Angelica by Sharon Shinn

Author:Sharon Shinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Miriam watched Susannah stroll away, her head bent over Keren’s, her laugh floating back along the cobalt cobblestones. In Luminaux, even the noises were blue; the laugh sounded azure, the color of a spring sky. It did not make Miriam feel at all mirthful.

Frida came to stand beside her. She was a generously sized woman, with the creamy brown skin and radiant black hair of all Edori, and there was a certain calm purposefulness about her. “You might find it hard to settle in, at first,” Frida said. “Would you like to have this afternoon free, to look around Luminaux, or would you like to come in and learn what we do in the bakery?”

It was kind of her to offer options, Miriam thought. She turned toward the door. “I’ve been to Luminaux,” she said, her voice indifferent but polite. “Why don’t you let me see the bakery?”

So Frida took her to the kitchen and showed her where the flour was kept, the cool cistern where the butter and milk were stored, the pantry full of spices, the books full of recipes. There was also the sink full of dirty pans, and a pipe system as good as the Eyrie’s for carrying water into the building and away.

“Looks like a lot of work,” Miriam commented.

“It is,” Frida said. “But I like it.”

“Do you want me to start on the dishes?” Miriam offered. “I don’t know how to mix recipes, but I do know how to clean a pot.”

Frida smiled. “That would be a great help, thank you. We generally close the front of the shop in early evening, just after everyone’s gone home for dinner, because we open so early in the morning. We come back here and clean up, then have our own dinners.”

“You live nearby?”

“Upstairs. My oldest daughter moved away last spring, you can have her room to yourself.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Miriam said politely.

“We’re happy to have you here,” Frida said.

Miriam said little more than commonplaces as she drew the hot water and filled the sink with soap. She could hear Frida moving around the kitchen behind her, wrapping up softened cakes of butter and scraping burned spills of dough from the stove. Even farther away, she could hear the voices of Frida’s daughters from the front room, talking to customers and laughing with each other. It was a still and quiet place, redolent with aromas so rich they acted on her almost like wine; her mind felt relaxed and unfocused.

“What about this pan? I think it might need to soak overnight.”

“It always does. Just run some water in it when you’re done with the rest of the pots.”

“Anything else before I dry off my hands?”

“Just this one little dish, if you don’t mind.”

The girls came laughing in, taking off their aprons and telling some tale of a man who, apparently, dropped by every single day for a cherry-filled pastry. “We pretended we had sold the last one, and he was so sad! He said,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.