It's been a long time, but now that I've finished up with my other stories I can finally give this one the attention it deserves. Thus, I present chapter three! Before anything else, I want to thank the reviewers of the previous chapter: BlueNynaeve, saltwater dreamer, Arista Everett June, and JJK. I hope you enjoy the update!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 3:
"Why would anyone use this thing to eat? It's so tiny!"
Rapunzel had picked up a dessert fork from the row of utensils arrayed before her and was regarding it with a baffled expression. "Maybe you could pull out stitches with it," she mused, poking it into the hem of her dress to test her hypothesis.
Nick immediately seized the fork from her hand. "No."
She looked at him with wide blue eyes, her expression asking, Why? Why are you so cruel to me, future-brother-in-law? Three days into their etiquette lessons, Nick had grown quite accustomed to that expression.
He simply looked back at her, his own eyes bluntly answering her unspoken question: Because the most important thing to me at present is memorizing the circulatory system of the human body, and you are an unwelcome distraction from that task.
Rapunzel sighed and looked down at the various steak knives and soup spoons that Nick had brought to the tower. "How did you learn all this?" she asked.
"I don't remember," Nick replied. "I suppose I instinctively absorbed these things as a young child. I think Will had some formal instruction in etiquette. He didn't take to good manners very readily."
A stupid smile had spread across Rapunzel's pretty face. This happened whenever Nick mentioned his older brother. "Will told me that he dislikes social strictures," the love-struck young lady announced.
"Indeed." The crueler part of Nick wanted to add a cutting remark about how Will's quest to avoid 'social strictures' had led him to search for and find a bride suspiciously concealed in the forest. Nick's kinder half, however, told him to bite his tongue.
"You're not married, Nicholas?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I'm still in medical school. It's too soon for me to marry." Nick frowned at her. How had they jumped to this topic? He decided to steer the conversation back to etiquette. "In formal settings, you should avoid introducing such personal topics."
"Why?"
"It's considered rude."
Rapunzel crossed her arms over her chest, tilted her head to the side, and regarded Nick with a baffled expression. "Then what should I talk about in formal settings?"
Nick looked to heaven, as though beseeching God for patience. "Anything neutral. The weather. Gowns. Food, although I suppose that's more appropriate in a company of men. Personally, my favorite topic is the intricacies of human lymph nodes."
After a brief pause, Rapunzel smiled. "You're joking."
"Indeed." His eyes widened as he glanced at his pocket watch. "Rapunzel, I must be going. There's a guest lecturer at the university today, and I can't miss her presentation."
"Is she very important?" Rapunzel asked, clearing away the utensils that she had been studying and stuffing them back into Nick's shoulder bag.
"Professor Auttenberg is the first woman to receive a doctorate from my university, and an expert in the field of genetics. It's a very recent field, you know. Some say she perfected Mendel's methodology. We don't have a genetics professor on staff, so I can't miss this opportunity to learn about the field." In his enthusiasm, he was sharing more than Rapunzel could possibly want to know.
But the young woman was very easily swept up in others' emotions, and Nick's eagerness was getting to her. "Then you must go! You mustn't be late. Hurry!" She quite literally dumped her hair out the window and gestured for her future brother-in-law to depart.
"Thank you," he briskly said, taking hold of the golden locks and lowering himself out the window. No matter how many times he did this, it still felt strangely vile. "I'll return in the morning," he shouted up as he descended via the rope of hair.
"No, my mother will be here then," Rapunzel called down to him. "Come in the afternoon."
"I have a class in the afternoon."
"It must be the afternoon."
"Fine, the afternoon." He reached the base of the tower and cursed his misfortune. In addition to being socially unsuitable, his brother's fiancé was ruining his studies. Even now, he would barely make it to the talk at the university. He hurtled through the forest, unwilling to miss even a single word.
Unfortunately, he missed several words, careening through the door of the lecture hall just as Dr. Auttenberg finished her opening remarks. "Thank you for announcing your arrival so dramatically," she said drily. Her voice contained just a hint of a German accent. "Dr. Richardson, is this the promising young medical student of whom you were speaking earlier?"
