Chapter 10: Randall and the Robin
“OLIVIA, I brought some pumpkins. We got a bumper crop this year. They’re nice and sweet, too.”
“Thank you. I can’t wait to try them. Your pumpkins are always the nicest, Joshua.”
It was around this time that the local farmers brought pumpkin after pumpkin to Olivia. Her grandmother had told her pumpkins grow sweeter if you store them somewhere cold for a while, but Olivia was getting pumpkins so often and she didn’t want to let these kind gifts go to waste, so she was cooking up some of the freshly picked pumpkins every single day.
“Huh, is there honey in this? This sweet flavoring you’ve added is nice,” Joshua said.
“Thank you. I thought of this recipe myself, but my grandmother told me it was delicious.”
“Marguerite and Jenkins did love their pumpkins.”
“That they did. Every year around this time they’d start saying, ‘The pumpkins Joshua grows are especially sweet and tasty.’”
“And their words always encouraged my family. Hope you’ll keep on delivering the compliments, Olivia.”
“Of course! Every year I’ll compliment you like no one’s ever complimented you before, haha!”
Today’s soup of the day was chicken soup, made with a whole chicken. Olivia first opened the chicken up and stuffed in spring onions and bay leaves, along with her secret ingredients of chunks of garlic and ginger. She then boiled it until the chicken meat was so tender it fell off the bone with the touch of a spoon, and it was that broth made from both the meat and the bone that was so flavorful.
She filled bowls to the brim with the broth with the chicken meat crumbling, and a wonderful aroma filled the restaurant.
The soup was served with pumpkin she panfried with the lid on, steaming it along with loads of butter until it was nice and soft. She then glazed it with a generous dollop of honey and finished it off with a sprinkle of granular salt, resulting in a sweet-and-salty combo you couldn’t get enough of.
“My mum always said when I was growing up that pumpkins keep colds at bay, and honestly, eating this soup and pumpkin, I could really believe no cold could get the best of me,” said Joshua.
“Now that you mention it, I heard there’s a nasty illness going around the capital,” said Olivia. “One of the traveling merchants told me.”
“I heard about that. Apparently, it gives you a wicked fever and cough. Oh, that’s right, Olivia, could I get some fever and cough medicine from you? One of the women in the neighborhood seems to have caught it.”
“What sort of cough is it?”
“Her husband said it was a wet cough.”
“All right. I’ll give you three doses.”
“Thanks, you’re always helping us out.”
“It’s no problem at all.”
Olivia gave Joshua a packet with the ingredients for the medicine when he was about to head out, then walked him and his wife to the door, which is when she heard the clear chime-like cheeeep of a robin.
It was rare to see a robin, even if you heard their calls. It seemed one had settled down near Soup Forest recently which was why she heard it so often.
While it wasn’t common to see one, she had seen it sometimes after she’d been tilling the soil in the vegetable patch. Once, she left her shovel stuck in the ground, and the robin came to rest on its handle and sang after eating the insects from the turned-up earth.
Seeing its orange throat quavering as it sang was such a lovely sight. Olivia was grateful for the little bird that gobbled up so many insects. Her grandmother had told her that if a robin stays in the area for a long time, it means a nasty bug will spread through the area that year.
The region of Marlais saw heavy snowfall during the winter, and normally the robins would fly somewhere warmer before the snow piled up and spend winter there.
“Is it because robins staying here means winter’s going to be late?” she’d asked her grandmother. “Maybe illnesses get worse when winter is mild?”
“I don’t really know how it’s connected,” said her grandmother. “But apothecaries have always said that, about the robins. Perhaps that’s a general rule they learned from experience.”
“Huh.”
Olivia thought back to that conversation as she washed the dishes. The robin called out again, and Olivia found herself praying there would be no nasty bug going around.
A few days later, a customer who came to the restaurant in a carriage started talking to Olivia. He was a first-time customer, likely around seventy years old. He had white hair and an air of elegance about him.
“I’ve heard you’re related to Marguerite,” he said.
“I am. Did you know my grandmother?”
“Grandmother? I was certain she never had children.”
“She adopted me. So, more accurately, she’d be my mother, but she told me to call her grandmother.”
“Is that so? I’m an old acquaintance of hers. Well, in truth, she was something of a mentor of mine. My name is Randall, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh, does that mean you’re an apothecary at the castle?”
“That it does. I had retired, but some circumstances urged this old body back to work. But that’s all settled now, which gave me the opportunity to come out here.”
She started to wonder why an apothecary from the castle would be here, but then Bill’s face flashed in her mind. “Did you happen to hear about this restaurant from Bill?” she asked.
“I did. He told me a member of Marguerite’s family ran this restaurant, and I was overcome with nostalgia. I was hoping we could share memories of her.”
“Thank you. I’m sure my grandmother would be happy to hear you’ve remembered her.”
Once the lunchtime customers left, Olivia told Randall about Marguerite’s life following her duties.
“Oh, so then, she adopted you after she returned from Arche?” he asked.
“Yes. She raised me with such love and care. I can never thank my grandparents enough.”
“Olivia, do you know anything about medicinal plants? Did Marguerite teach you anything?”
“She did, a little. But I don’t have apothecary credentials, and I’ve never registered. All I really do is give some medicine ingredients to the people in the neighborhood when they need help.”
“May I ask why not?”
Olivia gave a wan smile as she searched for an answer that wouldn’t cause any trouble. She obviously didn’t want to say it was because she could hear people’s thoughts and didn’t think she could bear being an apothecary who regularly interacts with the ill and injured.
“I suppose that’s difficult to answer,” said Randall.
“No, it’s just that I’m already busy with running the restaurant, and, if I had to choose just one, I think I’d prefer to keep running my soup restaurant rather than be an apothecary.”
What a waste. She carries on Marguerite’s vast knowledge, yet will end as nothing but the owner of a restaurant in this backwater area, came Randall’s thoughts. No other thoughts of his had slipped out before that, which meant he really must have thought it was a shame.
“Well,” said Randall, “at the moment, I’m untethered and carefree. Marlais is peaceful and isn’t all that far from the capital, and it has this wonderful restaurant as well. I like it here. I think, as a reward to myself for an important job done, I’ll stay in Marlowe for a time. And I’ll probably stop by Soup Forest again.”
“Please do. I often go into the forest during my break in the afternoon, but otherwise, I’m almost always in the restaurant. I’d love to talk more about my grandmother with you any time.”
Randall’s eyes seemed to sparkle. “What do you forage in the forest?” he asked.
“All sorts of things. Medicinal herbs, nuts, tinder. I gratefully accept whatever the forest has to offer.”
“Hm. Are you going today?”
“I hadn’t decided. If you like, I could show you the forest.”
“Ah, well, if you don’t mind. I was just thinking I’d like to stretch my legs after three days in that carriage.”
“All right. I’ll get ready right now.”
Olivia cleared away Randall’s dishes, put several medicines for use in emergency situations in her satchel along with several large handkerchiefs and two water bottles, and then put a “Back Soon” sign on the door.