“Grandmother,” Cruz said. “The woman had thirteen children, my father being her eldest son and seventh child. The point is that no one is perfect at first. But we must practice to become skilled, so you must not be discouraged.”
The tears had faded and Ophelia wiped the last of the moisture from her face. “I suppose,” she said. “I know the food I’ve made isn’t very good, but Creston never complains. I thought it was because he surely must like it, but tonight’s stew was terrible. I put too much rosemary in it.”
“Then you will not do it the next time,” Cruz said. “Because you have learned that rosemary is a very strong flavor.”
She nodded in agreement. “It is,” she said. “But I like it in soap.”
“It smells very good in soap,” Cruz agreed. “Now, what sweets have you made for us? You always make sweets, my lady. I have learned that about you.”
He was changing the subject, away from her failure, and she went along with it. She didn’t want to keep discussing her failures either. With a sigh, she stood up from Creston’s lap.
“Well…” she said, going over to the table where she prepared food. “I made a bread pudding. It has eggs and honey and cinnamon in it.”
“Then bring it over and let us feast.”
She did, bringing over something she’d baked earlier in the day. The cook had evidently instructed her on how to make a bread with custard, and she had, but some eggshells were in the pudding, nearly piercing Cruz’s cheek, and the custard hadn’t baked well in some spots, leaving it runny. Still, Creston and Cruz ate the entire thing and Ophelia’s tears were forgotten.
They were good men, indeed.
After the bread pudding was gone, Creston and Cruz moved out to the main living space, where the cats were now sleeping in both chairs. They removed them, though when Creston sat down, it was with the black-and-white cat in his lap. The animal curled up on his thighs as he petted it. It was a quiet moment in a world that didn’t have many.
“Does this seem unreal to you?” he asked.
Cruz looked at him curiously. “Does what seem unreal?”
“All of this,” Creston said, looking around the cozy chamber. “This room has always been empty. Cold and empty. But now it’s warm and comfortable. I have a cat on my lap. I have never had a cat in my life. Today, I ripped out a man’s toenail to see how much torture he could take and not give me the information you had given him earlier in the day, a test we give all recruits, and then I come home to my beautiful wife and the meal she cooked and a cat sleeping on my lap as if the violence of my world doesn’t exist. As if the darkness that is Blackchurch doesn’t exist. Three months ago, if anyone had told me this would be my life, I would have called them mad.”
Cruz smiled, leaning back in the chair. “It is simply another aspect of life,” he said. “This is the domesticated side, a side that few men see with such happiness as you have experienced. Tayand Fox, Sin and Payne have, and now you. You should consider yourself fortunate.”
“I do,” Creston said quickly. “I just find it… baffling. Baffling and wonderful.”
“Cres?”
Ophelia called to him, coming out of the kitchen area and wiping her hands on her apron. Creston looked over his shoulder at her.
“My love?” he responded.
“What is the largest town around here, within a day’s ride?” she asked.
He thought a moment. “Bampton has a market,” he said. “Tiverton is much bigger, but it is about a morning’s ride away. Why do you ask?”
Ophelia seemed hesitant. “The only things I have to cook with are things others have given me,” she said. “I was hoping… hoping I could have something of my own? My own iron pot and tools?”
He smiled. “Of course, you can,” he said. “You do not have to ask. Simply tell me what you want and tell me that we are going to buy it.”
She shrugged. “I cannot do that,” she said. “I do not make demands very well.”
“Nay, you do not, but I dream of a wife who makes demands and orders me about.”
She giggled. “I can try my best,” she said. “But I was also hoping to buy some fabric to make some garments that will accommodate my expanding belly. May I?”
“We can go tomorrow if you wish.”
“But you have recruits to teach.”
“Cruz can do it for me.”
“Cruz is going with you,” Cruz said firmly. “Have one of the assistant trainers teach. Rhodes or Anteaus are excellentchoices. Rhodes has already been shadowing you when you instruct. He knows what to do.”
