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Maisey wiped the sweat from her eyes with the corner of the towel around her neck. The kitchen in Mary’s bakery was stifling, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She finally felt like she belonged somewhere. After some mixed results from her experiments with sorghum, she thought she had the components figured out. Her latest test batch of caramels was almost ready to be tasted and for some ridiculous reason she was hoping that Martin would stop by, so he could be one of the first.
“Smells about right,” Mary said encouragingly.
“They need to cool some more,” Maisey said. She wanted to wait a little bit more, just in case.
“Come out back for a break,” Mary said. “It’s hot today.”
Maisey followed her out to the table and chairs under an awning in the back yard of the bakery. A breeze ruffled the sweaty hair on the back of her neck. “That feels good.”
Mary poured her a glass of iced tea. “This will help.”
Maisey took a deep drink relishing the cold and the quality of tea. Then reality hit her sideways, and her eyes started to tear. “Do you feel like a fraud sometimes?” she asked.
“No,” Mary said firmly. “I feel like a successful survivor. My family farm was burned out by raiders. Nick and Wisp found us when we were in trouble. We’ve been working hard to get where we are now. It didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen easily.”
“And I just walked into it,” Maisey said guiltily.
“You found a safe haven after a long struggle,” Mary corrected her. “And it isn’t as if we’d let you skate along on our hard work. What’s that dripping down the back of your neck?”
Maisey’s hand shot back to check. “It’s just sweat.”
Mary chuckled. “From hard work.”
“But it’s just candy,” Maisey said uneasily. Considering how hard people here worked, she felt a little embarrassed by her paltry contribution.
“Candy that could make a tired Rover smile after a double shift of search and rescue. Or help a Sentinel coax a scared kid out of a bolt hole. Or reward a bunch of runners who had worked all night in an emergency. Don’t think of it as frivolous. Right now it’s rare, and it might be an important currency. Nick is always looking for new trading partners. If they already have chickens and butter and bread, we need something new to entice them to trade with us. Candy might tip the scale in our favor.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Maisey admitted. There was a lot more to this settlement than just food and safety. They had forethought and compassion, a startling combination in today’s world. “So you think Nick will commandeer the whole batch?”
Mary smiled. “I don’t think Tillie would let him. We usually try to make enough for a lot of people to get a little taste. We can cut them very small and give out samples. Martin might want you to try your hand at lozenges. We could have used some cough drops during the Great Fire. Everyone had a sore throat from the smoke.”
Maisey felt a flutter at the thought of getting a request from Martin. And that felt even more ridiculous. After all she’d been through just to stay alive, it seemed stupid to get excited about meeting a man she liked. He probably had all the women he could handle. And she had more than enough work to keep her busy. “I can talk to Bug about getting some herbs. I have worked with lavender and basil, but that was for the chocolates.”
“Sounds wonderful,” Mary said enthusiastically. “I really hope Nick can source you some cacao beans.”
When Maisey went back to work, she felt better about things. If her candies could actually help the community, she would be proud to make them. She peeked out into the bakery. People were lined up for the fresh loaves coming out of the oven. A couple of teenagers bought cookies with some strange looking tokens. It occurred to her that those kids were just babies in Zero Year. This was probably the most civilization that they’d ever seen.
“Problem?” Mary asked softly.
Maisey turned away from the doorway. “I was just thinking about the kids. They don’t know what we’ve lost, do they?”
“No.” Mary shook her head somberly. “That world is gone, and we won’t see it again in our lifetime.”
The kitchen door opened almost knocking her over. Mary grabbed her arm and tugged her out of the way. Martin entered, apologizing. “I didn’t see you behind the door.”
Maisey sputtered a response about being clumsy and regretted it immediately.
Mary laughed at their awkwardness. “Martin, come in. You’re just in time to try Maisey’s caramels.”
“I’d be happy to,” he said with a pleased grin.
Maisey wasn’t sure if there was a double entendre in there, or if she just wanted one to be there. Mary gave her a poke.
“Well? We’re all waiting.”
Nervously, Maisey sliced the candy into small squares. The texture felt right. The fragrance was pleasing. She scooped up a couple on a spatula and offered them to Mary and Martin. He gave her a funny look. “You’re not trying one?”
She scooped up a couple more for the assistants who had been shooting her longing glances and took the last one on the spatula. She nibbled the corner off. It melted on her tongue, sweet and buttery.
“Wow,” Martin said.
“Oh, they are very good,” Mary agreed.
Maisey looked over the rest of the tasters. Every one of them had a blissful grin. “I’ll call this batch a success.”