Page 8 of The Tea Witch’s Secret

"Then I won't make it for you again," she said.

"All right. I would like to try it, thank you."

"Excellent." She wrote down a note in lettering I wasn't familiar with using. "So, what is your all-time favourite thing to eat?" she asked.

"Umm…" I hesitated, not quite sure how to answer that. "Steamed buns. I like steamed buns."

Pepper wrote it down next to my name. "Mmhmm, got it. Any other preferences that I should know about? For your cousins or for you?"

There was something intense about her direct eye contact so I averted my gaze to my notebook. "No, that's all. Thank you for listening."

"Thank you for sharing such detailed notes with me, that's going to make my life a lot easier."

"You don't need to lie, I know this only makes your life harder," I replied.

Pepper closed her book. "It doesn't. Everyone has preferences. Everyone. It's a challenge to cater to them, but one I welcome. That being said, my job definitely gets easier when I don't have to guess what those preferences are. So thank you. I mean it."

"Oh." Heat rushed up to my face. I wasn't good at reading people, but I could tell she was being genuine. "You're welcome then."

The way she held my gaze made me feel like she might be seeing beyond what everyone else did, but that was unlikely. To her, I was just a guest in her village and nothing more.

Chapter 6

Pepper

The stool wobbled slightly beneath me as I searched through the metal tins that were previously neatly lined up on the shelf. Once I'd found the cinnamon, I would need to rearrange everything so that it was properly positioned.

But that didn't answer the major question I had right now.

Where was the cinnamon?

I checked the metal containers all over again just in case I was missing something. But there was no cinnamon.

How frustrating.

I let out a sigh and pushed the tins back into the right spot. I'd sort them out properly later. A loud clatter sounded as something on the other end of the shelf fell onto the floor.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Today was not my day.

With a groan, I hopped off the stool and examined the boxes, bags, and pouches on the bottom row again. I found the pot that usually held my cinnamon sticks, but just as I had confirmed earlier, it was empty. Now did I really not have any cinnamon in the kitchen? Any at all? How had I not noticed that I'd gone through it all?

I was so certain I bought more from the trader last time he was here. Or was I getting confused, and did I purchase those from him two months ago? This was very unlike me. I always checked to make sure that I had the right amount of spices. It was my job to feed the guests who stayed at the Town Hall, and they were invariably going to be important people. I couldn't just go running out of spices, or I wasn't going to be any good at my job.

The only saving grace was that I didn't need it for the Ju Fengs. Cinnamon hadn't appeared anywhere on Lian's list of things that they liked.

A knock pulled me from my search, and I looked over at the door to find Lian standing there with a horrified expression on her face.

It took a moment for me to realise she was shocked at the state of the kitchen, which was probably fair, I doubted she'd ever seen it in this state before. The cupboards were all open, and every surface was covered with a pot, container, or tin. It looked like I was ransacking the kitchen. Which I supposed wasn't entirely inaccurate.

"I can come back," Lian said, a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

"Ummm. No." I wiped my hands on my apron, not sure exactly what I had touched that made them both sticky and dry. I had gotten a bit carried away on my search, clearly. "What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to see if you had anything I could take to Eva. She needs some emotional food."

"I can make something happen. What's emotional food?" I checked while I cleared the counter by shoving everything on it in the cupboards underneath. It was creating a huge mess but I was simply going to have to organise that later.

Lian's face pulled into somewhat of a pained grimace. "Food that's good for the mood and has no other health benefits."