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20th Saun, 716
She missed him.
How could that be, Faith thought, as she knelt next to the campfire. She was preparing the meal for Lord Venora and she had learnt over the last few trials what he liked and what he didn't. And she was very aware that the food they had on the road was dull. Like, really dull. Last night, they'd stayed at an Inn and so Faith had taken the opportunity to get some fresh meat and vegetables. The dried and salted meat that she'd packed was good, and it was tasty, but there was nothing juicy about it so she had decided that she was going to make sure that Lord Venora had a good meal inside him even though he was in camp, not an Inn.
Besides, it stopped her thinking about him. Because she missed him. Which was ludicrious, she knew, why would she? But she did.
So, having gotten the supplies she needed, she knelt by the camp fire and she considered what they had eaten all the time here. Stew. Soup. More stew and hard, salted, dried meat. Faith determined that tonight, Lord Venora was going to eat something tasty, with a bit of flavour to it and fresh. So, she chose her herbs and spices, got the chicken and first cut it into eight distinct pieces: 2 breast halves, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks and 2 wings. She would use the breasts for this meal so she cut off the other pieces and she put them into a pot with the carcass, stock, onions and vegetables so that come the morning she would be able to strain that, pull the meat off the bone and prepare it tomorrow, when they believed there would not be an Inn to stay at either.
No beds to sleep in, and somehow in such a short space of time she had grown used to sleeping in a bed. But she knew that it wasn't the sleeping in a bed that caused this aching feeling. It was worry. Was he eating properly? If he was, was it because he was staying at his Grandmother's house? Where was he? She didn't want to think of him not eating well, that was something that she did, she fed him.
Left with the breast meat and Faith seasoned that and rubbed it with the deep orange turmeric spice and a little paprika, then smothered it with butter and wrapped it up to marinate whilst she part boiled some potatoes and chopped up the onions. This she did as quickly as she could and she made sure not to rub her eyes as she did so, just letting them water. Once the onions were chopped, she moved the part boiled potatoes from the fire and she got the frying skillet. Frying off the onions, she sliced up the chicken into chunks, pleased that the spices had started to permeate in there. She put the chicken into the frypan with the onions and then added more spice, just a little, and a lot of butter which formed the base of sauce. As it all started to bubble away, Faith added the tomatoes which would spice and taste the sauce and then drained the potatoes from the pot, mashed them up very finely and put them to one side. The spiced chicken she cooked on the fire and then kept warm with hot stones and so on whilst she added more of the chopped onions to the potatoe and fried those together, as she had no rice so she hoped that this would work as a reasonable substitute.
And still, through it all she missed him. So, as she finally put the spiced chicken into the hot-pot that she had on a small fire, with the riced potatoe and onions in a basket hanging in the pot above it, Faith considered carefully what it was that she was feeling. She had spent so long pining after Malcolm, thinking about Malcolm and what he meant to her, that she really hadn't considered anything about Master. It just wasn't there in her mind and she was a little horrified when she thought that, in fact, she had probably just taken him for granted. Sighing deeply, she spoke into the darkness in a soft whisper which she hoped would carry on the breeze all the way back to Master's ears.
"Well, now, you see, here's the thing. I miss you" she said as she fussed around and got things cleaned. Ready for the next bit where she would make flatbreads, whilst the spicy chicken slowly infused with flavour. "And it isn't because I haven't seen you but it's because I want to see you. It's different" it was, too. She missed his smile, she missed waking up and thinking about him (although she still did that!) and she missed looking up and feeling delighted as he walked through the door. Going to help Lady Burhan, Faith felt that she should really be thinking of Malcolm more, but the reality was that it was Master who was in her mind and she sighed deeply as she got together the ingredients for the flatbreads, praying to Famula that she might see him again.