42 Always Catches Her

"Do that with the next one!" he demanded. He copied her walk and asked her if it would be ok for him to use.

"Like for a fashion show?" Olivia asked subconsciously. Fredericka now understood why Olivia often put her face in her hands. She felt like doing that this very minute. Was this girl even trying to hide that she was from a different world? She knew NanNan would never say anything at all, even if she was suspicious. But what about the designer Sir Lunceford Elrick.

"Fashion Show?" the designer asked. He had never heard of a fashion show.

"Sir Elrick," Fredericka explained, "Lady Olivia has read many books. More than we can count. She must have read about it somewhere."

"Yes!" Olivia said, happy for the explanation. 'Thank you Freddie,' is what she whispered in her heart. "I read about something called a fashion show and how the man and women walked like cats, It was a strange foreign book. I think the Marquise didn't like it so he burned it, or I would tell you the title."

"He burned it!" Lunceford Elrick exclaimed.

"He said there were inappropriate elements inside," Olivia said. "I didn't get that far though."

"Oh," the designer sounded upset. He didn't want to emulate something that came from an inappropriate book.

Seeing his disappointment Olivia went on to say. "I think it was a book from the Corvus people." She had read about the Potoo in her history book. They were nomadic, and collected knowledge from all over. They took the stories they found and translated them into the most commonly used languages. Most of the stories they told were from ancient civilizations that no one had ever even heard of. Thank God she was able to say something here that could help.

"Most of the fashion show is what I imagined it to be instead of what I read," Olivia suddenly wanted there to be fashion shows in this world. Why shouldn't there be. Fashion week was very popular in her old world. Why not make it a thing here in this world.

"Tell me all about it!" Sir Elrick demanded.

"Well," Olivia started, "a designer such as yourself makes a series of new dresses, maybe ten, like what you made for me. There will be ten models, and each model wears one of the dresses. Then the model catwalks like I did down a stage for people to look at the dress." Here is where Olivia decided to change her description to appeal to the nobility. "The nobles watching then bid for the dress design. Whoever bids the highest gets to use that design on their new dress."

"Oh this is exciting!" Sir Elrick said, "This gives me so many ideas! You are such a wonderful muse!"

"Please take the Idea as your own," Olivia said. "It was doing nothing inside my head anyway."

"Oh your Highness," Sir Elrick said excitedly. "Try on the next dress! But show me one more time how you moved your legs." He hadn't noticed that he was ordering royalty around even now. He was just too excited about his muse.

…

…

Olivia was getting tired. She had already tried on nine dresses. It was now time for lunch. This dress also fit perfectly. He made the dresses according to her measurements so it really shouldn't surprise her.

Adarian walked in and caught her showing off in the day dress and was in awe. She was truly beautiful. If he was going to be able to see this woman everyday for the rest of his life he would be happy. He truly wished he had realized how amazing she was in his first life.

Olivia who turned around one more time saw Adarian staring at her from the doorway. She quickly hid behind Freddie. "See," Olivia whispered to her confidant, "He always catches me doing something embarrassing!"

Freddie laughed and moved away from Olivia. Olivia was now in full view of Adarian. 'Traitor!' Olivia thought in Freddie's direction as she watched Freddie sit down. Sir Elrick also sat down at the table. Though he didn't advertise it, he was a higher noble. He was the only successor to the title passed down from his uncle. He was qualified to sit at the lunch table with the king.

Adarian walked up to his wife and held out his arm. He wished to escort her the entire five feet it would take her to reach the table.

Olivia accepted his escort. He held out her chair, and as he pushed it in for her, he leaned in and kissed her forehead.

"How is the shopping going ladies?" Adarian asked. NanNan was also escorted to that table. She looked shocked to be sitting down at the table with the rest.

No one minded. In fact Olivia was very proud of Adarian for making sure NanNan had a seat to eat with the rest of them. She still hadn't had too many chances to talk to NanNan about Adarian. She was curious about how he was as a child. When NanNan had taught Adarian to tie Olivia's dresses, she just stayed there long enough to teach him, and let him try it on his own. Then she was gone like the wind.

Olivia had a strange feeling that if the maids didn't come in to fill the bath every night, and help her in removing the knots from her clothing, that Adarian would be more than happy to do that himself as well.

Fredericka watched as Adarian held Olivia's hand while he spoke. It seemed that neither of them had realized he did it until Olivia needed her hand to eat. NanNan also watched this interaction with jubilation.

"The dresses fit her highness beautifully," NanNan was sitting at the table but seemed uncomfortable. She used to sit and eat at the same table with Adarian all the time when he was young. Then he got married and his wife Rosamund liked to follow proper decorum. NanNan was no longer able to eat at the table with her little king.

She realized that she never should have been able to do it to begin with, but even Adarian's father had been willful and made NanNan eat with the family. She had raised them both, father and son. Adarian had been so busy at the beginning stages of his marriage with Rosamund, he hadn't even been able to accompany anyone to a meal. So naturally he didn't notice NanNan was no longer eating at the royal table.

Then Rosamund died, and she wondered if it was still her place to eat with him. So she hid around his meal times, or she ate before it was his mealtime. She didn't want to get used to eating with her little king again if the wife was just going to make her stop attending dinners again.

When Adariand had asked her to join them for a meal before, she was able to tell him no because he needed more time to get to know his new wife. She really didn't want to be disappointed again.

But here she was sitting down at the lunch table in the queens apartments with her little king, the future queen, and two other nobles, yet none of them complained.

"NanNan," Olivia got her attention. Was she going to ask her to leave? Maybe she wanted NanNan to fetch something for her. "Won't you join us for more meals in the future? I'd like to get to know you better."

Adarian looked at his wife proudly. She really knew how to get into his soft spots didn't she. When he found out how Rosamund had treated NanNan he was furious. But by then Rosamund was already dead and he couldn't say anything to her. After that his NanNan had kept a distance from him most of the time. But since Olivia came into the castle, NanNan had been around more often. She didn't even argue about sitting at the table this time.

"I agree with my wife," Adarian said as he smiled at Olivia.

NanNan had no choice but to agree, she would join them for meals sometimes. "Only sometimes," NanNan chided. "You are still in your newlywed phase and need more time alone together."