Wulfwaru's Diet

In medieval times, just as today, young women worried about their figures. Wulfwaru, the heroine's stepsister in  Courting Trouble, instructs the servants about what she'll eat, and the heroine Cynethrith taunts her sister.

Two servants entered to prepare the hall for supper. Wulfwaru called to the younger one.
“Does cook understand that I will eat nothing but goosegrass soup?”
“Yes, miss. I told her, miss.”
“Are you still trying to lose weight?” I asked.
“You must eat a balanced diet, Wulfwaru,” lectured Waldberg [her mother]. “The way you starve yourself is absurd. You’ll get sick.”
“I know what I’m doing, Mother,” said Wulfwaru. “All the thanes’ wives in town use goosegrass.”
“It wouldn’t hurt her to lose a few pounds,” I said. I don’t think she appreciated the way I jumped to her defense.
“This doesn’t concern you, Cynethrith,” said Waldberg.
And I’m afraid we continued in this manner until supper, when the whole focus of the meal was on what and how much Wulfwaru would eat. I tried to console Waldberg by pointing out that it didn’t matter how little Wulfwaru ate at supper: her serious eating always took place about an hour afterwards. I was so busy trying to mediate this family dispute that I completely forgot the purpose of our earlier discussion.