CH 36

The next day, I decided to take Larissa to the kitchen as part of the treatment.

Chef Hannah Baker was waiting with her hands clasped in her spotless apron.

“Madam, please come.”

I nodded with an awkward smile.

Mrs. Baker was polite as if she had a mask on her face, yet she had other thoughts in her mind.

– She wants to give her sister a kitchen tour? Are you trying to use that as an excuse to spy on it?

‘No, it’s not like that.’

I was itching to correct the misunderstanding.

However, I knew very well from Marcia’s many years of experience that answering according to the voice of heart would lead to a deeper misunderstanding.

So I just let the misunderstanding go on.

‘Even if I don’t have to explain it, if I show it in action, the misunderstanding will gradually disappear.’

It will take some time.

In fact, I came with the intention of showing Larissa every corner of the kitchen. But I changed my mind after hearing the chef’s heart voice.

‘For now, I will return to my room after listening to the chef’s explanation quietly without disturbing the kitchen work.’

Well, if the employer suddenly comes and looks at you when you’re busy working, you will surely hate it.

Especially if it was a new employer a few days ago.

“Come over here. I’ll show you the inside detail,” Mrs. Baker beckoned.

I quickly spoke in a soft tone, “You must be busy, but you don’t have to guide me. I came here to show Larissa how to make dessert. She likes sweet things.”

I looked down at Larissa and said, “Right, Larissa?”

Mrs. Baker’s gaze turned to Larissa.

Larissa nervously shrugged her shoulders and clutched the hem of her skirt with one hand, then rolled her green eyes again and looked at us.

For a moment, Larissa immediately blushed her cheeks and lowered her gaze to her toes.

She was incredibly adorable in her gestures, which seemed to be shy.

Is it only in my eyes?

‘……No, I don’t think so.’

Mrs. Baker’s expression changed in an instant when she saw Larissa.

Her stone-like expression from a while ago was nowhere to be found, and it immediately began to melt like butter on a frying pan.

“Aww, that’s right. Of course, any young girl this age likes sweets. Come on in. It’s time to bake matcha pies.”

All of a sudden, the way she spoke changed like a kind neighborhood aunt.

Our Larissa is cute. Even if she doesn’t say anything and doesn’t have any facial expressions, but with her appearance, she’s literally like a fairy.

I winked at her and took her hand.

Mrs. Baker opened the door to the kitchen, and we followed her inside.

The kitchen was incredibly spacious. It was indeed a space worthy of taking responsibility for the family of the mansion.

There were dozens of people working, shouting loudly to each other.

In the meantime, a servant running small errands diligently carried ingredients, washed dishes, and cleaned the floor.

Larissa shuddered a little at the loud noise.

But when she saw the fires blazing here and there, and the cooks who handled them without hesitation, her eyes widened.

A smile spread across Mrs. Baker’s face when she saw it.

“Come here. I’ll show you around.”

She clapped her hands and shouted loudly, “Madam is here! And this is her younger sister, Young Lady Larissa Blick. She wants to see the kitchen, so say hello!”

And Mrs. Baker strode inside.

Larissa hesitatingly followed her.

I pat Larissa’s back lightly, and quietly stood in the back as if I was not there.

Mrs. Baker began to explain to Larissa.

“She is Mary Anne in charge of the broth. Marry Anne, come and say hello to Lady Larissa.”

“Oh, hello, Lady.”

“Didn’t you have mushroom cream soup for breakfast? Mary Anne made it. That big pot is the soup pot. Oh, this is for employees, and of course, we make it separately.”

‘Is it all soup in such a big pot?’ It was written on Larissa’s face as she looked at the pot.

Mary Anne smiled slightly and opened the lid of the soup pot.

The smell of chicken broth spreads with a bubbling sound.

“The chicken soup will be served tonight.”

Larissa tiptoed and stretched her head out, peeking carefully inside the pot.

But she was short and couldn’t see the inside. Her eyebrows were curved down.

Mary Anne’s laughter grew louder. She quickly stirred the pot with a ladle and scooped out some soup.

“Come on, this is it.”

As Mary Anne held out the ladle of soup, Larissa looked curiously into it.

I could see her swallowing saliva.

“It has to be boiled for a long time to get the taste. Please look forward to dinner.”

Mrs. Baker, who watched with satisfaction as Larissa blinked her eyes and nodded her head, moved to the next counter.

