Duty

Chapter 51 Baby steps

Vara glanced at Chloe who stood at the window overlooking the garden. She smiled amused at the dreamy look in the servant girl's eyes. "Why don't you talk to him?" she spoke up.

Chloe flinched and turned around. She lowered her eyes. "Forgive me, my lady. I will go back to work now."

Vara rolled her eyes. "I'm sure the floors can wait a few minutes. They'll only get dirty again after I finish with this." She scowled at the table and glared at her hands.

Chloe looked up and frowned. "What on earth are you doing, my lady?"

Vara sighed. "I asked Eudemas to teach me how to make the bread, but now she has left me with this mess." She shook her hand and watched as a blob of sticky dough fell back onto the table.

Chloe couldn't help but let out a giggle. How lost Vara looked! There was probably more flour on her face than in the dough. She moved to the table. "It's not so bad, my lady," she assured Vara, "you only need to add a little more flour and keep kneading the dough. It is hard work and it takes a lot of patience, but then the dough will not be so sticky anymore and you can form it. Here, I will show you."

Vara huffed undignified and wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist. "I should be able to make the bread. It doesn't look so complicated when you and Eudemas do it."

Chloe shook her head amused as she took over from Vara. "Why would my lady even want to learn?" There was really no need to. She had servants to do the work for her.

Vara shrugged. "I like to be useful. This is my household. It is my choice if I want to work alongside you."

"Of course," Chloe said quietly while continuing kneading the dough.

Vara sighed. "Chloe," she said softly, "I didn't bring you to Boncini to punish you." She might have partially done it to spite Cyrus, but she had Chloe's best interest at heart. "I want you to be able to live your own life. Find happiness. Trust me, I know what it is like when others decide your life for you. Lykander is a good man. Perhaps you should give him a chance."

Chloe bit her lip and glanced at the window longingly. She had to admit that she had grown to enjoy Lykander's company. She was just afraid of getting hurt.

Vara smiled knowingly. "Go talk to him," she said, "in the end it will still be your choice whether you accept him or not, but you'll never know if you don't take the chance."

Chloe hesitated. "Like you with lord Iason?" she asked quietly. She bit her lip. The question was a little presumptuous, but Vara merely smiled.

"Yes," she said, "like that." Now she held a longing look of her own. Iason was currently away, making visits to the border patrol and reading through reports. He had been gone for several days and would be a few more. She missed him.

Fifty more men had been sent from the regiment to Salvire in Tirèze. A few days later, king Marcos had sent a hundred more. The reports they had received so far were promising. Still, it worried Vara that they seemed unable to put an end to the attacks completely. A few villages in the North had been pillaged. The soldiers had managed to capture some of the attackers, but a lot of people had lost their homes. It was Sylice all over again.

"He will be home soon." Chloe had been watching Vara carefully and had seen the loving expression on her face.

Vara smiled at her. "Yeah."

"There," Chloe said while dropping the large pile of dough on the table, "it only needed a little more time. Now it should rest so it can grow and then it can go into the oven. "