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She gave a quick shake of her head to dispel the trance. “Aye, of course.” She rested the knife, mentally surveying the little mountain of carrot rounds. “’Twill take time of course, but we are becoming more familiar and I should like to believe our lives will be happy.”
Kitty leaned in. “Has he kissed you?”
“Kitty!” Eliza shot her sister a look. “Such a thing should not be asked.” She turned to Anna, a sly tilt to her features. “Unless of course you should like to share any such news.”
Anna’s face burned. She watched intently as her knife sliced the shrinking carrot.
“He has!” Kitty giggled. “I can see it in your face.”
Blood poured into Anna’s neck and cheeks. She peeked up quickly. Both Eliza and Kitty were motionless, their eyes round as the plates on the table and mouths slightly open. Were they surprised? Happy? Their looks said they wanted to know more. Never having had a sister of her own, never having had much female companionship at all, Anna debated how much more to reveal. Unable to stifle the grin that urged for freedom, she acquiesced to the beckoning need to share with someone. “Nay, he has not kissed me. But nearly…”
Kitty tilted her head back. “Oh! Such delightful tension.” She plucked a sticky pan from a pile at the end of the table and dunked it into a large pot of hot water. “Well, when he has finally kissed you, I should hope you would tell us.”
Eliza shot a loving but warning stare at her sister while her words were directed to Anna. “Not that we wish you to divulge anything you would prefer to keep silent, of course,” she said. “We simply hope for love to bloom between you.” She smirked. “And to be made privy to any romantic details you deem fit to share.”
Anna grinned in reply and looked down, her face heating all the more as she hovered over the one word that filled her mind. Love. Such a word. If a lifetime of equal partnership were accomplished that would be more than she would have dreamed possible. But William had nearly kissed her…why? She blew away the thought with an exhale. Men had urges that needed to be fulfilled. That she knew. Perhaps that was all. For certainly she would be a fool to ever consider otherwise.
“Anna?” Eliza asked, thankfully drawing her away from such thoughts. “There’s a pudding boiling at the back of the fire. Would you be willing to check and see if it is done? It should be about time to remove it.”
Nodding, Anna started toward the fire then froze. Done? She hadn’t the slightest idea how to tell if a pudding was done. Her hands began to sweat. Stooping to the pan resting on the ashes, she peered into the pot. A strange lump tied in a cloth rested at the bottom of the water. She licked her lip and turned behind her. Eliza was still focused on the bread.
She tapped her fingers against her knee. Perhaps she could retrieve it and then if it wasn’t done, they could simply return it to the pot? She tapped harder. That might not do. From what little she knew of cooking, to do such a thing to a dish before it was completely finished cooking might ruin it altogether.
“Anna?” Kitty asked, turning to her from her place at the work-table. “Do you…would you…” She closed her mouth and smiled as if searching for what to say. “Sometimes it is difficult to know when a pudding is ready.” Wiping her hands on her apron, she came and knelt beside Anna. “Let me have a look.” After poking it with the end of a spoon, she shook her head. “It will need another hour or so.”
Breathing easier, Anna followed Kitty back to the table.
Eliza pointed to the basin by the window. “If you’re finished with the potatoes, Kitty, you and Anna could prepare the fish.”
“Certainly.” Kitty brushed her palms together in excitement, looking at Anna with wide eyes. “The crowning course of the meal.”
Fish?
Kitty removed the rest of the dirty pans before bringing the wrapped fish to the end of the large cooking table.
Anna watched as Kitty unwrapped the creature, revealing the white and silver scales, fins, and open mouth. Anna gagged and put a hand to her lips as the unmistakable scent of fish assailed her. The creature’s large, glassy eye stared, as if to scold her for what she planned to do to it, daring her to come a step closer. Holding back another lurch of her stomach, she spun and stared at the yeast rolls that could not stare back.
“Anna, are you well?”
Now both nausea and shame swam in her stomach. “I’m perfectly well. Forgive me.”
“Nothing to forgive,” Kitty said, her hand at Anna’s elbow.
Still, Anna couldn’t turn around for fear the creature might rise from the table and snap its mouth at her.
Silence circled the room and Anna could only guess the co
nversation going on between her friends’ wide-eyed expressions. And why shouldn’t they be curious? Anna tried to make them believe that this kind of life was all she’d ever known. But the audacity of such a lie became more apparent every day.
Truth, girl. You should have told the truth.
“Never mind the fish. It can wait.” Kitty took Anna’s hand. “How would you feel about chopping an onion?”
Chopping, aye. That was simple enough. She released a breath through tight lips. “Of course. That would be fine.”
Kitty reached for a vegetable-laden basket and retrieved a large, white onion. “You did so well with the carrots, I know this onion is in good hands.”
The compliment, as small as it was, picked a few pieces of her shattered spirit from the floor. She felt like a child being praised for trying something new, and somehow the comparison hugged her drooping spirit rather than stung it. For she was young in terms of such things, and for that, she determined to be less ashamed and more adventurous, despite the facade she must try to keep believable.
