46 Oink Oink Oink

With a quick flick of her hand, a well-aimed peeled egg flew with force directly at Evelyn's mouth, breaking apart as it hit her face. The contents of the egg splattered all over her clothes, smearing the soft almost-cooked yolk all over her chin.

"Oops. These darn hard-boiled eggs are so very slippery!" Talia made a damsel-in-distress motion with her fluttering fingers.

King Cecil threw a hand over Evelyn as she reached for a hot bun to throw back at Talia.

"That's enough. If you cannot restraint yourself, I will have to order you back to your room and have food sent there for the duration of your stay here at the inn."

"She was the one who threw food at me!" Evelyn's loud raucous voice called everyone's attention to the King's table.

Suddenly the entire dining hall was silent.

Drama was unfolding with the royalty and they were going to get a chance to see something fun to break the monotony of being stuck indoors while the blizzard was blowing.

"Had you not been so obviously insulting to Countess Talia, perhaps nothing would have happened." Cecil warned with a low but threatening voice.

He looked up at Cedric. "Control your Females."

Cedric gave an indulgent smile at Talia.

"Breakfast has barely started and the only ones who have been able to eat anything has been our nephew and the Lady Evelyn. Why don't we dig in and eat instead of talk so much."

Cecil pressed his lips as the manservant behind him began serving the food onto his plate, ignoring the woman sitting next to him.

Evelyn scowled as she reached out for a hot roll and some cantaloup.

The indignities of having to server herself food when she had two perfectly good attendants hanging around somewhere playing with themselves and not where she needed them to be, was insufferable.

She had no idea where her attendants were at the moment. They were most certainly not in the dining room, having had to find lodging amongst the Grand Duke's people the previous night.

Cedric, meanwhile, had turned into Talia's server, piling his own plate with food after he made sure Talia had plenty of food on her plate to feed both herself and the child.

Her hands were full with trying to spoon-feed warm brown sugared oatmeal into Devin's mouth as he clutched onto a couple of gingerbread men and playing with them on the table.

As far as Cedric was concerned, this was not the place to be surrounding themselves with attendants when he could do as much of the servicing as needed to make Talia's job of feeding Devin a little bit easier.

There was hardly any space to walk around the tables to begin with. To have someone stand behind them just to do useless things like picking up a dropped fork was more than useless.

"Egg." Devin pointed to a hard boiled egg.

Talia grinned. She had peeled a hard boiled egg for him but it had gone to waste because of Evelyn's acrid mouth.

Cedric turned his pale blond head at the little boy.

"You want her to get you an egg, you do not order her to get it for you. She is not your servant. What do you say?"

Devin turned to Cedric with a grin. He was small but he wasn't stupid. Mama Talia was not servant. Mama Talia was Mama!

"Maaaamaaaa. Egg."

Cedric took a breath and paused. Actually, that would work for him, but it wasn't the point of the teaching moment.

"Yes, well. That's a bit better, but you also need to add the world 'please'."

Devin turned his crumb-encrusted mouth into Talia's chest.

"Maaaamaaa. Egg pease."

"Very good!" Talia praised and looked down at his tender head, uncaring that he had wiped his greasy mouth onto her shirt.

Nobody wore fine high quality clothing when they took care of little children. That was just begging for pain.

Before she could reach for the egg, an unpeeled one came flying at her.

THWAKKK!!!

A hand came flying out, catching the egg with ease and preventing it from hitting her face.

"Aaaaaahhh!!!" Devin screamed, startled by the flying object. "Maaaamaaa!" He jumped up and threw his arms around her neck.

"It's okay Darling. Nobody got hurt. We're all okay." Talia narrowed her eyes as she gently stroked Devin's back.

This woman hadn't learned anything. Perhaps a harsher lesson needed to be taught.

Cedric turned the still-perfectly unbroken egg around in his hand, his bright amber eyes sparkling with barely suppressed rage.

"How dare you throw things at my Mate and my nephew."

"Well, the boy wanted egg, didn't he?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow and looked away.

Devin turned back to the woman who had thrown the egg at his Mama Talia and pointed at her with an angry look on his little boy face.

"You Pig. Oink! Oink! Oink! Oink!" He said, vocalizing something that he'd learned the day they visited the barn.

Talia could barely hold back a chuckle as she pulled Devin's arm back.

He lacked the vocabulary to say much, but his intent was very clear. It was his way of cursing and yelling at the woman who had attacked them.

"I don't think you are suited to be sitting amongst civilized people." Cedric's growl was barely audible to the two seated across from him. "Your extremely rude behavior in front of polite society is truly embarrassing."

He gave a quick gesture with his hand.

Two men rose and came forward, bowing with deference, ready to do the Duke's bidding. They had been casually hidden amongst the dining crowd waiting for the Duke's orders.

"Take the Lady Evelyn back to her room with a few brown bagged sandwiches and keep her locked within until it is time for us to leave this inn."

"What???" Evelyn sputtered. She turned towards the King. "He can't do that to me!"

"Oh yes he can." King Cecil did not even bother to look at the woman. "If he hadn't done it, I would have. I warned you about behaving yourself but you chose to disregard a direct warning from your King."

He turned glittering green eyes at Evelyn. "Do you know what happens to those who disobey direct commands from the King?"

Evelyn paled.

Of course she knew.

"Your—Your Majesty. My sincere apologies. That won't happen again."

Cecil turned away, even as Evelyn reached out with pleading hands.

But it was too late. Cedric's men had already dragged her up off the chair and was forcefully escorting her from the dining hall.

From across the room, a tall man with dark wavy hair and grey eyes stood up.

He made his way majestically over to the royal breakfast table with measured ease.

When he got closer to the table, his lips curled up in a smile that, if taken the wrong way, could most definitely be called derisive.

He had seen the drama unfolding at the very moment it had all started and it all looked quite interesting to him. He most definitely wanted to see more and know more about what had just transpired.

Who was this amazing beauty who had not only gotten away with throwing food into the face of the famed beauty, Evelyn Larabee but was also completely sheltered by both King Cecil and his brother, the Grand Duke Cedric.

He definitely had to learn more about her.