Chapter 5

That night, the fire drew. The smoke went up the chimney like a ribbon, and the kitchen was clear and warm to the corners, as it had not been since Maud came to it as a bride.And Dorcas cooked.Maud had not known that anyone could do so much with so little. There was a knuckle of bacon, and an onion, and some carrots from the garden, and the end of a sack of split peas. And Dorcas stood over the pot with her sleeves turned back, stirring and tasting and adding salt a pinch at a time, humming under her breath in French. The kitchen filled with the smell of it—sweet and smoky and rich—and when she ladled it out, it was thick enough to stand a spoon in.Maud tasted it and put her spoon down. "Where did you learn this?"Dorcas did not answer for a moment. Then she said, "There was a cook at Brexwell when I was young, a Frenchman. He taught me in the kitchens when nobody was looking, because I asked him to. My father sent him away when he found out why I was always in the kitchens. I was not permitted to marry a cook. I was not permitted to marry at all, in the end." She lifted her spoon. "But nobody could send away what he taught me."Winifred reached over and put her hand on her sister's wrist, leaving it there, and nobody said anything more.It was Abel Stroud who came first. He was a laborer from the Brexwell home farm, a long, bony man of forty-one with a houseful at home and wages that did not stretch, and he had come to mend Maud's gate because she could pay him in dinner and not in money. He sat at the end of the table with his cap on his knee and ate the soup, and then a second bowl, and then he wiped the bowl round with his bread and sat looking at it."I've not eaten like that in my life, Mrs. Lowry," he said."Miss Dorcas made it," Maud said.

The Duke Sent Her His 3 Old Aunts for Winter — By Easter His Duchess Begged a Seat at Their Table

A Kind Lady Defended an Elderly Dowager Being Insulted — Never Knowing She Was the Duke's Mother

The Duke Sent Her His 3 Old Aunts for Winter — By Easter His Duchess Begged a Seat at Their Table

"What Are You Going To Do" 5 Bullies Taunted The Single Dad — His Answer Silenced The Entire Park

“Bow Down,” He Ordered — Then the Quiet Single Dad Veteran Made the Black Belt Regret It

The Rich Neighbor’s Black-Belt Son Challenged a Single Dad — Unaware He Was a Navy SEAL

News in the same category

The Duke Sent Her His 3 Old Aunts for Winter — By Easter His Duchess Begged a Seat at Their Table