Whetstone

"Spite, did you eat some of these roses?" Emmrich asked, brows rising in surprise.

"I let him taste some of the petals last night," Lucanis shrugged. "At least they are edible, unlike half of the things he wants to taste."

"Small mercies, I suppose," Emmrich said. He glanced up at the sun, which had climbed high enough in the sky to clear the topmost branches of the great oak behind the inn. "It's getting rather late, don't you think?"

Lucanis had been thinking much the same thing, not least because Emmrich had asked him a similar question at least five times over the past hour. It amused him that although of the two of them Emmrich was by far the least tightly wound, he was also the least patient. Crows, he reflected, learn very early how to wait.

"It is," he agreed. "But they are coming from a livery three hours away. You saw the roads when we arrived. Some places are barely more than a cart track. Delays are bound to happen."

"Still," Emmrich said, twisting one of his bangles fretfully. "They ought to have been here an hour or more ago. We're going to miss our luncheon."

Lucanis heard the regret in Emmrich's tone; he felt it himself. They'd planned to stop for a couple of hours at a smallholding reputed to be the finest cheesemakers for miles around. "Even if we are later than we planned, we can still stop and see what they have for sale and take it with us."

"We could." Emmrich didn't sound satisfied. "You know, I think I'll just pop in and talk to our hostess. There must be some sort of conveyance for hire."

"It is harvest season," Lucanis said, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. "The only 'conveyances' the folk in these villages have are carts. And right now, they are busy carrying things to market."

"How do you know so much about the ebb and flow of rural life, Lucanis? From what you've told me, you've spent most of your life in large cities."

"Because that is what she told me when I went in to talk to her about this half an hour ago."

Emmrich made a disgruntled noise. "Well. I'll just double check."

He disappeared into the inn and Lucanis suppressed a smile. Who knew? Perhaps Emmrich's charm and enthusiasm would succeed where his own efforts had failed.

The past few days had been a balm. The weather had held clear and warm and their lodgings had been clean and comfortable, if a trifle more rustic than the establishments they'd thus far encountered. The only thing marring his contentment was the peculiar ache he sometimes felt when he caught Emmrich's eye in just the right way. Sometimes it seemed the other man was looking right through him, all the way down to his heart.

The rusty creak of hinges interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up to see Emmrich approaching, an oddly diffident expression on his face.

"So, there may be a solution to our dilemma," he said.

Adapted from this recipe from Salad in a Jar.

Tomato Basil Bread

Ingredients

Leavening

237 g water (~110 deg F, or hot from tap)

7 g active dry yeast

12 g sugar

Wet ingredients

48 g tomato paste

25 g sundried tomatoes, chopped

1 T oil from sundried tomatoes

Dry ingredients

330 g all purpose flour

73 g whole wheat flour

3 g Diamond Crystal salt

1/4 t garlic powder

2 t dried minced onion

Add-ins

2 T fresh basil, chopped

Instructions

Mix water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl and set aside while you prep remaining ingredients

Mix wet ingredients in a small bowl and set aside

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside

Add wet ingredients to bowl with yeast and water, then add dry ingredients

Mix until it comes together into a shaggy dough

Knead about 8 minutes using a KitchenAid with a dough hook, or knead by hand until dough is beginning to become springy

Knead the chopped basil into the dough (about 2 min)

Form the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl covered with a tea towel

Proof for one hour or until doubled

Shape into a loaf, place in loaf pan and allow to rise for 20-30 min

While loaf is rising, preheat oven to 400 deg F

Once risen, turn oven down to 350 deg F and bake for 30 min

Remove from oven and butter the top crust lightly, then let rest in pan for 15 min

Remove from pan and cool completely (around 45 min)