Chapter Six THE BAKER’S APPRENTICE Charlotte
Chapter Six
THE BAKER’S APPRENTICE
Charlotte
Charlotte stayed late at the bakery, taking her time with the dough they’d use to bake the croissants in the morning.
She wanted them to be absolute perfection. Julian had managed to avoid letting the cheese and the butter escape from his perfect little pastries, and she knew she could do the same if she was slow and careful about it, returning the dough to the icebox frequently to avoid letting the butter melt.
They wouldn’t be filled with cheese, of course.
The cheeses they used when baking were soft, young cheeses that went into sweet frostings, and they were supplied by the young orc Brytak when he made deliveries from the family farm.
If things had been different, perhaps they would have turned to Julian to supply them.
Maybe there was still a chance of it, if Charlotte could talk him around.
As she walked back to Keir’s house after closing up the bakery, she glanced at Julian’s shop. She could go talk to him tonight. There were a few customers inside, but he’d likely close up shop soon. Maybe she could ask him if he wanted to get a drink at the inn.
But then what would she say? “Hey Julian, nice to see you again. By the way, why did you move back to town and open a competing shop directly across the street from one of the only people that was nice to us when we were little hellions? Are you an arsehole now?”
No, she’d need to workshop it a bit more. Hopefully Mrs. Knox could manage one more day before Charlotte brought him to his senses.
Back at Keir’s house, Charlotte bathed off the flour and sweat in the frigid waters of the nearby stream.
She thought about swimming down to see Nolwynn for advice; the korrigan wasn’t the most diplomatic creature, but she had managed to leave the king’s castle with her head intact, so she must have had some talent for negotiating.
But Charlotte was too tired to make the journey. All that kneading and rolling still wore her out. She had no idea how Mrs. Knox had managed it alone all those years, or how Julian could manage it now.
Not that his arms looked weak. In fact, they’d look plenty strong enough. He had a lot of muscle straining against his rolled-up sleeves…
Was it bad to think of him this way? It certainly was unexpected.
Charlotte never thought she’d see Julian again.
She had no idea where he had gone or any way to contact him.
She wasn’t sure she would have even if she had known how, for his sake.
But when she had seen him last, they were children.
And now? Would it be so bad if things changed between them?
They were different people now. Would it be terrible to explore whatever spark they seemed to share?
Charlotte decided that it wouldn’t be terrible at all. But she also wasn’t going to be making the first move. She’d get him to cross out the “And Baked Goods” somehow, and then, if he proposed spending time together, she wouldn’t say no.
It was sorted. The plan was flawless.
The plan failed.
Everything had been going so well. Charlotte had come in to Mrs. Knox’s early to check the croissants.
They looked nearly perfect: the almond-filled batch had risen just a tiny bit less than the plain and chocolate-filled, but if she put them at the end of the counter, no one would notice the difference.
They baked beautifully. She could see a couple of drops of chocolate coming out of a few of them, but they were still her best effort yet. The pastry was light and impossibly flaky and perfectly golden brown.
Mrs. Knox had been so impressed with them, she’d nearly cried. “That’s the way to save us,” she’d said. “If we can’t join him, we’ll beat him.”
That hadn’t been Charlotte’s intention; she still thought she could get Julian to stop competing with them.
But she had been inspired to try her best to show that she could bake as well as he could.
Nothing competitive about it. She just wanted to see if she could rise to the challenge, and she had.
The line outside of Julian’s door wasn’t quite as long today, and some of the usual customers had made their way back into Mrs. Knox’s shop. Perhaps he’d stopped selling the croissants without Charlotte needing to ask.
Still, it would be nice to see him again. After the morning rush had gone, Charlotte headed across the street. There was no one in Julian’s shop when she entered. No one except Julian, who paced anxiously behind the counter.
“Everything alright?” asked Charlotte. It didn’t seem he’d heard the doorbell chime.
“Mm?” he asked without looking up. Then he spotted her. It stopped him in his tracks. “Charlotte. You’re back.”
“I am,” said Charlotte. “There was something else I wanted to talk about.”
“Please, sit,” said Julian. Whatever had been bothering him earlier seemed to vanish from his thoughts in Charlotte’s presence. “What did you need?”
You can do this, she told herself. He seemed like a reasonable man. Never mind that he said no to Mrs. Knox. Maybe she offended him somehow. By…being aggressively nice. That must have been it…
“Charlotte?”
