Eleanor's approval made Vela smile.  She didn't get that kind of reaction to her choices very often, so it meant a lot to her.  "The chefs I've been around are males, and other than the one we had back home and one or two fellow students were very much against me even being there.  A cook, yes, but a woman as a chef?  Not proper."  She imitated some of the people she had heard that from and then chuckled.  "I just showed them all by being in the top of the class all the way through my time there."  She had graduated higher than almost all of the men in her class group.

The comment about getting to know a man on a bad day, before settling down with him made sense to her.  She would have to remember that if she ever got courted by someone again.  The life she had now did not make much room for meeting a man that she wasn't working for.   At that, she thought of Edward as Eleanor mentioned their employer. 

"It is sad.  He seems like a brilliant man.  By the way, do you know what he is doing out there now?  I was him working on something with Angus."