LIGHT AND SHADOW

Part 3

Tea Time and Riding

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Turned out when she said “tea,” she really meant “food.”

Delicate, fancy, exotic little bites of food, but food nonetheless. Dean wondered how Miss Eugenia had found the time to whip up such prodigious quantities of fripperies without breaking the Sabbath or skipping church, but somehow she had. There were delicate little bite-sized sandwiches with cucumbers in ’em and hard-boiled eggs with the yolks whipped up into a creamy filling and stuffed back in. Some kind of salad made of couscous the size of salmon eggs with a light tasty herbal dressing. Fancy-shaped biscuits (she called ’em “scones”) served with strawberry jam and whipped cream. Cookies (funnily enough, those were the things she called “biscuits”) with white sugar frosting and preserved cherries, and cookies filled with pieces of stem ginger. Little bitty fruit tarts with fresh raspberries in ’em.

He managed to convey his marvel at all the fine delicacies without sounding like he was accusing her of breaking the Sabbath.

“Oh, I bake every Saturday, Mr Reynolds—Dean. I prepared most of this food yesterday, before I went to the fair. It wasn’t but five or ten minutes’ work to assemble it today, and I did that after church, while I was waiting for you to arrive.”

While she was waiting for him—that sounded nice.

“That way I can entertain visitors on Sunday, without feeling like I’m breaking the spirit of the Lord’s Day of Rest by spending the day cooking in the kitchen.”

“Oh,” he said, trying to sound as if he meant how clever she was to plan ahead like that. “So you entertain visitors every Sunday, then?” Dang it, it came out sounding jealous and accusatory anyway! As if he had any right to such feelings. He’d only just properly met her the day before.

“I do,” she answered, looking him in the eye. “I’m an outsider, but I’ve come to Shadow to live and work. I think it’s important to get to know the people in this community. So, each Sunday since my