Wedding Matilda (Redcakes Book 6) Read Online Free

it lit.”
    “No.” He’d warmed her quite enough.
    He gestured with his stained hand. “That ledger there, on the top of my desk? You can look at the reports.”
    “Very well.” She forced a smile as she took the ledger and tucked it against her chest.
    If he noticed her self-protective gesture, he was too polite to say anything, but she wondered why she felt a sudden need for armor against him. Ewan Hales would never make an inappropriate gesture toward a Redcake.
    “Ewan!” A dark-haired Pocket Venus appeared in the doorway, holding an exquisitely decorated miniature wedding cake. “I wanted your opinion on this design for Lord Murchie.”
    “Ask Mrs. Short. She knows what our most discerning customers like.” The side of his mouth tilted up as he turned to Matilda. “Mrs. Short is the tearoom manager.”
    “Haven’t you developed your own eye? If you are going to manage the new operation . . . ?” Matilda let her question die off as something hot and hungry lit in the Venus’s eye.
    “Is it really going to happen?” the young woman demanded. “Oh, I must write Alys.” She thrust the cake at Ewan and trotted off.
    Matilda stared at her, bemused. “Good heavens, was that Betsy Popham?”
    “Yes, the Fancy manager. Her father manages the bakery.”
    “I met Ralph Popham once.” Right around the time she’d met Theodore Bliven, in fact. Both of them had been suitors for her sister Alys, who was five years older than Matilda. Now she was Marchioness of Hatbrook and Matilda was the spinster. How she would have laughed four years ago if someone had told her how it would all turn out.
    “Yes, he and your father are rather close, I believe.” He glanced down. “I should wash.”
    “Shall I take the cake to Mrs. Short?”
    “Ah, I suppose so, if you like.”
    She smiled. “It will give me a chance to select my lunch.”
    “Very well, then. I will meet you here in twenty minutes.” He waved his arm toward the door, indicating she could pass out first.
    She did so and walked downstairs. No wonder Alys had been so drawn to working here, despite their father’s displeasure. Never a dull moment. She’d never realized how bored she had been until she started training with her father after Gawain abdicated his role as the chief heir to Redcake’s, which left only her. Rose had been confined to home in Sussex due to her severe asthma. Now, the silly girl was marrying a Liverpool dye manufacturer, which would probably kill her off within a year. Rose was so desperate for a home of her own. Tragic, really. Matilda had a difficult time faking gaiety any time the upcoming nuptials were mentioned.
    She found the bakery service area and Mrs. Short, a rotund, sharp-faced woman who was as obsequious to her as Ewan Hales had been in the past. She clucked over the wedding cake sample and declared that Betsy should stick to managing and let Irene do the decorating, then bustled off with the plate outstretched before her like it was some kind of cake-shaped abomination.
    Another cakie helped Matilda with a selection of treats to take upstairs with her.
    “No cake selections?”
    “We are already out of cake because the factory cakes are unsuitable and the downstairs bakery did not make enough today.”
    That explained the air of delirium Matilda had sensed. They were disappointing customers, a rare and upsetting occurrence. “What is wrong with the factory cakes?”
    “They taste powdery,” the cakie said. “Not up to our usual standards. It’s one thing to sell a shilling cake of that quality, but our tearoom customers expect absolute purity in our ingredients.”
    “You mean we’re selling off-quality cakes in the bakery?”
    She pursed her lips. “I have no idea, Miss Redcake. I only know about the tearoom.”
    Matilda wished Lord Judah hadn’t needed to go to Edinburgh. She supposed Mr. Hales didn’t have the authority to keep the operation in check. She wondered if she did as she chose a bannock, a