Chapter 5
Lian
I knew it was rude to stare, but Pepper looked different in the afternoon than in the early morning. Her hair was no longer as neat, and there were new stains on her apron. She also smiled differently. Wider.
I had no idea what that meant though, so I just ignored it and focused on my notes. "Eva has a sweet tooth and loves fruit. Apples are her favourite, and she loves them in every form. Fresh, dried, pureed, candied, juiced—"
Pepper chuckled and leaned down over her own notebook. "I'll just write down all for apple."
I nodded. That was probably more efficient than me listing them all. "She does not like carrots, though. She'll eat them if they're hidden in something, so either incorporate them in that way or avoid them."
Pepper gave me a thoughtful look. "What about carrot cake?"
"It's the only cake she doesn't like."
Pepper's laughter filled the kitchen. "Good to know."
I flipped the page. "Max's preferences are a lot easier to remember. He'll eat anything except for mushrooms."
"No mushrooms," Pepper repeated, for some reason sounding amused.
"No, no mushrooms for Max. Eva adores mushrooms so it would be a shame if she couldn't have them," I said. I knew this was probably unnecessarily fussy, but that was why I was asking. It didn't matter if Pepper grew frustrated with me, it was more important that Eva and Max had meals they enjoyed.
If Pepper was irritated, she didn't show it. Or I simply didn't know what an irritated Pepper looked like. It didn't really matter either way, I was going to make my requests whether she liked it or not.
"Got it. No carrots for Eva, but mushrooms are good. No mushrooms for Max, but carrots are fine," she summarised.
"Yes," I said.
"Anything else?"
"Not too much milk, cheese, or cream. Anything made with cow's milk, really," I said, not sure if it was going to be a problem here.
The last town we were in had a lot of cows and pastures, but I hadn't seen any around Purple Oak yet.
Then again, I hadn't done much looking around yet, and Pepper had said that there were a lot of wards here.
"How about goat or sheep's milk?" Pepper checked.
"Those are fine. Cow's milk doesn't really agree with us," I said, touching my stomach in disappointment.
Pepper let out a sigh. "I wish I'd known this sooner. Then I wouldn't have sent up the clotted cream with the scones. I apologise."
My eyes widened as I realised she might think that I was complaining.
"There is nothing to apologise for. Eva was very pleased with the scones and the cream.
It's not that she doesn't like it, it's that it's tough on our digestion.
It's better if we don't eat too much of it, so don't let Eva tell you otherwise.
She would eat a block of cheese if she could.
" I'd seen her do it once, and then witnessed the effects for the entire next day.
That made Pepper chuckle even if I hadn't said anything funny. "Good to know. I'll note it down to keep the cheese locked away."
"Eva isn't going to steal your cheese," I said quickly, worried I might've given the wrong impression about my cousin.
"I was making a joke," Pepper responded, still smiling, but it didn't seem like she was making fun of me. Just a harmless joke.
"Do you have any fermented foods around?" I asked, moving on to my next request.
"Beer. Does that count?" Pepper replied, her eyes sparkling.
"Is that also a joke?" I checked.
She chuckled. "Yes, it was, but not a very good one. Let me think, fermented foods. Like pickled things?"
"Yes, but salt-pickled."
"We should do. They might not taste the same as what you're used to, but we have preserved vegetables like cabbage, green beans, cauliflower, carrots, but I won't serve that," she responded, still looking at me, still smiling.
I didn't know what was so amusing about the situation.
"Taste doesn't matter. Fermented foods are really good for the gut, so Eva and Max should have it regularly," I instructed, making mental notes to follow up with them if they liked it or if we had to share recipes with Pepper so she could recreate the fermented vegetables we were used to.
While I did want to make sure we ate them because they were good for us, I also did want my cousins to enjoy what they were eating too.
It was important or it would be easy to slip into not eating the things that would help us.
"And what about you?" Pepper asked with the same seriousness as asking about my cousins' preferences.
I stared at her, trying to decipher her question but failing. "What about me?"
