eyes and a tip-tilted nose. Her cheeks were pink with the heat from the kitchen.
But as soon as the woman—who appeared to be Tante Gretchen’s younger sister—turned around, it was clear that she recognized Giselle. The woman’s face lit up, and she gestured to Giselle to come properly into the kitchen itself.
“You’ll be Giselle,” the woman said. “I’m Elfrida. Fraulein Rosamund engaged me to come take charge of the housekeeping here, since it was unlikely anyone in your company had ever done such a thing before. Also, Herr Kellermann sent many food items I do not think your cooks know how to prepare. Beets, mangel-wurzels, common things of that sort. I will show them how to deal with German food.” She lowered her voice. “I, too, am an Earth Magician, although a minor one. A kitchen-witch, Fraulein Rosa calls me, since my powers have always been domestic. I was most impressed with your Mother’s preservation rooms. I was able to extend them into the entire cellar, and copy them in the storage room above us. I do not think I would have been able to concoct such a work on my own.”
“You sound like the answer to all prayers, Frau Elfrida,” Giselle said warmly, “Since my talents are most decidedly not in the kitchen.”
Elfrida’s round face lit up with a smile, and her blue eyes shone with pleasure. “Well, you must, like the others, be starving and cold. Come get a plate and fill it up, and take care of both needs at once!”
Giselle hadn’t known what to expect. It was wonderful to find that supper was to be chicken and dumplings, with a pickled beet and onion salad, fresh bread and butter, and plenty of hot coffee. She got her plate full, and went to join the others—who might not have recognized what they were about to eat, but had already tried enough native Bavarian food that they were not inclined to turn up their noses at anything that looked and smelled as good as this did. Giselle ate slowly, very glad that there would be no more performances, no more long drives in the cold, no more rising at dawn. No more rushed meals. Tonight, she would sleep as long as she liked. Then she would get the rest of her belongings from the vardo, move the spices to the kitchen, and . . .
I don’t know. But whatever I do will have nothing to do with performing.
Rosa brought in the company cooks at just that moment and took them straight to Frau Elfrida. They gave her the respect any good cook does when he or she steps into the kitchen of another. In her turn, she welcomed them warmly, showed them about the place, and presumably explained where everything was and how things were done in “her” kitchen. Giselle had never had much to do with the three cooks from the show, but it appeared they were all good-tempered, and were going to get along famously with Elfrida, and that was all that mattered.
When Rosa was sure that everyone was going to get along, she cast her eyes over the tables full of hungry, tired show folk, spotted Giselle, and smiled. Since Giselle had finished eating at this point, she got up, left her dishes in the big tub of soapy water standing ready for the purpose, and joined Rosa.
“I am no mind reader, but I would risk a bet that you want a hot bath,” Rosa said, chuckling. “It was the first thing I wanted when I got here.”
“Oh, sweet Virgin, yes!” Giselle exclaimed. “And you can answer some of my questions while I soak.”
“I started the copper warming in the little tower kitchen this morning. You should have all the water you want. And wait until you see the clever things the . . . builders . . . did in that kitchen!”
By now, the sun had set, and they hurried around the courtyard in the cold as more snow began to fall. It looked as if the wooden doors had been closed on the entrance, although Giselle couldn’t tell if the portcullis was down. She wondered what Cody and the others had made of that particular facet of the abbey.
Probably they think this is a castle, and there are always iron portcullises on buildings in Germany. Certainly they had seen plenty of such things in the towns they’d played at. Almost all of them had been defensively walled towns, and most of them still