Page 82 of Tusks, Tails & Teacakes
“What would you say to another Night Faire?” Lira asked, looking from one brother to the other. “This Saturni.”
Pip clapped his hands together and a cloud of flour billowed over his head. “I think it’s a marvelous idea.”
Fenni worked the edge of his apron with his hands. “Do you think it can be planned so quickly?”
“Tin has already signed on,” Sass said with a swipe of her hand across her sticky mouth.
“Not to mention the tavern and Iris,” Lira added, hoping her smile was bright enough to mask her worry that they would say no.
“Count us in!” Pip thrust one arm into the air with his thumb up. “A Night Faire is just the thing Wayside needs.”
Fenni muttered some mild protests about the time he typically needed to arrange the perfect pairings but they were drowned out by his brother’s exuberance.
Pip was hurrying back and forth behind the counter waving his hands. “I must come up with something new and exclusive for the Night Faire.”
“New?” Sass had already started on her second sweet roll and almost choked at this proclamation. “No sweet rolls?”
Pip stopped and spun toward them, pointing a dough-stained finger at first one and then the other. His eyes were wide as he dropped his voice to a whisper. “Better than sweet rolls.”
When the women left the bakery, with Pip exclaiming about his Night Faire creation and Fenni muttering about his cheese and honey pairings, Lira opened the paper bag Pip had given her and inhaled deeply. Better then sweet rolls?
The Night Faire could not arrive soon enough.
Forty-Nine
Crumpet eyedthe mountain of apple peels Lira had created, plucking up one strip of red peel and nibbling on it cautiously.
“Be careful.” Lira grinned at his pinched face as she poured water and sugar into a saucepan. “They’re tart now, but just wait until they’re wrapped up in pastry dough and baked.”
The flutter-stoat discarded the apple peel and chittered at her.
“I told you, I’m making apple dumplings for the Night Faire.” She gestured to the rows of neatly peeled apples on the worktable. “The cider seller had a bunch he wanted to move, and I remembered that my gran would save aging apples by making them into appledumplings.”
Crumpet flew to the counter and sat on his hind legs with his tiny arms crossed.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Lira stirred the sugar slowly as the granules dissolved. “I’m making more than apple dumplings. I’ll have our usual scones and hand pies, too. The first batch of scones is already in the oven.”
Crumpet seemed slightly appeased by this, curling his fluffy white tail around himself and grooming it daintily.
Lira glanced at the oven and inhaled deeply. She’d learned to time the scones to the smell in the air, and if her calculations were right, they had a few more minutes to bake.
“You can’t blame me because you were gallivanting about.” Lira added a generous spoonful of cinnamon to the simmering sugar water. “I’ve been baking since the small hours of the morning. The Night Faire is tonight, after all.”
Crumpet emitted what she could have sworn was a huff and flounced his tail in her direction. Lira only laughed.
Despite the rush to pull together the Night Faire so quickly, they’d managed to build up quite a bit of excitement and get the entire village behind it. Well, the entire village aside from Silas, who’d remained content to prop up the far end of the bar and mutter to himself about the fuss.
Tin and Sass had nominated themselves for the joint task of coordinating the village decorations, which meant that Tin had created festive pennants from scrap cloth and they’d strung them crisscrossed between storefronts and from the top of the town monument down to the nearest buildings, making it look a bit like a Maypole.
The market was hung with lanterns, and Penny had provided luminaries that lined the main road that wound through Wayside. Even though it wasn’t yet dark, Lira’s heart had skipped when she’d seen how the village was decked out earlier.
On her morning walk to get the final few ingredients for her baking, she’d noticed that Pip’s door had been closed, but his windowsshone with light. She’d even seen his brother Fenni wearing a baker’s apron and piling fresh loaves into the baskets behind the counter.
The town was brimming in anticipation, and Lira couldn’t help sharing in the excitement. She had such fond memories of childhood Night Faires that she had to remind herself many times that this would be different. She couldn’t wander the stalls feasting on culinary delights or spend an inordinate amount of time decorating a paper lantern. The rest of the village could indulge themselves, but despite the happy thrum in her chest, she needed to focus on the reason they’d thrown together the event in the first place.
Iris had it all worked out. While the Night Faire was in full swing with musicians playing and people laughing and wandering from shop to shop and stall to stall through the village, she and Lira would slip away and sneak down to the cellar. They’d use the cover of the festivities to mask the sound of breaking through the stone wall.
If all went according to Sass’s plan, Penny would entertain Durn away from the tavern while Cali stood watch to ensure that no one approached The Tusk & Tail. Korl hadn’t been told about the plan because if he was told, Val would need to know, and Iris had argued that the more people who knew, the greater a chance of a slip-up. Plus, they were guardsmen and letting them know of a potential crime would put Korl and Val in a tenuous position. The last thing anyone wanted was to get the guards fired.
