Much Ado About Cake

Suspect: Bess Duckworth, Cook.

Age: Admits to fifty. Fifty five when pushed.

            The Welford Hall cook has not had a good day. For one thing the weather has been unseasonably hot, the air thick and stifling, or "mafting" as the locals call it. She's very worried about keeping her sandwiches cold, fresh and appetizing for Lady Isolda's garden party, and with an understaffed household— not to mention an ongoing feud with the butler to complicate matters— Bess is ready to tear her hair out.

            But the final straw that breaks the camel's proverbial hump? A stranger bearing the three tiers of a chocolate-coated cake has arrived at the house, claiming it was ordered by Lady Isolda as the grand centerpiece for her party.

            Bess is outraged. For a great many years she has baked the cake for her ladyship's annual soiree and never heard any complaints. This year she has done the same, completely unaware of Lady Isolda's plan to bring in another cake -- this one from the "outside". She cannot understand it. Why would her mistress go elsewhere for a cake and not even mention it to her faithful, long-serving cook?

            Usually the two women discuss menus for every meal served in that house, whether there are to be guests present or not. Bess, as the head of a process that puts good food on their table, has always been treated with respect.

            Until now.

            Humiliated, her pride wounded, she festers over this "slight" for quite some time that afternoon, until she reaches boiling point. Deciding it's time to speak up and complain to her ladyship, she sets off to find her.

            On that sweltering hot day, it's all about to bubble over.

 * * * *

Find out who cooked Lady Isolda's goose in "BESPOKE" -- Coming February 20th, 2019.

 

(Image here: Cook with Red Apron by Leon Bonvin 1862)