CONQUERING HIS COLD HEART - Chapter 381 - 381 The King’s Tea
381 The King’s Tea
Caspian was telling Anastasia about his meeting with Alexander when he heard the guards outside questioning Holly. So, he turned his head and spoke in a bit louder voice, “Let her in. I asked her to bring the tea.”
“Tea?” Anastasia slightly raised her brows in amusement.
Caspian looked back at her and nodded. “Yes. I promised you that we would have tea together once I returned, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did,” Anastasia smiled happily.
Caspian patted himself on his shoulder and praised himself, “I am the man of my word.”
Anastasia laughed and agreed, “Yes, that you are.”
Soon, Holly stood at the door of the bedchamber and greeted the monarchs. “Good afternoon, Your Majesties. I’ve brought the tea.”
Caspian pointed at the bedside table and said, “Put it there and leave.”
“Oh, er… the tea is unprepared, Your Majesty,” Holly said as she walked in.
…..
“Yes, exactly like I wanted. Good job.” Caspian smiled at Anastasia seeing her slightly furrowing her brows and said, “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t ask you to prepare the tea for me when you aren’t feeling well. I am not that dense, you know.”
Anastasia watched Caspian dismissing Holly from the room and then folded her arms in front of her chest. “Don’t tell me you are going to prepare the tea for me.”
“For both of us, actually,” he corrected.
“Oh!” Anastasia blinked multiple times and asked, “Are you sure?”
“Yes, love.” Caspian got up from the bed and then stood in front of the table where Holly had put the tray. He then rested his hands on his hip and then said while closely examining all the things that were on the tray, “I have watched you brewing the tea countless times. So, I am pretty confident that I can copy what you did.”
“Uh-huh!” Anastasia smiled, further amused by his newfound confidence about trying his hand at brewing tea. “I guess I should consider myself lucky then. I will be the first person to taste something that the almighty King prepared.”
“You are indeed lucky.” Caspian looked at his wife and gave her a wink.
He then immediately took off the lid of the teapot with steaming hot water. He looked at the other smaller pots on the tray and hovered his finger over them while repeating, “Tea leaves… tea leaves…”
“It’s in that one,” Anastasia helped him by pointing at the particular pot that contained tea leaves.
“Ah, yes!” Caspian scooped up a fair amount of tea leaves and dumped them into the teapot. He then grabbed the other small pot and proudly said, “And sugar.”
“Yes.” Anastasia gave a nod and watched Caspian almost emptying the whole pot of sugar in the teapot. “Er… that might be a little too much sugar…” she mumbled and bit her lower lip to hold her laughter.
“Argh! I thought I could measure it perfectly without using the spoon!” Caspian grunted at his overconfidence and then instantly grabbed the spoon to scoop out the wet sugar back into the sugar pot.
All the while, Anastasia was fisting over her mouth so that she wouldn’t laugh by accident and crush Caspian’s confidence.
“Phew!” Caspian put the spoon aside and put the lid back on the teapot. He fisted on his hips and smiled while looking satisfied with his smart action of scooping the sugar right back out.
He looked at Anastasia for affirmation and Anastasia instantly removed her fist away from her mouth and gave him a reassuring nod. “Leave the tea to rest for a few minutes,” she suggested.
Caspian took out his pocket watch and placed it on the table. And he kept on staring at the watch so intently that Anastasia thought he would put a hole in the watch just with his sharp stare.
“Caspian, so my brother will have a meeting with Everard, right?” she asked, in order to stop Caspian from feeling so restless.
Caspian looked at her and agreed. “Yes. He will have a meeting in one of the towns of Orsenia in a few days. I have agreed with your brother that he may share the names of the real culprits behind the attack on us if he pleases.”
“Oh, that’s great!” Anastasia sighed. “Everard will at least know who can and cannot be trusted. Hopefully, that information will help him control his citizens and hopefully, such incidents won’t happen in the future that can give rise to serious misunderstandings.”
“Yes. Let’s hope so,” Caspian agreed as a deep frown line formed between his brows.
Anastasia pointed at the teapot and then said, “The tea. It must be ready now.”
“Ah, yes!” Caspian was instantly back in a happy mood. He opened the lid of the teapot and smelled the sweet aroma. “Smells great!” he happily announced and then asked Anastasia, “Do you want milk in your tea?”
“Yes. I would love that.” Anastasia was also enthusiastic to taste the tea that her husband was about to finish preparing.
Caspian then poured the milk into the cups. And then after, he poured the tea with such grace that Anastasia was surprised how he didn’t spill even a single drop out of the pot. “Where did you learn to pour it like that?” she asked, impressed.
“I’m the King. I am naturally an expert at everything,” Caspian boasted.
Anastasia couldn’t help but laugh at that self-proclaimed expert. “Well, let me be the judge of that, my King,” she playfully said while holding out her hands for the teacup.
Caspian served the tea to his wife and sat down on the bed after grabbing his cup too. Before sipping the tea himself, he watched Anastasia softly blow the hot tea before taking a sip.
“How’s it?” he asked curiously.
Anastasia’s face beamed when she looked at her husband and nodded. “It tastes so good! You did a great job, my dear husband. I am indeed a lucky wife, aren’t I?” She immediately took another sip and softly moaned while closing her eyes.
“Really?” Caspian’s eyes lit up with happiness when he got praised by his wife. He then immediately took a sip himself. But that excitement instantly drowned when he tasted the overly sweet tea. He wrinkled his nose while looking at his wife and retorted, “You liar! It doesn’t taste good!”
“But I like it a lot. You know I like sweet things.” Anastasia kept on smiling. Her smile was a hundred percent genuine. And she continued sipping on the warm and sweet tea.
“I’m going to throw it!” Caspian scraped his tongue with his front teeth as if he was scraping the aftertaste of the tea.
“What? Don’t throw it! Give it to me!” Anastasia held out her hand and said, “If you don’t like it then I shall drink it all. It’s too good to throw!”
Caspian could only smile seeing his wife like that. He knew she didn’t want to make him feel bad. And he really appreciated her kind gesture.
“Okay, I won’t throw it away. I’ll drink it. Every drop,” he mumbled and began sipping on the tea so that he wouldn’t put his wife through the misery of drinking two cups of awful tea just so she could keep his heart.