Golden Duty: A Golden Novella

Chapter Two. The Temple

Thirteen years old

"Princess Sophie! You must stop now. The King and Queen will be back any minute!" One of my ladies called out. I was thirteen years old and making a mess of the palace kitchen. I found my grandmother's personal recipe book in the library and was trying to make waffles.

Marina, one of the ladies who had been looking after me since I was very young came running into the kitchen, hand to her chest, catching her breath. Upon seeing the state of the kitchen counter, her eyes widened and swept around the room. Both her hands flew to her mouth and she let out a loud gasp.

"Princess Sophie! What have you done! It will take us ages to clean this up! The Royal Messenger has just told us that your parents are on their way home!" She bustled up beside me and began cleaning up the flour that had scattered on the counter.

"Don't worry too much, dear Marina. You're exaggerating. This will be a breeze to clean up," I told her before looking around at the mess I've made. My eyes widened as well as I realized that the mess was much bigger than I thought. There was a thin layer of flour covering almost every surface. That happened when the first bag fell from the highest cupboard. There were also eggshells, as well as broken eggs littered on the ground, as well as spilled sugar and milk.

"Why would you need seven bowls to make just a few waffles, princess?" She asked, baffled at the high stack of bowls and pans near the sink. "And all the spoons are dirty as well!"

"Well, I couldn't get the measurements right so I just kept doing it over and over," I said, not feeling guilty at the wasted food. I kept on stirring, though, confident that I got the recipe right this time.

"Oh, princess. Let's hope the Queen doesn't enter this room before it's cleaned," Marina said with a sigh.

I smiled at her and began to ladle mixture into the waffle iron. It smelled so good, my mouth was watering. Several more of my ladies entered the kitchen upon being called by Marina. They all looked as dumbstruck as Marina did when she first got here. But under Marina's direction, they methodically and effectively began to clean the kitchen.

In the end, I had managed to make fifteen large waffles. My dark hair became frizzy with the heat from the waffle iron, and I was sweating profusely, but it was worth it. We placed the waffles on a large plate, except for one which I saved for my mother. I generously drizzled a large amount of molasses on top of it and told my ladies to make sure that no one touched it while I took a bath.

I was on my way to my room when my mother and father appeared. At first, they didn't notice I was there and I silently watched them. Father's arm was around mom's shoulder while hers was around his waist. As they crossed the threshold, father turned mother to face him, put a hand under her chin and bent down to kiss her, quick and sweet.

Then my mother turned towards the stairs and saw me.

"Sophie! What have you done?" She laughed. My father, still looking at her, smiled when she laughed then turned to me too. It was his turn to laugh loudly, holding his nonexistent belly.

"I see my little twister has brought devastation to the palace kitchen," he said when he calmed down. He moved to me, and began dusting flour off the top of my head. "What were you doing,  mon chaton?"

I smiled at him and mother and proudly said, "I was making grandmère's waffles."

My mother, too, approached me and helped father dust off even more flour and also wiped something from my cheek. "And did you call grandmère to get her recipe, mon ange?"

"No, I found her recipe book in the library. There was a note next to it saying that it was your favorite so I wanted to make it for you," I told her.