“Yes, a little bit like what we brush our hair with, but much smaller.”
“Well then.” She stood, gently brushing the apron wrapped around her dress. “I find ye verra interesting, Jane. And I like that ye are no content to sit around the castle. Mayhap, we can both learn from each other. I’ll teach ye to cook and ye can tell me more about the odd things ye do in yer own land, aye? Now, let’s start yer first lesson, before another spell hits me and I must rest.”
“That sounds wonderful. I’m eager to learn.”
“Well I should hope so, Jane. Why else would ye be here?”
She nudged me gently with her elbow in jest before laughing as we walked into the kitchen together. One day outside the castle walls and already my entire outlook had shifted dramatically. Could this be exactly what I needed?
CHAPTER 6
One Month Later – January 1649
“I knew it, Aunt Jane. I knew you weren’t writing a book.”
My hands stilled on the mound of dough at the sound of Cooper’s voice. I couldn’t help but smile. Slowly, after dipping my hands in a basin of water to clean them, I turned to see him standing three feet away, both hands on his hips, his expression immensely satisfied at finding me.
“Writing a book? Why would you think I was doing that?”
I should’ve been more surprised to see him, but I knew it was only a matter of time before he found out. Kathleen and Eoghanan had promised to do their best to occupy him, but I knew he could only go so many days around the castle without me before finally getting fed up with my strange absence.
“That’s what Kathleen said, but I knew she was full of pancakes.”
“Pancakes? You know that’s not the expression, right?” I laughed, moving toward him to scoop him up into my arms.
He leaned back and giggled. “Yeah, I know. It’s bologna, but bologna is disgusting. I like pancakes, so that’s the way I say it.”
“Oh, okay.” I’d learned not to question the logic of a six year old. Especially this one. Why spoil their imaginative spirit? “So she told you I was writing a book, huh?”
He squirmed, and I knew he wished for me to set him down. He liked quick cuddles, but he didn’t enjoy being treated like a child and always squirmed out of grasp after being held a moment or two. Relenting, I sat him down and moved to sit at one of the empty tables with him.
“Yeah, that’s what she said. Said you were trying to write so you needed to be left alone every day until dinnertime. I didn’t believe her for a second. I even told her. I said, ‘Are you joking? Writing a book is the last thing Aunt Jane would ever want to do. She would die of boredom.’”
He was too right. Kathleen knew me better than that as well. She must’ve really been off her game on the morning she told Cooper that.
“I would. I’d rather spend all day clipping toenails.”
Cooper wrinkled his nose and stuck his tongue out in disgust. “Eww…that’s gross, Aunt Jane. So…” He jumped off his seat and moved to stand near the open oven as he breathed in deeply. “Something smells really good. Can I taste it?”
I joined him, leaning forward to peek inside. The loaves were almost ready. “Yeah, I bet Gregor wouldn’t mind. You’ll have to wait a few minutes though. And first, you have to tell me how you got here and if anybody knows where you are.”
Before he could answer, the sound of Isobel’s deep, painful cough traveled down the stairway. Cooper looked up at the sound, concern immediately transforming his face.
“What is that? Are they okay?”
It made my heart ache every time one of her fits took her. In the month since I started working at the inn, her health had declined dramatically. She rarely left bed and Gregor had been forced to take over my training. Progress with my cooking skills had suffered drastically because of it. Not that Gregor cared, his mind was much too full of worry over his wife. And so far, all of the inn’s patrons had been hungry enough after travel that they’d not seemed to mind the tastelessness of their food.
I moved in to answer him, lowering my voice so that neither Gregor nor Isobel would hear me. “That’s Isobel, the innkeeper’s wife. She’s very sick. That’s why I’m here, helping them in the kitchen.”
Cooper’s voice was sad when he spoke. “Is she going to get better, Aunt Jane? Her cough doesn’t sound very good at all.”
I picked him up, needing the comfort of human touch as the sadness pulled at the center of my chest. “I wish more than anything that she would, Coop, but I’m not sure that she will. She’s very sick.”
Cooper possessed the sweetest, wisest heart. He had never laid eyes on Isobel, yet he sympathized with her and Gregor’s pain immediately, his little eyes welling with tears.