Chapter 36

 

Benjie Lucero showed up exactly on time the next morning, wearing a spotless baker’s jacket, his short hair pushed up off his forehead in a little peak. For the first time in more than a week, Sam had a full night’s restful sleep and she felt ready to put her two new employees to work. She showed Benjie around the kitchen and he quickly gathered the ingredients for their first batch of eighty-percent cacao darks.

Lisa bicycled up and immediately became fascinated with Benjie’s movements in the kitchen. Sam couldn’t tell whether the girl was admiring the process of chocolate-making or if this was an attraction to the young chocolatier. It would be a situation to watch.

“Lisa,” Sam said after allowing her young assistant to gawk at the chocolate melting in the top section of the copper pot for awhile, “since we don’t have anything ready for packaging this morning, I’m going to let you organize the boxing and shipping materials. Grab your coat.”

She led the way to the carriage house and unlocked the side door.

“Right now, everything’s just stacked here,” she said, indicating the pile of materials in the middle of the floor. “With colder weather coming on, I’m thinking we’ll want more of it indoors where it’s handier to get to it.”

“Maybe we could use that other big room? The one you call the parlor?” Lisa circled the high stack of cartons. “I bet we could get most of this stuff in there.”

“I don’t mind that, but I’d like it organized better than this. When we moved everything it was a matter of just putting it somewhere.”

“So, maybe I should sort it out—candy boxes, shipping cartons, tape, markers, labels …”

“That would be great. I’d better get back to Benjie and the stove. Start carrying this stuff inside and we’ll decide how to organize it in the parlor. Well, I guess I should start calling it the shipping room.”

Lisa gave a little salute and picked up the first box—one Sam had used as a catch-all for mailing labels and rolls of tape.

Back in the kitchen the chocolate had reached a perfect one-hundred-twenty degrees and Benjie had already removed it from the burner.

“I like to temper by working the mixture on a marble slab,” Sam said.

“The traditional feel of it. I like it.” Benjie started to lift the pot.

“There’s one other thing first,” Sam said. She stepped closer and lowered her voice. As if people might overhear. “I use a secret ingredient. It’s part of the reason I had you sign that legal paper this morning. Our chocolates are different, very special, and no one—I mean no one—can know how we do it.”

His eyes sparkled with intrigue. “Nice.”

She pulled the tin canister from the shelf above the stove and opened it. Inside, lay the three pouches. She picked up the red one, noticing again how depleted it felt.

“A tiny pinch is all.” She demonstrated. “One very small pinch from each pouch.”

“What are they?”

“That’s the secret I can’t tell you.” Because I really don’t know either.

She sprinkled the pinch of near-translucent powder over the pot of hot chocolate, put the red pouch away and picked up the green one.

“You do this one,” she told him.

He reached into the pouch.

“Let me see,” she said. Satisfied with the amount he took, she told him to sprinkle it.

“And now the blue one?” he asked.

She nodded and watched. He started to raise his empty fingers to his tongue for a taste “No! Don’t taste.” She reached for his arm and lied blatantly. “I, um, I did that once. It wasn’t pleasant. You know, like biting into a cube of bouillon—it’s not at all the same as the diluted version.”

He gave her a puzzled look. The comparison was lame, she knew, but she had no idea what the effect of the pure powder would be.

“What’s in them?”

Oh, god, was he going to get into questions about food purity and FDA approval? She hoped the dismay didn’t show on her face as she turned to put the canister back on the shelf. When she turned back toward him, she winked. “Trade secret.”

Lisa shuffled through the butler’s pantry on her second trip with a large carton of shipping boxes. Sam hoped the girl hadn’t heard Benjie’s questions.

“So! Let’s get busy tempering this batch,” Sam said to him, and I’ll show you the molds we’re using. “We make new designs for each season and holiday, and I’m eager to see what ideas you might have.”

Benjie’s focus changed as he smoothed the dark, glossy chocolate with a wide spatula and checked the temperature. Together, they finished three dark cacao batches and started some milk chocolates with caramel-nut centers. While Benjie chopped pecans, Sam went to check on Lisa’s progress.

“This looks great,” Sam said, eyeing the neat stacks her assistant had made in the shipping room.

“I’ve put the satin boxes nearest the door, so I can pop over and get more as I fill them up,” Lisa said.

“Good thinking.”

