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Short Story: Of Biscuits
Yes, lets sit at the table and talk about our underwear. Sounds prime, really.
You never really see a lot of Lord Covington in the book...not until his demise anyways, his relationship with Kamen isn't the most healthy, but he at least seems to respect his father.
At least the kids know when they're being completely ridiculous.
This just looks like a self-inflicted food fight on Artemis' part.
Of Biscuits
Artemis' legs pushed themselves into small circles from her stool in the kitchen, Michealis had set her up with a jar of raspberry jam and heavy sweet cream on a halved biscuit, still warm from the oven. The thirteen-year-old girl had spent most of the day outside picking flowers for Lillaine—sick in her bed just two floors above Artemis' head—and they now lay on the table next to the biscuits with the butler Michealis' intent to bring them on a tray with the biscuits for the girl in bed.
She had watched the old rosy-cheeked cook before going out to pick flowers. The way the old woman kneaded the dough tirelessly, pushing up dry tasting clouds of flour with every squish of the sticky, yeasty concoction—every bit of the process had been fascinating to the foreign princess who had only ever ventured down to the kitchens of Q'ael Dan'il once or twice in the many years that she had lived there.
The kitchens were no place for the future queen of an empire, Caspius Van Dean had told her, laughing with the warning, knowing that her stomach was much larger than her big bright eyes. He might have been livid to see her now, raspberry jam smeared on the corners of her mouth and nose lightly dusted with flour.
The reaction of Caspius Van Dean to her current behavior would be nowhere near as curiously amused as the seventeen year-old boy leaning in the doorway with a baguette heel halfway devoured and held in his mouth. He chewed on its rough exterior while he fussed with the waistcoat that his father had forced him into for the day. He would have much preferred to have gone without the dark blue wool suit and lounged in his rough slacks, not bothering to cover his braces with a waistcoat, but Lord Covington was back for the week from London and wouldn't hear of the boy—already a man by most standards—running about looking like he belonged in a workhouse.
On a normal day he would have taken a seat next to her, perhaps run a finger through the jam of her biscuit to taste, and even go so far as to pull the thick white silk ribbon from her hair until it fell straight into her face and the jam. Today, however, he was certain that he would be lectured extensively by his father if he took the time to torment the girl.
Kamen, with heel of the loaf still in his mouth, unbuttoned his waistcoat immediately feeling like he could breathe more freely, and reached into his pocket to pull out the small handkerchief that had been freshly laundered just that morning.
Bending slightly at the waist, Kamen held the folded fabric out to the girl sitting at the table, smiling and holding back a laugh at the smudge of flour on the tip of her nose.
"Hmm." Artemis looked cautiously at the handkerchief and then up to Kamen, "And what is the stipulation?"
He raised an eyebrow and pulled the last bit of bread from his mouth with his free hand, "Stipulation?"
She nodded slowly, turning back to tear off a small piece of her biscuit and pop it into her mouth, "Condition. You know I could just as easily get a napkin, or wash my face, or even rub it into my pinafore."
Kamen blinked at her, knowing better than to challenge her to wipe the jam from her face into her pinafore. "Can't it just be assumed that I'm attempting to be a gentleman? Why does there have to be a stipulation?" He set the handkerchief onto the table, setting his fist just to the side of it to lean upon.
She gave him a sideways glare, "Ah, no. Lilly told me about this. Lord Covington is cracking down on you being a bully. You'll be a gentleman until "daddy" goes back to London, and then you'll be back to chasing me around the manor. If you would be so kind as to leave me be until then so that I may enjoy the peace, I would be grateful."
Kamen flinched at her tone, and Artemis would regret being so unpleasant immediately after speaking. He certainly didn't bully her all the time, most days he was quite sweet to her, but that week in particular before Lord Covington had come back to the manor he had been rather ruthless in poking fun at her.
Their eyes met for several seconds before Kamen quickly brought his hand up to the back of her head and with a simple tug on one of the ends of her ribbon, unleashed the torrent of long red hairs into her face, now sticky with the jam.
Artemis only grimaced before sticking her fingers into the jam of her biscuit and then smearing them across her face.
Kamen raised an eyebrow and reached out to her face to run a single finger over the jam now dripping from her cheek and brought it to his mouth, amused at the sight Artemis had become, but not half as surprised as he ought to have been. One might have thought that Artemis had a habit of covering her face with various foods. "Delicious."
She picked up the handkerchief by the corner and it unfolded itself slowly before she first wiped her fingers and then her face, holding out the sticky, now red-smeared cloth back to its owner.
