Storm and Silence Fanfic

Pie Justice

~2 November 1840~

I bide my time in this kitchen, learning everything I can from the chef. Not because I want to cook. But learning this skill will get me one step closer to independence and being able to stand on my own feet, instead of depending on someone else to do it for me.

The chef, an old and round man, spends much of the day sitting on a stool in the middle of the kitchen, barking orders at me. I hate this son of a bachelor almost as much as I hate my husband for subjecting me to this torture.

"Cut that smaller!"

"Need's more nutmeg!"

"I said tenderize, not terrorize the chops!"

I really want to tenderize his face with this mallet, but if this is what it takes for me to get back at my darling husband, a couple hours of this will all be worth it.

"Excuse me, sir," I sidle up next to him as he tastes the soup I just made. "I was wondering if-"

"This needs more salt." He pushes it away, disgusted and I do my best not to throttle him.

"I was wondering if you knew how to make any pies."

He snaps his gaze to my face.

"Pies? You want to make pies?"

"Yes sir. My husband really likes pies, and I would love to make him one so after a long day at work he can come home to his favorite treat." Gosh, I sound like some crazy love-sick fool. It makes me want to be sick. "I like to surprise him, you see, and we were fighting this morning, so I thought it might be nice if I were to make this for him." I flutter my eyes at him and his hard face instantly softens.

"Ah, all right, I suppose. It wasn't something the master told me to teach you..."

I giggle. Actually giggle. I still might be sick yet...

"Well of course not, sir, it's meant to be a surprise. How could it be if he knew?"

The man, whose name I still don't know, smiles at me.

"Well, let's get to work then."

*

That night at dinner, I wait until Rick finishes eating, just as he's about to head up to his office, to whip out my surprise.

"Rick, wait!" I get up before him, startling him back into his chair. "Sit there, I have something for you."

He narrows his eyes at me. I take that as my cue to leave and hurry into the kitchen.

"I don't take orders from you, you know." I hear from right behind me. I whirl around in surprise, making the mistake of looking into his eyes. They capture my gaze instantly and I find myself drawn closer to him instead of exacting my revenge.

He starts forward, just about to close the distance between us, when I take a step back. I rush to the icebox and take his pie from it.

"Look, I made this today." I set it on the counter in front of him. He looks down at it and frowns.

"What is it?"

I stare at him in shock.

"It's a pie, Rick. Haven't you had one before?" Even I, a girl who grew up on a steady diet of potatoes and bread know what a pie is. I've tasted some at balls before.

Although he does hardly attend balls. And when he does its for information extraction or enemy crushing, not to taste the delicacies on the food table.

"No, it looks like a waste of time and money."

How can a pie be a waste of time? I don't ask.

"Well, I made it, so we might as well eat it."

He still stares at it suspiciously.

Perfect.

"It's raspberry. With cream."

"Cream?"

"Mmhmm." I smile and tilt it up. "Smell it, it smells divine." I try to keep my smile from becoming creepy because the moment he thinks something is wrong, he won't trust me anymore.

Bending down, he sticks his face near the pie and I pick it up and smash it in his face.

"HA!" I shout, smearing it into his nose. "This is what you get when you mess with me. How do you like it?"

It takes him a moment to recover from the shock. Only, when he takes two fingers and wipes the cream from his eyelids, I realize he isn't shocked. He's furious.

You just have to look at his face-when it isn't covered in cream and raspberry sauce-to know that no one has ever dared embarrass him like that. He takes a step towards me and I shrink back, mostly empty tin still in my hand.

This is it, I think. This is the moment I find out how he truly reacts when he's angry. I hope he isn't like those husbands in the 'Quarrelsome Wives' segment of the paper I read ages ago, the ones who hit their wives.

He keeps approaching me, and I keep stepping back, anxious to get away from his potential wrath. When I knock into a dining room chair, realizing he chased me all the way there, I set the pan down and he stops in front of me, eyes icier and more dangerous than a glacier.

He wipes his hand down his face and smears it on mine.

"Hey, my hair!" I protest, indignantly. How dare he? With a satisfied glint in his eyes, Rick opens his mouth to speak, but a piece of raspberry falls off the tip of his nose and onto the floor.

I can't help it; I laugh, the tension suddenly flowing out of me.

While I'm doubled over with laughter, Rick takes advantage of my distraction and pulls me towards him and plunders my mouth with his tongue. I instantly stop laughing and wrap my arms around his neck.

He breaks away and looks at me. I stare into his eyes and lean closer, licking some of the pie from his cheek. I already took care of the bit on his lips.

He growls low in his throat and reciprocates the action, but instead of stopping at my cheeks, he continues his assault to my ear.

"If you ever try anything like that again, wife, then I will be forced to continue this." His hands caress my body, eliciting a moan from me that I couldn't silence even if I wanted to. "Am I understood?" He asks, meeting my eyes.

I step closer to him, sliding my arms around his waist. If he see's the mischief in my eyes, he doesn't do anything about it. I grab the pie tin and faster than he can realize what's happening, I smash the remnants into his hair.

His eyes try to freeze me, but when he's unable to, because of the fire igniting through me, he lifts me in his arms and carries me upstairs to our room.

And we don't go to sleep.

*

Hi hi! Sorry this took me so long, but I think this is probably my favorite chapter. I got the idea when I went to the store and raspberries were on sale for .50c a container. Which is awesome. I bought six 😂 I love raspberries.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I start my first day of classes tomorrow and it's meant to rain the whole day 😑 so that'll be fun.

Love you all,
~hamilfan123987