A/N: This is the last update, for now, but I have more time coming up in October and November. So if there's going to be another update, it will be then. - DG
Andromeda carried the tray out to the dining room, intending for Mr. and Mrs. Smythe to have breakfast before departing for Glasgow. She balanced the large platter with various breads and scones for them, as well as Mr. Jameson and Mrs. Keighley. She was the elderly matron who lived in the corner room on the second floor, after her husband died five years earlier and her children moved away.
Estelle and Frank loved her company and the stories she'd tell the other guests. Andromeda enjoyed listening too, when she wasn't busy working for Estelle twelve hours a day, seven days a week.
Andromeda filled Mrs. Keighley's tea cup again before returning to the kitchen. The work was tiring, in a good way, and she'd learned so much in the last week, including that Ted took his tea with two sugars and little milk.
That had been a surprise, since she'd served him tea with only milk previous and he hadn't complained.
She returned to the kitchen to find her husband tucking into his breakfast. She'd had hers hours earlier, before the first guest came downstairs from their rooms. Waking at five am was habit and Estelle put her habits to use, making her cook eggs and sausages while she finished with the bread and roasting the various meats for lunch sandwiches.
She put down the service tray and squeezed his shoulder, once, before she went back to the oven.
"Did you cook my breakfast?" Ted asked with his mouth full.
"Your wife did," Mrs. Tonks spoke up first. "She insisted on learning how to cook for you once she mastered fried eggs."
Andromeda blushed slightly while continuing to cook the next order of eggs.
"Thanks dear. They are excellent."
Andromeda stood up taller.
"And she's also in charge of the ham in the oven. Once it's finished and cooled, we'll cut it for sandwiches. The bone from the ham will make a pot of soup for lunch, too." Estelle smiled. "It's ham and bean and potato soup."
Ted took his plate to the sink and pulled his wand from his pocket, setting it to wash. Andromeda continued to work without magic, watching the eggs to make sure they didn't burn.
"Is that why she's learning the muggle way?"
"Mum thought it best" Andromeda spoke up, "I learn this way, so when I can do it with magic, I have the basics down and don't waste our galleons on burnt food." She smiled. "It makes brilliant sense."
"Well, I certainly enjoyed it." Ted leaned over and gave her a peck on the cheek before heading to the door. "Dad and I are going out today, up to Carlisle, to get his new truck. We should be back by 1, at the latest."
"Oh do be careful, Ted." Andromeda turned to see him smiling at her.
"We will. He said his truck was worn out but I think I can coax it for a few more months, until we're settled into London." Ted grinned. "Besides, I'd like to take my wife out for a date, at some point."
Andromeda blushed further but kept quiet.
"Well, run along and tell Frank I said not to drive like a fiend on those roads."
"Yes, Mum." Ted smiled again before departing.
"He's such a good lad. But he can be a little spontaneous, like his father. No, he doesn't take after me, being pragmatic and mindful of getting things done." Estelle saw Andromeda looking at her with a puzzled look on her face. "Oh, don't mind me, being wistful. Now here," she plated more food and an additional tea pot on the tray. "Run that out to Mr. and Mrs. Smythe. I'm sure they are finally down from their room."
"Yes, Estelle." Andromeda took her tray and departed again, running the warm breakfast to the other guests.
Ted took the keys out of the truck ignition and parked it under the canopy behind the inn. Dad was still in Carlisle, getting a few things that Mum needed while he was there and sent Ted back home to finish his chores.
Wood splitting and bed clothes changing didn't happen by itself, considering there were Muggles around and he couldn't use his wand to do the work, not without making anyone suspicious. If he worked in the middle of the night, he could manage all of it with his wand but Dad forbid it, saying that bringing the Wizarding authorities for his convenience was being selfish, and that hard work never hurt a growing lad.
Dad would have been an amazing Hufflepuff, if he was magical.
But it grated some that he couldn't use magic to finish his chores, so he'd have time to spend with Andromeda. She worked so much that they barely had time to talk, much less do anything else.
He stopped and laughed, considering that she was learning how to be domestic from his Mum and from the looks of things, was doing an amazing job, learning from her. She never shirked any chores Mum gave her, including cooking breakfast and lunch for everyone who asked, and only ate lunch once everyone was tucking in, including himself. She never complained while using her hands, which were unaccustomed to manual labor, around the inn. She smiled at the guests and listened to anyone who spoke to her.
