Charlotte waited her turn, and then she gave up her place in the queue when a few more people arrived so that she could speak to Julian privately.
When at last his customers had gone, she asked him if he had time to chat.
“It looks like things have died down for now,” said Julian, “but I hope you’ll forgive me if we’re interrupted.”
Charlotte was certain that Julian would not miss a single customer, come the hells or high water.
He looked better today. She imagined the Solstice biscuits had been easier on him than making the cheese croissants alone. And he must have been relieved with the meat delivery finally arriving, although she imagined that meant he’d also be taking away their lunch crowd today.
She didn’t know how to broach the topic she’d come to discuss. But she wanted to understand if Julian was in some kind of trouble. If he was, perhaps they could help him.
She decided there was no delicate way to say it: she’d just have to tell him what she knew. “My brother Keir mentioned some kind of trouble with your father. Is that why you’ve come back here? Is that why you’re hellsbent on taking the bakery’s customers?”
Julian laughed. “This again. No, it has nothing to do with my father, although I will say that particular experience did teach me a lot. I spent most of my adulthood working to pay off that man’s debts only for him to turn around and remarry the moment he was released. He left me with nothing. No, that’snot true. He left me with a lesson: the only one you can rely on is yourself. I’ve told you I’m not out to hurt Mrs. Knox. I’m not trying to take the bakery’s customers. I’m trying to grow my business. That’s all.”
Charlotte had felt the way he did once. In her painful childhood years, she had felt she had no one to rely on. But Nolwynn had taught her to trust others again. She had been lucky to meet someone who could show her that there were people in the world who were kind and trustworthy, people you could rely on when you needed help.
It seemed Julian hadn’t been so lucky. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She wanted to say something to him about being able to trust her, of how she remembered their friendship and wanted to help him, but she didn’t think he’d believe her. “Can I ask why the cheese and wine?” It was clear to Charlotte that his true passion was baking. Or if not his passion, then his talent.
“High profit margin items. The only real investment is time. There was a shop very much like this one across from the prison. I took a job there with a hard old human and learned everything he knew. When it became clear my father would never repay the sacrifices I made for him, I started crafting my own cheeses at home. I’d take cultures Mr. Harrow discarded, bottles of wine he said would never sell. He told me to throw them out, but I took them home instead, building my stock to set out for myself.”
“But you didn’t steal anything from him? Anything he would’ve wanted to keep?” The thought had come to her, and she’d said it before she could stop herself. If Julian had been desperate and convinced he was alone in the world, what would have kept him from theft?
Julian shook his head, backing away from her. “Honestly, Charlotte, is that how little you think of me?”
“I didn’t think you would,” said Charlotte, embarrassed. “I’m just trying to understand what you went through.”
“Well, it wasn’t a good time, I’ll tell you that much, but I’m no criminal. I learned what I needed from the man, I took what he discarded, and I built my own business from the ground up. It seemed a fair exchange for my labor, which he grossly underpaid me for. The market will decide if my venture is worthwhile.”
But there was something else that had been bothering her. A question he’d left unanswered the last time they spoke. “Why did you choose to open the shop here?”
“I couldn’t afford a shop in Arcas Dyrne. The rent there is too expensive. I needed to go somewhere smaller to start out.”
“Is that the only reason?”
Half of a wistful smile flashed on Julian’s face before it returned to neutrality. “I was happy here once. This was the last place I was happy.”
A sentimental answer, and the only one that didn’t seem connected to coin. Perhaps there was some of the old Julian left in there after all.
“I know you feel as if I’m your enemy, but I’m not,” said Julian. His eyes were soft and warm as he looked at Charlotte. It stirred something within her. “I do want us to be friends again. I’m glad you keep coming back here. Now that you see why I’ve done it, does it change anything?”
She could see that Julian was sincere. He truly wanted to reconcile.
But he hadn’t conceded at all, and from the sounds of it, he didn’t intend to. “I’m afraid I can’t stand by and let you take down Mrs. Knox’s business. If you believe so much in the free market, perhaps we should let it operate as intended. Good luck to you, Julian. May the better shop win.”
“We’ll need something to keep us going until the coffee gets here,” Charlotte told Mrs. Knox when she returned to the shop.She filled her in on what Julian had told her and how she didn’t think they would be able to win him over with kindness. “Maybe if we beat the pants off of him at his own game, he’ll give in and cooperate.”
“I don’t love it,” said Mrs. Knox. “It doesn’t feel like it’s in the Solstice spirit. But what choice do we have? Even if we make it through Solstice, we can’t lose our Lupercalia chocolate sales. Your brother’s wedding will tide us over for a bit—he refused to accept my discount, by the way. Such a generous lad.”
That gave Charlotte an idea. “Keir could invest in the shop. I’m certain he’d want to see it succeed.”
“No, no. I won’t have him invest in a failing shop. No, you were right. We’re just going to have to win. I’ve got my recipe books in the back. When it’s slow, let’s go through them and try out anything we think could be a hit.”
They spent the day in between customers—and there was a lot of time in between customers, unfortunately—trying out biscuits. The good thing about biscuits is they were quick to bake, so they were able to try a number of recipes before settling on the best ones to let the customers sample.
The winners were a buttery almond biscuit coated in powdered sugar (“wedding cookies” they were called, which Mrs. Knox thought was a cute coincidence considering the whole town was excited for Keir and Alison’s wedding), a spiced cookie made with treacle that was popular on the continent, and a sugar cookie cut out in the middle like a window with stained glass made from melted sweets that was sure to be a favorite of the children. They also added a dark chocolate coating to half of their ordinary shortbread biscuits and a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg to their ginger snaps to make them stand out from Julian’s.
“Now we just have to find a way to let everyone know we have something new for sale. Should we put the sign outside?”
