Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Chapter 7: Don't cry over spilled soup

"Okay," she finally spoke with depressed reticence "Go on without me. I'll just get cleaned up and if Madam Shiela doesn't tan my hide I'll be back to help as soon as I can."

"Finally!" Mel commented "Let's go, let's go. I mean, I'm sorry and all, but we HAVE to keep moving"

Liara deadpanned on the serving girl, "You know you really need to shut up"

Mels' eyes went wide. Verushka quickly stepped into the breach, "Let's just calm down. Mina is going back and we are going to press on. And Liara be careful of what you say because sometimes people who don't know you will think you don't like them."

Even Mina snickered at that comment, which considering her current predicament meant that it was pretty damn funny.

Liara smiled widely at Mel with a certain glint in her eye. "Well, we can't have that, by all means Melissa, lead the way."

"Try not to stab her in the back," Mina called out quietly to Liara as the three girls started forward again.

Liara, at the back of the line, just looked back over her shoulder and winked at her friend on the floor.

Mina laughed a little under her breath and then sobered as she saw the floor with its myriad of accruements again.

"Stupid, stupid Mina." she chastised herself as she started to scrape pudding off the floor. "You're always so clutzy...why can't you just walk in a straight line from point A to point B?? Why , WHY??"

"Well, where would be the fun in that?" came a familiar humorous drawl from behind her.

Mina tensed.

Horseshit

She turned slowly, hesitantly; praying that she was going stark raving mad like Ol'Henry the Gardener who heard voices all the day long. Mina held her breath, squinted her eyes and looked toward the voice.

No such luck as Henry - damn.

She let out her breath in a whoosh of air as her heart kicked into a stampede of horses. Not just regular horses...no stallions...the ones at.. what was that place where they raced? Ah, yes, Ascots! Her heart beat was like a dozen of those horses stampeding across the track. There he was leaning against the edge of an open doorway- the man from the street- smiling at her with that, oh so mysterious smile of his. His boots were a supple black leather encasing his calves, his pants were a deep graphite that stretched perfectly around each thigh while his waistcoat was a beautiful dusty white like flour before it's baked. His clothes weren't just clothes, they were artwork and she could sketch him all day. They sculpted his body perfectly, and over it all he wore an ashen dinner coat with tails that matched the cravat at his throat. And then she met his eyes which were the lightest of greys, rimmed with silver and twinkling with amusement.

Wow, she thought.

"Wow, indeed" he answered

Mina's jaw dropped. Surely she hadn't just said that, but by the 'cat that ate the cream' smile on his face, of course she did. And she had just ogled him, from his boots to that slightly ruffled head of hair that was the only thing out of place in his whole outfit. But it was so him... she didn't know how she knew that, but she did.

"So...," he licked his lips, "what do we have here?" He walked forward with precision, like every step he took was carefully calculated, then crouched down to eye level on the floor. "Why is it that every time I see you, you are covered in food?"

Mina's instant attraction fell back as natural male aggression took its well kept place. "Hey! That's not true and I just fell. You could at least help me!" Somewhere in the back of her mind she realised she had just demanded a line of nobility get on the floor and scrape stew from the rug, but Mina never let a little thing like that stop her. "And you shouldn't creep up on people, it's not polite," she continued.