Apple-achian Treasure (Auntie Clem's Bakery Book 8)

by P. D. Workman

  Chapter Five

  R

  elaxing after a long day of work at the bakery and butting heads with Charley, Erin decided to let the animals out for a frolic in the back yard. They were pretty good about staying in the yard. Marshmallow sometimes attempted to burrow out under the fence and Orange Blossom sometimes jumped up on top of it, but when Erin told him to cut it out or she wouldn’t let him out in the yard again, he would jump down, glaring at her, and go eat the longer grass at the back fence, which he would then throw up in the house. Marshmallow didn’t pay any attention to her one way or the other, and it was just a matter of making sure any previous attempts to burrow were filled in and shooing him out whenever he tried to dig his way out again.

  They were both happy exploring the smells of the large back yard and pretending they were out in the wild. Erin watched Orange Blossom stalking butterflies and grasshoppers, pretending he was a mighty hunter like his progenitors.

  “Just don’t bring me anything dead,” she warned him, not wanting to be faced with any surprises if he happened to catch a mouse or vole.

  His ear twitched at her words but, other than that, he ignored her and continued his hunt. Marshmallow had disappeared around the corner of the garage, so Erin got up to find him and shoo him back into the main part of the back yard where she could watch him.

  As she approached the rabbit, she saw Adele coming down the worn path from the woods. Adele waited to make sure that Marshmallow wasn’t going to make a break for it before she opened the gate to let herself in. But the rabbit seemed to be enthralled with whatever it was he had found growing beside the garage. Erin remembered that was just about where she had found him the first time, a young rabbit, injured by one of the pieces of equipment that had been clearing away the rubble of the old garage.

  Erin waited until Adele was through the gate and had closed it again before giving Marshmallow another nudge.

  “Come on, you. Come back to the yard where I can see you.”

  Marshmallow chewed on a plant, resisting her foot.

  “Marshmallow. Come on, bunny. I don’t know what you’re eating, but it’s probably not good for you. Come to the house and I’ll give you a nice piece of apple.”

  He didn’t move. Erin bent down and picked him up, wrapping her hands around his soft belly and picking him up to move him a few feet away. Marshmallow hopped back toward the house, acting as if he didn’t care. Erin looked down at the plant he’d been grazing on. Yellow leaves and bright red berries.

  “Do you know what this is?” she asked Adele. It wasn’t one of the plants she recognized by sight. Granted, she only had a limited knowledge, but she knew most of the plants that grew around the house so that she could be sure the boys weren’t poisoning themselves on whatever they were eating.

  Adele took a few steps closer and crouched down. She didn’t give any immediate sign of recognizing it.

  “Maybe I should take a picture and look it up,” Erin suggested.

  Adele took another minute, then looked up. “You don’t need to. It’s wild ginseng.”

  “Ginseng?” Erin raised her brows and looked at it. She knew a little bit about ginseng from Clementine’s stores of teas that Erin still served at the ladies’ tea every Sunday. It was supposed to give energy and alertness, to help boost the immune system, and a whole host of other uses. Like some other herbs, the list of what ginseng might do was probably longer than the list of what it couldn’t do.

  Adele nodded. “You’re very fortunate. Wild ginseng is a rare find these days. It used to be more plentiful, but it was over-harvested for the Asian market and just about disappeared from these mountains. The Chinese call it ‘manroot’ because of the shape of the roots. In these parts, they called it ‘sang’ and the people who made a living searching for it were called ‘sangers.’”

  “So, I shouldn’t pull it,” Erin suggested.

  “Oh, no. I wouldn’t do that. In fact, I’d suggest that you take these berries,” Adele indicated the red, wrinkled berries, “and plant them in similar spots around the yard, then make sure the rabbit doesn’t eat them when they come up.”

  “Can I use it? Like ginseng you would buy at the store? It’s not toxic or anything?”

  “No, it has many beneficial properties. If you’re going to use it, may I make a suggestion…?”

  “Sure, of course.”

  “A plant like this takes five to ten years to grow. It’s just coming into maturity and the age that it can be legally harvested. Since it’s in your own yard and you’re using it for your own purposes, you don’t need a license and you don’t have to wait until it’s ten years old, but if you were harvesting it for commercial purposes, there is a long list of regulations to adhere to. The part that you want to use is the root…” Adele pushed her finger down into the ground and followed the stem down underground and cleared soil away from the top part of the large, parsnip-like root. “This rhizome. If you were harvesting it commercially, you would dig up the whole thing, because the Asian market only wants intact roots, especially if it’s the classic man shape. But if you’re just using it for yourself, you don’t need to sacrifice the whole plant. Just cut off an inch or two of the root, dry it, and use it as you wish. Leave the rest of it growing, plant all of the seeds it produces and, in a few years, you’ll have a good crop of ginseng available.”

  Erin nodded. “Okay. I don’t need to do anything special to treat the roots? Just dry them?”

  “You can use fresh roots as well, especially for tea, but it is usually preserved by drying. Just wash and lay out in the sun, make sure it doesn’t get moldy.”

