The Ruins of Gorlan- Character Reaction

8

Alyss took the book offered by Pauline and began to read.

Sometime late in the afternoon, Halt finally ran out of jobs for Will.

Horace looked at Will in surprise. "You just did chores almost your whole first day?" he asked.

Will nodded glumly. "That's Halt for you."

Halt shrugged. "I was preparing you to take care of your own cabin when you graduated."

He looked around the cabin, noting the gleaming kitchen implements, the spotless fireplace, the thoroughly swept floor and totally dust-free rug. A stack of firewood lay beside the fireplace and another stack, cut and split into shorter lengths, filled the wicker basket beside the kitchen stove.

"Hmmm. Not bad," he said. "Not bad at all."

Will felt a surge of pleasure at the sparing praise, but before he could feel too pleased with himself, Halt added,"Can you cook, boy?"

"Cook, sir?" Will asked uncertainly. Jenny giggled. Halt raised his eyes to some unseen superior being.

"Why do young people invariably answer a question with another question?"

"You answered a question with a question," Duncan pointed out. Halt pursed his lips.

"I was mocking Will."

Will frowned. "I'm pretty sure you did that before I came in."

he asked. Then, receiving no reply, he continued, "Yes, cook. Prepare food so that one might eat it. Make meals. I assume you do know what food is—what meals are?"

"Ye-es," Will answered, careful to take any questioning inflection out of the word.

"Well, as I told you this morning, this is no grand castle. If we want to eat food here, we have to cook food here," Halt told him. There was that word we again, Will thought. Every time so far that Halt had said we must, it had seemed to translate to mean you must. Gilan snickered.

"I can't cook," Will admitted–Jenny shook her head in disappointment–and Halt clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

"Of course you can't! Most boys can't. So I'll have to show you how. Come on."

He led the way to the kitchen and introduced Will to the mysteries of cooking: peeling and chopping onions, choosing a piece of beef from the meat safe, trimming it and cutting it into neat cubes, then chopping vegetables, searing the beef in a sizzling pan, and finally adding a generous dash of red wine and some of what Halt called his "secret ingredients."

"What are your secret ingredients, Halt?" Jenny asked curiously. Halt smiled.

"I think you have me beat in cooking in every way possible, Jenny. I'll keep my secret ingredients."

The result was a savory-smelling stew, simmering on the top of the stove.

Now, as they waited for the dinner to be ready, they sat on the verandah in the early evening and talked quietly.

"The Rangers were founded over one hundred and fifty years ago, in King Herbert's reign. Do you know anything about him?" Halt looked sideways at the boy sitting beside him, tossing the question out quickly to see his response.

Will hesitated. He vaguely remembered the name from history lessons in the Ward, but he couldn't remember any details. Still, he decided he'd try to bluff his way through it.