Baker - G. BLYTHE

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-ˋˏ *.·:·. [TWO WEEKS LATER] .·:·.* ˎˊ-

MARY'S DEATH CAST A DARK CLOUD OVER EVERYONE WHO HAD EVER KNOWN HER. Bash suffered the worst of it, becoming so deep in grief that he hardly spoke and only woke in the morning for Delphine. Delphine had been his rock through all this and she was only a baby, Sebastian poured all that broken love into his daughter as it was the only thing he could do in that horrid situation. Charlotte made the effort to try and talk to Bash, to get him to talk about his feelings, to be there for him like Mary had asked her to be. But Bash never talked about his feelings to her, he never even cried. It wasn't for lack of heartbreak towards her death, no it was quite the opposite. Crying meant he would never be able to stop, sobs upon sobs upon sobs would wrack his body for days upon end until his body simply ran out of water. Sebastian didn't want to cry, the pain in his heart reminded him that it was real. That every emotion, every smile, every stolen glance, every memory and all the love he felt was completely real and reciprocated. 

Charlotte felt just as she had after her Father's death, completely broken inside and relying on baking to distract her mind from the mourning thoughts. The abundance of loaves, cakes, pastries and other delectable things piled up in the kitchen and most weren't sold. These were more often or not taken to either Gilberts or Green Gables. Marilla and Anne had been a huge help with Delphine, Marilla rarely had the time to even think about baking so Charlotte bought them baskets of food as thank yous and just to be a helping hand. The baskets were always very well received by both of the houses no matter what they contained. 

The weather certainly didn't reflect how Charlotte felt as she walked through the forest, basket in hand and headed for Gilberts. The sun beamed through the gaps in the trees, wildlife buzzed all around and the eerie silence of a winter's forest had disappeared completely. Charlotte walked through the door to their home to find the three inhabitants all sitting in the kitchen doing their own various things. Gilbert stood at the stove and Bash and Delphine sat at the table with overfilled bowls of soupy looking porridge. They all smiled as they noticed Charlotte closing the door, those smiles only grew once they saw the rather large basket resting on her arm. She placed the basket on the table and began to take things out of it, Delphine taking interest in a certain biscuit. 

"Bless you, Gilbert here can't cook to save himself," Bash half-smiled gratefully as he tore a piece from a buttery bread roll, still slightly warm from the oven. From the looks of it, he was far from joking, she visibly grimaced at the bowls containing food that were strewn about the table. Rían probably wouldn't have eaten it either and that man would eat anything if you told him it would taste good (something that Charlotte had tested over the years, including a delicacy known as manure on a biscuit that she had created.)

"Even after all the lessons I've given you over the years?" she asked in an almost offended tone,  she wasn't offended that Gilbert couldn't cook just that he had completely forgotten one of her more emphasized cooking instructions. Always follow the recipe, season everything and do everything in proportion. 

"It's fine!" Gilbert attempted to defend as he turned back to whatever he was mixing on the stove, hopefully not another serving of the grey watery group which currently occupied the bowls. Sebastian quickly contradicted this defence, he took his spoon from the rejected bowl and dropped some from a height. It created such a loud sound upon impact that it reminded her of bogs when you get a foot stuck in the mud, certainly not a very appealing sound to come from a food item. The 'food' had white lumps in some places and became a very thing greyish liquid in others, it moved like a liquid and a solid. 

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Charlotte grimaced as she looked into the pan on the stove, sure enough the same grey had been replicated in the pan. She quickly took to fix it, adding more oats and certain spices that would make it taste better. All the while teaching Gilbert the correct way to make something that tasted way better, even though his wasn't too far from perfect. She had to give him some credit, it was a pretty good attempt. The new breakfast went down very well and for once she saw a glimpse of how Sebastian used to be when he fed Delphine and started talking in that baby language that Gilbert so hated.