“Philip, say hello to Madam and Lady! Philip is in charge of the meat.”

A man named Phillip chuckled, and he suddenly poured alcohol into the skillet.

When the blue flame rose sharply in the pan, Larissa opened her mouth and hid behind me.

“You idiot! Don’t do anything useless. The Lady is surprised.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Do not be surprised. It’s not dangerous at all. That way, the fishy smell will disappear.”

Both Mrs. Baker who complained and Philip who apologized had only smiles on their faces.

A similar thing happened every time she introduced the kitchen people one by one.

At first, I heard a grunt as if I was going to monitor what the kitchen people were doing.

But when Larissa walked in with a twinkle in her curious eyes, Mrs. Baker quickly smiled and started showing her what she was doing.

Then, she took the food she was making and asked her to taste it, and she put it in Larissa’s mouth.

When Larissa’s cheeks became convex and her eyes widened in surprise, another burst of laughter erupted.

This was Larissa’s first time doing something with someone else.

It was so lovely to see a pretty child show a pure reaction.

Even if she didn’t say anything, the kitchen people fell in love with her amazing reaction as if she was a two-year-old.

The last was the person in charge of dessert, Hayes.

As he rubbed his flour-covered hand on the dishcloth, he nodded and bowed his head.

Of course not to me, but to Larissa.

“I was just baking a pie. Please wait a moment. It’s coming out of the oven soon.”

He smiled and pointed to the basket in the corner.

The large basket was half full of apples.

“Now that spring is here, we’re getting rid of all the old apples. The fresh fruit will soon be pouring in. The apples harvested last year are being made into jam or pies.”

As Hayes opened the oven, the heat spread out.

Larissa’s gaze turned to the oven.

“Come on, it’s apple pie. It is well-baked.”

As he said, what came out of it was two slices of apple pie.

One was a simple one with sugar-coated dough with a shiny light brown, and the other was a colorful one with dough woven in the shape of a net with a green ripe piece of apple glistened under the well-baked net.

The smell of fragrant and sweet apples, the smell of savory butter, and the pungent cinnamon smell on top of it.

Larisa’s eyes widened as she looked at the pie on the counter.

Not only Larissa’s, but my eyes were also on the apple pie.

“Your skills are amazing. It looks really delicious.”

Hayes scratched the back of the head at my praise.

“What should I do? I want to cut a piece right away, but I still need to cool it down a bit. You’ll have to wait half an hour……”

After all, if we waited for a little, it would come up to our room on a dessert plate with tea.

I was about to say it was okay, but suddenly something else caught my eye.

On the countertop he was using, there was a dough.

“What is that?”

“Oh! This is ginger cookie dough. Um, Young Lady, would you like to make some cookies?”

Hayes bowed down to meet Larissa’s eye level and smiled.

Mrs. Baker shouted,

“Hayes! How dare you think about putting flour on Lady’s hand? I’m sorry, Madam……”

“No, that’s fine. That would be fun,” I smiled and waved my hand. “Larissa loves ginger cookies.”

From the beginning, I wanted Larissa to make simple sweets herself, so I was rather happy that he suggested it first.

“Then can you help her?”

Hayes laughed and rolled up his sleeves.

He even rolled the dough with a rolling pin to make it flat and then laid out several molds on the countertop.

“This is how you press it on the dough, and then remove it. Then you get various shapes of cookies. Now, what shape would you like to try?”

The molds he handed over were various shapes such as hearts, stars, dogs, sticks, and humans.

Larissa looked at them for a while and then touched one with her finger. It was a human-shaped mold.

‘Look at our Larissa! Everyone! Our Larisa chose the shaping mold herself!’

I was moved and danced inside.

It was the first time that a child who did not say a word directly expressed her opinion like this.

Whatever it was, Larissa made her own choice!

This was the second time Larissa made her own choice.

The first was the decision to run away from the basement with me.

‘But it was a half forced choice.’

Who would refuse an opportunity to escape from a hell that never comes again?

This time it was a trivial matter, but finally, Larissa began to give her opinions little by little.

Besides, she even communicated with other people by nodding her head.

It was an amazing change that happened in a short period of just a few days.

I put my hand on my chest as I watched Larissa clench her small lips and carefully press the mold on the dough with her hands.

‘I did a great job bringing her to the kitchen today.’