"Quite so," Dr. Richardson replied, glaring darkly at Nick as he slinked to a seat in the back of the hall. "I apologize for the disturbance."
"No apology is needed," Auttenberg said with a graceful bow of her head. "Now, provided we have no further interruptions, I will present my preliminary findings on hereditary mutations in hair pigmentation, texture, and growth rates. By next winter's national conference, I will be able to at last report the results of a longitudinal study that I have been conducting over the past several years…"
Still red-faced with shame, Nick found it hard to focus on the initial portions of the presentation. However, as she continued her talk, he found himself utterly struck by the novelty and relevance of her findings to his own interests, not to mention the precision and wittiness of her presentation style.
"Turning to the matter of growth rates…"
Now his ears really did perk up. Growth rates? This was exactly what he needed to become familiar with. Rapunzel was most definitely a living example of someone carrying a mutated gene for growth rates. He made a mental note to acquire and read all of Dr. Auttenberg's previous papers. If he was to understand Rapunzel's peculiar condition, he would need to become well-versed in prior research. And there was no research more crucial than that of Dr. Auttenberg.
But he had made such an ass of himself with his late entrance. An apology was in order. As soon as Auttenberg's talk ended, he sheepishly made his way to the front of the hall and joined the line of students eager to converse with the famed professor. The woman was far too affable: she spent several minutes answering each individual student's pretentious and self-aggrandizing questions. At last it was Nick's turn, and his face reddened with embarrassment as Auttenberg fixed him with an amused smile.
"I am so sorry," he blurted out. "I didn't mean any disrespect; I was just running late…"
Her smile only widened. She really was a very elegant woman, tall and willowy, her dark brown hair neatly gathered into a bun at the base of her neck. Strangely, Nick found himself wishing he was a decade or two older.
"There's truly no need to apologize," she was saying, although he was not really listening. "At the very least, I hope that you found the presentation stimulating. Your Professor Richardson says you've expressed an interest in genetics."
"I have," Nick hastily said, pleased that Richardson had spoken well of him. "I'd be very interested in reading more of your work, but unfortunately, our library doesn't carry as many of your papers as I would like. Your dissertation is here, of course, since you earned your doctorate here, and naturally we'd keep that on record, as we keep records from all past students..." He realized that he was babbling incoherently, so he quickly added, "It's just that we have little else."
Auttenberg was kind enough to pretend that she hadn't noticed his lack of composure. "If you are interested, I can certainly send copies of my papers to Richardson," she graciously offered. Turning towards the man in question, she called out, "Harold!"
"Yes, Maria?" he said from the other side of the room.
"If I ship you my recent papers, will you make sure that they make their way to this young man?"
"Of course."
"Then that's settled," she said, turning to smile brilliantly at Nick once again. Her teeth were astonishingly white. "Would you remind me of your name?"
"Nicholas Ormandy," he said, thrilled that she cared to know his name, rather than remembering him simply as Harold Richardson's unpunctual protégé.
"Well, Mr. Ormandy, I'll have the librarians ship my papers to your professor as soon as I return to my university."
"Yes. Thank you so much, Professor Auttenberg. I can't wait to read them. I'm sure they'll be extremely instructive."
She merely smiled in response. The conversation was clearly over, so Nick quickly bowed and scampered out of the hall. He could feel Richardson watching him with considerable amusement as he departed.
It was unusual for him to feel so flustered, but of course, he told himself, only a fool could remain calm in the presence of such a prodigious intellect. He would read Auttenberg's papers as soon as they arrived. He would master their contents, and when she returned to give another talk, the two of them would spend hours discussing the intricacies of genetic inheritance. Perhaps someday she would recommend him for a position at her very own university. He would protest that he had trained to become a practicing physician, but of course she would convince him to take up a research position. Their findings would most definitely change history.
His imaginings grew ever loftier and ever more removed from reality as he walked. Only when he reached the front door of his home did he come crashing back to earth. Whatever the future held, for now he had to play nurse to Will's insipid fiancé. This was entirely beneath him.
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