113 Chapter One Hundred and Twelve - A ‘Better’ Life Often Came at a Price (1/2)

Such a feast to the senses began its origins the day before when the army squad known on base as the forth caused confusion within the crowds when they wanted to hire someone to cook a whole deer for them to savour having had nearly no access to any meat in well over a year. The people wanted them to sell the deer instead, but in truth, the one buck would definitely not meet the demand and the squad worked hard everyday for the base and this one thing they selfishly wished to reward themselves with. No one was in the wrong, but many were sent away disgruntled, while the squad still had no chef to aid them.

Until someone offered to help.

Dexter glanced over at his Autumn as she placed a colourful array of vegetables in amongst the three plentiful meat dishes; a venison meatloaf mixed with pork meat and wrapped in bacon and served with a blackberry sauce, slow baked deer ribs glistening with a sticky sauce, huge pots of venison stew with carrots, onions and swede. She was pissed at him yesterday, that he'd volunteered her hand and kitchen to the squad without asking her opinion, expecting her to turn that deer into a feast that could satisfy more than forty people and most of them were men with large appetites. He suspected that he would have to coax her more later, never thinking once that he was forgiven just because her eyes now glittered with a little pride and satisfaction over the reactions to her cooking. He admitted, he'd likely been too impulsive, but if it wasn't that the squad were good acquaintances of theirs, he never would have suggested Autumn's kitchen at all.

Still, he shook his wrist having been rightly subjected to peeling a whole ton of vegetables, he'd paid some dues right?

Her expression, with the smile dropped from her eyes as her gaze met with his own informed him that he'd definitely not paid enough yet. He sighed inwardly as he watched her wander out of the room towards the kitchen. She'd made some 'spaghetti and meatballs' for the younger children, using spaghetti squash, venison meatballs and tomato sauce she'd made a few weeks ago and stored.

”It's like thanksgiving or something,” one of the soldier's murmured to his closest comrade.

”Shit and I thought we were just expecting barbecue!”

”Well, Er...” their commanding officer snapped out of his awed trance and coughed to hide his embarrassment. ”This is thanks to our friends over in this base and thanks to all of you, men, for your hard work this past year and a half. Our lives can't go back to what they were, we know this, but it doesn't meant there will never be anything good to look forward to. Like this meal. So enjoy.” A slender hand fell upon the shoulder of the red faced man.

”Oi, oi!” He clicked his tongue, giving her an obvious look of disdain, but she simply laughed in his face and darted out of the room, shielding her pilfered food. She did enjoy teasing that man.

As soldiers and the people from this 'village' base quickly followed her lead, the woman glanced towards the rear room where the kitchen was located and made her way towards it. She had to admit, this large place was decorated beautifully before the end, quite tasteful and clearly out of respect for its previous owners, these people had kept it well maintained. Cute, chubby cheeked children sat about a table, not fussing once over the meal in front of them, but tucking into it without reserve. They were joined by an older man, who was feeding a drooling baby with some purée and the woman chef, who was placing some of things from the served dishes into several of large lunchboxes.

”My compliments to the chef,” she praised the other woman, startling her slightly, before receiving a small smile in return. ”May I join you?”

”There's a free seat,” the older man told her, his voice raspy in tone. It reminded her nostalgically of her old grandfather, the man had been a chain smoker before he died when she was fifteen. He'd been an opinionated bastard and shamefully a bit bigoted at times, being old fashioned in his ways, but she, his only granddaughter had been his one soft spot and spoiled by him.

She sat down at the table and began to savour what she had only briefly tasted when stealing bits from the table. She hadn't gone overboard, but everything had just looked so tasty! She'd assuaged some of her guilt by not touching the ribs, just claiming a half a slice of that thick, juicy meatloaf and a small bowl of the savoury stew. The roasted root vegetables and the Mediterranean style traybake were seasoned well to highlight their taste, the humble broccoli steamed so that it still had bite, the cabbage was stir fried with cauliflower rice and chilli giving some heat and there was a creamy mayonnaise to dress things with. Everything was just too good! Before she knew it, she'd devoured her plate clean.

With a sigh, she followed the good behaviour of the two young girls and placed her plate upon the side.  Behind her, the man who'd been feeding the baby followed suit.  ”Interesting set up you have here,” she mentioned, in an attempt to make conversation.