Covet - Miles Bridgerton's story

Chapter 2 - Homebound (Part 2)

[...] So, you see, Eddie is not at all some self-absorbed idiot, as you apparently think. He helped his friend to buy the mill and he will also be a great viscount in the future (even if you – and I – might have had our doubts about the matter earlier, at least before Amelia).

Hope to hear from you soon!

Your loving sister,

Charlotte

Miles smirked to himself as he put the letter back in its envelope, since he already knew how this would end. In the next letter Charlotte would tell him about how she – after trying painting, music and writing – decided to get involved with the family's horse business again, but that had only made her get lost in the woods during one of her rides. She had ended up on some field at the furthest away border of the Bridgerton lands, where she had ran into none other than Mr Jack Davies and some other villagers who were mowing hay over there. Finally, Charlotte had admitted that she was lost and let Jack take her back to the house.

She had jumped down from her horse and walked along with him, after a brief heavy silence slowly ending up in a deep conversation, during which she had for the first time admitted to anyone other than Miles how empty she was feeling on the inside. Jack had then a bit warily suggested that if she wanted to try something new, she could help his mother out at the bakery while he had to make a trip to London. Charlotte had been much more familiar with eating pastries than making them, but once Jack promised to teach her the basics, she had agreed upon at least trying it out.

***

"Charlotte, darling, could you pass me the sugar?" Mrs Davies hooted from the other side of the kitchen and soon Charlotte scurried over with the large glass jar of sugar.

"Here you go." She smiled happily. "When you are done with the dough, could you come and see what I made?" Charlotte wondered, feeling like a little girl who wanted to proudly present some ugly drawing to her mother, who nevertheless had to act very impressed.

"Of course, sweetheart!" Mrs Davies replied while stirring the cake batter. She was a sturdy woman at the same age as Charlotte's own parents, but somehow she seemed a lot older. She had been working hard all her life and nowadays she also had a bad hip that made her move around quite arduously, which probably was the reason why Jack had wanted someone to help her when he was away. Jack's oldest brother had joined the military and his sister was running her own jewel business together with the village blacksmith, who was her partner in life as well as work. Both of them were women, which had made Charlotte positively surprised that there were such brave individuals living in their village.

"I will just put this in the oven... So, let's see what you made this time, dear girl." Mrs Davies smirked and wiped away some sweat from her forehead. Her hair that was tied up in a loose bun was the exact same colour as Jack's, but streaked with quite a lot of grey too.

"It is not a marzipan figure this time!" Charlotte grinned. The first couple of days had been an utter disaster. She had somehow managed to either burn everything or mix up the ingredients, added salt instead of sugar and vice versa, but luckily Mrs Davies seemed to be endlessly patient with her. Charlotte had been put on marzipan duty instead, which she had immediately loved. She had made countless little pink pigs, red roses and chocolate-coloured dogs for the children of the village to admire in the display window.

"Oh, it's a pastry...!" Mrs Davies exhaled and nibbled at it a bit suspiciously, probably thinking that the poor girl had made it salty instead of sweet again. "Blimey! This is really, really good, Charlotte!" She exclaimed surprisedly after a second bite.