Forty-Eight

EARLY the next morning, Fabian and Adalene were loaded inside one of the carriages and they went their way to the cabin near her family. It took most of the day and it was almost dark when they arrived.

Since her family had the cabin stocked with food and whatever else they needed to stay there for a week, they started right away with cooking dinner.

Someone, probably one of her brothers, left fire and wood in the fireplace that might have been alight the whole day, and though there were only embers when they arrived, the inside was comfortably warm. Fabian added more wood and it was crisply hot when they sat down to eat that they stripped down to slips and undergarments.

“You can cook!” Fabian said happily as he got his second filling of the beef stew.

Adalene shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s my mother’s cooking. She left it in a big pot for me to heat up when we arrived. I can cook, but I haven’t done much for a long time… since I arrived in the manor, practically, so I am not sur