“Sorry.” He was looking at her quite intently from across the table. He looked exhausted—there were large bags under his eyes where there hadn’t been any yesterday. “Julian, I wanted to ask you. Why the baked goods?”
“Oh, that,” he said, relaxing back into his chair. “It’s simple, really. Cheese and wine smell wonderful, but the aroma doesn’t carry far. You can smell the baking out in the street. It brings in foot traffic. It’s important for business.”
That was what he’d told Mrs. Knox. “But Julian, there’s already a bakery on this street. I know you knew that because you once lived next door. We spent so many days in Mrs. Knox’s shop.”
“Of course,” said Julian. “I remember it well. I’m still very fond of it.”
He didn’t seem to see the connection in what Charlotte was saying. Could he have not realized his business could hurt Mrs. Knox’s?
“But what is Mrs. Knox to do if you take all her customers?”
Julian smiled and shook his head. “Oh, that seems unlikely. I don’t primarily sell baked goods, not yet at least.”
“Not yet?”
“The cured meats were supposed to arrive this morning, but they still aren’t here.
I’ve made all of this bread, but I’ve nothing to serve it with, and not many of the croissant customers were willing to take a loaf.
I guess they prefer the familiar. Maybe if I cut some into samples and give them out in the street—”
“Julian, I don’t think you’re understanding me. You made bread? You’re trying to sell sandwiches? That’s half of Mrs. Knox’s business. More than half.”
Julian shrugged his shoulders. “Then the market must be good for it here. I don’t know what you want me to say. It isn’t personal. I loved that old woman—although I guess, she couldn’t have been that old, considering she’s still alive. But I have a business to run. And this is the way it works.”
Charlotte didn’t understand. Julian was acting as if he didn’t have a choice about what kind of business to run—maybe that was true.
Maybe his father had come by the cheese business somehow, and he was just following the plan.
But even if that were the case, he didn’t have to bring his business here, to this very street. To a street that already had a bakery.
“Why here? Why did you come back here?”
Julian’s face fell. “Are you not happy that I’m here?”
“Of course I am,” said Charlotte. “But I don’t understand. This isn’t the city. This town can’t support two bakeries; there just aren’t enough people. If you keep taking Mrs. Knox’s customers, she’ll have to close.”
“Ah,” said Julian. “I see. And then you’ll lose your job. But in that case, I’d be doing well enough to take you on. You don’t need to worry.” He rested his hand on Charlotte’s.
She snatched it away. “I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about Mrs. Knox. I don’t know how you could be so cruel to her. What happened to you?”
Julian pushed his chair back from the table and stood abruptly.
“I learned a lot of hard lessons, including that you can’t let your feelings stand in the way if you want to survive.
Mrs. Knox has been baking the same things the same way for decades.
If she wants to win, she’d better come up with something new.
Because I’ve got a lot of tricks up my sleeve, and I don’t plan on holding back. ”
Charlotte’s mind reeled. Hard lessons? What had Julian gone through that had left him so cold?
“Julian—”
“Charlotte, if you’ll excuse me, I believe that’s the meat delivery at last.” He ran out the door in the direction of the approaching carriage, leaving Charlotte alone at the table.
What had just happened?
Mrs. Knox looked hopeful as Charlotte returned, but her face quickly fell when she saw Charlotte’s.
“No good?” asked Mrs. Knox.
Charlotte shook her head. “He’s changed. I don’t know what happened, but he wouldn’t listen to reason.”
“Did he feed you the same story about needing to lure people in with the smell?”
“Just the same.”
“Well, two can play at that game.” Mrs. Knox led Charlotte into a little office she kept in the back. “See this?” She pointed to a line on an order form. It was for the merchant in Sudport that supplied the chocolate, almonds, and other goods they didn’t grown in Wilderise.
“Coffee: 2s per pound, whole bean. Oh, of course.”
There weren’t many coffee drinkers in Wilderise, but Charlotte had met one once before: a dwarf who stayed with the korrigans for a year or so when she was still a girl.
He’d ground the beans every morning by hand, then he’d made the coffee over the fire in a metal pot with a basket in it.
The smell was so strong he’d attracted several of the townsfolk, forcing Charlotte to hide in case one of them recognized her.