Page 34 (1/2)

82

needed?flour, salt, eggs, and ot to work

Two hours later, she had five carefully cut out, pancake-sized circles of dough scattered a, she pinched off a section froh hit her stomach like a lead balloon

"No h taste-testing This was batch nue pizza

She didn't care if the biscuits tasted like shoe leather She was done Period

She backhanded the sheen of sweat from her brow and tucked a flour-coated lock of hair behind her ear Straightening, she set down the rolling pin and clapped the excess flour from her hands For the first time in two hours, she looked up from the table

And winced The kitchen wastrashed There was no other word for it Dozens of pots and pans were strewn across the floor, their existence forgotten as she'd searched for a cookie sheet Flour covered the table and lay like a dusting of new-fallen snow on the floorboards S

Cooking, apparently, was a dirty business

Oh, well, she thought You didn'tback to the now hot stove, she dragged a huge cast-iron pot toward her It bumped and scraped and clanked atop the metal stovetop

She lifted the lid and tossed in the potatoes, onions, and preserved carrots she'd cut up earlier Setting the lid down carefully alongside the pot, she filled the pot to the top ater, added salt froside the stove, and dropped in the haunch ofabove the dry sink

She watched it simmer for a few moments, then shoved

83

her hands in her apron pockets and slowly turned around The ain, and she winced Itat the chaos around her

Sighing, she walked over to the table and slumped on the hard wooden seat She knew that if she didn't do soht there and then

Tiredly she pushed to her feet, grabbed two buckets from beneath the dry sink, and headed outside