A Baby Between Them. Winnie Griggs
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hours you spend working for me—is that it?”
“Not exactly. Actually, I think I have the perfect solution, but I wanted to get your thoughts on it.”
He was both intrigued and a bit flattered by her request for his counsel. “I’m listening.”
“I’d like to make pies and cakes to sell here in town.” She announced her plan as if it was the answer to all her problems. Then she looked at him expectantly.
He tried to wrap his mind around what she’d just said. “Start a bakery business you mean?”
“Yes, but on a very small scale.” She seemed less certain now. “You did say that folks seem to like my cakes and pies.”
“Absolutely. I can’t say as I ever tasted better.”
His answer seemed to buoy her confidence once more. She smiled up at him with the raindrops glistening on her long dark lashes, vividly brightening her blue eyes, and he had to blink to clear his suddenly muddled thoughts.
“And Will has asked me to consult with his chocolatiers on how to improve his chocolates,” she continued, “so perhaps I could somehow combine the two things.”
Did she really understand the amount of work that would be involved in such an undertaking? “You’d have to make an awful lot of baked goods to make any sort of profit at it.”
“I know. And I’m not afraid of hard work. But I would need your help.”
She’d managed to surprise him yet again. “You want me to help you do your baking?” His only foray into baking was biscuits and he wouldn’t exactly be bragging on his results.
But his question earned him a grin. “Nothing so challenging. I would, of course, do a lot of my baking at home. But I’d like to do some of it during the day, as well. Only, well, that would mean using your oven.” She fluttered a hand in an uncharacteristically nervous gesture. “I promise not to do any less work for you than I already am.” The words were rushed, as if she was trying to forestall an objection. “I can continue to clean and wash and cook your meals while my baked goods are in the oven.”
He didn’t for a minute doubt that she would be conscientious about her work. “Where do you plan to sell these delicacies?”
The look she shot him let him know she realized he hadn’t answered her question. But she followed his lead. “I thought perhaps Mrs. James at the general store might be willing to sell some goods on commission for me and perhaps Rosie over at the boardinghouse would take some to serve to her boarders, as well.” She stared at him expectantly. “What do you think?”
She really had given this some serious thought. “I think it’s certainly worth a try. I might be able to drum up a few other customers for you, as well.” That earned him a grateful look. “In fact,” he added, “the workers over at the mill might be a good group to talk to.”
“Oh, I hadn’t thought about that. I’ll speak to Will when he and Bridget get back into town.” She eyed him uncertainly. “So you’re agreeable to my baking while I work for you?”
“On one condition.”
“And that is?”
“That you start small and don’t work yourself to exhaustion.”
She nodded. “I understand. I wouldn’t be very useful as a housekeeper if I didn’t have the energy to do my job.”
Cam didn’t comment. If she thought that was his reason then far be it from him to say otherwise.
Chapter Six
Nora shook her head over Cam’s insistence that he drop her off at the door to his office, but she was grateful nevertheless. As he handed her down, she noticed that where the ends of his hair had gotten wet, the straw color had darkened to chocolate brown and had started to curl just the tiniest bit. She found her thoughts straying to what it might feel like to test the spring of that curl against her fingers.
Shaking off that totally inappropriate thought, she said a quick thank-you and bustled into the sheriff’s office. She greeted Ben and Gavin, both of whom were sipping cups of the thick liquid that passed for coffee inside these walls when she wasn’t around.
“Well, aren’t you a pretty sight on a dreary morning.” Ben’s smile changed to a frown. “Where’s Gracie? Nothing’s happened to her I hope.”
“No, no, Grace is just fine. But I didn’t think it would be wise to take her out in this weather so I left her with the Coulters today.”
He nodded. “I suppose that was the right thing to do. I’m sure going to miss having that little girl around today, though.”
Ben and Gavin had both warmed up to Grace quickly enough. They even helped watch her when Nora was particularly busy with some chore or other.
Nora turned back to Gavin. “Did you have a nice visit with your brothers and Mrs. Fitzwilliam after the wedding?”
Gavin nodded. “I sure did.” Then he grimaced. “If only Mrs. F would quit trying to talk me into returning to Boston with them.”
Nora raised a sympathetic brow. “She means well.”
He shrugged. “I know. And I’m grateful that she’s seeing that my brothers go to school. But that’s not for me—this is where I want to be.”
“Give her time. She’ll come around.” Nora untied her makeshift rain hat. “How goes her search for her granddaughter?”
Gavin shook his head. “No sign of her yet. I think Mrs. F is beginning to feel a bit discouraged.”
Nora’s heart ached for the older woman. “I will continue to pray for the two of them.”
As she hung the hat on a peg, Ben rejoined the conversation. “You’ll find a pair of freshly cleaned rabbits in there.” He nodded toward the kitchen. “Andy Dubberly brought me those yesterday evening in exchange for a favor I did for him. Thought they might be good for lunch.”
“How wonderful.” Nora was genuinely delighted. This being a coastal town, fish was plentiful and inexpensive, so that was what she usually purchased when she did the sheriff’s shopping. But red meat was a welcome change. “And I know just how to cook them.” She was already going over the list of supplies she’d need to make her da’s favorite rabbit stew. Carrots, onions, turnips—
“I have the stove already warmed up for you, Miss Nora.”
Nora smiled at Gavin’s not too subtle hint that he was ready for the morning meal. “Thank you. I’ll have breakfast ready quick as can be.”
She shook herself out of the borrowed raincoat. “And thank you for the use of your coat,” she said to Ben. “It was most welcome on the ride in this morning.” She hung it next to the hat. “It certainly kept me drier than I would have been without it.”
Ben shook his head. “It’s Cameron you should be thanking. The boy let himself into my place before dawn and grabbed my coat without so much as a knock or a may-I.” Then the older man smiled. “But I’m very pleased to see he put it to such good use.”
So it had been Cam’s idea, not Ben’s as he’d led her to believe. “Well, thank you anyway.” She moved toward the kitchen. “Now, I believe this is a three-egg morning for the lot of you.” She wagged a finger at the two deputies. “And no snatching the biscuits while my back is turned.”
Nora found herself humming as she moved to the room she had nicknamed her “galley.”
The sheriff and Ben had living quarters in a small two-story building behind the jailhouse. Ben lived on the lower floor and the sheriff on the upper. Both homes, if one could call them that, were quite small. They each had three very small rooms—a kitchen, a parlor and a bedroom.