Clothes would be a good start, he thought, wishing he had a pen and paper to make a list for Darby. Noticing the desk in the corner, he got back out of bed and searched its drawers until he had what he needed, then spent a few minutes jotting down what he wanted. Folding it in half, he set it on the desk, then got back in bed and settled down for the night.
Thanks to his long nap that afternoon, he didn’t fall asleep until well past midnight, so when Darby knocked on his door at six the next morning, he growled and pulled the pillow over his head. She knocked several more times, then shouted, “Breakfast is in ten minutes. If you want to eat, I’d suggest you get out of bed soon.”
“I like to eat breakfast in bed,” he called from under the pillow.
“That’s not going to happen around here, so if you want to eat, you’d better get out of bed,” she said, then he heard her footsteps going down the hallway.
He considered skipping breakfast—it was practically the middle of the night—but then the smell of bacon and coffee began to fill the room, and his stomach began to growl loudly. Climbing out of bed, he put the pajama pants back on, although he did briefly consider going to breakfast naked, but discarded the idea.
When he got to the kitchen, Eli was standing at the stove turning bacon, and he was glad he’d put on the pants. He shuffled over to the table, sat down, and said, “I need some coffee, and fast; it must be the middle of the night.”
“The coffee pot is over there, and there are cups in the cabinet above,” Darby said, cracking eggs into a pan.
Colin looked over at the coffee pot and then back to Darby. “You want me to get my own coffee?” he asked, a bit surprised.
She looked over her shoulder at him. “That was the general idea.”
It took him a second to understand that if he wanted coffee, he’d have to get it himself, so he got to his feet and shuffled over to the pot. He found a cup and poured some coffee but stopped after just an inch or so was in the cup. “This isn’t the kind of coffee I drink; mine is lighter than this, kind of creamy looking,” he said, taking a little sip of the black stuff in the cup, then grimaced. “And it’s sweet; this stuff is awful. Don’t you have anything else?”
Darby was just turning from the stove, a frying pan in her hand, but she stopped and stared at him. “Are you joking?” she asked.
“No,” he said, looking into the cup again. “This isn’t at all like what they bring me at home.”
She crossed over to the table, picked up a plate, and expertly slid the fried eggs out of the pan, then set it back on the stove. “I think you need some cream and sugar,” she said, laughter bubbling up on the last word. “That’s the way coffee comes if you don’t add anything.”
“Cream and sugar?” he asked, looking down into the cup again and then back up at Darby.
This time she couldn’t stop the laughter; it came bubbling up to the surface, and soon she was outright laughing at him. “Are you really this helpless?” she asked when she’d calmed down.
Colin was beginning to get angry. “It’s not my fault I never had to get my own coffee,” he said.
Darby studied him for a second. “No, maybe not, but it is pretty sad that a grown man can’t even fix himself a cup of coffee,” she said. “Sit down, and I’ll get it for you this once.”
He opened his mouth to shut her down but realized that she was right. He’d never in his entire life poured himself a cup of coffee, let alone made any. His anger drained away, replaced by a feeling he rarely felt: embarrassment. “I can do it myself if you’ll tell me how,” he said, trying to retain just a little dignity.
***Darby***
Darby felt bad that she’d laughed at Colin, but it had been impossible not to; the idea that he couldn’t even make a cup of coffee was so foreign, it had struck her as funny. After she’d showed him the refrigerator and the cream, gotten the sugar out for him, she’d gone back to the stove, a smile still on her face, and finished cooking their eggs.
When the three sat down to eat, Colin tore into his breakfast without even a thank you, cleaned his plate, then sat back with a satisfied sigh. “That was the best breakfast I’ve ever had,” he said. “Which reminds me, I have something for you.”
He got up from the table and headed down the hallway. “What do you suppose that was all about?” she asked Eli, who’d said little the entire morning.
Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “I have no idea.”
Darby knew that Eli was still mad at her, so she reached out and put her hand on his arm. “It’s only for a few days, and then he’ll go back to the castle,” she said.
“I don’t like him, Darby; he acts like we should wait on him,” Eli said, a scowl on his face.
“It’s just what he’s used to,” she said. “But you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to wait on him.”
Eli raised his eyebrows. “You were going to get his coffee,” he said.
Her reply was cut off by Colin coming back into the room. “This is for you,” he said, setting a folded slip of paper in front of her, a big grin on his face.
Darby wasn’t sure what to expect when she unfolded the paper, so what she saw didn’t make sense at first, and she looked up at Colin. “I made you a list of the things I’ll need while I’m here,” he said when he saw her confusion. “I thought it would make things easier. You can run into town after breakfast. The tailor on First Street has my measurements. I’m sure he can whip something up for me.”
Darby could only stare at him in shock for several long seconds before annoyance replaced the patience she’d had before. “You want me to go to town and buy all this stuff for you?” she asked, wanting to be sure she was right.
Colin nodded. “And I also wanted to let you know that I like to have my sheets changed every day. I put an extra set on the list, so laundry will be easier for you,” he said, clearly proud of himself for his forethought.
A bark of laughter burst out of Eli, and she shot him a dirty look. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I think maybe you should sit down. We have a few things to get straight.”
Colin looked from her to Eli, then sat down at the table, a look of confusion on his face. “I don’t understand,” he said, clearly upset that Darby wasn’t happy with his list.
“I know you don’t, so that’s why I’m going to explain it to you,” Darby said, taking another deep breath. “Out here in the real world, we all work for a living; no one waits on us or does our shopping.”
“You want me to get a job?” he asked, still slightly confused.
“No, but I’m not going to be your servant,” Darby said, pausing to let that sink in. “You’ll have to take care of yourself, and in exchange for room and board, you can help out around the farm.”
A look of disbelief appeared on Colin’s face. “You’re kidding, right?”
Darby shook her head. “I never joke about money, and I’ve already paid my taxes for your upkeep. I’m not paying twice.”
“My upkeep?” Colin asked, clearly beginning to get angry. “You make me sound like an animal or something.”