Pepper folded her hands under her chin and leaned forward with a small smile that seemed encouraging, but I didn't really understand what for. "What kind of foods do you like?"
"Oh, you don't need to worry about me. I have particular preferences, and it's too much effort to try to cater to them, so I'll just eat what the twins have," I said.
"No," Pepper said firmly.
"No?" I asked, feeling really lost in the conversation. I was supposed to be talking about what the twins wanted to eat, and I'd done that. Was something getting lost in translation? I was reasonably sure I'd understood everything that Pepper said, and it wasn't as if no was a confusing word.
She shook her head, making some more wisps of hair come loose.
"I'm here to cook for you as Purple Oak's guests, and I take great pride in my cooking.
I can't do that if I don't know what you like.
So, please tell me some of your preferences too.
" She got a serious look on her face that made me think she was telling the truth.
This has to be some strange custom from the area, because no one had ever asked me that before.
Not our cook at the last town, and definitely not the cook who we grew up with.
It was always all about what Eva and Max liked, which was how it had always been.
I was used to it.
I pushed down the bitter feeling. It wasn't either of my cousins' faults. They'd just been born with a twin and weather magic, whereas I'd been born alone as a tea witch, an anomaly even within our own family.
"Well?" Pepper prompted as she wrote my name down in her book.
I cleared my throat. "I like mushrooms," I replied, thinking about the kind that I had in my breakfast. Mushrooms varied from place to place, and I'd tried many different types in my porridge. I always liked them.
"What else?"
"Eggs. Eggs are always good."
"And do you have a favourite preparation of eggs?" she asked.
A memory sparked of the cook two towns back who did used to ask about my preferences, but only because she thought it was funny to serve it wrong to me anyway.
It didn't feel like that was happening here. I couldn't pinpoint why. Maybe because of the intense way Pepper was looking at me, or maybe because she'd already been respectful and thoughtful when I made my breakfasts.
"Poached is my favourite, then soft-boiled, I don't like hard-boiled.
Scrambled is the worst. I don't like when they're scrambled.
Omelettes are good, rolled is better. Fluffier," I said, wondering if I was oversharing, but it didn't seem so because she was actually writing it all down.
"And tea eggs. Though I don't imagine they will be an option. "
"What's a tea egg?" she asked curiously.
"Oh, erm, it is a boiled egg that is then cracked and boiled again in tea," I responded. "Which I suppose is a hard-boiled egg, but it's different."
"I get it," she responded. "I don't like mashed potato, but I like it on top of cottage pie when it's covered in cheese."
"I don't know what cottage pie is," I admitted.
"Minced beef in gravy topped with potato," she said. "I can make it for dinner tomorrow if you want to try it?"
"I think Eva would like it," I said. "Especially with cheese."
Pepper laughed. "I can use goat cheese," she assured me. "But I wasn't offering to make it for Eva, I was offering to make it for you."
"What if I don't like it?"
"Then I won't make it for you again," she said.
"All right. I would like to try it, thank you."
"Excellent." She wrote down a note in lettering I wasn't familiar with using. "So, what is your all-time favourite thing to eat?" she asked.
"Umm…" I hesitated, not quite sure how to answer that. "Steamed buns. I like steamed buns."
Pepper wrote it down next to my name. "Mmhmm, got it. Any other preferences that I should know about? For your cousins or for you?"
There was something intense about her direct eye contact so I averted my gaze to my notebook. "No, that's all. Thank you for listening."
"Thank you for sharing such detailed notes with me, that's going to make my life a lot easier."
"You don't need to lie, I know this only makes your life harder," I replied.
Pepper closed her book. "It doesn't. Everyone has preferences. Everyone. It's a challenge to cater to them, but one I welcome. That being said, my job definitely gets easier when I don't have to guess what those preferences are. So thank you. I mean it."
"Oh." Heat rushed up to my face. I wasn't good at reading people, but I could tell she was being genuine. "You're welcome then."
The way she held my gaze made me feel like she might be seeing beyond what everyone else did, but that was unlikely. To her, I was just a guest in her village and nothing more.