By evening, Sam was back in the kitchen. The kitchen was an open area, with large stoves and ovens placed around the room. The people, kept in line by the strict head cook, scrambled around like worker bees, never stopping. Delicious aromas wafted through the air, from the lamb meat sizzling on a spit to the sweet smell of pastries that were cooling on the windowsill on the far side. Sam grabbed an apple from a passing woman, and walked to one of the stoves, where the head cook was instructing a new boy on how to make fried chicken. Upon seeing him, the cook shrieked, and quickly waddled over.
“Your clothes are so dirty! And what is this white fur? Have you been down in the kennels with the king’s dogs again? What has taken you so long?”
“No, ma’am, I wasn’t with the dogs. I was being questioned by the captain of the guard. Lord Bryan has been murdered."
At this, the cook shrieked again, and promptly fainted, crashing to the floor. Ice cold water was splashed in her face to wake her up, and Sam was assigned dish duty for the rest of the evening.
Sam was still washing dishes when the door slowly creaked open. A girl stood there, dressed in plain servant’s clothes. Upon seeing Sam, she froze, seeming to reconsider, and then walked in.