Chapter Thirteen of A Mirror for the Prince’s Shadow – a historical m x nb romantasy featuring dark academia, hurt/comfort, and dragon royalty – is now on Patre♡n! Wherein a princely repast is consumed.
~
The embassy folks called it “afternoon tea.” It involved a long table laden with more food than Rat had ever seen at once in all his days, served on silver salvers by silent-yet-deferential footmen.
Rat recognized the watercress, of course. And he’d seen advertisements for the chocolate biscuits pasted up on omnibuses and alley-walls but never had the chance to taste them for himself. Everything else, however, appeared altogether unfamiliar, though the sight and smell of it sparked an appetite that habitual starvation had rendered long-dormant. A queer shame arose in him, both from his hunger and his ignorance.
He glanced up from the bounty to find Emlyn gazing on him with a furrowed brow that banished with a smile.
“Would you care for some poached figs?” Emlyn asked, reaching for a shallow porcelain basin of plump green fruits floating in a sweet-smelling golden sauce.
Rat dutifully held out his plate so Emlyn might ladle the figs onto it. Biting into one made its pink flesh burst over his tongue in a riot of flavour.
“Try a muffin,” Emlyn suggested next, taking up a basket of small breads. He piled two on each of their plates.
Rat watched as Emlyn tore a muffin in half with his bare hands, exposing spongy innards. The butter he spread on them melted into the crevices. Rat followed suit and took a bite—warm, savory, and rich. He forced himself to slow down. This wasn’t the workhouse. No one lurked over his shoulder or at his elbow ready to snatch anything he didn’t eat fast enough.
“And some petit-fours?” Emlyn enquired, passing Rat a platter of tiny cakes drenched in a spectacular rainbow of coloured icing.
Rat paused his chewing as he realized what Emlyn was about. Offering up each individual victual by dropping its full title into conversation—which meant Rat didn’t have to make a fool of himself by asking what everything on the table was. Taking a portion of everything Rat accepted onto his own plate and showing by example how it ought to be eaten. Sparing Rat’s pride and keeping him fed all in one fell swoop.
It was hard to swallow around the unaccountable lump that’d formed all of a sudden in his throat, but Rat managed it all the same, if only for Emlyn’s sake.
~
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♡ A Mirror for the Prince’s Shadow (historical m x nb romantasy)
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♡ Vampires Vampires Vampires (mmm)
♡ The Sebastian Nothwell Contemporary Expanded Universe (mmm+)
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Sebastian Nothwell 