Simmering Jams at the Edge of the Forest

, something like that.
I’d come a long way.
I wondered what kind of palm fruit I would get.

I studied early childhood education, but not childcare.
Children were cute after all.
I didn’t think I’d be able to come here and engage with children… Thank you, doctor.

When I arrived at the villa, Lady Adelaide was sitting on a rocking chair on the balcony with her eyes closed.
Since she was taking a nap, I pulled the blanket over her before seeing the letter on her lap.

It was made of some kind of high-grade paper with a wax seal firmly pressed on it.
She must have read it, because there were signs of it being opened.
While I was hesitating about what to do because I didn’t want to drop it, but I was also afraid to touch someone’s letter, Lady Adelaide woke up after Buddy licked her hand.

“Oh, welcome back, you two… I fell asleep.”

Huh, I thought.
She felt kind of down.
It was a refreshing day today, neither hot nor cold, but I guessed she got cold from napping in the wind.
She didn’t look so good…….She was so upset that I could see it from the edge.
Lady Adelaide gently stroked my head as I kneeled beside the rocking chair.

“Ah… I’m so glad you’re worried about me.
I’m fine.
I’m just a little tired.
Let’s get ready for dinner.”

I asked her to rest in bed, but she wouldn’t listen to me, so I asked her to at least sit at the kitchen table and let me prepare dinner by myself.
Buddy was also worried, so he didn’t leave Lady Adeleide’s side for a long time.

I gave her a cup of hot tea with honey and told her that Dr.
Daniel was coming in the evening, and the color of her face came back a little… Doctor, I couldn’t wait for you to get here.

We finished dinner as usual, and while we were talking about how my work as nanny was doing at the clinic, the person who had been waiting for us came to the house.

After leading the doctor to Lady Adelaide in the living room and serving tea, I went down to the kitchen alone.

‘I was just a little tired’, Lady Adelaide said so.
Maybe not… However, that letter.
That must be the cause.
I was sure the doctor knew something about it.

It’d been a long time since I’d been here, but I’d never had a letter or a visitor from anyone other than the villagers.
I hadn’t heard a single word from her son, who was supposed to be in the capital.

Whatever that letter brought, if it went against Lady Adelaide’s will, we would do our best to stop it.
As I swore by the starry sky from my kitchen window, Buddy came to call me.

As I went to the living room, the doctor told me to sit down and handed me that letter.

“You can read it.
It’s for you, you know.”

I followed his gentle suggestion and opened the very fine paper… Huh, a visitor from the royal capital was coming to see the Spirit Orison.
He said that my injuries were still healing and I couldn’t go over there yet, so he was going to come from over there.
I thought my injuries were pretty well healed, but the doctor was worried about the long carriage ride and wouldn’t give me permission.

Following the itinerary and whatnot, the visitor’s name was written.
It said that two people were coming.

Hugh Townsend, a magician from the Academy of Magic.
Assistant Prime Minister Walter Dustin from the royal court… Dustin?

“He’s my son.”

When I looked up in surprise, Lady Adelaide smiled a little sadly and said.

“”

“I haven’t seen him for a long time.
We haven’t even exchanged letters.
You know that, right?”

As she was correct, I nodded meekly.

“I was living in the capital with my son and his wife, but the city life didn’t really suit me.
I’ve retracted here.
Shortly thereafter, my son and his wife got divorced… They told me it was my fault.”

What? Divorce would be their problem.

“It seems that he was told that he had kicked out his disturbing mother.
Even though I went out on my own, those children were being made as the bad guys.
That’s when things went sour between us.
Until this point, I didn’t know a thing about the capital nobles because I never heard of them.
There was no one to teach me.”

Lady Adeleide continued to look forlorn with one hand on her cheek.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to look like when I see Walter… I’m sorry, Margaret.
I’m sorry to bother you with something that you have no business in.”

“He’s not a bad kid, but he’s stubborn.
I’m sure he’ll separate public and private matters, so I don’t think it’s up to him.
It’s just, you know, there are no inns in this village, right?”

Wow, he was going to stay here.
That was right, it was his parents’ house, and there were still plenty of spare rooms.
But the doctor said, ‘Bad boy’.
How old were you, Walter boy? What, thirty-five? You’re about the same age as my brother… Bad boy… Pfft.
No, that was right.
He was a bad boy for bothering his mother so much at such an age.

“The other one, Hugh, is from here too.
It’s just that his house is no longer there, so they’ll both have to stay here… What’s the matter, Margaret?”

Oh no, I had to clean! That was right.
I didn’t get to the spare room every day! When were they coming? In half a month? Okay.
Oh, what about food? Did they have any likes or dislikes? Since they were guests, I wondered if I should make them a special treat.
I would have to do a better job of weeding in the front door, because it grew so fast when the weather was nice.
I’d better wash the sheets once, too, and air the pillow.
I was going to need Patty and Ted, who come in twice a week to do menial work, to come in on an extra basis to help me out.
Now, we just needed to order more food and… Eh, ah, the bath! It was really hard to prepare for two people, wasn’t it nice that they did it themselves? They were men, weren’t they? They were strong enough to carry hot water, right? If they had a problem with that, let’s have them go to the river.
It was almost summer and they wouldn’t catch a cold.
Yeah, let’s do that.

“… Addy, it doesn’t look like you have much to worry about.”

“That’s right… I feel a lot better now.”

Huh.
I felt a warm glare on my face… It was okay, Lady Adelaide.
First of all, let’s give them a good welcome, shall we? Make all their favorite foods and feed them plenty.

If they were still in a bad mood after a good meal, shove them cookies so powdery it made them choke in their mouth.
I wouldn’t give them any tea.
I’ll leave their mouths dry.

Fufu, my arm was going to hurt.
Prepare snowball cookies dusted with lots of powdered sugar and whole wheat cookies.

If you made Lady Adelaide cry, I wouldn’t be an understanding person to you!

When the doctor left, he patted me on the head and said thank you.
I was not quite satisfied with the way I was treated as a child again, but now that Lady Adeleide was feeling better, I guessed it was all good.