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But Tacey was too busy dealing with the delivery to have time for anyone or anything else.
Finally the right flour had arrived.
"Put one bag on the counter in the kitchen for tomorrow morning, and stack the rest in the store room," she directed.
It took him four trips, but by the time his truck pulled away from the kerb, Tacey was almost ready to sing. After months of supply shortages, things were looking up.
TWENTY-ONE
"But I don't like chocolate muffins! Brown ones are yucky!" Rory shouted.
Tacey rubbed her eyes. First Disney princesses, now chocolate? Sometimes she wondered if Rory was a girl at all. "But yesterday you ate two chocolate muffins, and you wouldn't eat anything else." Not even dinner, which had turned into a screaming match, with Rory doing most of the screaming. She was pretty sure Octavia had slipped her some food later, too, when they were watching TV.
"Mistress Tacey, I believe Miss Rory burned her mouth on one of the muffins yesterday. The chocolate inside was still liquid. Perhaps if you cut one in half so that it was definitely cool in the middle..." Wystan began.
Not only was he a better protector than Tacey was, he was already a better parent, too. Maybe Rory really would be better off with Matt. He might have better luck getting her to eat healthy food.
Tacey pulled out a different muffin. "This one's apple and cinnamon. It was one of the first batch I cooked, and it's definitely cool all the way through."
Rory perked up. 'Is it crunchy like an apple?"
Only because this one was slightly overdone. "It is on top," Tacey admitted.
"Yay!"
Tacey blew out a breath. Well, that was the breakfast battle won. She wasn't looking forward to the lunch one.
Downstairs, the bell chimed to indicate someone had entered the café.
"I'll be back later with lunch. You be good for Wystan, okay?" Tacey said, hurrying down the stairs.
The woman who approached the counter looked vaguely familiar. Not a regular, but...
"What can I get you?" Tacey asked.
The woman wrinkled her nose. "Oh, I'm not here to order anything. I'm here to investigate a complaint. I'm Rachael Smythe, one of the Environmental Health Officers from the City of Fremantle. We've had a number of complaints this week about a cockroach infestation here."
Tacey couldn't help it. She laughed. "Oh, no, that's not us. You're looking for the backpackers. They're the ones with roaches. We had a pest control inspection only yesterday, and he didn't find a single thing. Not a roach or a rat or even a redback spider." Maybe Callie's spell had actually worked. Seeing as the summoning spell in the cemetery had produced Wystan, it was possible that magic might exist after all. She couldn't wait to tell Callie, when she got home from that wedding.
The woman pulled a tablet out of her bag and began swiping at the screen. "This is the Shut Up Café, isn't it?"
"Yes..."
"All the complaints definitely state your café, not the backpackers. Oh, it looks like some of the complaints were filed by residents at the backpackers, but they said the bugs were here."
Tacey shook her head. "That's impossible. The pest control guy said there was nothing. It's all in the report."
"Show me, please."
Tacey led the way into the kitchen, where she'd left her laptop. "He said he was going to send it through..." But when she logged into her email account, there was nothing from the pest control company at all. "I'll have to call them and ask them to send it through again."
"You do that. In the meantime, can I take a look around?"
If she saw Wystan...but he'd hidden from the pest control guy yesterday, so he'd probably do the same today. Admittedly, she'd been able to warn him yesterday, while Rachael didn't look like she was going to give Tacey the chance to do that now. Tacey swallowed. Pissing off the health inspector never ended well, and she had no right to refuse. Unlike police officers, environmental health officers were allowed wherever they pleased, within their jurisdiction. "Sure," Tacey said, praying to any deity who was listening that Rachael would see the same as the guy yesterday. No pests, no gargoyles, and no problems.
The bell rang again, and Tacey was forced to go back to the counter to serve coffee to a stream of customers, so many that she almost forgot about the health inspector until Rachael cleared her throat.
Tacey handed over the last cappuccino and dusted her hands on her apron. "Yes?"
