Melting Snow

Three

Sorry it's taken so long guys, it's holiday season and I got a job and it's just been crazy! But thanks to all who read this, and don't forget to comment! =)

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Melting Snow - Chapter 3

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            Cooking with Brione became a usual occurrence. Even though I would let no one else come near my work, she was like an extension of myself; two extra hands that somehow knew exactly what I wanted and was able to deliver with amazing precision. It was almost as if my father had found her solely for this purpose; as if she had been put here for this specific reason. But I refused to think that destiny or fate had anything to do with it. My father was just able to read her character and know how great of a friend she would be for me.

            As a matter of fact, she ended up moving into my room with me. There was always an extra bed, and I received a note one day from the king that told me he was looking to find a new maidservant and that she would be stationed in my quarters. I didn’t want to share my space with anyone, but I decided that if someone was going to be forced on me it might as well be someone I enjoyed spending time with. So I spoke to Brione and she agreed to switch rooms; apparently her rooming partner didn’t suit her very well, either. So in less than an hour, a note was sent back to King Richard informing him of the change of plans, and when nothing returned I simply assumed that he had no qualms about it.

            The new girl arrived, turned out to be just as vile as I had anticipated, and got along swimmingly with Brione’s old roommate. And Brione and I were able to avoid them at all times. It wasn’t my ideal plan, since I liked my quiet alone time, but my friend and I were always able to tell when the other needed to be left alone. Plus, since we were together for a better part of the day, gathering ingredients, cooking, serving, and then cleaning up, we ended up only having a few hours of freedom apart anyway. When you spend so much time with a person, you run out of things to say.

            Not that either of us needed to say anything. Brione and I became like twins, moving and stepping in sync with one another and always knowing what the other one was thinking. If I tasted a sauce, and then decided it needed more garlic, I could look over and see Brione already peeling a clove. Or if she couldn’t quite get the dicing right on a tomato I was using solely for garnish, I would step over and complete the chopping while she finished whichever task I was previously working on, all without a single second of time wasted.

            If I hadn’t been so short, with my pale skin and long black hair, I’m sure people would have mistaken us for sisters. But with her height, pinker skin, and her short cropped red hair that fell only to her shoulders, there was not a single similarity in our appearance. I didn’t even think about how that might affect her, up until the day that we had our first fight.

            Brione always had a slew of boys that followed her wherever she went; there was not a single day that went by without her at least receiving a small flower, or a note of love. She wasn’t quite ready for a serious endeavor, so she strung them all along and hoped one day that she would find someone who made her heart stop. The girl loved speaking of love, and knew it existed with every fiber of her being.

            I told her, simply, that I believed in it too. Thinking back to the sobs that racked my father’s dying body, I knew that nothing could degrade a man to that unless he truly loved it. I had never been able to see the love expressed to my mother directly, but I saw the aftermath of it. So while I believed in it, I feared it. Feared it with everything I had. Nothing, I whispered to her one night, nothing could make me want that. I would never be the hopeless heap that my father had been every night he came home.