  “And it’s not going to hurt Marshmallow? Eating the leaves?”

  “The leaves aren’t normally used. Deer and rabbits eat them in the wild. It might make him a bit more frisky, but it won’t hurt him.”

  Chapter Six

  W

  ith the animals back where she could see both of them once more, Erin sat down in one of the outdoor chairs with Adele, and they watched the pets while relaxing in the fresh air.

  “So… how is everything going?” Erin asked. “Is everything back to normal?”

  Adele didn’t answer for a while. She watched the animals, considering, and Erin wasn’t sure whether she was going to attempt an answer. Adele looked up at the sky. Erin took a quick glance up to see if she could see Adele’s pet crow, but she couldn’t pick a black speck out in the blue sky and fluffy white clouds.

  “I guess I’m waiting to see if everything goes back to normal,” Adele said slowly. “In the past… things haven’t turned out well when Rudolph has shown up. He has a way of attracting people’s attention and making them uncomfortable.”

  He had done more than make people uncomfortable in the short time he had been in Bald Eagle Falls. But Erin kept that comment to herself. Adele knew as well as anyone what had happened. She didn’t need to be reminded.

  “He’s a handsome guy,” she commented. “I would imagine people notice him.”

  “If he was just handsome, that would be one thing,” Adele said, nodding. “People might notice a good-looking guy, but then forget about him ten minutes later. But with his personality, his need to be the center of attention and to make sure everyone sees him and takes notice…”

  Erin nodded. She had not been particularly comfortable around Rudolph. He had definitely come across as someone who was self-important, who expected people to do what he said because he was rich or had influence.

  “Yeah. He does kind of come across that way.”

  “He has a lot of flaws. I never found much reason to stay with him… I was attracted to him, and things would go well for a while… but before long, he was looking at other women, hardly taking any notice of me at all, chasing these big deals or unsavory deals… and I would just get so fed up with him and cut him off.”

  “And then he’d come after you and you’d fall for him all over again?”

  Adele made a face. “It makes me sound s
hallow. I knew we weren’t good for each other, but when he would come after me…”

  “I don’t think it makes you shallow if you loved him. You can’t just turn that off because you want to.”

  “There has to be more to a relationship than attraction. Falling in love is no excuse for staying with someone who is ultimately going to be bad for you. The whole idea of falling in love…”

  Erin waited. Adele shook her head and puffed out her breath. “I don’t know how to put it. Attraction isn’t love, and the whole idea of falling in love just because you’re physically attracted to someone… I guess I thought I was above that. I was better than that.”

  “We can’t help how we feel.”

  “We can help how we act. It isn’t enough to be physically attracted. There are people all over the world who don’t act just because they are attracted to someone they see. If they’re already married, or not social equals in their society, or there are other reasons that the relationship is a bad idea, people choose not to act on mere attraction. And it sounds simple. It sounds easy.”

  Erin watched Orange Blossom stalk a butterfly. “It sounds easy,” she admitted. “It sounds like you should just be able to turn it off and make a better choice. But people all over the world make the wrong choice, too. It isn’t that easy.”

  “No,” Adele agreed with a sigh. “It isn’t.”

  They were silent for a while. The breeze blew Clementine’s wind chimes, and Erin listened to the soft musical background it produced.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” Erin told Adele. “I know this couldn’t have been easy for you. You didn’t ask him to show up and… do the stuff he did. And now people are acting like you were involved. When it didn’t have anything to do with you.”

  “It doesn’t matter where I went… sooner or later, he would get bored with his life or the affair or the sure thing that never panned out, and he would look for me again. I’d end up falling for him again, acting like a silly schoolgirl instead of like a grown woman with a mind of her own, letting him back into my life again, somehow thinking that things would be different this time. This time he would really mean it and he would stay, and things would work out between us. But that’s not the way it worked. People don’t change.” She gave her head a bitter shake. “People never change.”

  Erin turned her head to look at Adele.

  “Sometimes they do. If they really want to.”

  “The trouble with Rudolph is, whether that is true or not, is that he never wanted to. He never saw any reason to change.”

  Erin decided to give Charley a shot behind the counter for the ladies’ tea on Sunday. Charley had made it to a few of the teas as a customer, so she knew what went on and was usually able to get herself out of bed and to get there in time. That would give both Vic and Bella the day off so they wouldn’t have to pay for employee time. Charley wouldn’t have to be there early for baking, as they generally prepared an assortment of cookies and treats ahead of time rather than baking on Sunday.

  Charley arrived before church services let out to help Erin to arrange the trays and get everything prepared.

  “Thanks for doing this today,” Erin said, not sure how to say ‘thanks for waking up on time’ in a diplomatic way. “It’s a nice break for Vic and Bella.”

  Charley nodded. “Sure, of course.” She was a little flushed, and looked around as if she were sure she had forgotten something. Erin had been doing the ladies’ teas enough times that they were now routine, but she recognized Charley’s anxiety over getting everything set up right and presenting herself as a professional. “It’s my place too, so I should be the public face at least part of the time.”

