Page 41 of A Cake of Cherries and Charm

The room erupted into cheers and shouts as all eyes immediately turned toward the blessed lady. Marianne was wearing a lovely gown of pale blue, so thin and light that the seamstress who made it might as well have fashioned a moonbeam into a gown.

Rosie clapped, but she couldn’t smile, and when she looked down at her plate, she felt her sister’s sharp eyes on her face. She took care for the rest of the meal not to meet her sister’s gaze. And as soon as supper was finished, she declared that she would nap for a few hours so she might awaken that night to begin the cake.

“Rosie?” Snow called from outside her door. “Please talk to me.”

“I’ll talk with you later,” Rosie called back, doing her best not to let her sister hear the tears that she was now shedding on her pillow. Tears for knowing she must soon tell her mother and sister goodbye, and for the pain the last month had brought. Tears for the man with whom she would never know what might have been.

But several hours later, when it was time to get up and begin baking, Rosie sat up, her tears gone and her resolve hardened. If she hadn’t been sure about leaving before, her decision was made for her now, and there was nothing she could do about any of it except embrace what was to come. She might as well bake the cake and look forward to the journey home.

Chapter

Eighteen

Despite the troll’s repeated upset of the kitchens, Rosie awoke with a feeling of satisfaction. She had succeeded in baking all the cake layers the night before. Tonight, she would need to put them together and frost them, and her contribution toward her sister’s wedding would be complete. And to be on the safe side, the servants had even arranged to hide the cake in one of the cooling cellars in case the troll returned before Rosie was ready to finish it.

That feeling of satisfaction, however, was tainted by the knowledge that Jonathan was now pledged to another.

She had slept past breakfast due to her late-night baking, so she didn’t emerge from her room until it was time for the noonday meal. And, as he had been missing the day before, Jonathan failed to appear again. Neither did she see him in the halls in passing, nor at any of the places she was used to finding him.

But maybe it was better that way.

Still, despite her determination to stay with Snow as much as she was allowed, helping and laughing and being present, she felt his absence weigh on her more heavily than any duty had before. It was a strange feeling–one she had never felt for another person. Almost as if…

Was she in love?

Rosie quickly shied away from answering that question and instead did her best to focus on the flowers her sister was asking her to choose between. And she made sure they were never completely alone so Snow couldn’t ask prying questions. There was no reason to ruin her sister’s big day with news that Rosie knew would break her sister’s heart.

She became even more aware of the hole Jonathan had left when she arrived at the supper table that night. There were few courtiers in attendance. The king and queen were eating in their private rooms, she learned, as were Snow and Frederick. And, apparently, Jonathan as well. Which meant the conversation that happened not far from where Rosie was eating was much easier to attend to–even if Rosie had no desire to listen in.

“He’s so tall!” one of them was giggling. “He’ll have to bend low to kiss you!”

“I’m taller than you are,” came Marianne’s voice, sounding none-too-pleased with this observation. But then she paused, and when she spoke again, her voice sounded smug. “But we shall have tall children, and I quite like that.”

“He does work quite a lot,” said another friend. “How will you ever get him out of the study?”

“I don’t think I will,” Marianne said thoughtfully. “I’ll take the children, and we’ll stay with my parents much of the time. If he wishes to visit us, he may.”

“The queen seems to have given a good many duties to Lady Snow,” one of the girls said in a lowered voice. “What will you do if she gives you even more? You will be the queen one day, after all.”

“You seem to forget,” Marianne said in an equally low voice, “that I shall have a very capable husband who desires to do what is best for the kingdom.” She sighed dramatically. “I’m afraid I shall need a great deal of help from him when my tasks become too many.”

Rosie dropped her spoon. It clattered against her bowl, and the whole room turned to look at her. Rosie glanced up and uttered an almost inaudible apology. She meant to look straight down, but her eyes somehow managed to meet Marianne’s. And after a moment of holding her gaze, Marianne gave her one small but undeniable smile. That smile said it all.

Jonathan would spend the rest of his life beside this woman. A woman who saw little to no value in his hard work. His quiet strength. His steadiness of character. His small acts of kindness when he thought no one was watching.

And if she was honest, it broke Rosie’s heart.

Because while she couldn’t quite bring herself to admit that she loved him–doing so would be unspeakably foolish, seeing as he was pledged to another–she was self-aware enough to know that had she been given the chance to choose a man to walk beside for the rest of her life…

He was exactly the man she would have wanted.

Or would have been, had he been a farmer or scholar or someone who practiced law. But in spite of her new title, Rosie was really just another country girl.

And he had accepted his fate, she reminded herself as she rose from her seat, no longer hungry. She didn’t hold it against him. He had little choice in the matter. But it hurt all the same knowing that Marianne would be the one standing beside him when his position was threatened by enemy or betrayal. She would have access to the kingdom’s resources as her own. She would bear him children, and from what Rosie had overheard, would most likely do as little as possible to better the kingdom with the power that was given to her. Instead, she would heap even more work on her husband, who was already groaning beneath the weight of it. And she would probably train his heir to do the same.

But then again, this alliance would benefit the kingdom. Or at least, the king believed it would. And benefiting the kingdom was, after all, Jonathan’s first responsibility.

That night, Rosie returned to the kitchens to find her cake carefully returned to the freshly cleaned work tables. It had survived the day, and all she needed to do was mix up the frosting and decorate the cake.