#and sometimes I bring her missed meals personally rather than sending a scullery maid to deliver them

[h-i-raeth]

Born to be the head cook in a minor noble's household in a medieval-lite fantasy setting, forced to live in a world with phone calls and paperwork instead.

#I have concocted an elaborate fantasy where I had an ill-fated teenage romance with the current lady of the house #when I was an apprentice/ward under the previous head cook & she was the free-spirited & doted upon daughter of the previous lord #who would sneak into the kitchens to steal fruit tarts and cheeses in a manner that was quietly indulged #& who I'd be tasked with bringing meals to when she couldn't be found for dinner and we gradually enchanged conversation #and developed feelings for each other & she always talked about different fantasies for a future together #and I knew that could never happen but she didn't seem to #and then her only brother died in a tragic hunting 'accident' & she is expected to inherit her fathers lands and can no longer be #the doted upon young mistress who will eventually be expected to marry in a distant theoretical way #and instead is betrothed to marry the son of a rich merchant who was one of her brother's companions #& in her grief and under the weight of increased expectations she pushes me away until years later I'm the head cook #and I get a nostalgic pang in my chest when I catch her children sneaking into the kitchens for fruit tarts #and sometimes I bring her missed meals personally rather than sending a scullery maid to deliver them #and we have prolonged eye contact but she's far too busy managing the estate and her absent husband's business affairs #for anything more to come of it until one day she uncovers letters that prove that her husband conspired to kill her brother and marry her #in order to gain access to her lands and station & I'm the only member of the household that has kept on since her father was lord #who she can trust/go to in order to troubleshoot what she should do about this