Free Maid to Be Mine: A Regency Cinderella Story by K.L. O'Keefe Page A

direction. As Cynthia looked them over, he said, “See? They're as crisp and clean as a morning dew!”
    “ I don't know about that, but they don't look dirty anymore.”
    “ Shocking, isn't it?” Robert turned his back to her and started busying himself with the carrots. “Now, turn your attention to that onion, Princess. It's not going to chop itself.”
    Cynthia stared at the onion and knife on the counter, but she didn't know where to begin. It was her first attempt at doing anything of the sort, but she didn't know how to tell Robert, since he had a tendency to tease her about anything and everything. With a shrug, she started flaking off the onion's skin. As she reached for the knife, her hand was quivering.
    Robert peered at her over his shoulder, “You have no idea how to do that, do you?”
    “ I confess that I... do not.”
    “ Here, hand it over.” When Cynthia passed him the onion, he showed her how to cut the ends, remove the skin, and properly mince it. At the end of his lesson, which was over before she knew it, he passed her another onion.
    Cynthia returned to her cutting board and made her first slice. She chopped off the onion's end, removed the outer layer, and tried to chop to the best of her ability. In no time at all, there were tears forming in her eyes. When Robert saw her tears, he smirked.
    “ Aww, are you crying?”
    She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, but she must have had some onion juice on her skin, because her eyes started burning more than ever. “Is it supposed to sting this much?!
    “ A lot of people cry when they chop onions. Not me, though,” Robert said with a shrug. “I find it's best not to form an emotional attachment to the poor fellows.”
    As Robert chuckled at his lame joke, Cynthia shook her head with disbelief. “Oh, go ahead! Laugh at my pain! It is what you always do!”
    “ Trust me, I don't enjoy cutting vegetables any more than you do. I'm just trying to make the most of a difficult situation.”
    “ You're insufferable.” Tomorrow, she was going to ask Tess if she could be paired up with someone else—someone like Solomon. Since he never talked, Cynthia imagined it would be a much more peaceful working environment.
    Cynthia finished dicing her first onion, which had her feeling quite pleased with herself. When Robert handed her another onion, she groaned. Her eyes were already red-rimmed and misty, as if she had spent the entire day in tears. “How many am I going to have to chop?!”
    “ I don't know. A couple more, maybe.” Robert shrugged. “Would you like to change jobs? I'm going to prepare the raw meat, and that can get a bit messy. So unless you like blood...”
    “ The onions are fine.”
    Cynthia chopped the second onion without any complaints. By the time she got to her third onion, she felt like she was getting comfortable with the task, and her eyes had somehow built up an immunity to the sting. However, her comfort made her sloppy. As the knife swept through the onion, it also swept across her skin. It was a little nick, but it was enough to draw blood.
    She drew a sharp breath, which alerted Robert to her injury. “Are you alright?”
    Cynthia tried to suck the blood from her knuckle before he could see it. “I'm fine.”
    “ Let me see your hand.”
    She held her hand behind her back, mimicking his earlier behavior. “No! I'm quite alright. It isn't necessary.”
    “ Your hand ,” he insisted. As soon as Cynthia presented her hand, Robert winced. “Aww. You cut yourself!”
    “ Are you going to make fun of me?!”
    Robert's expression was hurt. “Of course not!”
    “ You're not going to lecture me, or tell me I need to be more careful, or anything of the sort?”
    “ Well, it never hurts to be more careful,” Robert said. He grabbed a cloth from the counter and tore off a sizable shred, which he used to wrap Cynthia's cut hand. “Does it hurt?”
    “ Of course it hurts.” Cynthia raised her chin, as if to