The Making of a Man by Rachel Rossano

Author:Rachel Rossano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: tragedy, anthology, castles, knights, character study, medieval romance, medieval adventure, medieval action, earl of dentin, novels of rhynan
Publisher: Rachel Rossano

Six

Isbeth sank into the only empty chair in the kitchen.

A man sat at her table again. At least this time Master Ashfield wasn't bleeding on it. But the situation wasn't much better. He looked as pale as fresh milk and as weak as watered ale. Even more unsettling was the mess surrounding him. Flour and broken eggs littered the floor. Mutilated meat and carrots bits covered the table. Isbeth counted four new gouges in the already scarred wooden surface.

“I tried to dissuade her.” Ashfield regarded Isbeth from across the mess Madam Fores had made of the kitchen.

He looked pale, too ashen to be out of bed.

“I told you to stay.” Isbeth glared at him. “I traipse across the whole city to deliver your message, and you still get out of bed.”

“I had to.” He looked like a little boy being scolded for spilling the milk jug. “I had to be down here to see Tarian's guest first hand.”

Isbeth forced herself to rise. The mess wouldn't clean itself and dinner needed salvaging. Exhaustion pulled at her joints. The ache in the middle of her back that never left grew more demanding, but she ignored it. Removing the kettle from the enthusiastic fire, she reached for the metal bar she kept close to the fire and spread the wood out so the fire would burn lower and even.

“What is so special about this guest?” She asked as she shoved off the floor to regain her feet.

“I don't know.”

She glared at him as she scraped the pulverized meat into a heap. Dinner would have to be something unusual. Master Tarian and his fancy guest would just have to slum it tonight. There was no time to make pie and the meat wasn't presentable to serve alone. Moving the whole heap into a pot, she crossed to the fire and pulled out a new hook on which to hang it.

“You are all touched in the head,” she declared.

“Pardon?” Master Ashfield lifted his head as though jarred from falling asleep. He blinked lazily at her.

Despite the sympathy tugging at her, Isbeth slammed a clean knife on the table top. Ashfield jumped. She dumped the carrots out of the bowl on the table across from him and far from the meat mess. Cleaning would wait until she had the food cooking. Moving the slop bucket closer, she began the process of re-scraping the carrots.

“I would help if I could.” Ashfield touched his shoulder as though she needed a reminder.

“You could have warned me.”

“About what?” His genuine confusion pricked Isbeth's conscience.

“That you were sending me to the house of the Earl of Dentin.”

“You met him?”

“Followed him in his own back door.” She chopped the carrot beneath her knife with a bit more force than necessary. “Didn't realize who he was until the kitchen maid told me.”

Ashfield flinched. “Sorry.”

She scraped the chopped carrots into her hands and dumped them in the pot with the meat. “You got what you wanted. He hired me.”

“What?” Ashfield half rose from his chair before clutching his shoulder and sagging back into the seat looking gray.

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