The Village Girl

Chapter Eighteen - [Seetha]

"A garden... is what you want?" he asked. "I will have that done for you."

My eyes widened, shocked. Could it really have been that easy?

"I can have a merchant bring the seeds of the most beautiful flowers from all–"

"And vegetables!" I said, excitedly. "I could grow some vegetables... I did back at home... my father would be happy to send me the seeds... and we could use it to cook!"

I hadn't noticed the looks of disapproval until after I spoke. I realized quickly that I had cut the Maharaja off and let out a breath. I was going to apologize but the King spoke first, still smiling and certainly not offended. "That would be a splendid idea. The palace growing its own vegetables..."

Some of the men snickered, as if they thought the King was being sarcastic, but the king ignored it and continued. "That brings me to your second request... to cook."

I nodded rather eagery. That too? Would I really be able to do that too?

"I suppose it can be done... would you prefer that over your needlework?"

I nodded, maybe a little too quickly.

The Maharaja noticed it and acknowledged it with a humored huff. "Alright, how about we do this: tomorrow, you will be tasked with the duty of preparing a meal for the high court," he gestured at the men in the group. There were maybe twenty men here. "If we like it, and deem you to be a good chef, I will give you the task of heading our kitchen. You can coordinate, make and serve the meals for our own palace servants. I'm sure they would be grateful, seeing as their meals are usually quite plain."

Just rice with some bland curry, my maid friends had told me.

Nevertheless, I was thrilled. "That would be wonderful!" Wouldn't that be wonderful? To cook for all the servants! I could make the most delicious curries and I could only imagine the smiles on their faces as they were served. No more plain rice and a single bland curry... maybe I could do mixed rice... with vegetables. The vegetables I would grow in my garden! And there would be three curries! Lentils, spinach and... fish! I made a remarkable fish curry! The servants certainly needed some meat in their diets. You could practically see their bones–

"Do not get too excited though," the Maharaja said, as if reading my mind, "You must first prove to us that you can cook."

"I will not let you down!" I grinned.

"I will expect nothing less than perfect from you, Seetha," he said, kindly.

I bowed again, excited, and when I looked at Aayu, he was giving me a confident smile.

Why care about the snarky, useless noblewomen and their needlework when the Maharaja himself, and two of his sons, had confidence in my capabilities?

---

When the next day came, I couldn't be more excited. Of course, since I was making food for about twenty men, I needed to be in the kitchen much earlier than usual. That meant my classes needed to be moved around... which meant no more useless needlework.

In the kitchen, I met a whole new group of people, most of which were women. I was told that the people who cooked for the royals and nobles were different than those who cooked for the peasants. Though I didn't exactly understand the point of that, I suppose it explained why the servants were not ever particularly excited for their meals.

After meeting the cooks, I was left in charge of them. It felt a little strange to be in charge of people, even if it was just only five of them, but I had to get used to it, seeing as we did not have time to get to know each other the way Aayu had gotten me to get to know my maid friends. So we got straight to work.