"It's the food they prepared for us to have for breakfast."
There was a drop down table connected to the carriage for us to use. It came down between our two seats and gave us plenty of room to eat for doing anything else you might need a table for.
Out of the bag, I pulled out some breakfast pastries. They looked like the kind you would get at a coffee shop. There was several different types, but they all looked good to me.
"Which one do you want, Becca?"
Becca's eyes jumped from pastry to pastry trying to make a decision. After a minute of contemplation, she grabbed two types of pastries.
"I'll have these two for breakfast. Thanks, Nick."
She ended up choosing a croissant and a stick type of pastry with lots of cinnamon on top. These two choices were expected, since I knew Becca would probably not want the sweeter pastries.
"No need to thank me, it's all the work of our great chefs. I'm just happy you didn't pick the pastries I was eyeing."
I ended up taking a danish with blueberry jam in the center and an eclair. An eclair, to me, was more like a desert, but if they put it in the bag for breakfast, they can't blame me for taking it.
"Haha, there is no way I would have pick those two anyways. They are way too sweet."
"That's what I was thinking, it seems like our food tastes complement each other a lot haha."
As we enjoyed our food, I looked out the window at the rolling landscape and started to think about our upcoming week. Becca's family was a big unknown to me. Becca said they used to suck up to the original Nicolas, but would they really harbor no negative feelings for the man that treated their daughter so badly?
I was told the parents of the original Nicolas died when he was 21, so the only chance I have to give Becca a caring family right now is to create a good relationship with my in-laws. Of course we can create our own happy family, but that is not something I want to start until our changes to society have settled down.
The one problem we might face is how open minded they will be. If they want to continue to forcing Becca to put herself down to become what society calls an ideal woman, then we will most likely have to cut ties with them. Hopefully, they can learn about our planned change for society and accept it. They can dream of a future where their daughter has a better life and is free to do whatever she wants. I'm a little nervous because I have had a girlfriend with stubborn old-fashioned parents and they were impossible to convince, but all I can do is try my best.
After I finished eating my pastries, I turned to looked over at Becca. She too was just finishing up her food. Now that we were both done, I decided to ask her for a little more information.
"Hey Becca, I don't really know much about your family, friends, or hometown. Can you give me a little rundown of everything so I can be prepared? We have a full day's worth of travel before we get there, so we have plenty of time to go over everything."
Becca nodded her head. "Ok, I'll start with my family. First, there is my father. You know the most about him so far from all the things I have brought up. He grew up as a commoner. His parents were merchants, so even though he was a commoner, he didn't struggle for food. Once he turned 18, he took a loan from his father and started in the steel business. He started with one shop that produced steel parts. He made a name for himself because he was always experimenting and trying to create revolutionary new ways to use steel. He met my mother when he was 22 and his first shop was starting to become well known throughout the Kingdom. They courted for a year and got married at 23. My father wanted to give his family a better life than he had himself, so he decided to look into buying a noble title. The King offered to let him become a count for 25% of his steel business. It was definitely a steep price looking back at how much his steel business has grown since then, but becoming a noble has plenty of benefits."
"I see, and how was his relationship with you?"
"When I was a young child, my Father doted on me a lot. Like I said earlier, the entire reason he wanted to become a noble was to give his family a better life. He was always kind and generous to my mom, my brother, and me.
He was always working late in the shop though, so I did not get to spend too much time with him. But the time I did get to spend with him was always fun."
A soft smile rested on Becca's face as she reminisced about the past. "I remember he used to play mages and robbers with me. He would be the robber and I would catch him with my make believe magical powers. He used to indulge me in my dreams.
However, that all changed once I was first engaged to the original Nicolas. I was only 10 years old, but my Father started to talk about how I had to grow up. It seemed to me that he coveted the power of the Duke so much he would sacrifice his own daughter. How much power did he need? He is already a wealthy count. How could he be so greedy?"
Hmmm…from everything I heard about Becca's father, he didn't seem like the type of person to be blinded by greed. He did everything for his family, so would he really purposely harm his daughter to get a little more power? There could definitely be more to the story…