TWENTY-SEVEN
Loath to admit this was the first time she'd ever distilled mead on her own, or that it had been years since she'd seen her grandmother do it, she asked Sir Chase to fetch enough firewood to keep the cauldron boiling for several hours.
While he did that, he would be too busy to notice she was not as sure of herself about this as she wished. Oh, setting out the cauldron and filling it from one of the barrels of fermented mead was easy enough, once the fire was hot enough, but setting the special lid on it just right was a more delicate task. Not to mention making sure she had a cask on hand ready to take the distillate, but far enough away that the cask didn't catch fire, and the liquid didn't evaporate.
Her grandmother had always lit the firepit closest to the herb garden
