~Chapter 13~
The next morning, everything falls back into routine for Nicholas, like a family after the Christmas season, the only thing different being his relative celebrity status among the other staff members.
While he is making breakfast, many different people come by and congratulate him the wonderful job he did and how he impressed the king so much. Nicholas has no idea how they heard about this, but as soon as Teresa walks through the door, he realizes who must have let their mouth run loose.
"What have you done, Teresa?" he asks her.
"I may have told a few people about how impressed the king was with you and how amazing your decorating skills are. It wasn't very many," she insists.
"It has apparently spread like wildfire," Nicholas adds.
"Well, I may have intended for that to happen…" Teresa explains.
Nicholas shakes his head. "You are so mischievous."
"I can't help it! You're like my little boy now and I just have to brag about you. It's written in a mother's handbook," Teresa says.
"Mothers don't have a handbook," Nicholas states.
"Who are you to say that? You haven't ever, aren't, and never will be a mother. We could have a whole library of tips and tricks and you would never be the wiser," Teresa scolds mischievously.
"We'll just have to leave it a mystery," Nicholas concludes as he heads toward the door upstairs. "Plus, you're not even my mother," he adds.
"I might as well be!" Teresa shouts back as Nicholas disappears.
Breakfast proceeds per usual and almost how Nicholas expected. As he is cleaning up, Xander once again comments, "I have to thank you again for yesterday, Nicholas. It was very kind of you to give up a very enjoyable experience for an important meeting,"
"Thank you very much, milord," Nicholas says.
"I just have to ask you one thing," Xander adds.
"What might that be?" Nicholas asks.
"Why did you go so above and beyond what was expected of you? It certainly isn't like I told you to make almost everything yourself, decorate the room so elaborately, and serve a meal that could have been used for Thanksgiving. It just makes me wonder why you did so much," Xander explains.
"That's a very easy question to answer," Nicholas says. "I suppose first of all I wanted to show my loyalty, though that isn't really the main reason…"
"What might be the main reason?" Xander presses.
Nicholas pauses for a moment before coming up with an answer. "I think of it as my duty. As your butler, I have the job of representing you in the things I do for you. I wanted to make the meeting hall to look as nice as possible to reflect well on you. The nicer the meeting hall is; the nicer people will think of you. In a way, I see it as my duty to go above and beyond."
Xander notices Nicholas's hesitation and suspects there is more to this than the boy is letting on, but all he responds with is, "Thank you, then, Nicholas. You certainly represented me well."
Nicholas bows silently and exits. Xander watches the door even after he leaves and ponders Nicholas's actions. No one ever goes above and beyond like that just because of duty. It isn't something the human nature usually does. He makes silent plans to find out more.
Nothing else breaks the routine of the day until dinnertime when Nicholas discovers a particularly frustrated Abel standing at one of the cooking stations after returning from serving Xander's dinner. Abel appears to be making soup.
"What's the matter, Abel?" Nicholas asks. Abel huffs and drops the wooden spoon he was stirring with on the counter.
"I just can't get it to taste good at all!" he complains. "It always just tastes bland, like lightly salted water. I don't even know what to do with it."
"Oh, it can't be that bad," Nicholas says. "Here, let me find some things for you." He pulls some of his favorite spices for soup from the shelves and hands them to Abel. "Remember, the only way you will ever get good at anything is through lots and lots of practice. It's okay to make a bland soup sometimes as long as you remember what makes it bland and improve on it the next time."
Nicholas watches Abel for a bit. "You know, you remind me a lot of myself when I was younger," he says.
"How so?" Abel asks.
"I was relentlessly hard on myself. I don't know exactly where it came from, but I wanted to get everything down right away without any work at all," Nicholas explains.
"Wouldn't that be nice. I wish that's how life works," Abel laments.
"But that's not how the world works, and so I had to learn how to deal with it. Working hard is the only way you'll ever get better at something and that's what I had to learn. It never really clicked until after I found motivation, but once you have the motivation, the hard work just tends to flow through your body," Nicholas says. "What is your motivation, Abel?"
"Umm…" Abel says thinking. "I guess it's because I want to be able to stand on my own and not rely on other's help as often. I get kind of tired having to ask people for help all the time even though I need it."
"And the only way you are ever going to do that is by practice. Now, pick a few spices and try adding a bit of each. If you like it, even just a bit, write down what you put it, and adjust it next time till you come up with combinations that you like," Nicholas suggests.
After a couple minutes of taking samples out and spicing them, Abel finds a combination that makes his eyes pop open when he tastes it. "This tastes amazing!" he exclaims.
"See? Now, make sure you write it down before you forget," Nicholas reminds him.
"But I don't have any paper to write it down on…" Abel says.
"That's okay. I have some back at my house you can use. Come on, why don't you visit for the evening? We can play some games with a deck of cards I found," Nicholas offers.
"Sure! We can play Go Fish, and Crazy Eights, and all sort of other things!" Abel says eagerly.
"You bet we can. Come on," Nicholas says leading the way out and making sure to lock the door behind him. Xander's strong words still stick in his head.
A beautiful sunset shows through the iron fence perimeter on the outside of the little village when Nicholas walks up to his front door with Abel. He ushers him inside and follows right after.
"Neat house," Abel comments. "Cool! You have a brick fireplace! My house has stone."
"Well, I can only assume they give a few extra commodities to the butler of the king," Nicholas suggests. "Why don't you start the fire while I get my stationary?" Abel carefully uses the flint and steel to start the fire while Nicholas retrieves his paper from his bedside table. When he brings it back, they spend a few minutes remembering and writing down the things Abel used.
After they finish, Nicholas gets out a deck of cards and starts playing a simple game of Go Fish with Abel. Abel smiles through the whole game, just happy to be hanging out with someone.
"You know, I've told you a little bit about how I was brought up but I don't know a lot about you. What was your life like when you were really young?" Nicholas says in the middle of a round.
Abel looks lost in thought like he's trying to recall something. "It wasn't really that exciting," he finally says. "It was kind of like yours, except that I've lived near the castle for my whole life. It was kind of hard too because my parents were really good at their job but I wasn't like you've seen. So I just became a generic worker, so I didn't have a specific responsibility and it didn't matter if I mess up. That's where I am today too, I guess."
Nicholas smiles comfortingly. "At least you know you will always be able to improve."
Abel yawns very loudly. Nicholas notices and glances out the window. "It's getting late. Perhaps you should be going home."
"No, it's okay," Abel assures. "My parents don't mind if I stay out late. Let's just finish this game.
"Okay, then," Nicholas says. He examines his hand for a bit and places his next card on the pile for a game of Crazy Eights. When he looks up, he sees that Abel has already fallen asleep in the chair.
"Ah, the power of cushioned chairs…" Nicholas mumbles to himself. He packs up the cards, puts a blanket over Abel, and goes to bed himself.