The smell hit him the moment little Bella pulled the cabin door open, fresh baked bread, or, baking bread, filled the cabin. An involuntarily feeling washed over him with that smell... somewhere in his brain there were memories associated with that smell but all that could filter out to his conscious mind was a feeling of peace, of home, and happiness. He caught himself smiling, again, at the flour dusted girl tugging him inside by the hem of his jacket.
"We made bread!" Bella declared, rushing to the fireplace, and pointing excitedly at the little built in oven box.
"Now how did you manage that?" Logan queried, setting groceries down on the tiny kitchen counter; when Marie shooed him away from the table she was trying to clear of flour dust.
"We cleaned the kitchen, and Marie found a recipe book, and pans to put the dough in, and we mixed in the yeas' and made the flour go all puffy, and Marie said when it's cooked we can eat it, with soup, so long as it doesn't get burned, Marie didn't know if the oven would work, she said it doesn't have a temp-a-chur thingy, and we can't watch it because there's no glass, and it takes soooo long, you should get a microwave, they cook much faster," Bella rambled out at a million miles an hour.
Logan just ruffled her hair with a chuckle before he turned to Marie, who was watching him uncertainly. She had worn that look almost constantly since he had picked her up, and it was starting to bother him. "You found the cellar I take it?" he nodded to the rug on the floor that covered the trapdoor that led down into the old cabins root cellar.
"Yeah," Marie nodded, "I also took some of the vegetables and meat and made a stew, or soup, sort of, don't know if I followed the recipe right... I hope you don't mind, Bella was starting to get hungry and I didn't know how much longer you were going to be--" Marie trailed off, blushing pink and ducking her head in embarrassment, or fear, one or the other, he couldn’t quite tell at this stage.
"I don't mind at all, sounds good, and it smells delicious, what's say we go bring in the rest of the shopping and then have us some good food, hm?" Logan queried, picking Bella up off the floor as she began to bounce excitedly again, and carrying her outside to the truck.
"First things first," Logan said, popping the camper door open, and sitting a barefoot Bella on the floor inside. He snagged one shopping bag and dragged it closer, pulling out a packet of socks, pink woolly socks. He slipped one sock onto each of Bella's feet, and tugged them up as far as they would go; all the way up to her knees.
"They warm enough for you?" Logan asked, grinning when the little girl squealed excitedly and wiggled her toes in the fluffy coverings. Then he pulled out a pair of rubber boots, and slid them on her feet too. "They're a little big but you should grow into them soon enough, you can wear these outside but no coming inside with dirty boots on, you got it?" Logan teased, even as Bella beamed proudly, and ran to show her new boots to Marie, who was just following them out to the truck.
For the first time, that he had seen, Marie actually smiled, a genuine happy smile, not tinted with wariness. It looked good, and he couldn't help the feeling that he wanted to try harder to make sure that smile came back, or better yet, stayed in her face for good. After complimenting Bella on her new boots – Logan got her the decorated ones rather than the plain black ones, these ones were purple with little smiling insects on them, and the little girl was animatedly pointing out ladybugs and caterpillars – Marie moved over to the truck to see what else he had bought.
Logan was wrestling with a mattress, trying to drag it back out the door he had shoved it in, and Marie helpfully caught the end before it could fall loose and land in the snow slush. They carried it inside as Bella followed along after them asking questions, as she always did.
"This, little lady, is your new bed," Logan finally replied, as he set the mattress down and eyed the loft. "You okay with being upstairs?" he asked.
"Yay!" Bella squealed, "Yes, yes, we cleaned it up too," she told him.
"I can see that," Logan replied, catching sight of changes he had missed the first time he came in. "You stand back and I'll get this upstairs," Logan prompted, shooing Bella back, and then back a little further, before he hefted the heavy mattress and pushed it upwards, and into the loft.
He heard Bella murmur in awe, “Wow, he's like superman!”, as he followed the mattress upstairs, and lifted it again to place it on the old bed frame. Smiling down at the little pile of soft quilts and blankets on the floor, he picked those up and dumped them on the bed, before he shifted the entire bed, so it was butting up next to the chimney.
"Hey! You messed up my bed," Bella pouted, as her head appeared over the edge of the loft.
"You don't need to sleep on the floor now, come on over and let's make this bed for you," Logan offered, waving her over as he called down below to ask Marie to bring up the sheets he had purchased.
Marie was there moments later, tossing bags of bedding into the loft, and then climbing up herself to help make the bed. "I don't think she needs this many pillows," Marie giggled, as she tugged pillows out of oversize plastic shopping bags; there were about six pillows in total.
"Yes I do!" Bella declared, grabbing a pillow and swinging it at Logan as she declared loudly, "Pillow fight!"
They tussled for a while batting each other with pillows, and Marie was surprised to note that though Logan was firm with Bella, he was still gentle and even let her pin him a few times. Eventually, when Bella was giggling so hard she could hardly breath, Logan called time on the pillow fight and admitted all the pillow weren't for Bella.
"You can have two kiddo, the rest go downstairs," Logan stated, ignoring Bella's pout. "And hurry up and finish making your bed and come back down because I bought more stuff," Logan advised.
By the time Marie and Bella finished the bed and descended the ladder, Logan had unloaded several large boxes, which apparently held flat packed furniture, and was now hauling in bags of clothes. He directed the girls to the front of the truck where there was more groceries waiting, and they unloaded those into the kitchen before Marie began sorting out what could go where - some would need to go to the cellar, so she would have to set that aside and wait for Logan to be finished.
"Your bread's done darlin," Logan called out from the loft a short time later; he was busy putting together a dresser with Bella's... ‘help’.
Marie reached over for the timer she had found and set, only to see it had stopped working about a minute after she set it. Cursing under her breath she moved to the small oven, opening it up carefully with the help of a dishcloth; to protect her hand from the hot metal handle. The loaves within were puffy and golden, though a little darker on the side that was closest to the fire. Pulling them out, she carefully turned them out of the tins, half expecting the bottoms to still be dough - they weren't! - and set them aside to cool.
"I'm hungry," Bella announced loudly, appearing suddenly at her side and making Marie start in surprise.
"The soup is almost done," Marie promised, "Would you like an apple in the meantime or can you wait?" With a heavy sigh Bella agreed she could wait, and scrambled back up the ladder to the loft, a lot louder than she had apparently descended just moments before.
With her out of the way, Marie went back to collect the soup, moving it from the fire to the table, cringing a little when she realised something was burned to the bottom. She dished up a bowl for Bella, and set it aside to cool for a while. With that done she set the table with the new dishes Logan had bought, and sliced up the warm bread into thick, mostly even, slices. She could hear Logan and Bella talking up in the loft and knew they were almost done, so she decided to wait for them to finish rather than interrupting.
While she was waiting she decided to start unpacking some more of the boxes Logan had brought in. She was surprised to find a stack of boxes filled with books, both fiction and non-fiction for adults. Another box contained books and toys, for a child Bella's age. She had just picked up a ragdoll, dressed like a fairy, complete with wings, when Logan climbed down the ladder from the loft, Bella riding on his back.
"What's that?" Bella queried, when she spotted the doll.
"I think this might be for you," Marie offered, handing the doll to the little girl, who turned it all around until she had thoroughly examined the whole doll.
"It's got wings... just like me," Bella commented in awe, gently unfolding the dolls fairy wings. "Thank you," she said, throwing her arms around Logan. Then of course, she wanted to sit the doll at the table to eat dinner...
"No toys at the table," Logan insisted, "Put it on the chair over there and when you're finished eating you can take it upstairs," grinning when Bella pouted grumpily before doing what she was told.
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