more.
She literally rubbed her hands with glee. She had wanted a challenge — well, she had one.
The first thing to do was to sort this place out. Much of what was here was now too old to be worth anything, and she would need to sort the stuff that was still good from what needed to be thrown out.
“Sapphire, will you get me two of the stupid servants?” she asked. “We have work to do.”
She had never been gladder of Granny’s training. She could identify each and every bundle eventually, either on sight, or by crushing a bit of leaf and taking a sniff. There were those bundles of herbs that started to crumble away at a touch; those were obviously much too old to be at all useful, as were those that she could identify but which had such faint aromas when crushed that it was obvious all the virtue was out of them. Now, there was danger here, and quite a lot of it. Some of these herbs and barks were quite poisonous, and burning them in a fireplace would be a very bad idea. So would disposing of them in any other careless way. They had to be handled carefully even when their potency had lessened considerably.
She sent the Spirit Elementals out with four enormous baskets full of the dangerous herbs and very careful instructions on how to safely disperse them — first treating them with lye, then with vinegar, then burning them, then treating the ashes with lye and vinegar, then spreading the ashes over an acre of land. The rest were safe to throw onto the fire in the fireplace, although this made for some obnoxious odors.
It was only when her stomach began to growl that she realized what she was smelling wasn’t burning herbs, but something a great deal more savory. She turned, to find Sapphire and Mustard from the kitchen staff behind her. Seeming to float in midair was a covered plate.
“Oh, dear,” she said contritely, as her stomach rumbled. “I seem to have entirely missed dinner, haven’t I?”
The plate moved abruptly toward her by way of answer. It seemed that she had better take and eat what was on it before Mustard got further offended.
So she cleared a spot on one of the tables in the stillroom and sat down to do so. It was quite good, but the flavor wasn’t exactly improved by the addition of the warring aromas of herb-dust.
Mustard carried away the empty plate, snatching it as soon as she had finished. Evidently by not coming to dinner she had offended the kitchen staff.
Or at least, she had offended Mustard.
“How angry at me are they?” she asked Sapphire.
“Only Mustard,” Sapphire wrote.
“How long is Mustard going to stay angry?” she asked apprehensively.
“Not long. Gets mad at Duk to.”
Well, that wasn’t so bad, then. And the Spirit Elemental probably was angered by Sebastian for the same reason — missing a meal, which the kitchen staff clearly took great care in preparing. “Well, apologize to him for me, will you?” she asked, and sighed. “Or better yet, I will bring a peace offering. I take it that Mustard is quite important in the kitchen staff?”
“Tym first. Then Mustard.”
“Oh, dear. I had better make that peace offering a good one.” She turned her attention to the herbs that were still sound. Herb-infused vinegar was probably a good idea at this point.
Whoever had once used this stillroom had kept it well supplied. Once she cleared out all the unusable bundles of herbs, she found the cupboards well supplied with bottles and jars — labeled and full, unlabeled and empty — supplied with strong wooden stoppers and wax seals. And among the other needful articles she found a keg of good vinegar. Heating that and pouring it over the sprigs of culinary herbs she packed into the bottles would give a good start to the flavored vinegar, although ideally they should rest for at least a month to steep.
She thought about sending Sapphire with the bottles…but even though Mustard was technically a servant — and could be considered less than a servant, since he was a summoned creature who presumably was something like a slave — she didn’t want to offend him further. So she gathered up her bottles in a basket and went straight to the kitchen.
It was a hive of work — startling to the eyes and ears of anyone who was expecting a “normal” kitchen, since there were no voices, and all the implements and food were suspended in or moving through empty air — but all the work stopped when she entered.
She looked around, and spotted Mustard’s little bag of seeds tied to a white armband. She went straight to him and held out her basket. “I’m very sorry I didn’t come to dinner on time, and left it all to get cold — though still delicious. I’d like to apologize for not giving respect to good food that should not have gone to waste, and for making you find me. I’d like you to have these.”
The rolling pin that Mustard had been using slowly lowered to the table, and she felt a faint tug on the basket. She let go, and the basket moved toward Mustard’s side of the table, where it was lowered.
“They’re fresh, so they probably won’t be good for another month,” she explained. “And I am here to say that this probably won’t be the last time I get so involved in something I forget the time. If that happens, please send one of the ordinary ones to fetch me if you don’t send one of the ordinary ones with a plate for me.” Now she tilted her head to one side, wishing she could see a face. Any kind of face. “And don’t pretend that the Duke doesn’t do the same thing, because we all know he does. My father does. Anyone who has something that they are going to get completely engrossed in does. And I imagine that you make him up plates all the time. So let’s not get out of sorts over it. It won’t change me or Sebastian, and as Granny says, ‘Getting angry over something that won’t change is like seeing what happens if you hit your hand with a hammer over and over again, and being surprised each time when it hurts. So you might as well stop doing it.’”
The silence in the kitchen was utterly unnerving, until it was broken by the scratching of chalk on slate. She turned to see a slate held in midair, turned so she could read it.
“Mustard is laughing.”
She smiled with relief, and turned back to the place where Mustard stood.
“Just so you all know, I respect you for the artists that you are. It is very frustrating to prepare what you
