Chapter 3
NELLIE STARTED making applesauce.
Around mid-morning, a cart came to the back door, delivering barrels of wine, sausages, cheeses, dried fruit and pickles from the ship of the Guentherite order that she had seen in the harbour.
A bit after midday, the kitchen workers “helped” Wim sample the wine, sausages and dried nuts to make sure they weren’t poisoned—they weren’t. The order’s farms were on church property. Monks grew this food, although Nellie hated to think how much the palace would have spent on it, because they would have had to pay market prices for this.
The sausages were wonderful and made her pleasantly full. She was not used to drinking wine either. For most of the afternoon, while she helped to pluck, chop, peel and stir, she felt wonderfully warm and comfortable
