Anje, who had almost insulted him, hurriedly corrected her words and looked more closely inside the closet.
Even though she wanted to find fault with Aiden’s actions, she didn’t want to speak ill of someone’s deceased mother.
She herself had lost her mother at a young age.
“Hmm…”
The neatly folded clothes, as well as the unbleached skirts and stockings in the basket, were all neatly kept and ready to be worn.
After a short deliberation, she took out a navy blue gingham check dress. In her other hand, Aiden handed her a box he had taken out from somewhere in the drawer.
“Now, change your clothes and apply the red medicine inside to the wound. I hope you know how to apply it.”
“Who do you think you’re calling an idiot?”
Aiden pointed at her decisively. Anje almost lost her temper, but she imitated his cold attitude and pretended to be calm.
“Better than someone who makes that strange porridge that can’t be eaten.”
“Strange porridge?”
He made a puzzled face for a moment, then realized.
“It’s no wonder it doesn’t taste good; you’re eating a food made a few hours ago, Lazy Princess.”
It was clear that it would have cooled and hardened by now.
“I don’t have a maid to help me dress, so how do you expect me to get ready faster?”
Anje grumbled and reached behind her to untie the back of her skirt.
Aiden watched her for a moment, then realized she was going to change her clothes and hurriedly turned around.
“Then I’ll clean up the messy kitchen.”
If he didn’t mop the floor quickly, the molasses would soak into the wooden floor and leave sticky marks. Once such marks were left, they were not easy to erase.
“Such a handful woman.” He grumbled to himself and headed for the kitchen.
***
After changing her clothes, Anje felt a little better.
The dress Aiden gave her to wear was not to her taste.
‘But it is comfortable, though.’
The plain dress that commoners mostly wore when working was a one-piece form with the top and bottom connected.
It was not tight-fitting so that it was easy to move, and it did not have any decorations such as ribbons or lace.
The length, which fell to the ankles even without a crinoline underneath, which made it easy to move around.
Best of all, the buttons were on the front of the bodice, making it easy to put on and take off by herself.
She especially liked the fact that she didn’t have to go through the same struggle as before to put on and take off her clothes.
‘I don’t need to ask for Sir Aiden’s help again either.’
She muttered as she looked at her reflection in the mirror.
“It looks exactly like a maid’s outfit, doesn’t it? But then again, My beauty can’t be hidden no matter what.”
She was briefly intoxicated by her own appearance, which could not be hidden even by the shabby clothes, but then she came back to reality.
‘Now I have to go back and eat that porridge again.’
Her face involuntarily contorted, but she couldn’t bear it without putting something in her mouth. If she had known things would turn out like this, she would have filled a bag with snacks.
As she walked to the kitchen, she sniffed the air, catching a whiff of something delicious.
‘What is this smell?’
It seemed vaguely similar to when the chef used to bake cheese scones. She tilted her head and opened the kitchen door, and soon she realized the source of the smell.
Crackle crackle―
The wood fire was burning brightly inside the stove, which had been turned off and cold until now.
“There you are. Come and sit down, without dropping anything again.”
Aiden, who was chopping something at the counter, pointed to the table with his chin.
“Did you apply the ointment?”
“……Yes.”
In fact, the pain had disappeared while she was trying on the clothes, so she forgot about it, but now Anje nodded her head, answering falsely. If she said she was fine right away, she thought she would be accused of exaggerating.
Sitting down, she sniffed her nose again. The appetizing smell of cheese was coming from the stove, or rather, the frying pan on top of it.
Aiden, who had washed his face and hands and was clean, put the food that was frying in oil on a plate and placed it in front of Anje.
“Here.”
Anje stared at what was on her plate. It was flat and… bread? It was a similar color to the corn porridge she had had before.
Aiden, who read her questioning look, answered shortly.
“It’s corn porridge that I baked.”
The cold, hard porridge was more delicious to cut into pieces and bake than to reheat it poorly. The cheese added to the porridge melted and gave off a delicious smell.
He didn’t want to give her the first meal she ate at his house as something that was poorly made, so he had made an effort in his own way, but Anje, who didn’t know his heart, pouted.
“You’re recycling leftovers?”
At the duchy, at least it was something that couldn’t be in the food served to her.
“It’s a great dish for a picky, lazy princess. If you don’t want to eat it, I’ll take it back and feed it to the pigs.”
“Tsk.”
Either way, she had no choice. She closed her eyes tightly and, hoping that this unidentified food would be delicious, took a big bite.
‘Huh?’
