The Cape Rouge, Friday morning

Duke had spent most of the week working on the boats, making sure they were weathering the cold well enough, and had managed to miss the drama of Wednesday's truth telling.

He felt a little bad for that, honestly, and now that he'd confirmed that everything was properly shipshape, he set about making himself at least feel a bit better by fussing around in the galley to make breakfast.

Waffles were an obvious choice, but instead this time Duke went with toutons, made in butter rather than pork fat, with molasses and apple butter to go with them. For protein, he soft-boiled some eggs. He had water boiling for coffee, and batter prepared for hot buttered rum if Lucifer decided he'd rather have that this morning.

The result? A steamy, spice-scented galley was waiting for his partners when they decided to join him.

[for the partners]