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Chapter 6- Testing

Forty minutes later, Mrs. C was gleefully heaping more mashed potatoes on Jude's plate while L and I sat slumped in our chairs wondering where he was putting it all.

"You eat as much as you want, darlin'!" she cooed, pouring gravy over the monstrous mass of potatoes and chicken. "I'm glad that you appreciate a home cooked meal."

Her cold look and word emphasis weren't lost on me as she hurried off to the kitchens, humming. I yawned and lifted my head from my arms. "You don't need to eat all of that, you know."

Jude, already half-finished the plate, frowned. "Why not? I want to."

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full." L reprimanded him as he pierced a sugar cube with a toothpick and slid it into his mouth with his teeth. "It's not polite."

I wrinkled my nose. "Look who's talking."

Jude lifted his green eyes from his plate for the first time since we had sat down and sighed. "You lot can go off elsewhere until I'm finished. I'm not rushing for anyone."

Exasperated, I checked the time on the large clock that hung behind the child beginning to grate my patience. "It's half nine, you have fifteen minutes. Did they not feed you today?"

Jude rolled his eyes and dug back into his fourth helping. Well at least Mrs. C had taken a shine to him, I doubted anyone else would.

After watching Jude devour the first plate of food set in front of him, Wammy had chuckled and said that he was all ours and that we could find him in his office after we ended our meeting with Jude. I think even he had had enough of the willful teenager for the day.

"Ah, and just as you're finishing up, I have a surprise!"

The three of us turned to see Mrs. C marching back into the room, a large tray with a silver cover balanced carefully in her practiced hands.

Jude perked up a little as she proudly set the tray down in front of us and removed the cover with a flourish. L let out an audible moan of longing.

A dark chocolate cake dripping with icing and festooned in spun sugar flowers, birds, and ribbons was centered on a white doily. At its base were silver bowls of vanilla ice cream with sliced strawberries resting on top of fluffy mounds of whipped cream. The entire confection was coated in powdered sugar. I smiled, realizing Mrs. C had finally taken my suggestions to heart and given L something he really wanted for a change. She was going to make his year.

"There!" she announced triumphantly, wearing a rare grin. "Alice and I worked on this one for the majority of the day!"

"Oh my..." I whispered, my mouth watering for a taste of the icing. I knew it would be the singular best dessert I'd ever had as soon as it passed my lips, and that time couldn't come fast enough.

"Mrs. Coppersmith, dare I say it, but I love you." L muttered, his large eyes glued to the ambrosia in front of him. "This is perfect, unbelievable...I don't know quite what to say..."

"Don't bother to thank me," she sniffed, curtly. "Because this little love here is the only one who deserves any."

"WHAT?!" L and I cried out, outraged. "That's not fair!"

That devilish woman tried to silence us with one of her threatening glares. "You two on the same side? That's new! It is completely fair and don't be playing any of your nonsense mind games on me! I watched the pair of you simply bicker bicker bicker while the delicious soup in front of you turned cold earlier on and neither of you ate a single bite!"

I turned slowly to see L's guilty eyes meet mine for a second before they focused back on his imprisoned prize. "You liar!" I exclaimed, while Mrs. C maintained her icy glare.