Valentine’s Day with the Knights of the Third Order
Valentine’s Day with the Knights of the Third Order
THE FINISHED BROWNIES had been taste tested by my coworkers and been well received. Jude even had two pieces—one for him and one for his sweet tooth. Johan did, too, for that matter.
I thought they’d come out pretty good, so I took some of the brownies over to the barracks of the Knights of the Third Order. I was a bit worried, though, since Albert wasn’t fond of sweets.
“Please pardon my intrusion,” I said as I entered the office of the knight commander.
As usual, Albert stood from his seat to greet me. Then he invited me to sit on one of the two sofas that faced each other.
“I heard from Johan that you’ve been working on some kind of new confection,” Albert said as soon as I sat down, which surprised me. I had only made the brownies the day before. News sure traveled fast.
“I saw Johan last night,” he told me with a wry smile. “He bragged all about getting to test it.”
Somehow, I could perfectly imagine this scenario. That man… I let out an exasperated chuckle.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. The maid waited for Albert’s response before coming in with tea. I came here only occasionally for teatime, but they always served it so quickly. The knight standing guard at the door must have summoned her.
After receiving the tea, I poured it into cups and placed the brownies on plates beside them on the table.
Albert smiled at the sight of the lovely spread. “So you did bring me some.”
“Mm-hmm. I know you don’t really love sweets, but I hope you enjoy it.”
“You’re right that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but Johan made me curious.”
“Is that so?”
“In fact, if you hadn’t brought this here today, I was planning to drop by the institute tomorrow.”
What?! He wanted to try them that badly? My eyes widened. I couldn’t say I wasn’t surprised.
Then Albert gave me a smile sweeter than any brownie.
Don’t do that! You’ll make me blush! I averted my eyes in an attempt to calm my pounding heart and sat on the sofa again.
However, after I did that, I didn’t hear Albert’s usual invitation to drink. I tilted my head in curiosity.
The moment our eyes met, he opened his mouth. I froze, confused. He smiled mischievously. “I heard that when you let your coworker taste it, you fed it to him.”
“What?!”
I knew exactly what he was talking about! That Jude, opening his mouth so I could feed him like some kind of baby bird! And Johan had seen the whole thing. Johan had told Albert the whole thing.
And hey, Jude was one thing, but how could it possibly be proper to hand-feed a noble like Albert?!
“U-um, wouldn’t that be a terrible breach of etiquette?” I asked.
“In a public space, yes. But it’s just the two of us. It’s fine.”
“I-I see.”
He said that with such anticipation written all over his face that I had no choice. I worked up my courage and popped a brownie into his mouth.