In the Shadow of the Star: Part 2

[piosenniel]

‘Well, if you ask me,’ said Buttercup as she picked over the strawberries for the shortcake to be served later in the day at the party, ‘we should be hanging crepe and dressing in black.’ The berries, all minus their leafy caps, now, and any bad spots, sat in a colander on the sink drain board, glistening from their last rinsing.

‘Isn’t that the truth,’ threw in Ruby. ‘There should be smiles and laughter since the children were rescued, and folk congratulating each other on a job well done. And don’t you think the parents should be beaming at the prospect of introducing their childrens’ names to their friends?’

She washed the pile of yellow and green summer squashes, and brought them to the cutting table to be chopped into good sized chunks. Mistress Piosenniel was partial to an exotic dish she had eaten in her travels in the south. Wooden skewers with chunks of squash and onion wedges and little fat mushrooms, grilled over a bed of coals, slathered at their final turning with some spicy sweet sauce made from plums.

Ruby, not one to stray far from her plain Shire diet, had wrinkled her nose when Pio had asked for this during her pregnancy, but the finished product had a tantalizing smell – so much so, in fact, that she had tried a bite the first time she had made it. One bite had led to the entire skewer and one skewer led to two. She remembered that Pio had raised her brows at the diminished number that had finally reached her plate. This time she was determined to make a quantity of them, and eat her fill.

‘Well, you’ld think so,’ said Buttercup, washing mushrooms, and sorting them by size. She brought the bowl of them to the table and sat down with Ruby. The onions had already been washed and peeled and she cut them into wedges. Picking up a wooden skewer, she began to layer on the vegetables. ‘And what about Miss Cami and her new husband. There’s another pair that’s acting oddly. They’re newlyweds for goodness sake – they should be all blushes and holding hands and giggles and sly eyes. They’re as gloomy as mourners at a funeral.’

Ruby was just about to comment on this, when Cook sailed into the kitchen from the yard. Hob, a basket of wriggling river eels in his hands followed in behind her. ‘What are you two nattering on about?’ she asked, catching just the last of the conversation.’ She eyed the strawberries, and went to the pantry to pull out the flour and sugar and leavening. ‘I’m going to bake the shortcake rounds now. One of you needs to help Hob get the eels cleaned and skinned and cut into thin steaks. Buttercup, you can do that while Ruby finishes those skewers.’ Cook ever the organizer, tapped her fingers on the counter for a moment as she ticked off in her mind what needed to be done. ‘And Ruby, once you’re done with the skewers, make that dark sauce with the pinch of bead molasses in it that Mistress Piosenniel told us her Mister likes on the grilled eel.’ Cook dragged out her big green crockery mixing bowl and retrieved the sweet cream butter from the cold larder. Wooden spoon in hand, she started in on the shortcake dough.

Buttercup got up from her chair and leaned close to Ruby before going to help with Hob at the sink. ‘Big Folk certainly have some strange things they eat, don’t they?’ she whispered.

‘Aye, that they do,’ said Ruby, smiling at her friend’s ‘limited’ tastes. Her mind turned to thoughts of the grilled eel as she finished up the skewered vegetables. ‘I wonder if that will be as good as these are,’ she thought to herself, her mouth already watering in anticipation . . .

[ August 02, 2003: Message edited by: piosenniel ]