Once Ollie left, everyone settled into a semblance of a normal family dinner. Maela dutifully sampled each dish, starting with Snow on the Sea, and praised each one in turn.
She would have done so anyway, even if the fish had been raw in the center and the bread were blackened on the bottom, but there was no need to give false praise to the quality of the feast that Ashlynn and Jocelynn had set before her.
"I don't understand," Micheline said after savoring the complex combination of flavors present in Maela's favorite dish. "Ashlynn, I remember you saying that you'd learned a little about cooking to learn how the vegetables in your garden were prepared. But this," she added, gesturing at not only the fish but everything else on the table.