Anje opened her eyes, which she had been unknowingly closing. The texture was completely different from the sticky porridge she had eaten earlier.
The outside was slightly crispy and the inside was fluffy, reminiscent of her favorite snack. She chewed and swallowed the food in her mouth and silently took another bite.
“What’s the name of this food?”
“It’s called polenta.”
Polenta, a name she heard for the first time. Aiden, who was preparing other food, glanced at her.
“Does it taste okay?”
“It’s edible.”
Anje, who had put a whole piece on her plate into her mouth, desperately swallowed the piece before answering.
Aiden, as if he expected her to say that, placed another piece of food on her plate without changing his expression.
It was a round and soft sphere, a boiled egg made from eggs just brought from the chicken coop.
“It’s a little better to eat it together.”
It would be even tastier if it was served with boiled tomato sauce or steamed vegetables, but it was too much trouble to prepare. It wasn’t difficult to cook one more boiled egg since he also had to eat lunch anyway.
Anje tried breaking the yolk and dipping the polenta in it. Surprisingly, his words that it would taste better together were true.
Another piece of the flat bread disappeared in an instant.
‘It’s delicious.’
It was delicious, but… she didn’t want to let on that she, who was so picky that she had made the chef cry several times, was impressed by this humble food.
She swallowed the sigh inside and scooped up the remaining pieces with the broken yolk, scraping the bottom clean.
Just as Anje finished eating the polenta, the delicious smell started to fill the kitchen again. Her gaze involuntarily turned towards the oven stove.
Sizzle–
The sound of meat sizzling on the iron bottom of the pan. He was in the process of grilling a few more pieces of smoked ham that he had enjoyed eating yesterday for himself.
‘The sound alone makes it seem delicious.’
Sensing Anje’s gaze, he turned his head in her direction, she quickly put her head back in its original position.
“Would you like some?”
“No! I’m good. I’m full.”
A woman with an appetite is said to be vulgar among the nobles. Especially starting a day with fatty meat like ham was considered unladylike.
Anje ignored the emptiness she felt in her stomach.
‘Well then’
He must have thought the small bread wouldn’t be enough, so he deliberately brought out a generous amount of ham, but if she said so, there would be no need to share it.
Aiden added chopped onions and mushrooms next to the browning ham. The heat quickly cooked the vegetables.
Finally, he put all the prepared food, including buttered slices of pre-cut bread, on a single plate and brought it to the table.
Anje tried her best not to look at the man sitting directly across from her.
But the smell, this smell…
“…Gulp.”
“Have a piece-”
“I told you I’m full!”
Aiden didn’t push it any further and silently buttered his own bread. In stark contrast to his words, her face was dripping with greed for the ham slice.
After all, this ham was made from a pig he raised and butchered himself. And it was smoked for days using fragrant hickory wood.
“Lady.”
“Yes?”
“It’s…burdensome.”
“Me, what do you mean?”
“Aren’t you watching me eat?”
“There’s nothing else to look at, what can I do?”
Her eyes were too bright for just looking because there was nothing else to see. Aiden, instead of the words bubbling up, cut a large piece of ham and placed it on her plate.
“I told you I’m full.”
“Drool is running down your mouth.”
“Oh?”
She hurriedly wiped her lips with a napkin after being rebuked.
‘When was the last time I put meat in my mouth?’
She thought it was probably the last time she had a soup with meat in it, and even then it was a thin one, at a banquet a few months ago.
She had always been very careful about her body shape. Recently, she had been cutting down on her food even more than usual in order to catch the eye of Emperor William.
As she thought about how long she had been off meat, Anje’s patience grew thin. The devil inside her seemed to be whispering that she could eat at least this much.
Gathering up the remaining shreds of her dignity, she made a last-ditch refusal.
“It’s not proper for a lady to start her day with meat.”
“But it’s already well past morning, it’s almost noon.”
“Ah.”
Anje let out a dumbfounded sound as she looked at the sun that was already high in the sky. She thought she had woken up very early, but it must have taken her a long time to get ready to go out, and the fact that she had changed her clothes once in the middle of it all had made it this late in the day.
“Well then, let’s not refuse the food that Sir Aiden has prepared for us. It would be a shame to waste such precious food.”
Whether or not Aiden raised his eyebrows at her lame excuse, she hid her embarrassme
nt with a dry cough and picked up her fork and knife again.
She gracefully sliced a piece of ham and put it in her mouth. Within seconds, she almost dropped the utensils on the floor again.
‘What is this? This is so, so delicious!’
