Page 30 of A Slipper in the Smoke
Pip.
Elena looked up, her startled face quickly giving way to a smile. Pip beamed back, the type of grin that sent her stomach reeling.
He probably looks like that at everyone,she told herself.It means nothing.
“Good to see you,” Pip continued, placing down a small tray filled with treats. Elena’s mouth watered, and she bit into the first one eagerly; a small pastry stuffed with dates, a Navarran speciality. “I must admit I was worried about you yesterday.”
Elena shrugged. “I’m quite recovered, thank you.”
“Good,” he said, pouring her a cup of tea, “most excellent, in fact.”
She smiled at his manners, smiled at all of him, actually.
“Is there something on my face?” Pip asked, patting his cheeks. “You’re looking at me oddly.”
“You are very cute,” Elena replied, and then buckled at her own boldness, her cheeks on fire.
Pip froze, too. He scratched the back of his neck. “Cute. Yes, thank you, that’s what every man wants to hear from a pretty girl.”
Elena blinked, certain she’d misheard. She hadn’t been pretty since she was a girl in ribbons, before grease and exhaustion had wiped her looks from her. “You think I’m pretty?”
Pip stared at her, eyes wide. “Was that not obvious? Or… or was it inappropriate? It was inappropriate, wasn’t it? I apologise—”
“Pip,” she said quietly, “what are you doing here?”
“Flirting with you very badly, apparently.”
The smile curled up again, brighter than before. Flirting. He was flirting with her. Seeing her. She was being seen.
“I’m almost finished with work,” she said, “if you want to take a walk afterwards?”
His beam, if possible, grew wider. “I’d be delighted.”
Before long, the two of them headed out into the gardens, lawns thick with moonlight. She spoke to him of Navarra, memories of sleeping with her friends beneath the folded stars. Pip was quieter, listening to her tales, but told her a little of Toulouse, too.
“How long have you served the royal family?” she asked him.
“Come again?”
“Your job,” she said. “How long have you been doing it?”
He sighed. “What feels like my entire life.”
“Is it a family job?”
“Most certainly.”
She smiled, turning to face him. “Tell me more of your family.”
“Ah, well, it’s just the three of us. No siblings. A fair few extended family, though. One very busy-body grandma…”
“I think I like her already.”
“Oh, you’d change your mind if you met her. Woman’s a battleaxe.”
“I do enjoy a well-crafted weapon…”
He laughed, short but full. “My mother is a lovely woman. Strict but fair. Affectionate if you know how she shows it. A little too interested in my love life…” He trailed off. “My father is another matter. He thinks I should be free to follow my own heart, even though…”
