Then he knocked on the door of Reinette's shop.
Reinette opened it and said, "I'm sorry I'm closed."
"I was looking for Mrs. Harrington."
"I'm sorry my grandmother left on a train last week. She's headed to the kingdom of Montserrat to the small village in their mountains called Aldwyn. She's going to live with my Uncle Anders, my mother's older brother. He never married and offered my grandmother to come live with him."
"I'm sorry I missed her. Her bread was wonderful. It was missed when she was forced to shut down. I was told you're her granddaughter? How long have you been in town, Miss Harrington?"
"It's Kyden, Reinette Kyden. She was my mother's mother. I came in a few weeks ago. My grandmother wanted to make sure the place was officially mine and I was settled in before she left. I'm from the Kingdom of Kiylee. I attended Vinson college and took up cooking then eventually baking there. My grandmother left me all her old recipes."
"My apologies, Miss Kyden. My name is Yami Atemu. The King loved your desserts. We'd be happy to have you cater our event. I'm not sure of the exact number of both guests and staff but we'll have 1500 to up to 2000 possibly more people in attendance. Again my apologies for not having the exact number of guests or children that will be in attendance or if anyone has any allergies. You will get lots of exposure but we will of course pay you. You will be paid $900 for the whole event." Seeing as she never even blinked when he mentioned his name he assumed that meant she obviously didn't do any research into the kingdom. Even a little research would have told her he was the king's assistant. They had not yet told anyone he was the king's half brother. He felt it should be kept between them. But he wasn't sure about Seto.
"That is a lot of people. I hate to have to turn down such a wonderful offer. I had to take out a loan to get the kitchen up to date. I don't have enough money for that many ingredients and my kitchen is too small to hold that much. Plus no staff to help bake more or help transport it."
Yami hadn't thought of that. "Ingredients we will gladly cover. Come by the castle tomorrow morning and I'll have my assistant Mazaki see if any of the staff have any baking experience or can find people to help. We have multiple kitchens. I'm positive we can get one or two up and running for you to use. I know two will be in use preparing the food for the banquet." He'd never cooked or baked before so he had no idea if any kitchen in the castle was equipped with what was needed for baking. He'd leave that to his assistant Mazaki to find out.
They chatted more of what she would need and Yami took notes. He wished they'd had more time seeing as the ball was tomorrow evening. But it couldn't be helped. He bid his farewell snacking on a new type of cookie she had been working on.
As he was headed back he heard someone singing. He spotted a small club that he'd never noticed before. But he had never come to town in the evening before so it wasn't that surprising he never noticed. He decided to check it out. He walked in and froze when he saw the young woman on the stage singing. It was Tess. The woman from his vision. She had said she was his fiance. He was enchanted by her beauty. Shoulder length full blonde hair and blue eyes. He was captivated by her. But then he remembered that in his vision of the future she had accused Mokuba and Maura 15-16 at the time of his vision of having sex with each other. Then Mokuba had said she didn't like him. He wondered if that could be true since she couldn't accept that the two, although not related, considered each other siblings. He debated upon whether he should act. In his vision he had obviously loved her enough to propose. But Mokuba's thoughts on whether or not she loved him made him nervous. What if she was just a golddigger? Could he really take that chance and approach her? No, not now. Maybe sometime next month he could ask her out and test her and see. For now he walked away. He was thankful the vision focused on Mokuba and not her. If it had focused on her he might have had trouble walking away from her.
He got home and after talking with his assistant Mazaki he was happy to learn he had already gotten with the chef to hire more people and he had hired a chamber orchestra for the party. He set him to work out the details for Reinette and her baked goods. He'd let the two of them work out more details when she arrived in the morning.
Aiki, one of the head maids had actually shooed Seto away assuring him they had things covered. She, along with several other maids and butlers, had most of the decorations for the ball finished. They had to recruit several guards to move chairs for the orchestra and tables for the punch and snack table. Then help move tables and chairs around in the dining hall to prepare for the banquet. There were more small things that would need to be finished up but it could be done tomorrow. Then that evening before the guest started arriving they'd need to finish setting up the decorations in the dining hall. Then take in the food and drink both alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks to the ballroom for people to snack on after the banquet.
It had actually been Princess Jasmine that suggested a banquet and King Mahaado had loved the idea so much Seto couldn't see shutting it down.
Other maids were preparing rooms in case anyone wanted to stay overnight. With so many visitors coming and not knowing how many were actually staying they recruited the pages and squires to help clean rooms. They could have asked Yami or Yugi for assistance with magic but Jamila the upstairs chambermaid refused when asked. She asked them "How would it look if the magic came undone or the person using the room was magical. They sense something about the room and thinking someone was meaning harm undid the magic only to find a dusty nasty room hiding beneath there. Would any of you like to then in front of the guests explain how instead of cleaning the room yourself. You took a shortcut and used magic? Now they are watching you clean the room yourself watching you like a hawk to be sure you get every nook and cranny." No one wanted that. A royal guest standing impatiently for you to thoroughly clean their room while they watched and possibly make snide or rude comments didn't appeal to any of them.
Mazaki wasn't happy with more to do but promised to help Reinette however he could.
X-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
Seto decided to call Natalia. He knew now that Samantha wasn't right for him. He thought so. But she didn't fight or argue against teaching Mokuba. She only had lessons planned out for Maura. It made him decide to test Raina, the new teacher as well. Then Samantha treated their relationship as if he were just a businessman having a fling. As if they wouldn't be the talk of the town and looked down upon by other royalty. Natalia, having no connection to him outside her sister being friends with Mokuba. Would be a safer bet to take to the ball than Samantha the official royal tutor.
"Natalia, it's Seto."
"Seto, I haven't heard from you in a while."
"I'm sorry about that. But with Yami's return and Christmas as well as other things." Seto said, thinking of Mahaado. "I called because I wanted to invite you to a ball we're having tomorrow evening."
"I thought you'd invite her."
"First it'd be inappropriate for us to go together. Being that she's employed by me. Second, I've lost faith in her."
"What do you mean?"
"I hired her to be Mokuba's teacher. But now she's wanting to teach Maura instead. Second, I told her why we couldn't go together. She didn't want to understand. She dismissed my concerns."
Natalia frowned, "She's not much of a teacher if she can't see how inappropriate it'd be for a king to take an employee to a dance."
"Does this mean you'll go with me?"
"I'd love to but I don't have anything near good enough for a formal ball. Plus my hair and makeup. "
"Don't worry, let me take care of everything."
"Well…if you're sure. Then yes I'd love to go."
"Great, I'll have it all arranged for you."
"Wonderful, see you tomorrow."
Seto hung up and sensing something said, "Keneely, I know you're there. You're always hiding in the shadows."
"You know me too well, my king. I am always here in the shadows in case you need me."
"I've told you, you don't need to do that."
"But it's what I want to do."
Seto wasn't sure what to make of Keneely. He'd been assigned as his personal assistant years ago by his father. Despite being dismissed as between Yami and Mazaki he felt no need for him. But he stubbornly remained. Hiding in the shadows in case he was needed. Which was almost never.
"Fine, Mazaki has his hands full at the moment. My girlfriend Natalie needs a dress, hair and makeup done before the party tomorrow. Can you get that done?"
"No worries my king, I'm on it."
Seto had to believe he could do it and let him go.