Camelot

Chapter Three

"Enjoy your day! Take care!" Argenta politely told a customer who was leaving the bakery. It was almost noon, and the morning rush was over, but that meant Argenta was back to kneading dough and baking more pastries. She'd been up since dawn-as she'd done for years now-but today had her on her last legs. Several extensive orders had been fulfilled this morning and several more were expected to be done by tonight. Her father told her he'd help, but he'd been absent most of the morning "picking up ingredients." It does not take that long to grab a sack of flour and sugar, Argenta thought angrily as she rolled and cut out dough for tarts. Her mother wouldn't be any help either; she was upstairs sick with a cold. Amila had offered to assist Argenta earlier, but Argenta knew the sickness would worsen if her mother stressed herself. For now, she was on her own. "It'll be alright mama, I can handle it," Argenta had assured her. Right now, she wasn't so sure anymore.

Guinevere was strolling through the streets as she often did. Since her family was so big, her parents had plenty of volunteers to help around the shop so Guinevere could choose to hit the marketplace as often as she wanted. And to her that usually meant hitting her best friend's bakery. Sometimes she would walk with her eyes closed until she picked up the scent of those wonderful fruit tarts. When she entered the shop she found Argenta by herself. It was not an unusual sight, her father often left on runs into the market, but it always annoyed Guinevere that Argenta was expected to run the place by herself, especially right now when her mother was sick. "Hey! Where's your pops run off to?"

Argenta sighed, "Running errands, I suppose. He was supposed to be back several hours ago." She wiped off her hands with a towel and then went to the oven to pull out another set of crusts. She set them all down on the table to cool. "I've gotten a good bit done without him though, so it's alright." She spun back around and faced Guinevere. "Oh, could you do me a quick favor and cut up those strawberries? I'd really appreciate it." She nodded to the counter opposite the pastries. "We've got an order for strawberry tarts, and I haven't gotten a chance to cut them up yet," Argenta added, back to rolling out dough. "How's your morning been? Family doing okay?"

Guinevere had no problem cutting strawberries. She often helped picked fruit from her family's garden to sell in their shop and sneaking a couple strawberries for herself was always fun. "Only if I can eat a few." The two girls laughed lightly but were now both busy with their tasks. Guinevere did not even acknowledge Argenta's question right away. "Oh they're good. It's hard to keep track of everyone in such a big family but no one is sick, that I would hear about. Speaking of, how's your mother doing?"

"She's doing better, she still has a nasty cough, but it should be gone in a day or two," Argenta responded. "I'll be happy to have her back; I can actually have a break in the day-" Out of nowhere, the back door slammed open, scaring the girls. Her father, Rowan, came in carrying several sacks of flour, grunting as he threw them on the floor. He took no notice of Argenta or Guinevere and left back out the door. Argenta sighed, "It's going to be a long day." She grabbed a bowl and put a few cut strawberries in it, setting up the filling of the strawberry tarts. "I wouldn't judge you if you wanted to go. I wouldn't want to deal with my papa either," she huffed. "He's probably going to start yelling about how crazy the market was and how stupid the merchants are. It'll take him a while to settle down."

"Oh I really don't mind. I don't want to leave you alone with him. Besides, I've got a safe guard; he can't touch the daughter of the best blacksmith in Camelot. I know how to use hundreds of deadly weapons." Guinevere tried to hold a smug smile but ended up in a laughing fit.

Argenta joined in, laughing so hard she bumped a crust onto the floor. At that moment, Rowan slammed open the back door and stalked in. The girls got quiet and watched him warily. He stood for a second and examined the room, narrowing his eyes as he saw the pan on the floor.