Jane and the Dragon

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PEPPER
Full name: Verbena Salter
Age: 12

Her mother chose the name Verbena because she was given scented oil made from the plant as a wedding gift. (See note below.) Pepper’s last name, Salter, comes from her father’s family who were Salters for three generations. They salted the local herring to preserve it instead of smoking to make kippers.

NICKNAMES:
Family and friends all call her Pepper.

JOB DESCRIPTION:
To run the Royal Kitchens and to serve the Royal family and guests at meals.

PEPPER’S HISTORY:
Her parents live at the wharf in rooms above the rope-maker’s store. Her father works at the wharf unloading and delivering produce, especially fish. Her mother works in the smoking sheds where she hangs the herring for smoking and helps manage the wood stocks for the smoking fires.

Like most parents, Pepper’s mother and father wanted to make a better life for their daughter, and when she was 8 years old, they took her up to the castle to try to find her work there. She became a maid in the Royal Kitchen.

When she was eleven, the castle's staff was reduced and only Pepper was kept on in the kitchen where she runs everything herself. Pepper has a very busy day and only gets out when she goes to the local markets with the Lady-In-Waiting to help buy produce. On these outings she always calls by to see her parents, and her father sometimes comes up to the castle to deliver goods from the boats.

FAVORITE FOOD:
Mashed potatoes. Pepper loves mashed potatoes because they’re easy to make and everybody loves them. If she has some spare butter she will mash it in to make the potatoes extra creamy.

AMBITION:
Pepper has a very big ambition. She would like to fall in love and have lots of children. But she knows that when that day comes, she will have to stop working in the kitchens. For the moment, she is content to dream about getting married and having children.

FAVORITE SONG:
Pepper loves music, especially dance music. Her favorite ballad is ‘The Green Rose’ which tells of the most beautiful red rose in a garden who became jealous when a red poppy grew taller than she did. She was so jealous that she strained and strained to grow taller and pushed the green color from her leaves up into her petals.

FAVORITE PASTIMES:
If she has any spare time, Pepper loves sculpting pastry into interesting pictures to bake on her pies. Instead of simple leaves, she will make whole flower gardens from pastry. NOTE: The species of verbena that Pepper’s mother was given as scented oil was an old variety that only grows in East Africa. A trader brought some to the wharf one day. It is called Lippia Adoensis. As well as using it in oil, it is used as a culinary spice in Ethiopia, where it is known by the Amharic name Koseret.