Page 19 of Tusks, Tails & Teacakes
“I should have opened the windows when we left.” Sass waved a hand in front of her face. “I think I got used to the smell when we were inside.”
“I’ll look for some soap as soon as I get these supplies unloaded.” Lira headed for the kitchen.
“Don’t worry yourself.” Sass followed her through the swinging doors and dumped her armload of supplies on the newly cleared table. “I’ll find it. You focus on the cooking.”
“There’s no rush. I’m sure no one’s expecting me to have the tavern’s kitchen up and running again so soon.”
“Don’t be so sure about that,” Sass said as sheopened the lower cabinet doors and began rummaging around. “Folks might come sooner than we think.”
Lira set the sacks of flour and sugar on the table and then arranged the still-cool block of butter next to the bottle of cream she’d been so pleased to find. Then she let Sass’s words sink in and she turned. “What do you mean?”
“Just that I might have mentioned your baking to a few people in the market.” Sass’s voice was muffled as she stuck her head into a cabinet.
“But you’ve never tasted my baking.”
Sass straightened, holding a bar of soap that had seen better days. “You said you could bake. I believe you.”
“But I haven’t baked in ages,” Lira’s words spilled out in splutters. “I don’t know if I even remember how, or if it’ll be any good.”
Sass waved away her protests. “I’m sure it’s like swinging an axe. Once you know, you never forget.”
Lira was sure that baking was much more nuanced than swinging an axe, but she also didn’t want to argue with the dwarf. Not when she seemed to have such blind faith in her. No one had trusted her so fully other than her crew. Truth be told, she missed that.
She pushed aside those thoughts and managed a smile. “I suppose if you can get rid of the smell out there, I can figure out the food part.”
Sass held up the soap. “I’m pretty sure a troll died in the great room at some point, so you might have the easier task.”
Then Sass pushed through the swinging doors and was gone, leaving Lira to stare at her ingredients, trying to remember her gran’s recipe for meat pie, and wondering if she could trade her job for the de-trolling.
Eleven
It wasn’tuntil the afternoon that Sass appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, escaped wisps of hair curling around her face. “I’m heading out for a bit.” She tucked her shirt into her pants with one hand. “Thought I’d pop into the carpenter’s shop across the way.”
Lira wanted to ask her why they needed a carpenter, although the answer was that there were a hundred things in The Tusk & Tail that needed fixing, but none of them were worth sparing coin on, according to the tightfisted tavernkeeper. Lira suspected the man had run his business half into the ground from stinginess, and didn’t have the silver even if he had thought new benches or chairs that didn’t wobblewere a necessity.
“I’ll be here.” Lira had made quick work of rearranging the pantry and storing her new ingredients, but she now had a work table filled with a bag of sugar hard enough make a fine weapon, bundles of herbs that had dried for so long they were nearly dust, and a sack of flour crawling with weevils.
Sass made a face at the kitchen that had seemed to relapse into its previous state of disarray due to the emptied pantry. “No one will blame you for taking a break.”
Lira started to shake her head and say she didn’t need one, but Sass had already left the kitchen.
“Hmph.” Lira rested her hands on her hips as she sized up the work she’d done, wishing she had more to show for it. Then she stilled, listening for a minute to the absolute solitude of the tavern.
Sass had gone, Durn was most likely sleeping in his upstairs room, and there were no patrons to mention.
Lira glanced around, despite standing alone in the kitchen. It was as good a time as any, she thought. If the tavern started doing better, she wouldn’t get many more times when she had the place to herself.
She walked on her toes so as not to make a sound, even though reason told her it was wasted effort. Old habits died hard, and Lira’s rogue instincts snapped back into place the moment she slipped sideways through the swinging doors and hesitated outside the entrance to the cellar.
This time would be better. This time she wouldn’t be caught off guard by the wall.
She cut her gaze to the stairs and thought of the illumination stone upstairs. She’d tucked it back into its pouch and jammed it deep beneath her mattress. By the time she retrieved it, Sass could be back or Durn could hear her moving about upstairs and emerge from his room.
She couldn’t spare the time.
She changed course, taking just enough steps into the great hall to spy a lantern behind the bar. With one of the long matches placed near it, Lira lit the wick and made for the cellar door.
Remembering her last trip down, she held the rough wood of the staircase banister as she took measured steps. The yellow light from the lantern bounced off the walls, making for an easier descent, although her heart hammered just as erratically.
