Nadine Book 3

31. Tour

"Well, this tour has been a huge success so far. Thank you, Tye."

Dorseti hugs his arm. "Thank you, Tye. Now we know where to get the food."

"No problem."

"Ok on to the next wing."

Dorseti yells, "BALLROOM WING."

I give her a funny look. "That's where we work. We know that one."

"I've never been above it."

I lead us to the ballroom. "We should have a ball."

Tye smiles. "This should have a kitchen too. But only for use during events. It's usually out the back somewhere."

We find the kitchen and there are so many bottle of wine. I grab a bottle and try to figure it out. The girls take it, and they can't get it either. Tye picks up another one and opens it. We all give him a funny look.

He shakes his head. Then refills everyone's cups.

Dorseti laughs. "Tye, I'm really glad we brought you."

Elkie nods. "Yea, we probably would have broken them all trying to open them."

I grab another bottle of wine. Then Elkie grabs one.

"Medical area people. We should all know this one." We go through my office and into the bookshelf. We go up a level and come out in a random unused office.

"What was this supposed to be?"

"I have no idea. I was only up here for the first time a week ago. We used them for questioning rooms. But I think they are just empty offices. Maybe they were the old advisor offices before we had that wing."

Tye comes roaming out of another office. "You should turn it into a second floor for the medical area. Or put all the royal rooms up here. Keep them separate. And maybe put a couple actual questioning rooms somewhere."

"That is a good idea."

"Yea, it's just wasted space now. Moving the royal rooms up here would free up a lot of space too."

"Someone needs to write this stuff down."

"Let's go get some paper from Vitchen." We all nod at Elkie.

We steal some paper and ink. Then we refill our cups and leave an empty bottle with the door guard.

We swing through the ballroom kitchen to grab another bottle to replace it.

I lead us into a wing I have never been in. It has offices but they are used. One of them has a door open and we peek in.

Elkie yanks me back out the door. "IT'S THE JEWELRY MAKER." My eyes about pop out and I run in.

There is jewelry and gems everywhere. A man is in there making a bracelet. "You make my jewelry?"

The man smiles.

"I LOVE YOU."

Tye nearly falls over and then cracks up laughing. Elkie and Dorseti do the same thing.

"I know you love sparkly things. I've been told many times."

I nod really fast.

"What do you think of these stones? I was thinking of making you a matching set of jewelry with them." He holds out the prettiest purple gems that are so sparkly.

"I LOVE THEM. THEY ARE PERFECT." I jump up and down.

He smiles at me again. "I'll use them for you."

I try to jump over the desk to hug him and Tye grabs me around the waist. "We're going to now before she tries to move in." The man laughs.

Tye carries me into the hallway and puts me on my feet.

The girls laugh. "You told that man you loved him."

"He makes me jewelry. I do love him."

We move on and go up a floor.

"DRESS MAKER."

"SHOES."

"That guy slammed the door in my face." Elkie flips off the door.

We get to the end of the hallway and there are no stairs that go up. We stand there confused for a minute. "This wing must only have 2 floors." We nod at Tye and refill our cups.

Next is the royal wing. "Let's see if momma is home. I'll tell her we're doing a tour."

We get to the 3rd floor of the royal wing and I bang on the door. Momma yells, "ENTER."

We all go in. With our bottles and cups.

"This is where I grew up. I'll show you my room." I open a side door to the old dining room. "This is where we used to eat with all the advisors. Now we no longer speak of it." Tye raises his eyebrows.

Elkie smirks at Tye. "The princess walked in on some traumatizing events here."

Dorseti nods. "Her parents were here... Alone." He tries not to laugh.

"Now I need another drink." He refills our cups.

Momma comes in the dining room with Tye's mom behind her. "What in the world are you all doing in here?"

"We are taking a tour, momma. I was showing them the room we no longer speak of. And my room."

We follow them to the sitting room.

Tye looks at his mom. "Hi mom."

I look at my mom. "Hi momma."

They laugh.

"I will trade you for that one." Momma gets a full bottle of her wine. She switches it with a bottle Tye is carrying. "Thank you. I can't have you kids drinking something that hard. Where did you get it?"

"Dipak."

She raises an eyebrow. "Dipak gave you and Tye a bottle of liquor?"

"No, it was in his desk."

"That makes more sense. These kids keep me on my toes for sure."

Tye's mom nods. "At least you got the liquor. That could have been bad."

"Show them your room. Then you can go."

I take off up the steps. I get about halfway up and trip over nothing. Dorseti is to close to me, and she falls right on me. The cups break. We sit there laughing.

Elkie pulls Dorseti up. "USE FEET."

I end up slicing my arm on a piece of the cup.

I sit back down and watch my arm dripping blood everywhere.

Tye pulls me up, then puts pressure on it.

Both moms come to the bottom of the steps. "What happened my baby?"

"My shoes quit working halfway up the stairs. And then some cups broke. We need new cups, momma."

"I'll give you new cups when you get back down here. Servants clean that up."

Tye lets go of my arm and looks at it. "That's fine now."

I show them my room which has pretty much nothing in it except my old bed and stool now. I grab the stool. "I need this."

We go into the sitting room. "I'm stealing this. I need it."

Momma gives us each a new cup of wine. Asa comes in while we're all standing there.

"What in the world are you doing with that stool princess?"

"It's for my house. I need one for hair drying. The boys stole my last one for the morning room."

Momma smiles. "Now I feel like I need a tour... The morning room is the one we yelled at the boys for biting you."

Tye's mom puts her hand on her mouth. "She got bit?"

"No it was her..."

I try to hide behind Tye. Asa and momma give me a funny look.

"Who bit you, my baby?"

I run for it. Stool and all. The girls take off behind me. Dorseti falls over.

Elkie gets to the door with me. "JUST LEAVE HER."

Tye yells "STOP." And then falls into a chair laughing. He takes a second then stands back up. "We'll be going now. Thank you for the wine."

Momma smiles. "Who bit her?"

He throws his head back "Ugh."

"DORSETI GRAB HIM AND RUN."

She jumps on his back. "WE HAVE TO GO NOW."

Elkie runs back. "I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING MYSELF."

She grabs onto Tye and pulls him to the door with Dorseti still on his back. He is laughing his ass off.

Momma yells, "GUARDS." They stop us at the door.

I throw my head back. "We were so close. Dorseti you can get down now."

The moms surround us from running back the other way. Asa smiles. "Who bit you?"

I give up. I am cornered and there is nowhere to go. "IT WAS TRE."

She smiles. "Thank you. I'm going to go kill my son Aurelia."

"We can join you."

We all get out. "We should probably keep moving on with this tour."