Paint Me Anew (Fleckney Fields Series, Book 2)

Thank You

Are you ready, my darlings?

(I considered splitting this update into two chapters, to let you 'enjoy' one of my infamous cliffhangers... but then I thought that we all have enough stress in our lives as it is. Plus, I can't bring myself to torture Anya any more than I have to.)

***

"I'm sorry, I've got to go," Anya muttered, putting her phone back in her handbag.

"You can't," Eddie said. "They're closing the roads. It's not safe. Your daughter is at the farm with the Fergusons. She'll be alright."

"They've got a new generator, too," Stephen added in a comforting tone. "If anything, you're in much more trouble than she is," he chuckled.

"Eddie, I'll close the kitchen," the other baker said, "but what do you want to do with the fridges and freezers?"

"It'll be alright. The back-up generator will kick in in a jiffy," Eddie dismissed. "It's the farms and Fleckney Bottom that might be cut off. Not the Ferguson farm," she said to Anya. "They're connected to the Hall. There shouldn't be any aggro there."

As she talked, the light switched on again, and they heard a series of loud beeps from the kitchen.

"Oh the ovens!" the other baker gasped and rushed to the door behind the counter.

Three more people showed up from the back, pulling on their jackets. Eddie introduced them to Anya, but the latter was hardly listening. Two of them lived in town, apparently, and were in a hurry to walk home. The third baker was planning to drive to Lower Woulds, in the opposite direction from the Nidhogg Hall.

Anya once again checked her mobile. The network wasn't back on. Suddenly she wasn't sure what to do.

"Can I help you with something in the kitchen?" she asked.

"Bless." Eddie grinned. "I never say 'no' to unpaid labour."

They'd only just started putting away the unbaked loafs that could wait till later when a bell above the entrance door jingled. Stephen went to the front; but before he made his way there, Jame Whitlaw marched in.

"Hiya." The lack of his usual sunny smile was jarring. "Hiya, Anya." He waved a walkie-talkie in the air. "We've got a few two-way radios around, mostly the construction crews. Rhys and his lads are covering Lower Woulds and the farms. I'm on my way to Bottom and Field. Miss Rosa sent me to tell you that they're opening a mobile kitchen in her rooms. Ethan will be taking food to the Coles in two hours. Do you have anything for them?"

Eddie glanced behind her shoulder.

"We'll have two dozen loaves in forty minutes. We'll get them to Miss Rosa," she said firmly. "Nimrat and I will manage. Stephen, you can go. They might need your van."

"A van won't pass through the snow." Whitlaw shook his head. "But we could use an extra pair of hands. More like an extra snow shovel, really."

"I'll get dressed." Stephen leaned in, kissed his partner's cheek, and went to the back of the kitchen, probably to a staircase leading to the first floor.

"Nimrat, I spoke to Amelia and the Headmistress twenty minutes ago," Whitlaw addressed the second baker. "All the little'uns who didn't make it home are on their way to the Coles. You can catch a ride there with Ethan, if Eddie can spare you."

Both the man and Nimrat looked at the owner, and she nodded.

"Everything will be ready in two hours," she said. "Have your brother stop by here, we'll prepare the trays. And then I'll go to Miss Rosa to help out too."