For some reason, both Tommy and Merry had become attached to Clayton during their stay, and it was beyond his understanding why. As far as he was concerned, he’d done nothing special. Giving two abandoned children a home was something anyone would have done in his shoes. Honestly, who could say no to those two faces?
“Merry, love, what have you done to yourself? Your face is absolutely covered in… what is this?” Clayton poked a suspiciously blood-colored splotch on the little girl’s nose.
“It’s berry syrup! You should try it!” Merry all but levitated in her excitement.
Clayton bent down and gave her a good morning kiss on the cheek. Right in a huge patch of syrup. “Mmm, delicious. I don’t remember us having berry syrup, though?” He looked quizzically at Eira, who shrugged.
“You’re the one who does all the shopping, so don’t look at me.”
“Holly made it!” Tommy chirped. “She also made lemon custard, see!” He pointed at a yellow smudge on his hand.
His eye flicked to his sister before not-so-sneakily smearing some on his own cheek. Clayton covered a smile when Tommy pointed to his cheek to make sure Clayton got the point. He bent down and gave Tommy a peck on the cheek too.
To his surprise, it was even better than the berry syrup. “Holly is brilliant if she made this.” Clayton hadn’t had a decent lemon custard since he’d left Sussex. His nan’s was better than anything in the world, but this was a solid runner-up.
“I am brilliant, thank you,” Holly said with a grin that shoutedfinally! someone noticed my awesomeness. “I just woke up and had the urge to make something fun. We’d have crumpets too if you had butter.”
Clayton’s toes curled, and he swallowed hard, trying to conceal his excitement. “I can get you butter.”
“Ow,” Mal said in a conversational tone. Clayton looked over to see that he’d grabbed Mal’s shirt tightly and was digging into the flesh underneath.
He shot Mal an unrepentantI’m sure there’s something you did to deserve thatlook before turning back to Holly. “Howmuch do you need? Is there anything else you want? I’ll get it for you.”
Clayton loved to bake, but using a stovetop was a painful and dangerous process. When baking, he generally only had to interact with the oven twice, and while he often burned himself, he got away with needing only a spell patch or two. Cooking on a stovetop involved constant interaction and led to Clayton getting horribly injured multiple times.
This meant that he stuck with baking to exercise his culinary skills, so having a chance at a homemade version of one of his favorite foods was beyond priceless.
The local grocer was only a brisk walk down the boardwalk and around the corner. Minus any mishaps, he could be there and back again in under fifteen minutes.
With an inevitable mishap, he’d be back in thirty. Gods, please let his mishap be small today. For the sake of crumpets and lemon custard, please.
He went to pry Tommy off his leg when he realized that Tommy was gone and clinging to someone else’s leg. During Clayton’s frantic pondering, Merry had transferred her affections as well.
Mal was now covered in children, and Clayton was seventy-eight percent certain his teeth were less prominent and pointy than they usually were.
At least, they were until Tommy shouted, “Show us your teeth!” and then they were out, proud, and as menacing as a hungry shark’s would be.
“Awesome!” Tommy jumped up and down as he tried to touch them, and Mal crouched low to oblige, but Eira collared Tommy and dragged him away, muttering something about being surrounded by idiots.
When Mal assured her that they were perfectly safe because he was no longer venomous for Clayton’s sake, the look Eira shot him was deadly.
Merry chased after them, and Clayton fought the blush spreading over his body at Mal’s announcement. Mal could be venomous if he wanted to? And he’d had his pointy teeth all over Clayton’s favorite body parts?
Clayton couldn’t tell if the shiver that ran through him was from fear or desire.
He dragged his attention away from his tiny crisis, desperate for a distraction, and his gaze fell on the floor. Various parts of the floorboards were the model of shining, polished perfection in a sea of scuffed and splintered chaos.
Holly stood dead center in the largest patch, looking far more mature than her years, and said, “The recipe doesn’t call for much butter, but you’ll want to get enough to use as a spread as well, so get at least one package.” Holly tapped a finger to her chin and added, “Actually, get two. One salted and one unsalted.”
The mystery of Holly fell into hisfixate on laterfile the second Holly reminded him of the possibility of crumpets. Before she got to the wordunsalted, Clayton was already hopping on one foot while jamming a shoe on the other, barely noticing Mal with his hand on Clayton’s elbow, holding him up.
“Do you need crumpet rings? I don’t know if they have any at our local grocer, but we might have them at the chapter house.” Clayton held out an arm for Mal to slip it through the sleeve of his button-up jumper.
“I can manage without them,” Holly answered confidently.
Clayton’s estimation of her skills dropped dramatically. Everyone needed to use crumpet rings. Honestly, was the girl insane? Still, she was a child and needed to be humored so shecould develop good self-esteem, so Clayton gritted his teeth and said, “Excellent!”
Besides, if he plundered the chapter house’s kitchen supplies, he might have to share crumpets with everyone there.
