The King and The Baker

Chapter 28

By the time they all sat down for the meal, Ora had already necked two, maybe three, glasses of wine. Of course, she was being careful, but she was now relaxed, not tipsy, nowhere near drunk, but veryrelaxed.

She gravitated towards Dis who was taking a seat in-between her sons, but Thorin took her arm and pulled her back.

"You're sitting with me." He mumbled when she shot him an alarmed look, which didn't falter when he'd elaborated on his intention.

Ora's gaze shifted to the head of the table, where the large, fancy chair was sat waiting for its King.

"But you sit at the head of the table." Ora observed quietly.

"Well done."

"And you want me to sit next to you." Her eyes flickered to the empty seat on the right to the head chair.

"Aye, it is only proper as my consort." He told her, pushing her forward gently and stepped around her to his chair.

Ora opened her mouth to protest, but just as she did Dain appeared behind the chair on the opposite side of the table, grinning broadly at her and already looking a little bit drunk.

"Ora!" He boomed, startling her a little despite being aware of his presence, "How good to see you, my friend." He then leant over the table a little, resting on the chair in front of him and making it creak under his weight. He put his hand up to shield the right side of his mouth from the rest of the table, "I wanted to say hello," He 'whispered' but was still loud enough for the rest of the room to hear, "But Lord Oldy over here," He jabbed his finger to point at Lord Arvid who was glaring at him from the next seat. Ora tried to keep a straight face when Dain continued, "Was taking up all the time."

He then leant back, winked at Ora and smirked at Thorin, who was glaring at his cousin.

"Please, everyone," Thorin more or less growled to the table, but his eyes were still glaring at Dain, "Take a seat."

And so they all did, all the while Ora tried to remember what she was supposed to be doing. It was funny, she could remember everything she needed to know about staying alive in The Wild, but she couldn't remember how to stay alive in a room of wealthy, mostly haughty blue-bloods.

And haughty they were.

Spare a few (Dis, Fili, Kili and Dain mainly - even Thorin was haughty sometimes, but whenever he said something Ora didn't approve of she showed him her discontent by stamping on his foot under the table) but the rest of the table had Ora biting her cheek and staring into the steadily shallowing bottom of her wine glass.

All the while, the servers went about their business, ignoring any rude comments or simply nodding politely. Ora did notice Fili's eyes watch the red head adamantly, but thus far he hadn't done anything toobad to her, other than call upon her solely whenever he wanted something. The poor lass looked a little exasperated, like she was one silly request away from biting his head off. Ora liked her.

"Ora?"

Thorin's low voice popped her mental bubble like a pin, and she turned back to her King with slightly raised brows.

"Aye?"

Thorin's expression was blank, like it usually was in front of company, "Is everything all right?"

She blinked at him a few times, suddenly dawning on her that she had been staring off with a blank expression on her face. Realising this, she grinned at Thorin, "Of course, sorry, I was away with the faeries a bit."

"I've seen a faerie before, you know." Dain commented loudly from around a leg of lamb. Ora raised her brows at him and Thorin groaned quietly.

"Really?" Ora asked, half humouring him, half genuinely interested.