.”
“Mom!” I hollered at her.
“A crush?” he said with a goofy grin on his face and stepped forward. “You? Miss nothing-in-this-world-can-move-me and I-will-reject-love had a crush on your chef. You, Odette the Cold-hearted?”
“I was a little kid,” I grumbled, backing up.
“You were sixteen going on seventeen,” my mom once again voiced from behind him.
“Whose side are you on, Mom?” What kind of mother exposes their daughter like this? And to make it worse, Gale looked like he was eating up my embarrassment.
“Sixteen going on seventeen?” he repeated, shaking his head. “Crushes are very serious at that age.”
“She cried for a week when he told us he was moving back to Italy because he was getting married.”
Someone needed to create a black hole and suck us all away. Really, she was just doing this to drive me insane at this point.
“A week? You?” He smiled like the lazy cat in Alice and Wonderland. “You are such an heiress.”
“Mom, why don’t you cook? Or better yet, teach your gossip buddy here,” I grumbled, walking away from him and toward the fridge. However, when I opened it, almost everything was gone. There was just fruit, yogurt, and water.
“Oh, I’ve been eating out recently, too,” she said, coming up beside me. “Why don’t you and Gale go to the grocery store so we can make a nice dinner.”
I was trying my best not to lose it with her blatant efforts, but she was trying my patience.
“You don’t mind, do you, Gale?”
“Not at all. Besides, it will give us a chance to test out my new look.”
I flipped back to him, but he just nodded to my mother. I wasn’t sure what secret deal they had going, but I didn’t like it at all.
“Miss, I think you dropped this.” Wolfgang bent down to pick up the envelope I had brought over and must have dropped at the sight of Gale.
“Right, thank you.” I took it and showed it to my mom. “Did you know Etheus was having a global Get Active campaign today? Apparently, Augusta and I were asked to come.”
“You know I don’t check the mail anymore. It’s depressing.” She waved me off and walked away.
“Mom, I can’t just miss company events. Now Augusta is going to call—”
“What do you all feel like eating this afternoon?” she cut me off to ask them.
“Anything is fine,” Gale said back.
“Your Highness, you forget,” Iskandar stated. “You are not to eat shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, oysters, scallops, or any raw meats or spicy foods.”
“Are you allergic to all of that?”
Gale frowned, annoyance on his face. “No, more palace rules. Shellfish have a high risk of causing foodborne illness, so while abroad, we are told never to eat any of it. We are not even supposed to take tap water.”
Wow.
“Well, that takes a lot off the table,” my mother said, tapping her finger on her chin. “Odette makes a fantastic pot roast with red wine sauce, though.”
“That takes four hours...and wait, why am I cooking? I just got back.”
She snapped her fingers and pointed to me. “Your creamy, lemon-butter chicken with thyme. And you can make a lot of it.”
“Are you not hearing the words out of my mouth?” I asked, tired.
Gale chuckled softly. “That sounds lovely, and I do not mind going on my first adventure to the grocery store, so I am not laughed at by the brown-eyed heiress.”
Of course, he would use this against me.
“Fine, but if you are going to join us commoners at the grocery store, you have to come alone.”
“Gladly.”
“No,” Iskandar stated.
“Iskandar, you just said no one would assume it was me with the hairpiece on,” Gale argued.
“That may be true. However, you are still you, and you cannot go without a guard,” he stated back.
“The grocery store is simply a five-minute drive—”
“Ms. Wyntor,” he called my name like the principal. “Should anything happen to him in that five-minute drive or the subsequent time you are in that store, not only will I have failed in my duty but may also be charged and held for upwards of thirty years in prison, which I would accept gladly. I would never be able to return to my hometown without people wanting to stone me. My parents would be heartbroken as well as our people. It may be simple to you, but to our people—”
“Iskandar, that is enough!” Gale snapped, his voice cold and harsh.
“Forgive me, Your Highness, but where you go, so do I. That cannot change,” he stated in reply, his voice just as cold.
I noticed Gale’s hand clench, and I rushed around him toward Iskandar. I wasn’t trying to cause a fight. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t understand. It’s fine if you come. Just promise you won’t stand too close, and you won’t help him do anything.”