We used the mistletoe boughs Bellis had cut down for us to decorate the high-traffic areas around the manor. Now that we had the grandest sprigs of mistletoe hanging in the entrance hall, it was truly starting to feel like the New Year’s season. I was all but ready to run around shouting, “Happy Flür Day!”
“Nothing brings out the New Year’s spirit like mistletoe,” I remarked.
“Indeed,” agreed Rohtas.
Even the butler, who had his hands full inspecting each room, hanging the decorations, and doing whatever else needed to be done, had to stop and admire the plant.
“We’ve finished decorating the rest of the rooms. Would you like to see for yourself?”
“Nah—I’ll take a look later. For now, there’s work to be done.”
“Oh? What’s next on the agenda?”
“Deciding what’s on the menu! It won’t be long now before Mother and Father Fisalis arrive.”
“My, my. You’d better do some serious brainstorming, then.”
“That’s the plan! Off I go to see Cartham.”
I left Rohtas and headed for the kitchen.
✦ ✦ ✦
Though the kitchen clean-up was all done, the ingredients for the new year had yet to be delivered or sorted, so the place wasn’t as busy as it could have been.
“Is Cartham around?”
“Yeah. Over there,” said one of the cooks.
“Hm?”
I glanced in the direction he’d pointed, and there I found a certain someone sitting in a corner of the servants’ dining room, giving off some seriously ominous vibes.
He was holding his head in his hands, as still as a statue. Never before had he felt so difficult to approach. Where had the Cartham I knew and loved gone off to?!
“Uh... That is Cartham, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I take it he hasn’t settled on a menu yet?”
“He’s struggling to come to a decision.”
I slooowly sidled over to the chef in question and peered at his face, only to find him glaring down at a blank sheet of paper. He was like a totally different person compared to his usual easygoing self. Heck, he hadn’t even registered that I was there.
“And we can’t order anything until he knows what he’ll be making, huh?”
“Exactly. If he doesn’t decide soon, we might not get the ingredients in time,” the cook explained, a troubled look on his face.
“I get it! Well, everybody has days like that, don’t they?” There wasn’t a person in the world who’d never gone through a slump.
I asked the cook to prepare some tea for the two of us, then took the seat across from Cartham.
“Hey, Cartham. Decided what’s on the menu yet?”
“Oh, Madame! I didn’t see you come in!”
“I’ve been here for a while now.”
“My apologies for the oversight, then. Uncle Cartham is in a bit of a bind, you see... I’m fresh out of ideas.”
“And here I never thought I’d see the day. You always manage to come up with the tastiest of dishes!”
“What could the issue be? I’m not even sure myself,” Cartham said with an exaggerated shrug.
“It doesn’t have to be anything too fancy. As a matter of fact, anything too rich is gonna be murder on my stomach, so why not keep it simple and use the same ingredients we always do?”
“I suppose that’s not a bad idea...”
“Should we bust out the usual regional dishes?”
“Ha ha ha! Not for New Year’s, I’m afraid.”
He finally laughed like his usual self.
“Racking your brains too hard is just going to leave you even more stuck. Why not make the kids a snack for a change of pace?”
“If only I could...”
“Huh?”
Cartham threw a glance across the room. When I followed his gaze, there was Tinctorius, happily working away on some new creation.
“Dun-dun-da-da! For today’s treat, we have ourselves a pudding topped with a healthy helping of fruit!”
From the looks of things, he was humming his own little made-up tune as he whipped up a snack for Violet and her friends. He’d inherited his father’s happy-go-lucky personality—and his formidable skill with a kitchen knife too. The way he could turn a piece of fruit into anything from a flower to a bird was a sight to behold.
Tinctorius took over snack duty again, I see. Yesterday he made that pie, and now he’s whipping up a pudding... Oh man, I can’t wait for tea time! I mean, uh...back to the point!
“Your son robbed you of your distraction, huh?”
“You got it... Weh.”
Cartham’s melodramatic reaction was almost as funny as Tinctorius’s total obliviousness to the fact that he was the source of his dad’s slump.
“There, there. Let’s leave the snacks to him and focus on the dinner to come. Let’s see... How about some kind of meat confit? That’s Mr. Fisalis’s favorite.”
I wasn’t too familiar with the ins and outs of fine cuisine, but I went ahead and named one of my husband’s dishes of choice, hoping it might give Cartham some sort of inspiration.
And wouldn’t you know it?
“That’s a great idea! And it doesn’t have to be meat—I could make a confit of some seasonal fruits and vegetables while I’m at it.”
“Mm-hmm!”
“Shall we poach the fish?”
“Yeah, that sounds good!”
It seemed I’d managed to light a fire under our chef.
Once he had a prompt to start from, the ideas began pouring forth one after the other, and he jotted each of them down in a furious scribble. Our Cartham was a regular treasure trove of creativity.
In no time at all, what had been a blank sheet of paper was filled with notes on the names of dishes, their ingredients, and how to cook them.
“Wow... Impressive! You’re so good at this, Cartham.”
“I’m flattered to hear you say that, Madame. But of course, it was your hint that got me past my mental block! Merci!”
Then, as always, he took my hand in a sweeping gesture and kissed it. Yep, he was definitely back to his normal self.
“Aww, don’t mention it!”
I chose to simply shut up and take the compliment.
With Cartham’s slump conquered, we managed to decide on the menu. We could finally move on to ordering the ingredients!
Now that they had work to do, the cooks flew into action. Rohtas joined us in the kitchen, and then it was time to start reviewing the ingredient list. We called for our go-to merchants so that he and Cartham could put in our order.
The kitchen had burst into a frenzy of activity, the relaxed atmosphere from earlier nowhere to be seen. Thus, we decided to move to the dining room and have our afternoon snack.