“I’m hurt. Really, you don’t think I can do this simple task after all we’ve done together. After all the places I’ve opened that you thought could never be unlocked?”
We had spent another week visiting Carowell and the surrounding areas. Questioning people. Calling in favors. Watching vow marks disappear. Making another visit to Montranc and Kennen.
My brother had looked even worse than before, despair turning down his eyes and sagging his jaw.
Alcroft’s contact had come through and the trial had been delayed two weeks. But those days would slip through our hands quickly too.
“Gaining us access to Montranc is one thing,” I said. “Cooking is something entirely different.”
His amusement pleased me. He hadn’t been nearly so jovial earlier when we’d run into Arthur Dresden again. “How do you think I get by without servants, Marietta?”
“Well,Gabriel.” It seemed silly to keep calling him Noble after having my lips locked to his for most of the previous nights this week. “I think you get by because your dear Vivienne and Rosaire organize things so that you can.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, it is.”
He leaned back in his chair and smiled lazily. “Would you like to make a bet, then?”
The challenge was too good, the banter a relief. It had been a trying day, seeing Kennen in poorer straits. “Yes, I find myself curious to see what you can burn over the fire.”
“Burn? I see.”
“Come now,” I scoffed. “You eat terribly. I’ve seen you ingest pints of tea and that horrible coffee you enjoy instead of having a full, hearty meal. If it weren’t for Rosaire’s soups and stews, delicious as they are, I think you might have withered away to a coffee bean by now.”
“A coffee bean?”
“Yes.” I nodded emphatically. “Perhaps I should start cooking regular meals.”
“My manly heart is enraptured.”
“You need to keep up your strength if you are to serve me.”
Gabriel’s chair legs smacked the kitchen floor. He leaned forward, nearly touching me. “If you need me to serve you, Marietta, you need only ask.”
My cheeks flamed under his intense stare, his one-sided grin. “Serve Kennen.”
“Well, that I am most unwilling to do. It’s you or no one.” He tipped his chair back again.
I snorted. “The city weeps.”
“I am in demand, it is true.”
His tone was nonchalant. But it gave me pause. He used the rampant female attention slathered upon him whenever he needed. But I’d met popinjays among the gilded, more than one cock of the walk, a score of libertines, Corinthians and dandies, and all of them would revel at a fifth of Gabriel’s gain. Or be arrogant concerning it. Gabriel Noble was arrogant, yes, but it covered something else. Something deeper.
He didn’t seem tolikeit.
“Then it is decided,” I said. “You will try your hand at this meal, and when that doesn’t work, I will start cooking regular meals and we can stop relying on Rosaire for everything—though her soups and stewswouldbe nice to continue.” But from the amount of food he consumed in my presence, Gabrieldidn’t eat enough. “I will clean up after you when things go wrong.”
I really should watch my tongue. My cooking was average at best. But Noble was just too good at most things. He was going to be terrible at this, and it was going to beincredible.
And if he was a run of the mill cook like me, I would outdo him at being average.
“What a generous offer. I won’t have you bemoaning sending the real chef away.” There was something in his eyes as he said it. Something that cautioned me to be wary. I ignored it, too high on our banter after a trying day.
“Go ahead, Gabriel. Give it a go.”
He unfolded himself from his chair. “What would you like to eat?”