Kamen accepted the cloth back, grimacing at the stains and not bothering to stuff it back into his pocket for fear of getting the inside sticky with the jam. He finished off his bread while keeping an eye on Artemis, curious if she would silently agree with him that their brief scuffle would be enough for the day.
"You're infuriating." She mumbled.
"You're fun to infuriate." He chuckled, "You blush when you're angry."
She immediately looked away, well-aware that she was now starting to blush for a different reason.
"Like that." He laughed. She didn't look back to him and instead of responding at all, pushed the last of her biscuit into her mouth. Kamen made a small gesture to the daisies on the table, "Did you have plans for those?"
Artemis sighed, "I was going to bring them to Lilly with the biscuits." She looked at him from the corner of her eye, trying not to smile at the image of him looking like anything other than a ruffian. "What else would I be doing with them?"
Kamen shrugged, "We could make daisy chains."
"I've never done that, how does one make a daisy chain?" She turned on the stool to face him.
He stared at her in disbelief, "You've never made a daisy chain? Lilly has me make them for her all the time"
Artemis shrugged slowly, "It never came up."
"I'll show you some time." He smiled slowly. Setting the handkerchief back onto the table, Kamen walked over to the stool on the other side of Artemis and rolled up his sleeves to just above the elbows before taking a seat and helping himself to the other half of her biscuit.
With a small sigh, and not willing to argue with him over taking the other half of her snack, Artemis wiped the palms of her hands against her pinafore a few times before picking up the sides of her hair and pulling them back into the white ribbon she had been given by Rei four years prior.
Kamen flicked away a few of the crumbs from the table, curiously watching Artemis from the corner of his eye. "It's too hot today. I don't think Father will let me go off to swim with you later. I doubt he'll find it proper."
"It isn't exactly proper anyways." Artemis admitted, although that wouldn't stop her from going off with the boy later, "Besides, how do you think I feel? You're not having to wear stockings and bloomers and layers of…" She brought her hands up from under the folds of her skirt, fluttering the fabric upwards slightly, "this."
He smiled slightly, eyeing her white frock under the cream pinafore, "You look nice."
She sighed, blushing slightly at the compliment, but trying her best to not pay too much attention to it for fear of blushing even more and spurring him on, "I don't have to bother with this sort of thing back home. The fabric is much lighter, and the stockings are softer." She hummed slowly, trying to stop her thoughts from reverting to her home and causing her to long for it, "I don't get to go outside much though; it's lessons, lessons, lessons, and being lectured on how my behavior isn't proper."
Kamen gave a short nasal laugh, happy that that conversation had turned from stockings to something that he could more easily identify with and wouldn't feel awkward talking about, "It sounds like my life here."
Artemis turned her head to look at him, "Lord Covington wants to prepare you to take over the businesses and…become the Earl."
His head bounced slightly with his next small laugh, his gaze had fixed itself on a bit of the wood grain on the table and he moved it from there to flash up to her, "And what are you studying for? Are you studying to be a good wife? To become a senator of some great legislation?"
"Something like that." Artemis mumbled.
Kamen shrugged, "I understand the lessons, I don't mind them, but I don't see why it has to be so strict."
"Doesn't seem too strict, you managed to get away with not bothering with a cravat." Artemis reached a finger up to Kamen's collar.
"Barely, it was addressed, and by Mother of all people." He shook his head, "I don't think she wants Father to know of how lenient she's been with Lilly and I."
Artemis would agree on that matter: Lady Covington was much more relaxed than her husband. The Earl was intimidating to say the least—tall, broad-shouldered, and hoarse baritone, with a scowl that may have even caused Advisor Teal to flinch. Artemis didn't see him much outside of meals, and when she did she made sure to use every bit of etiquette she had learned, and because of this she seemed to inadvertently incriminate Kamen.
As far as Lord Covington was concerned, his guest was a noble of higher rank than he, and as he was off in London on business most of the time, he couldn't be too concerned of the finer details—that was left to his wife Lena.
Kamen slouched on his stool, bearing down into his shoulders while gazing at the daisies that had already begun to wilt from lack of water. Normally he would have spun off the stool and made his way to bring the blossoms a proper vase, but his recent exchange with Artemis had brought back a more piercing argument from that morning with his father.
She was quicker about it, grabbing the vase from atop the shelf and filling it with water, and making sure to pilfer some of the water to wash her face at the same time.
Setting the vase back onto the table, now stuffed full of the white daisies, Artemis rubbed her fingers along one of the petals, smiling at the texture. "It's too late for lilacs, I would have liked to get some, then again, they do worse in water."
Kamen swallowed, after the stolen biscuit water sounded particularly good to him, and he slid from his stool to retrieve a glass for the two of them to share.
