Pippa was doing better than she had been in the beginning. She happened to be rather OCD, so the whole place gleamed from top to bottom. Her work in the kitchen was improving slower than the housework, but she was getting better with that too. She'd just finished cleaning up the dishes after serving a too-salty dinner and was ready to get off of her feet for a time. She was pulling at the strings of her apron, newly calloused fingers pinching the cloth and then she pulled the whole thing off to be laundered.

She had forgotten the bottle of wine.

She turned back to get it, and then headed for the drawing-room to give the bottle over to Tristan.