“Is that a blue envelope?” asked Mrs. Knox. The blue envelopes of urgent deliveries were expensive and rarely held good news. “Can you read it to me?”
Charlotte hoped this would be one of the rare blue letters with a happy surprise in it as she tore it open.
Moira,
I hate to trouble you like this after so long, but I’ve had a bit of a fall.
“Who is it from?”
Charlotte flipped the letter over. “Martha?”
“My sister.”
The doctor said my hip will heal, but I’m meant to keep off my feet for a time, and I don’t have anyone around who can help. But first, I have to get through the operation on Saturday. They said it would be good if I could have someone who can help me home, and I’m afraid with Arthur gone, I didn’t know who else to ask.
I know it’s an imposition to ask you to come all this way and on such short notice. But the operation itself is costing me dearly, and I just can’t afford the kind of care they say I’ll need with what’s left of Arthur’s coin.
I hope you’re well and that the new apprentice is ready to take on a bit more for a short time. Do let me know if you’re coming.
All my love,
Martha
Mrs. Knox stopped kneading the dough and looked up. “It’s been twenty years since I’ve seen her. I never left, but she used to come here.” She scraped the dough off her hands and from between her fingers. “Charlotte, I know I’m asking a lot of you, but you can do this. I wrote all the instructions down. There are timings for everything. Add a couple of hours to the prep and decorating time since you’ll be on your own.”
“You’re leaving right now?” asked Charlotte. She had known when she read the letter that Mrs. Knox would go, but she thought she’d wait until after the wedding cakes were baked.
“Martha lives in Arcas Dyrne. If I borrow a horse from Mr. Rainey and leave now, I still may not make it in time for her operation. I’m so sorry to do this to you, but it’s why you’re here. I know you can do it, Charlotte.”
Charlotte looked out over the countless containers of ingredients and the empty pans. She knew the steps. She’d practiced the techniques. But the wedding cakes were going to be huge. All that piping, and nowhere to hide her mistakes…
“Don’t worry about Lupercalia. We should have enough chocolates to get us through. And if the bread doesn’t get baked tomorrow, well, Julian has his shop. I never thought I’d be happy for that, but here we are. No one in this town is going hungry, that’s for sure.”
Mrs. Knox was taking off her apron. She really was leaving, and Charlotte was really going to do this on her own.
“I’m heading up to pack and get changed. Breathe, Charlotte. Take it one step at a time.”
“Take care,” said Charlotte, coming out of her daze. “I hope Martha’s operation goes well.”
Mrs. Knox grinned. “She’s a tough old thing. I know it must have killed her to have sent the letter. In truth, I’ll be glad to see her again. Twenty years is far too long.”
It was. Charlotte knew that firsthand.
Charlotte read through Mrs. Knox’s notes while she packed upstairs, grateful that she was so detailed in her instructions. Maybe she could do this. She’d made plenty of cakes, and she’d been practicing the decorations for weeks. And Keir and Alison were unlikely to be critical, although she still didn’t want to disappoint them. Not after everything they’d done for her.
The plan was fairly simple: today, she would make the cake batters, fillings, and sugar flower decorations. Tomorrow, she’d bake the cakes, cool them, and then do most of the assembly. Then Saturday, the morning of the wedding, she would finish the piping and decorations. She crossed out the timings on Mrs. Knox’s plans and added extra hours to anything that might require more attention or that may need to be redone. It added up to a late night or two with her additions, but there was enough time if she was careful and meticulous in her execution.
Before Mrs. Knox left, she quickly sketched the designs she’d been planning. “Be careful on the placement of the flowers. Don’t get too cute with it. Allow for some asymmetry; it gives it the more natural feeling Alison prefers.”
“I’ll do my best,” said Charlotte.
“I know you will,” said Mrs. Knox, and she was on her way.
Alone, Charlotte got to work. She finished up her daily tasks without much incident, finishing the bread Mrs. Knox was baking and the croissants they had prepared the night before. She even had time to make a batch of the chili-spiced truffles she’d added to their Lupercalia menu before getting started on the wedding cakes.
The sponges themselves were simple: Alison and Keir had chosen ordinary vanilla and chocolate, and all she had to do today was mix together the batters. They’d chill overnight in the icebox, which Mrs. Knox said was both good for saving time tomorrow and for developing the flavors. The mixing was tiring work for as many bowls of batter as she needed to make—each cake would have four layers and two tiers for a total of eight cake pans per cake, which was an awful lot of cake. Charlotte idly wondered if Julian had ordered a ‘lectric mixer to go with his ‘lectric stove; it would have spared her arms a lot of trouble.
But she was too afraid to face him. She wasn’t sure which she dreaded more: that he might tell her it was a terrible mistake,and he never should have kissed her; or that he might tell her that it wasn’t, and he was glad he did.