Artemis had found her attention taken up by the drooping heads of the daisies, and jumped slightly at the glass brimming with water that Kamen held out to her.
"Drink it, you've been running around outside. I can't have you fainting, Father would blame me for that as well." Kamen stated plainly.
The water splashed over the edges of the cup as it was passed from one to the other, and Artemis stared at it for a few seconds before moving it into her other hand and wiping the now wet palm onto her pinafore.
"Gee, I wish I had a piece of cloth with me at all times that I could just wipe my hands with." Kamen scoffed at the gesture.
She pursed her lips at him, blinking in an almost haughty gesture, "You do, it's called a handkerchief."
He glanced at the reddened cloth—now turning a lovely purplish color—still on the other side of Artemis on the table, and returned to his stool, "Yes, and it's currently covered in raspberry jam from my latest attempt at being a gentleman."
"You botched it terribly, too." She smiled, returning her attention to the glass and breaking the surface of the liquid with a cautious sip. Half the glass had been drained when she held it out to Kamen, offering the last bit of the water in a peace offering, "We don't drink much water at home, most of it has to be purified from the ocean."
Kamen accepted the glass with a confused scowl, "Purified."
"It isn't safe to drink, so you have to be careful." Artemis explained quickly.
He shrugged, "The water in London is like that, all the industry does a great job at employment, but terrible at keeping the place sanitary. The worst gray it gets here is when it rains, but in London it's always gray, gray and beige. All that stone and cloudy weather." He shook his head slowly.
Michealis stood in the doorway with a smile on his face, waiting patiently for his turn to speak, golden eyes alight, "I trust all the biscuits haven't been devoured?"
Kamen shook his head, "Just the one."
"Ah." He smiled to the girl, "Miss Artemis, I trust you have been fed enough?"
"Well enough." Artemis returned his smile.
"I'll just take a bit of it up to Miss Lillaine then, feel free to take whatever you wish." The jam, cream, a couple of the biscuits, and all the essentials for tea were loaded onto a tray and placed within the dumbwaiter—daisies to follow in the hands of the butler for fear of them toppling in the elevator contraption.
Kamen didn't follow Artemis and Michealis to visit Lillaine, the thought of his sister sick in bed once again left an unsettling feeling in his stomach, enhanced by the food he had eaten and demanding another glass of water to quell his nerves.
You never really see a lot of Lord Covington in the book...not until his demise anyways, his relationship with Kamen isn't the most healthy, but he at least seems to respect his father.
At least the kids know when they're being completely ridiculous.
This just looks like a self-inflicted food fight on Artemis' part.
Of Biscuits
Artemis' legs pushed themselves into small circles from her stool in the kitchen, Michealis had set her up with a jar of raspberry jam and heavy sweet cream on a halved biscuit, still warm from the oven. The thirteen-year-old girl had spent most of the day outside picking flowers for Lillaine—sick in her bed just two floors above Artemis' head—and they now lay on the table next to the biscuits with the butler Michealis' intent to bring them on a tray with the biscuits for the girl in bed.
She had watched the old rosy-cheeked cook before going out to pick flowers. The way the old woman kneaded the dough tirelessly, pushing up dry tasting clouds of flour with every squish of the sticky, yeasty concoction—every bit of the process had been fascinating to the foreign princess who had only ever ventured down to the kitchens of Q'ael Dan'il once or twice in the many years that she had lived there.
The kitchens were no place for the future queen of an empire, Caspius Van Dean had told her, laughing with the warning, knowing that her stomach was much larger than her big bright eyes. He might have been livid to see her now, raspberry jam smeared on the corners of her mouth and nose lightly dusted with flour.
The reaction of Caspius Van Dean to her current behavior would be nowhere near as curiously amused as the seventeen year-old boy leaning in the doorway with a baguette heel halfway devoured and held in his mouth. He chewed on its rough exterior while he fussed with the waistcoat that his father had forced him into for the day. He would have much preferred to have gone without the dark blue wool suit and lounged in his rough slacks, not bothering to cover his braces with a waistcoat, but Lord Covington was back for the week from London and wouldn't hear of the boy—already a man by most standards—running about looking like he belonged in a workhouse.
On a normal day he would have taken a seat next to her, perhaps run a finger through the jam of her biscuit to taste, and even go so far as to pull the thick white silk ribbon from her hair until it fell straight into her face and the jam. Today, however, he was certain that he would be lectured extensively by his father if he took the time to torment the girl.
Kamen, with heel of the loaf still in his mouth, unbuttoned his waistcoat immediately feeling like he could breathe more freely, and reached into his pocket to pull out the small handkerchief that had been freshly laundered just that morning.