And the evenings, when she retired to their small room up under the eaves, she would stay awake long enough to bid him a goodnight before turning over in their bed.
And that was a problem – he wanted more time with his wife. But she was embracing her new life, and the constraints it held, with abandon.
He couldn't recall the last time she used her wand in his presence. She wasn't trying to walk away from Magic, was she? No, Ted thought, she's just learning as Mum asks of her.
Ted ran in the house, looking for his Mum and found her in her bedroom up on the second floor. "Mum, I want to take Andromeda out."
"Ted?" she turned and saw the grin on his face. "Right now?"
"Well, yeah, and then be back before the dinner crowd arrives. I saw on a flyer at the Post office that there is a play starting in an hour and I wanted to take her."
"You mean that summer festival? The theatre students who were putting on various plays?"
"I do. Andromeda hasn't left the grounds since we got here and I wanted to take her out, at least for a couple of hours. You won't miss her much, will you?"
Estelle saw Frank come in from the backyard and saw him wink.
"I will but it's no bother. So go ahead. But I don't know where she is. She might be up in your room freshening up."
"Thanks!" He ran and gave her a kiss on the cheek and raced up the stairs.
Frank sat down with his tea. "He's right. That new wife of his hasn't stepped outside these walls since she arrived."
"She's learning all over again, Frank. Her parents disowned her and left her with the trunk she came with and the clothes on her back. It's bit of a shock, I reckon."
"But she's so biddable, Stella. How could anyone disown such a wonderful young lady?"
"I reckon those in the gentry class live vastly different lives than we do." Estelle looked at her hands, with callouses and old burn scars. "I'll see to it that she can cope in her change in status."
Ted looked up and down the hallway before tapping their door with his wand. It opened and he stepped inside their room. Andromeda was sitting in a chair at the window, looking out on the small drive in front of the inn.
"'Dromeda?" He spoke quietly and she didn't acknowledge him. "Hey, I have an idea."
She didn't budge.
Ted walked the five paces from the door to in front of his wife and bit back a curse. She had been crying, and from the looks of it, quite messily. "Love, what's wrong?"
She plucked a linen handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed her eyes, trying to keep from smearing the eyeliner that was already ruined. "How could you marry someone so utterly incompetent?"
"What happened?" he said.
"Generations of Muggle women have been able to provide meals for their family and the first time I try it, even with your Mum watching, I burn the soup. How do you bloody burn soup?"
"Tell me what happened," he gently asked.
"Your Mum went out into the dining room. I was tending the soup, like your Mum asked. And then Mrs. Keighley came into the kitchen and asked for some particular tea. I checked all of the cabinets and even the pantry your Mum keeps before finding it in a cabinet on top of the cooling cabinet."
"Muggles call them a refrigerator but please continue."
She ignored him, sniffing some before continuing.
"So when I gave it to her, I turned back to the pot with the soup in it and it smelled burned. Your Mum came in, and did something, and said that it was fine, just a little scalded on the bottom."
Ted kept quiet while waiting on her to continue.
"I think no one noticed, or if they did, no one said anything. But Ted, how do you burn soup?"
"I'm sure if we asked the elves back at Hogwarts, they've all burned the soup at least twice. It might even be more than twice a week."
Andromeda was silent save for the occasional sniffle.
"Hey," Ted knelt down in front of his wife and smiled, bringing one through her crying jag features. "There's no need to be hard on yourself. I married you because you said yes, not because you were adept at making soup or other things in a household."
"You must think I'm an idiot, getting bent over burnt soup." The venom in her voice was obvious and he ignored it.
"Hardly. I think my wife is doing the best she can under the worst circumstances and it's a lot to cope with. And since you've not left the yard since we went to the post last week, you're coming with me."
She looked at him sternly. "Where to? Your Mum needs me this afternoon."
"Rubbish. She'll need you for dinner. I already asked. Now I have the keys to the truck and I'm taking you to the outdoor theatre to watch a play. Now put on a jumper and we'll go."
She wiped her face on her handkerchief and tried to fix the smudges on her cheeks. "Sorry," she whispered.
"Nonsense. Now come here," he implored and she sank into his very comforting embrace. He kissed her on the top of her head and let her stay in his hug for as long as she needed him.
"I'm being silly. But you are right: this is quite a bit of change for me."
"And we'll get through it together, one way or another."
He smiled and she kissed him, making him forget his plans for the play that afternoon.