The Lost Princess

Chapter 3

It has been almost two weeks since Charlotte made first contact with the Adams. After Susan welcomed her into their home she soon figured out that Charlotte was not much help in the kitchen… or with cleaning…or anything else. The only thing she was decent at was sewing and there seemed to be little need of that at the moment. But Susan loved the company. She would spent all day telling Charlotte stories of her older son, Ben, and how much of a gentleman he was. 

When Charlotte finally figured out that he had been called to war two years ago never to return she almost cried. She felt like she had almost know this man she had never even laid eyes on. Susan also told stories about Christian and when he was a little boy. Though he was only twelve he had a lot of responsibility. He was in charge of getting up every morning to feed the horses and tend to the stalls, then he walked through the fields of grain to check on anything that might be wrong. Charlotte wasn’t exactly clear on all the details of his job, but it seemed to keep him busy.

Susan had slowly begun to teach Charlotte thing about cooking and cleaning and when Charlotte found out that the school Christian had attended every Saturday had closed there doors, she volunteered to teach him. 

Charlotte was slowly falling into her role around the house and it even seemed that she might be considered one of the family.

“Now, when you cook your not always going to have everything that you need to make a gourmet meal so you make due with what you have,” said Susan,  “ We have potatoes, corn, a duck that john shot with an arrow yesterday, and just barely enough yeast to make bread with.” Susan looked at Charlotte expectantly. “So… we’ll make roast duck… mashed potatoes… and…um… cornbread,” Charlotte more asked then told. Susan nodded, “See your starting to get it. Now what do we need to cook first the duck, potatoes, or bread?” “The duck is going to take the longest, so we’ll start with that, then while its roasting we can start on the bread. After that we will make the mashed potatoes.” This time Charlotte didn’t hesitate. She had learned that roasting something take a long time if you do it right and that bread has to rise which also takes a bit long so those had to be done first.

I’m really starting to get the hang of things around here, she thought. Charlotte still had trouble sleeping and every time she looked past the field and at the massive castle looming over her, a wave of guilt and sorrow swept over her. She tried not to show it, but sometimes she caught Susan starring at her as if trying to fit all the missing pieces together. Or John sense something was wrong and ask her a million questions about her mother and father. Where did they live? What did her father do? Did she have any other siblings?

All of which Charlotte either dodged or lied about.

It wasn’t easy, but Charlotte knew that it was still the best place she could be right now.

“Are you listening,” Susan asked, “I said that since we have more than one pair of hands, I’ll start on the duck while you can start on the bread. You remember everything I taught you the other day?” Charlotte found she loved cooking and that she was even pretty good at it once she learned how to do it properly.

She had always been creative and when she cooked Charlotte was fascinated that forgetting to add one little part of the recipe, even if it was one out of a hundred different things, it could still impact the finished product.

Charlotte nodded to Susan and began getting out all the ingredient that she would need when she heard the sound of horses galloping outside the cottage. She turned to face Susan who was starring out the window.

“Stay here,” she said and walked out the front door. Charlotte quickly made her way to the window and saw two strange men in helmets and armor riding up to the cottage with John and Christian in tow.