As she pressed down on the mold, colorful butter shapes emerged with a rhythmic “thunk, thunk” sound, and Anje couldn’t help but smile with delight.
Looking back, she recalled that whenever an important guest was visiting the Duke’s mansion, butter engraved with the family crest would be placed on the dining table.
At the time, she hadn’t paid much attention to the shape of the butter, but if she had known it was made through such an entertaining process, she would have sneaked into the kitchen earlier to watch.
The finished butter was carefully wrapped and stored in the cool cellar, except for the portion that would be used immediately. Anje gazed at the clean countertop with a wistful expression.
“When will you make butter again?”
“I already made enough for a month today. Well, I don’t think I’ll be making any for a while.”
Seeing the disappointment in Anje’s eyes, he impulsively offered another suggestion.
“I’m thinking of making cheese at home sometime next week or so―.”
Before he could finish his sentence, Anje nodded enthusiastically.
“Great! I’ll help you make it too.”
Well then. To make cheese, you needed rennet, which was extracted from the stomach of a young calf.
It was too early to slaughter the calf he was raising now, so he figured he would have to ask Meg for some.
‘Why did I agree to this tedious task?’
TL/N: I WONDER!!
He usually didn’t eat cheese, or if he did, he would save the ones he bought from town.
His regretful eyes caught sight of a white hand delicately picking up a piece of butter left on the paper.
“Young Lady.”
“W-Why? Why are you calling me that all of a sudden?”
Addressed by the usual title she was accustomed to, she couldn’t hide her agitation. He was always calling her princess, princess, so what was the change of wind?
“There’s no point in trying to act innocent. What’s that in your pocket?”
“……Butter.”
Her pink lips pouted out like a beak.
“I’m just taking some as a souvenir, is that not allowed?”
“It’s heat sensitive, it’ll melt in no time.”
“I can eat it before it does.”
“Without any side dishes, just plain?”
“Yes. It’s butter, it’s delicious even eaten plain when it’s freshly made.”
Speaking in a low voice, she avoided Aiden’s gaze and looked at the side wall instead.
There was one reason why Anje was secretly taking some to eat.
“You’re going to take it to the pigsty, aren’t you?”
Whether it was that stupid Pa or Pu. Aiden couldn’t understand why she was so attached to them and pampered them so much. They were just livestock after all.
“……W-Well, I made it with you, so it’s okay for me to take some too, right?”
“Why would you want to feed them something strange and risk them getting sick?”
“Getting sick?”
Anje, who wanted to feed her pigs the freshly made butter, started to pout.
“I don’t know for sure since I’ve never fed butter to pigs before, but… I don’t think they’ll like it plain.”
“Okay, I’ll listen to you since you’re the expert.”
She placed the butter back on the table. Of course, she hadn’t completely given up on her grand plan to let Pa-Pi-Pu try the newly made butter.
“What are you going to make with this butter?”
“It’s an ingredient that can go into anything, so I didn’t have any specific plans in mind… but if I had to choose something special, maybe butter cookies or butterscotch pudding? That would be a good dessert for dinner tonight.”
The thought of butter-flavored cookies and sweet, soft pudding made her mouth water. Either one would be delicious, especially if the main ingredient was freshly made butter.
Anje contemplated the two choices for a while before finally giving up on choosing.
“Do I really have to choose one of the two?”
“I can make both, it doesn’t matter. Either one is a simple recipe.”
“Then let’s make both! Oh, but just a small amount! I’m only going to have one bite.”
“……”
Anje always said things like that, but she rarely kept her word and only ate “one bite.” So Aiden prepared enough for two people, as he usually did.
‘I’m also having asparagus and bacon, so I really should only have one bite of dessert.’
Anje’s firm resolution melted away in the buttery aroma that wafted out of the oven after dinner.
“Once you’re done eating, drink your cod liver oil—Wait a minute, princess, what else are you hiding in your pocket?”
“It’s just a small lump of dough, so it should be fine!”
Anje, trying to escape from Aiden’s grasp, had a piece of leftover dough from making cookies earlier in her pocket.
However, the amount was too large to be called “a small lump.” It was a fair amount for Pa, Pi, and Pu, who were all adult pigs with hearty appetites.
“Drink your cod liver oil when you get back!”
“You drink it all yourself!”
He sullenly looked at the small cup of cod liver oil he had poured for Anje to drink, and then immediately put it in his mouth.
