Two hours later, it was time for supper; Jula cleaned herself up and prepared to go into the banquet hall to eat, but Jae stayed behind in the kitchen.

"There's no way in hell that I'm going out there!" she said, wiping her hands off. "I'm going upstairs to our room and not coming out until forever!"

"Oh come on Jae, it's not like you blew anything up. You just burnt a roast."

"Just burnt a roast? Jula, with my luck, that roast will be served on the colonel's end of the table."

"Yeah, well, if you're not there, then he'll know for sure who burnt it, whereas otherwise, he would have to guess."

"He only has two options; I didn't see anyone else burn theirs."

"Not true Jae, I think I saw someone else burn theirs as well, but I think they may have thrown it out."

"Well it's a bit late for that now! There won't be enough roasts if we don't use mine."

"Yeah, true..."

"Jula, can't you say anything even remotely consoling?"

"Um.. it could have been worse?"

Jae rolled her eyes.

"Very funny."

"Thanks." replied Jula with a smile.

"Oh great, I hear voices coming from the banquet hall. They must already be filing in for supper."

"Probably." Jula replied. "Look, you might as well just come out; you're already going to get it either way, but like I said, it will be more obvious if you don't go."

"Fine." Jae replied in a flat voice.

But I like living!

Jula smirked and handed her sister a large plate with the burnt roast on it.

"Here you go! Now go set this on the table."

Jae's face went red; tossing her sister a dirty look, she reluctantly left the kitchen and entered the banquet hall where the servant Victoria spotted her and with a smirk said, "Go set that on the far end of the table, near Col. Tavington."

Jae gulped, trying not to look too embarrassed and walked up next to the colonel, who was smiling cruelly at her, and set the roast in front of him.

"Well well, Miss Barrington, do we need to brush up on our cooking?" he purred maliciously.

"I didn't do it.." Jae lied through gritted teeth.

"Which explains your beautiful, crimson face perfectly."

Biting her lip to keep from saying anything vulgar, Jae rushed out of the banquet hall and went upstairs to her room, slamming the door behind her when she got there.

God I HATE him! she thought angrily, taking a large glass vase of flowers and throwing it against the wall where it shattered.

Seconds later, there was a knock on the door and Lady Tavington stepped in, a stern yet slightly concerned look on her face.

"I heard that." she said softly. "And you woke my son with it; Jae, this really isn't the way to go about things if you're upset with something. It's quite childish."

"Sorry.." Jae mumbled, still obviously upset about the roast incident.

Lady Tavington sighed.

"Jae, what happened? Why are you so upset?"

"I burnt a roast." Jae replied softly. "I didn't mean to; and Col. Tavington had fun pointing it out!"

Lady Tavington cocked an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Look, I know I should have gone in to check on it, but I wanted to finish setting things up.."

"I see... Well, I'm not going to say that it was right of William to point you out, but it is something typical of him to do. Just try not to take offense to it, even if his humor is a bit.. insulting. I could tell him to stop, but it wouldn't do much good. Just ignore him, or, if you can, stop him in his tracks with a remark of your own."

Jae looked at Lady Tavington in mild surprise.

"Won't I get in trouble?"

"It depends on how you do it. I never really got into any trouble when I did. I've received threats from him, but that was about it."

"Yeah, well, you're his wife."

"So? William likes a fiery banter. It doesn't matter who the other person is unless he truly detests them. And I can assure you, though you might annoy him a bit, he doesn't detest you."

"I don't know. I still don't like the idea of verbally retaliating on him."

"If it's done correctly, you won't get in trouble; just make sure you are witty enough to cover all of his counters in order to win, and in all honesty, there aren't many who can do that. Now, I'm not giving you permission to argue with him whenever you desire; I just want you to know that no one here is going to cover for you any longer, so you have to learn to cover for yourself when necessary."

Jae nodded but was silent.

Ok, cover my own butt.. I'm used to that.. I do it all the time at home...

"Thanks." Jae replied. "I think I'll be going to get something to eat."

Jae headed out the door and downstairs to the banquet hall, where an empty seat next to Col. Tavington awaited her.

"So, you have decided to join us then." Col. Tavington whispered in her ear. "I thought you had died of embarrassment."

Jae smirked.

"Nope, still here. Could you please pass the roast?"

Col. Tavington raised an eyebrow, looking slightly surprised, but passed her the roast.

"You have got to be nearly emaciated to even think of eating that." he said with an air of disgust, taking a sip of wine.

"Whatever. I cooked it, I eat it."

"Yes, you cooked it... past well-done." Col. Tavington sneered.

"Well then, at least you know it's cooked. I mean, who knows how well the other stuff's been cooked; if it's not done enough you could get some horrible nasty bacterial disease and die. Well ok, you won't die right away..."

Some of the soldiers, including Col. Tavington, stared at Jae at the mention of 'bacterial disease'.

"Yeah like, there could be worms in it or.."

"Shut your mouth, right now!" hissed the colonel in a tight voice, placing a hand firmly over Jae's mouth.

Jae smiled evilly behind his hand and licked it. Col. Tavington pulled his hand away, glaring contemptuously at her, while she returned his glare with a sweet smile.

I win.

"Aright, Miss know-it-all, if you're so correct about the burnt roast being better than the others, eat it." Col. Tavington hissed in Jae's ear, taking his hand off her mouth and wiping it on a cloth.

Jae's smirk quickly evaporated.

OK, scratch the 'I win'.