Page 25 of Beauty and the Baker
“I’ll start looking for somewhere to live so you can start preparing for the baby.”
Max laughed. “Well, the baby isn’t arriving anytime soon, so you have a bit of time.”
“Max was just telling me about the new order for costumes. Macbeth will be coming to town by the holidays. I promised Frances I’d take her to see another play.”
“Are you going to assist with the costumes, Charlie?” Max asked.
“Cassie mentioned it. I’m not sure how much help I’d be.”
“I’m sure any help would be fine.’
“Thanks,” Charlie said and went to fetch his box. He looked around the shop once more. “You have a really nice set up here, Max.”
Max nodded, and Charlie headed back into the street. He had a few hours until he was expected home for supper. So, he took a walk to the livery and spent a bit of time talking to the owner.
Charlie had never been around horses, so he was thrilled when the owner handed him a carrot and instructed him on how to feed it to the horse.
The horse’s lips were velvety soft as it picked the carrot off the palm of his hand. Once the treat was gone, Charlie stroked the horse’s head.
He thanked the livery owner and continued over to the dry goods store. He stood at the window and gazed on the bolts of fabric. It brought back too many memories of when he was running bolts just like that from one department to another in the factory.
He quickly pressed on, stopping in front of the mercantile. There was a barrel of penny apples on the porch, so Charlie grabbed four of them and headed inside.
The shop was filled with every type of item Charlie could imagine. He didn’t go to the stores in New York that often. They were often expensive. So, most of the shopping was done at the shop in the lowest level of the tenement.
Charlie stared at barrels of flour, sugar, beans and salt. There were hams hanging from the rafter behind the counter. Canned goods filled shelves as high as he could see.
He was just coming around a display of straw brooms when he bumped into someone heading towards the door. The sack dropped from her hands and broke on the floor, scattering the contents everywhere.
“Oh bother,” the woman said, leaning down to pick up the pieces of the paper sack. She stood up and Charles found himself staring into the golden eyes that haunted his dream the night before. “You!” she cried.
Chapter 7
Georgina couldn’t believe it. What were the chances that she run into the handsome man from the day before?
Stop it, Georgina, she thought to herself. She was soon to be a married woman. She couldn’t be having thoughts about another man. She just wished she knew what Lawrence looked like so she could think of him, instead of using the image before him as a substitute.
“You should have looked where you were going.” She looked down at her skirt. It was covered in flour. “Oh, bother,” she said. “I’ve done more laundry recently than I’ve ever done before.” She looked at the man. “That was a nickel’s worth of flour. I needed it to make a cake.”
“I really do apologize. I didn’t see you come around the corner.”
Georgina huffed by him and put the pieces of paper on the counter. “Maybe you should look where you are walking next time.”
“Maybe you should look as well.”
“I had already paid for my purchases. I was heading back to my house. You clearly weren’t looking.”
“If you weren’t in such a rush you wouldn’t have dropped the flour.”
“Well now I don’t have any flour. I might as well throw pennies on the floor.”
“I’ll replace the bag.”
“I need to get home immediately so I can make this cake.”
“Then let’s get you out of here.”
“Fine,” she said crossing her arms over her chest. She knew it was childish, but she had spent most of last night wondering about the strange man who invaded the garden. Now he was standing in front of her, all she could do was protect herself from any other feelings she may have. “Did your cat come back?”