It was so disgustingly bad that she shivered and tried to avoid it. But it was good for her body.
It would also help to improve the palpitations and fever symptoms that had been appearing to him more frequently lately.
“I wonder if I can make cookies or pudding with cod liver oil.”
It was a shame to let a gallon of cod liver oil go to waste or for him to drink it all. Maybe if he turned it into a delicious dessert, even the picky princess would eat it without complaining. He immediately put his good idea to the test.
* * *
That night, the pigs rushed over, excited by the fact that new food had arrived at an unusually late hour.
“Oink, oink.”
It was the tall male owner, who hadn’t been seen around the pigsty for a while.
Slinking out of the house quietly so as not to be caught by Anje, he poured a bowl full of ‘something’ into the trough.
After sampling the new snack with a sizzling sound, they immediately backed away, making new sounds like they were angry.
“Squeal, squeal!”
“Eek!”
“Damn it, even these guys won’t eat it.”
Aiden bit his lip and picked up the failed dish again. He couldn’t show it to Anje because it looked so bad in his eyes.
He didn’t want to hurt his pride by showing her this big failure, considering himself a ‘cooking god’. She would surely point at him and laugh out loud.
So he tried to feed it to Pa-Pi-Pu and destroy the evidence, but they had become picky eaters due to Anje’s excessive affection.
Pigs who don’t act like pigs.
“I guess I’ll have to put it in the compost bin.”
Developing a ‘cod liver oil dessert’ was still an attempt too early in this era.
* * *
A few days later, on a warm afternoon, in Aiden’s backyard.
Meg, who was knitting furiously on a rocking chair, was in a deep thought that she rarely had.
‘How can I make the relationship between our young master and the young lady stronger?’
Aiden, who often looked after the frail Mrs. Dilton in her stead, was more like a nephew to her than a mere neighbor.
This fact had not changed even though he had changed his surname to Fitzroy after returning and his attitude towards her had become awkward.
‘War is something that easily ruins people.’
Although some of the villagers whispered behind her back, she knew from her years of raising her younger siblings and their nieces and nephews that Aiden, despite his somewhat distorted exterior, was still the kind and gentle boy she knew.
And she also liked his new wife, Anje, whom she had just met. Unlike the other village girls, she spoke differently, but she was a cheerful and honest girl.
The way she wandered around the farm, looking at things here and there, and sometimes peeking at him working, seemed like a curious magpie.
She was sure that this innocent and bright girl would have a good influence on Aiden.
In fact, Aiden often had a much brighter and gentler face than when she met him in town.
When he was teaching Anje something or listening to her chatter, he would sometimes smile as if he was about to draw a line.
‘The master seems to be quite interested.’
Meg almost burst out laughing when Aiden came to her with a serious face to ask if his ‘unusual symptoms’ were an early sign of heart disease.
And she sent him away with a soothing word, saying, ‘You’ll be fine if you take some ginseng with the young lady for a while’
‘What about the young lady?’
In Meg’s sharp eyes, it didn’t seem hopeless at all.
However, Anje was so preoccupied with something new she learned every day that she didn’t care how Aiden thought of her or how she thought of him.
“Romantic, something romantic is needed,” Meg muttered to herself. It was a word far from her, who had lived her whole life single, busy raising her younger siblings.
But finally, after much thought, she got a hint.
“Young lady, young lady.”
“Why are you calling me, aunty?”
Anje, who had been tending to flowers for a long time, ran up to her. She had placed half-broken eggshells on the soil, wanting to see the wilting silverbells, which were past their prime, a little longer.
‘I heard they use eggshells as fertilizer.’
What Aiden meant was to grind the shells into powder and mix them with the soil.
“I saw on my way here that the raspberries are starting to ripen. Have you seen them?”
“Oh, raspberries? I haven’t seen them yet, but where are they?”
“Over there by the stream… I think Sir Aiden knows best…”
“Oh, come to think of it, he said he would show me where the raspberries grow last time.”
Oh, did he? Meg covered her grinning lips with her knitting.
“I suddenly wanted to eat raspberries, but could you and Sir Aiden pick some for me? I’ve been mopping all afternoon and my legs are a bit sore.”
“Oh, are you okay? Shall I massage them for you? I’ll let ‘Sir’ pick the raspberries by himself.”
This wouldn’t do. Meg thought quickly.
* * * *
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