“It is quite delicious,” he said formally.
“It’s too salty.” Theo grimaced.
“Maybe Mama is in love,” Mona giggled. “They say that when a cook is in love, she oversalts the soup.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “It is a silly German proverb, nothing more.”
The Duke put down the spoon and looked at Lena in surprise. “You cooked this yourself?”
“Well, yes.”
“Don’t you have a cook?”
“Well, no.”
“Not anymore,” Theo explained. “Who knows when Marie will be back. Until then, we have to do everything ourselves.” He propped both his elbows on the table in a gross breach of etiquette and grinned at the Duke. “Also because we can’t afford more servants, you know. That means we have to cook and clean ourselves. Until recently, we even had to wash our own clothes in the river behind the house?—”
“Good heavens,” the Duke interjected, causing Theo to grin even wider.
“Fortunately, we can now afford a laundry maid. Never fear, you won’t have to wash your undergarments and socks yourself after all.”
“Theo,” Mona hissed. “Stop mentioning undergarments at the supper table. It’s not the thing.”
Lena stood up to fetch the second course.
“Ooh, plum dumplings!” Hecki and Les exclaimed at the same time. “Our favourite. Let’s have a contest to see who can eat the most.”
Hecki reached out his hand to grab a dumpling, and Lena smacked his hand lightly with her wooden ladle. “Guests first,” she said, pushing the plate towards the Duke, who stared at it as if he had never seen dumplings before. It was likely he never had.
“Go on, take one,” she told him kindly. “They are plum dumplings and quite good.”
He stuck his fork into a dumpling and put it on his plate.
“You have to put sugar on it,” Les said. He took the sugar bowl and generously sprinkled sugar on his dumpling. “Like this.”
“Not so much, Les,” Mona said. “Sugar is horridly expensive, so don’t be wasteful. Besides, not everyone likes sugar. I prefer to eat them without.”
The Duke took a bite. “It’s quite excellent.” And he proceeded to eat the entire dumpling.
Satisfied that it was indeed good, they ate, chattering merrily throughout the entire meal, while the Duke quietly listened. Theo recounted what had happened in his anatomy lesson (“We were dissecting a corpse and it made a strange noise, like this, ‘pouff’, you should have seen how we all jumped back in shock!”) while Les and Hecki took turns telling how great the military parade in the Prater had been (“but some of those soldiers looked ridiculous with that stupid feather on top of their hats. If I ever become a soldier, I will refuse to wear that hat.”). Mona suddenly interrupted, “Mama, all the dumplings are gone. Nobody seems to have got the one with the onion in it. Did you not make any this time?”
It was a joke and a game that every time there were plum dumplings, one would be filled with an onion. There was usually a lot of hilarity and laughter when the unfortunate person bit into a spicy onion instead of a succulent plum.
Lena looked at the empty plate, perplexed. “I made one with an onion. As a joke. You all know you’re not supposed to eat it.” She paused. “Don’t you?”
There was silence.
Then all eyes turned to the Duke.
Lena’s eyes widened in horror. “Oh no. Don’t tell me you actually ate it?”
“With all that sugar on top, too!” Hector laughed so hard, he fell out of his chair.
The Duke put the fork down with dignity. “As I said, the food was quite delicious.”
Chapter Fifteen
He observedthem for three days.
