she chuckled, gesturing to the jars of brightly coloured sweets that were lined up along the cupboards. ‘I’ll just put this pan in water to arrest the cooking then we can get to know each other.’ There was a hiss and spitting before she turned back to Colenso. ‘Sit yerself down and tell me how yer got caught up with my brother.’
‘Thank you,’ Colenso said, perching on a seat beside the huge, scrubbed table. ‘I work on the Panam, selling sweets with him.’
‘Oh, yer not walking out, then?’ she asked candidly.
‘No,’ Colenso spluttered, the very idea amusing her.
‘Thought it was too good to be true. Mother said he wasn’t normal, like. Does he pay yer?’ Dark eyes surveyed her curiously. Colenso shook her head.
‘He keeps promising but …’ she shrugged.
‘Same here,’ Karla told her. ‘’Tis time we taught that brother of mine a lesson. I’ll think on it while I’m finishing these,’ she added, carefully adding drops from a little brown bottle to the mixture and stirring. A pungent aroma filled the air as she lifted the pan and set it down on the scrubbed table. Snatching up a spoon, she began dribbling the orangecoloured syrup over the tips of sticks that were laid out on large trays.
‘Lollipops?’ Colenso asked, staring in fascination as the liquid pooled into perfect circles.
‘Yes, Jago says you can’t have a Panam without lollipops. Course, they takes longer to make and I have the devil’s own job getting him to pay me for my time, but yer not interested in that.’
‘Actually, I might well be,’ Colenso replied. ‘And I’d like to hear more about your brother, for I really don’t know him that well.’ She smiled at the woman, thinking she might have found an ally.
‘Perhaps you could start crushing that while we talk,’ the woman said, pointing to an enormous cone of sugar. ‘I’ve finished everything apart from the rock canes,’ she said.
‘I’d love to see how you make those,’ Colenso told her as she set about her task.
‘Yer can helps me shape them later, if yer like. But first, I needs to grease this then get on with my mixing. Timing’s everything when yer making confections. That and temperature,’ she said, setting down a huge tray that almost covered the length of the table. Colenso glanced around the room, taking in the range, the sink under the window and the row of cupboards, their tops lined with the jars of jewel-coloured sweets.
‘Did you make all those yourself?’ she asked, gesturing to the containers.
‘Mother helped. It’s how we makes our living, supplying the fairs. When we gets paid, of course,’ she sighed. ‘Oh good, yer’ve finished enough for me to get started,’ she said, scooping up the sugar Colenso had filed from the cone. As she tossed it into another huge pan on the stove, Colenso noticed the livid mark on her finger spread all the way down to her hand, and remembered how Jago told her she’d burned it.
‘You need more?’ Colenso asked, not wishing to be caught staring.
‘Yep, yer gets through an awful lot of the stuff when you makes confections,’ Karla laughed. ‘Cors different ones need different textures so yer has to be careful how yer controls the melting and recrystallization process. Needs to know which part of yer range is hottest and which is cooler.’ As she talked, she was busy spooning ingredients from different containers onto the sugar in the pan. Then she poured over a jug of water and stood back. Just has to let that start dissolving now,’ she said, sitting down beside Colenso.
‘’Tis a shame Mother’s not here but she’s earning extra, helping them down at the fair. If Jago paid us she wouldn’t have to. Yer’ve done enough now,’ she said, nodding to the pile of sugar. ‘Yer can put that into the jar there and place the rest of the cone back on the side. Those trays of lollies can go on the side too. We’ll need all the table to work on.’ They jumped up and she turned back to her stirring and before long the mixture began to bubble. Colenso did as she’d been asked then watched as Karla picked up the brush and began washing down the inside of the pan.
‘I watched someone making tablet the other day,’ she said, reminded of her morning with Caitlin.
‘’Tis a similar process ’til you get to the colouring and kneading bit. Different ingredients other than the sugar, of course,’ she grinned. ‘Now for the tricky bit,’ she frowned, quickly dipping the finger next to the scarred one into the pan and licking off the mixture. ‘Right, that’s done,’ she said, taking the pan off the heat. ‘Just need to leave that to cool down a bit. Fancy a drink?’
‘Yes please. It’s so hot in here, although it looks like you’re very well organized,’ Colenso told her as Karla poured lemonade from another jug on the dresser and handed her a glass.
‘Hot? More like a raging furnace,’ the woman said, downing her drink in one. ‘Phew, that’s better. Jago got one of his, er, friends to help him add on this room. Said we could make more sweets and more money. Ha ha to the second. How did yer come to be working with him?’
‘It’s a long story but I’m travelling with Mara in her van and, well, thought it would be a good way of contributing towards my keep.’
‘Mara the fortune teller?’ Karla asked. ‘I keep meaning to have mine told. I’ve heard she’s good. Mind yer, I think I already know my future,’ she said, her hand going to her stomach.
‘You mean …?’ Colenso said, her eyes widening. Karla nodded.
‘Not that Jago knows. Denny, that’s my follower, and me are getting wed. Cors it’ll have to be sooner rather than later now,’ she chuckled as she crossed the room and lifted the pan into the sink. Luckily Colenso was saved from answering, as the noise of hissing and spitting filled the room.
‘I thought Mother’d go mad, but Jago’s away so much she quite likes the idea of having a man around the house. Says we’ll be the only ones to make her a grandmother anyhow,’ she said, lifting out the pan and stirring before pouring the syrup into the prepared tray. She let it cool for a moment then cut it into two portions, one twice the size of the other.
‘Right, now we add flavouring to the bigger piece,’ Karla said, carefully shaking out two drops from a tiny phial.
‘That smells so good,’ Colenso cried, inhaling the floral aroma. ‘It’s just like roses.’
‘Rose rock, see? If yer wants to help yer can wet yer hands and start kneading this,’ she said, placing the flavoured piece in front of Colenso. ‘I’ll colour the other portion.’ She added a couple of drops from a phial and began massaging it in. As Colenso worked her mixture she was surprised to see it turn from clear and glass-like to white and satiny.
‘It’s like magic,’ she cried.
‘Alchemy, they calls it,’ Karla grinned. ‘Now, you roll the mixture into a long sausage while I roll the red one into a strand. They need to be the same length. That’s it,’ she said, taking her red one and placing it deftly over Colenso’s white. ‘Now I’ll roll them together like so.’
Colenso watched fascinated as the combined mixture was rolled to twice its original length before being folded so that they became two red stripes. Then taking up a pair of scissors, Karla began snipping the mixtures into six-inch lengths.
‘Right,
