Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
I hoped, anyway. For now all I could do was follow him into the restaurant and pray for the best.
11
AURORA
Chez L’ronge was the fanciest restaurant I had ever been to. It was at the very top of the skyscraper, so we had to take a vertical lift to get there. Once we reached it, I saw that the dining area was located in a vast rotating disk with clear windows on every side.
A male in a suite almost as expensive as Slade’s seated us at a small table next to one of the curving windows. I looked down and saw lights twinkling everywhere.
“Oh—you can see the whole city from up here!” I remarked.
One corner of Slade’s mouth turned up in a half-grin.
“Yes, that’s kind of the point. This is the tallest building in the entire downtown area,” he remarked.
“It’s a lot bigger than I’m used to,” I admitted. Indeed, the biggest city we had in L’Crist was the capital where our palace was located. But the vast urban sprawl I could see from the rotating restaurant made it look like a small, rural town in comparison.
“Everything here is so big and bright,” I said, looking around me. “And so…so sophisticated.”
I suppose Slade could have said something about my backwards little planetoid but he didn’t.
“Do you like it?” he asked instead, raising an eyebrow, like he really cared. “Are you enjoying your first trip away from L’Crist?”
“It’s…different,” I said at last. “Nothing like what I’m used to.”
“But you could grow to like it,” he suggested. “I know the city seems loud and crazy and fast, but there are quiet parts too. And there are other perks of living in the city you might like. Access to libraries and museums and lots of different restaurants…”
“I like seeing new fashions,” I offered, looking at the other people dining around us.
I was already wishing I had something else to wear. I felt like a country bumpkin in my Court gown next to all the beautifully dressed women I saw all around me.
I had to admit though, most of them had on dresses that would be considered scandalous on L’Crist. They were worn tight across the hips and breasts and had plunging necklines that showed plenty of cleavage. Not only that, the skirts were so short I could see their legs! Not just their calves, either—some of the dresses I saw barely made it to mid-thigh. A woman would be branded a whore if she dressed that way on my home world but here it seemed perfectly acceptable.
“We’ll go shopping later, if you want to,” Slade offered. “You can buy anything that catches your eye.”
“That sounds nice,” I said cautiously. I was wary of accepting too many gifts from my new husband. The Goddess alone knew what I might have to do to pay for them.
Just then a server in a black and white uniform came to our table and bowed discretely.
“Sir, Madam,” he said, nodding to Slade and me. “Allow me to welcome you to Chez L’ronge. We are so very pleased to have you here. May I tell you what Chef Hilish has prepared for your gustatory pleasure tonight?”
“Please do.” Slade nodded.
“Very well,” the server said and then began reeling off a list of dishes—none of which I had ever heard of before.
“For a starter Chef Hilish has a gobian foam reduction with pinga gel pearls. Then, a frothian soup served with crispy twiddle sticks to dip into it. After that, we have a main course of giant hatcha claws steamed with compound bursa butter. And for dessert, a floating island tart studded with rare poodla berries.”
Slade listened patiently to all this and then nodded.
“Excellent.”
“Very good, I am so glad that Sir is pleased,” the server said. “May I recommend a Yarmoth wine to go with it? We have some very fine bottles we just brought up from our cellars.”
Slade looked at me.
“Do you want wine?” he asked.
I wasn’t sure what to say. I hated to admit that other than the “Holy Wine” we had just drunk during the Binding Ceremony, I had never had any kind of alcohol before. It made me feel unsophisticated.
“Wine sounds delicious,” I said, nodding.
“Very good.” The server nodded. “I will fetch a bottle for Sir and Madam at once.”
He bustled off and I went back to looking at everything around me. The dining tables were located all around the edges of the rotating restaurant and then, further in, there was a circular dance floor where a few couples were swaying to soft music. In the very center of the restaurant was a round counter with a lot of colored bottles and a man who was serving drinks.
I assumed this must be a bar, though I had never seen one. I had read about them though, in a few of the forbidden romance and adventure stories that my maid, Pansy, sometimes smuggled in to me.