Bending slightly at the waist, Kamen held the folded fabric out to the girl sitting at the table, smiling and holding back a laugh at the smudge of flour on the tip of her nose.
"Hmm." Artemis looked cautiously at the handkerchief and then up to Kamen, "And what is the stipulation?"
He raised an eyebrow and pulled the last bit of bread from his mouth with his free hand, "Stipulation?"
She nodded slowly, turning back to tear off a small piece of her biscuit and pop it into her mouth, "Condition. You know I could just as easily get a napkin, or wash my face, or even rub it into my pinafore."
Kamen blinked at her, knowing better than to challenge her to wipe the jam from her face into her pinafore. "Can't it just be assumed that I'm attempting to be a gentleman? Why does there have to be a stipulation?" He set the handkerchief onto the table, setting his fist just to the side of it to lean upon.
She gave him a sideways glare, "Ah, no. Lilly told me about this. Lord Covington is cracking down on you being a bully. You'll be a gentleman until "daddy" goes back to London, and then you'll be back to chasing me around the manor. If you would be so kind as to leave me be until then so that I may enjoy the peace, I would be grateful."
Kamen flinched at her tone, and Artemis would regret being so unpleasant immediately after speaking. He certainly didn't bully her all the time, most days he was quite sweet to her, but that week in particular before Lord Covington had come back to the manor he had been rather ruthless in poking fun at her.
Their eyes met for several seconds before Kamen quickly brought his hand up to the back of her head and with a simple tug on one of the ends of her ribbon, unleashed the torrent of long red hairs into her face, now sticky with the jam.
Artemis only grimaced before sticking her fingers into the jam of her biscuit and then smearing them across her face.
Kamen raised an eyebrow and reached out to her face to run a single finger over the jam now dripping from her cheek and brought it to his mouth, amused at the sight Artemis had become, but not half as surprised as he ought to have been. One might have thought that Artemis had a habit of covering her face with various foods. "Delicious."
She picked up the handkerchief by the corner and it unfolded itself slowly before she first wiped her fingers and then her face, holding out the sticky, now red-smeared cloth back to its owner.
Kamen accepted the cloth back, grimacing at the stains and not bothering to stuff it back into his pocket for fear of getting the inside sticky with the jam. He finished off his bread while keeping an eye on Artemis, curious if she would silently agree with him that their brief scuffle would be enough for the day.
"You're infuriating." She mumbled.
"You're fun to infuriate." He chuckled, "You blush when you're angry."
She immediately looked away, well-aware that she was now starting to blush for a different reason.
"Like that." He laughed. She didn't look back to him and instead of responding at all, pushed the last of her biscuit into her mouth. Kamen made a small gesture to the daisies on the table, "Did you have plans for those?"
Artemis sighed, "I was going to bring them to Lilly with the biscuits." She looked at him from the corner of her eye, trying not to smile at the image of him looking like anything other than a ruffian. "What else would I be doing with them?"
Kamen shrugged, "We could make daisy chains."
"I've never done that, how does one make a daisy chain?" She turned on the stool to face him.
He stared at her in disbelief, "You've never made a daisy chain? Lilly has me make them for her all the time"
Artemis shrugged slowly, "It never came up."
"I'll show you some time." He smiled slowly. Setting the handkerchief back onto the table, Kamen walked over to the stool on the other side of Artemis and rolled up his sleeves to just above the elbows before taking a seat and helping himself to the other half of her biscuit.
With a small sigh, and not willing to argue with him over taking the other half of her snack, Artemis wiped the palms of her hands against her pinafore a few times before picking up the sides of her hair and pulling them back into the white ribbon she had been given by Rei four years prior.
Kamen flicked away a few of the crumbs from the table, curiously watching Artemis from the corner of his eye. "It's too hot today. I don't think Father will let me go off to swim with you later. I doubt he'll find it proper."
"It isn't exactly proper anyways." Artemis admitted, although that wouldn't stop her from going off with the boy later, "Besides, how do you think I feel? You're not having to wear stockings and bloomers and layers of…" She brought her hands up from under the folds of her skirt, fluttering the fabric upwards slightly, "this."
He smiled slightly, eyeing her white frock under the cream pinafore, "You look nice."
She sighed, blushing slightly at the compliment, but trying her best to not pay too much attention to it for fear of blushing even more and spurring him on, "I don't have to bother with this sort of thing back home. The fabric is much lighter, and the stockings are softer." She hummed slowly, trying to stop her thoughts from reverting to her home and causing her to long for it, "I don't get to go outside much though; it's lessons, lessons, lessons, and being lectured on how my behavior isn't proper."
