Read Trifling Favors (Redcakes Book 7) for Free Online Page B

one day when she’d brought her father his lunch. But the first kiss from someone she loved, that she remembered achingly well. Ewan . His warm lips and cool hands. That hair that fell into curls any girl would be proud of. He had asked her to take a walk with him on a Sunday. She’d slipped out of the house without telling her father where she was going, or with whom, and they’d walked the footpath on the Serpentine’s bank. What a perfect day that had been.
    “I can see you’re remembering someone special, too,” Grace said.
    Betsy forced a smile. “Our lost loves. Thank you for cleaning up the mess. I’ll be sending a memorandum around, but please be aware that Miss Eugenia Brown is no longer employed here.”
    “I’ll tell the other girls.” Grace nodded, then strode away.
    Betsy squared her shoulders and followed Grace. She needed to notify Winnie Baxter that Miss Brown had been terminated.
     
    Half an hour later, she considered telling Mr. Redcake that he must hire a proper bakery manager instead of simply having a lead salesgirl. She’d felt more like she was having a gossipy coze with Winnie rather than a professional meeting. Anyone who’d been hired directly into the Kensington location had not been treated to the superior environment created by Lord Judah Shield at the flagship emporium. Breeding will out, and Lord Judah was a proper aristocrat, not a mere wealthy mister like Greggory Redcake.
    With that thought, she held her head high as she went into his suite of rooms and asked Mr. Redcake’s secretary to inquire whether he had time to speak to her. The young man nodded and rapped on their manager’s inner chamber, then poked his head inside the door. After a moment, he gestured to Betsy and she went in.
    Greggory stayed at the window, in a pose he’d adopted since the death of his wife. She could remember when he was always seated at his desk behind a mound of papers, back in the early days. Now he seemed to spend much of his time deep in thought, the habitual slightly purple circles under his eyes giving him a haunted, aesthetic appeal. He looked as if he was a man with a slightly bruised soul. Appealing but out of reach.
    He turned to her. “I understand Simon Hellman was in. Any chance we can poach the flagship delivery manager for our location?”
    Betsy shivered. “I should think not, sir. Our man is fine.”
    Greggory frowned. “Do you have a chill? Should I have a fire lit?”
    “No, no. A goose walked over my grave,” she said. “No, I think Mr. Hellman is dedicated to his current position. And he lives south of the river.”
    “Of course,” Greggory murmured. “You do have such a memory. I believe your brain is a veritable filing cabinet of employee facts.”
    Pleased, Betsy said, “I’ve been with Redcake’s since the beginning, sir. There are not so many who can say that.”
    “Simon Hellman is one of those,” Greggory said.
    “Yes, of course.” She wished he would drop the subject of that odious man and resolved to move the conversation along. “I had to let Miss Brown go today.”
    “Still too slow?”
    “For stealing, I’m afraid.”
    “Oh. Good riddance, then.”
    “Yes, but I must tell you she made threats. Nothing serious, I think, but I wanted to make you aware.”
    “Thank you, Miss Popham.” Mr. Redcake set his hands behind his back and paced the short walk between one wall and the other.
    “I thought we might send Grace Fair over to the shop side. She has a good head for figures.”
    “Which leaves us a position open in the tearoom?”
    “Exactly. That girl you saw me comforting? Violet Carter?”
    “The one with the dead mother.”
    “Yes.” Betsy sighed. “I’m sure we have other candidates, but we’re so busy, it would be nice to take on someone I know is available immediately. I can make it clear she’s here on a trial basis, and that we can terminate her at any time if she doesn’t pick up the work quickly.”
    Mr. Redcake nodded.