"Beauty, bravery, and she can<i>cook,</i>too!"<br/><br/>Looking up from the stove, her heart nearly careened into her throat. How a man could appear more rugged AFTER he shaved was a mystery to her. Little John smiled, voicing his approval, and she, too, recovered and offered a warm smile. Swallowing slightly, she forced her heart to behave and finished setting out the food.<br/><br/>"Well, hopefully it tastes as good as it looks...the final test. Now sit! No doubt you're famished."<br/><br/>Smiling at Little John, the three of them sat and began to fill their plates. Watching Malcolm tuck into his food, she realized that his three day journey was more than he let on. He ate like a man starved. It had been longer than three days since he had a decent meal, and images of a hardened man, shivering in the dark, crossed her mind. A man, fighting his way through a howling wilderness, trying desperately not to be consumed by it, and all the darkness that swirled about him, whether it was the night, or the darkness in his own mind. That's what it had been for him. For quite some time...<br/><br/>She smiled as Little John laughed and shook his head, passing the serving plates Malcolm's way.<br/><br/>"Nonsense, man. Eat your fill!"<br/><br/>Elody ate some as well, though her appetite seemed to be lacking. Malcolm's reappearance had churned up nerves that she had barely managed to settle. Her thoughts were taken back to his warm hands wrapping around her, drawing her into him, the feeling of his lips upon her own...only now there would be no beard brushing against her skin...<br/><br/>She smiled to herself. Here she was, hoping to feel his kiss once more. What did that make her? She shook herself a bit, driving the doubts from her mind, only for them to be replaced by the remembrance of his offer from earlier, in the bath...<br/><br/><i>Ohhh Elody, what a terrible, evolving magic.<br/>
<br/>
"</i>I daresay this is perhaps the best Christmas I've had in quite a few years..."<br/><br/>Little John smiled, motioning to a small calendar hanging near the back door.<br/><br/>"Ain't Christmas quite yet, still a week and a half away. And this meal is nothin' compared to what Miss Elody turns out for that feast. Roast goose, herbed stuffing, broiled potatoes with bacon n' onions, and dinner rolls that put these to shame...all followed by the best apple pie this side of the Mississippi!"<br/><br/>Elody smiled, shaking her head as her cheeks colored slightly under Little John's praise.<br/><br/>"Well, sometimes it's pheasant, depending on what Little John manages to hunt down."<br/><br/>Little John laughed, his eyes twinkling.<br/><br/>"Men don't pay no mind to the bird, Miss Elody...i can guarantee you that."<br/><br/>Elody conceded to that fact, smiling as she stood and began to clean up, though making sure to leave the food on the table so Malcolm could help himself. Little John rose, stretching a bit as he smiled contentedly. The wind rattled the window panes as it howled past, bits of snowflakes sticking to the glass.<br/><br/>"I best build up the home fires...it will be a cold night otherwise. Meet you two in the sitting room.."<br/><br/>Little John set off upstairs to make a fire in what would be Malcolm's room. Elody moved over to the sink, washing up her dish, as well as Little John's.<br/><br/>"The good news is that, if the snow piles up the way it seems to be doing, Tompkins's men hopefully won't be back immediately..." Elody glanced down and smiled, watching as Crixus stared past his snout at her expectantly.<br/><br/>"I did not forget you, gladiator. Here you go."<br/><br/>Bending, she set out a heaping dish of scrap meat and a bowl of water, smiling as Crixus set to it in earnest.