“The big shipping boxes are stacked along this wall. Labels here. Markers handy right there.” Lisa walked Sam around the room to each section. “There’s still more out in the garage, but I didn’t want to make this room too full. Is that okay? Well, plus, it’s after eleven and I should get going.”

Sam couldn’t believe how the morning hours had flown. Having minions was turning out to be kind of fun.

Lisa filled out her time card and bundled into her coat before biking away. Sam checked on Benjie’s progress; he’d made the caramel-nut mixture, poured it into a square pan and set the pan into the fridge to harden.

“I’m going to make sure Lisa locked the garage,” Sam said. “Here’s the recipe for my deep chocolate creams and the confectioner’s sugar is over there. You can start measuring. I’ll be right back.”

The wind had turned chilly, blowing yesterday’s clouds away, and it funneled between the two structures with an intensity that made Sam wish she’d taken a moment to put on her heavier coat. She speed-walked the path to the side door Lisa had used. Her fingers fumbled with the key for a moment as she secured the new deadbolt lock.

Hugging herself for warmth, she headed back to the house. Movement in the shadows near the van caught her eye. Under the portico by the side door stood a gigantic man.

Adrenaline flashed through her. She stopped twenty feet away. Then she recognized him.

“Bobul?”

He stepped into the light. It was the eccentric Romanian who had showed up in a similar manner her first Christmas in business, offering his services and launching her on the path to her current success with the entire candy line. She felt the urge to rush forward and hug him but remembered Bobul wasn’t exactly the hugging sort.

“Miss Sam. Is good to see.” He looked the same as always in his coarse brown coat and hat, a large cloth messenger bag strapped across his chest.

“Bobul! I’m happy to see you too. How did you know I would be out here?” She spread her arms. “Did you go to the bakery first?”

He shook his head. “Miss Sam need me.”

Had he read her mind in recent days? Or did he somehow intuitively know her supply of the special powders had run low?

A fresh gust of wind nearly took her breath away. “Come inside and get warm. I want you to see the new kitchen.”

He walked toward the side door as if he knew his way around. Sam followed, reminding herself it was Bobul’s way. He wasn’t intrusive, exactly, but had no problem walking into a new situation and acting as if he belonged.

Benjie visibly started when Bobul entered the kitchen ahead of Sam. The big guy had that effect on people.

“Benjie, this is Bobul. He’s an old friend and an expert chocolatier.”

Bobul gave a short grunt of acknowledgement, the same reaction he’d had when he met the staff at Sweet’s Sweets. Benjie took a step back with a respectful nod.

Sam told Benjie he could go back to his chocolate creams while she showed their visitor around the facility. In each room, Bobul stared at the space, taking it all in, even to the ceilings and floors, giving a grunt here and there. She wondered if he’d understood most of what she said as she rambled on about the rooms and the amount of chocolate they were now producing.

“I owe so much to you,” Sam said. “Your help and techniques set me on the path to this whole new endeavor.”

“Yes. Is good.”

“Well. Are you here to stay awhile? I can pay a good salary if you can work with us, teach us some new techniques.” Sell me more of those wonderful ingredients.

It felt faintly illicit to come right out and ask, as if she was working some sort of drug deal. She hoped he would pick up the hint. They’d made their way through the downstairs rooms and were now in the former maid’s room which served as the pantry. Bobul eyed the shelves of sugar, cocoa and flavorings, nodded, headed for the kitchen. He shed the voluminous brown coat and hung it on one of the hooks by the back door, washed up at the sink and went straight to the worktable.

Benjie must have assumed this was another regular employee. He moved aside and continued shaping cream centers, preparing them for dipping in the milk chocolate he’d tempered in Sam’s absence.

“Is like this,” Bobul said after watching Benjie at work for a minute. “Is so—”

His large hands had surprisingly agile fingers as he picked up a cream center. With a deft twist, he swirled it into the milk chocolate, gave it a turn and produced a perfect rosebud-shaped dollop on top. He set that one on the rack and did another.

Benjie and Sam watched, mesmerized, as he turned out swirls and starbursts and buds with just the quick flick of his wrist and delicate moves of his fingers.

“Wow.” Benjie was frank in his admiration. “Can you teach me that?”

“Bobul show,” said the master. “You will learn.”

The vague sense of inadequacy Sam had felt for weeks simply vanished as she watched the amazing chocolatier at work. Whatever she could learn from this man, whatever she paid for his services, it would all come back to her a thousand-fold, she knew.