Kamen gave a short nasal laugh, happy that that conversation had turned from stockings to something that he could more easily identify with and wouldn't feel awkward talking about, "It sounds like my life here."
Artemis turned her head to look at him, "Lord Covington wants to prepare you to take over the businesses and…become the Earl."
His head bounced slightly with his next small laugh, his gaze had fixed itself on a bit of the wood grain on the table and he moved it from there to flash up to her, "And what are you studying for? Are you studying to be a good wife? To become a senator of some great legislation?"
"Something like that." Artemis mumbled.
Kamen shrugged, "I understand the lessons, I don't mind them, but I don't see why it has to be so strict."
"Doesn't seem too strict, you managed to get away with not bothering with a cravat." Artemis reached a finger up to Kamen's collar.
"Barely, it was addressed, and by Mother of all people." He shook his head, "I don't think she wants Father to know of how lenient she's been with Lilly and I."
Artemis would agree on that matter: Lady Covington was much more relaxed than her husband. The Earl was intimidating to say the least—tall, broad-shouldered, and hoarse baritone, with a scowl that may have even caused Advisor Teal to flinch. Artemis didn't see him much outside of meals, and when she did she made sure to use every bit of etiquette she had learned, and because of this she seemed to inadvertently incriminate Kamen.
As far as Lord Covington was concerned, his guest was a noble of higher rank than he, and as he was off in London on business most of the time, he couldn't be too concerned of the finer details—that was left to his wife Lena.
Kamen slouched on his stool, bearing down into his shoulders while gazing at the daisies that had already begun to wilt from lack of water. Normally he would have spun off the stool and made his way to bring the blossoms a proper vase, but his recent exchange with Artemis had brought back a more piercing argument from that morning with his father.
She was quicker about it, grabbing the vase from atop the shelf and filling it with water, and making sure to pilfer some of the water to wash her face at the same time.
Setting the vase back onto the table, now stuffed full of the white daisies, Artemis rubbed her fingers along one of the petals, smiling at the texture. "It's too late for lilacs, I would have liked to get some, then again, they do worse in water."
Kamen swallowed, after the stolen biscuit water sounded particularly good to him, and he slid from his stool to retrieve a glass for the two of them to share.
Artemis had found her attention taken up by the drooping heads of the daisies, and jumped slightly at the glass brimming with water that Kamen held out to her.
"Drink it, you've been running around outside. I can't have you fainting, Father would blame me for that as well." Kamen stated plainly.
The water splashed over the edges of the cup as it was passed from one to the other, and Artemis stared at it for a few seconds before moving it into her other hand and wiping the now wet palm onto her pinafore.
"Gee, I wish I had a piece of cloth with me at all times that I could just wipe my hands with." Kamen scoffed at the gesture.
She pursed her lips at him, blinking in an almost haughty gesture, "You do, it's called a handkerchief."
He glanced at the reddened cloth—now turning a lovely purplish color—still on the other side of Artemis on the table, and returned to his stool, "Yes, and it's currently covered in raspberry jam from my latest attempt at being a gentleman."
"You botched it terribly, too." She smiled, returning her attention to the glass and breaking the surface of the liquid with a cautious sip. Half the glass had been drained when she held it out to Kamen, offering the last bit of the water in a peace offering, "We don't drink much water at home, most of it has to be purified from the ocean."
Kamen accepted the glass with a confused scowl, "Purified."
"It isn't safe to drink, so you have to be careful." Artemis explained quickly.
He shrugged, "The water in London is like that, all the industry does a great job at employment, but terrible at keeping the place sanitary. The worst gray it gets here is when it rains, but in London it's always gray, gray and beige. All that stone and cloudy weather." He shook his head slowly.
Michealis stood in the doorway with a smile on his face, waiting patiently for his turn to speak, golden eyes alight, "I trust all the biscuits haven't been devoured?"
Kamen shook his head, "Just the one."
"Ah." He smiled to the girl, "Miss Artemis, I trust you have been fed enough?"
"Well enough." Artemis returned his smile.
"I'll just take a bit of it up to Miss Lillaine then, feel free to take whatever you wish." The jam, cream, a couple of the biscuits, and all the essentials for tea were loaded onto a tray and placed within the dumbwaiter—daisies to follow in the hands of the butler for fear of them toppling in the elevator contraption.
Kamen didn't follow Artemis and Michealis to visit Lillaine, the thought of his sister sick in bed once again left an unsettling feeling in his stomach, enhanced by the food he had eaten and demanding another glass of water to quell his nerves.