  “Don’t worry, everything is fine,” Erin assured her. “There isn’t a lot to do for the tea. I do one big urn of black tea and make sure there’s lots of hot water for anyone who wants a different blend or herbal tea. Everything else is prepared. The ladies just like to come and visit.”

  “It didn’t seem like anything when you were doing it. But now that I’m partially responsible for seeing that everything runs smoothly…”

  Erin nodded, chuckling. “Then it’s a little bit different, isn’t it? It will be just fine. If anybody needs anything, they’ll ask.”

  Charley gulped. “Right. It will be just fine.”

  They worked on setting the treats out on trays. “I was wondering,” Erin said, “what your family was like. Your adoptive family, I mean. You were with them right from the time you were a baby, right?”

  It seemed strange to Erin that Charley had ended up being so rebellious when she’d been raised in a normal two-parent home her whole life. Erin understood kids like Reg ending up on the wrong side of the law. Multiple traumas, inconsistent parenting, no support system once they aged out of care; it was only natural for them to fall into street life, to be distrustful of anyone who tried to tell them what to do, and to scrape up what living they could by whatever means they could find. But Charley…

  Charley looked at Erin for a moment, then went back to arranging sweets.

  “Yeah, I’ve been with them for as long as I can remember,” she agreed. “They picked me up at the hospital when I was just a few days old.”

  “And what are they like? What do your parents do?”

  “They’re good people… just your normal, everyday Joes. My dad does bodywork and my mom is a schoolteacher. Elementary school. Good, stable upbringing. Someone to help me if I ever ran into problems with my schoolwork. Good, loving influence.” Charley flashed her a look. “So where did they go wrong, huh? Or is it just in the blood?”

  “I didn’t mean that. I just wondered… I don’t know much about where you came from. I’d like to. You know about me.”

  Charley laughed and shook her head. “I know about you? Not much, Erin. Grew up in foster care. Inherited a bakery from your aunt. Started playing detective. It’s not like you’ve divulged much to me about your life either.”

  Erin frowned. She checked on the tea, even though she knew it was just fine and didn’t need any fiddling. “I’ve told you more than that.”

  “Really? Hmm… let’s see. You have a foster sister named Reg. I know that because I met her. You had one named Caroline who died because she was celiac and wouldn’t follow a gluten-free diet. And…? Have I missed something?”

  “I was through a bunch of different homes,” Erin said. “There isn’t really one home that I consider my family or the one main influence on me. It was all pretty chaotic.”

  “How old were you when you went into care?”

  “Eight.” Erin was happy to have one question that was easy to answer. She hadn’t expected the conversation to backfire on her. “Or, right before I turned eight. I was in foster care for my eighth birthday.”

  “So, you must remember something about your parents. About my birthmother.”

  “A little. It’s not really clear. But some.”

  “So, what was she like? Did you bake with her? Is that where you got your love for cooking?”

  “No… not that I remember. I don’t think… I don’t think baking was something she was ever interested in. I liked playing at the tea shop with Clementine. Maybe we baked cookies once or twice there. I don’t remember much about my mother. Just… being around her. In the car. At home. Maybe… watching TV or cleaning…” Erin shook her head. “It’s pretty fuzzy. I remember going for walks with my dad. He’d take me out, and we’d skip rocks… collect pinecones…”

  “You don’t remember doing anything with your mom?”

  “Maybe playing with dolls once… She probably worked. I was probably at daycare or school during the day and only saw her for a couple of hours during the day.”

  Charley raised her eyebrows. “I can remember doing things with my mom at that age, and she was a schoolteacher, so she worked all day and then marked papers or prepared lessons in the evening after I went to bed. But I still remember playing with her and cooking supper together.”
/>   “There’s a lot of stuff from around that time that I don’t remember. With the car accident and losing both of my parents, it was a traumatic time.” Erin knew she shouldn’t have to feel defensive about not remembering much about her mother or their spending time together, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to be able to remember more about her parents. She had tried. “I just wondered what yours were like,” Erin said, trying to bring the conversation back to Charley. “What it was like growing up around here. I mostly grew up in the north, you know.”

  Charley paused in her cookie-arranging. “I think it was a good place to grow up. I loved my mom and dad. We had a nice family. I always wanted brothers and sisters, but I understood they couldn’t have them naturally and that it’s just not that easy to adopt. They didn’t have any involvement with any of the clans, it was just a normal upbringing.”

  “So…” Erin trailed off, not sure how to ask the question in her mind.

  Charley held her gaze, not looking back down at her tray. “So, what happened to me?” she asked. “Why did I turn out like I did?”

  Erin shrugged. “I guess. I just wondered…”

  “Plenty of kids raised in good homes end up in trouble,” Charley said with a shrug. “It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with their parents or with the way they were raised. It just means they… went off the rails. It can happen to anyone. I didn’t really like being the good girl. I didn’t enjoy all of those things that I was supposed to… going to school, getting good marks, finding a good job and growing up to be a conservative, responsible person. I wanted something more interesting. Something more exciting. I’m sorry, but being good isn’t always a whole lot of fun.”

  Erin gave a little laugh of disbelief and shook her head. “That just sounds so…”