rum it was, and marchpane, for the Wapping Street cakes. The cakes to be mailed had rum, but not quite as much.
* * *
Making the cakes was a week-long event, with Monday and Tuesday taken up with endless chopping of glacé cherries, candied peel, sultanas and currants. Almonds generally were halved. Mrs Morison baked the homebound cakes on Wednesday, giving them ample time to cure or ferment in a dark space. The cook had been gradually adding more and more rum to the marchpane cakes, as well, which wouldn’t get their mantle of thick icing until closer to Christmas.
For the entire week, Mary had joined Mrs Morison and the scullery maid, now minus a tooth, in the ordeal of Christmas cakes. Dina hadn’t the patience for all the chopping and dicing, which Mary found a relief. She loved her cousin, but a few hours of non-stop talking gave Mary a headache. Dina’s conversation had taken a decidedly querulous turn, now that she was engaged, and was even whinier than usual.
Perhaps I am envious, Mary thought, as she diced candied cherries and candied peel to Mrs Morison’s exacting specifications. I would like a husband because that would mean children and I do enjoy wee ones.
Thursday had seen the construction of four more cakes, also baked, doused and sent to a dark corner to rest and lick their wounds.
The last four of the yearly cakes were in process on Friday, when Dina stormed into the kitchen and upset everything. Mary had finished cracking the eggs into the soft butter and caster sugar. As she stirred and Mrs Morison gradually added flour, Dina strode around the kitchen, fire in her eyes. She was waving a small object. Mary wished her cousin would go away. Mixing the batter was her favorite part of the whole process. She wanted to enjoy, without drama, the smoothness of the batter and the buttery fragrance as it competed with vanilla bean.
But Dina needed an audience. With a pang, Mary realised she had for too long unwillingly furnished that audience. I am too complacent, she told herself, as Dina wound herself up like a top. What would she do if I walked away?
Mary was fated never to know. By now, Dina had tears in her eyes.
‘I ask you, has there ever been a stingier husband-to-be than Algernon Page?’ she fumed.
‘What is it, my dear?’ Mary said at last, because it was required of her. She continued swiping down the sugar crystals in her mixing bowl, thinking Dina might get the hint.
Not Dina. Her cousin stuck a small ring in Mary’s face. ‘That...that cheapskate sent me this paltry bauble for Christmas! He thinks I’m going to wear it.’
Mary looked closer. It was a small ring, very thin gold with what looked like little scratches. She squinted. No, they were leaves or twigs. ‘Hmmm. Perhaps it has some family meaning,’ she ventured.
‘Only that the whole family consists of clutch purses,’ Dina shot back. ‘Would you wear such a thing?’
I would if I loved my future husband, Mary thought, even though she knew she would never say it. She decided Dina wanted some comment, so she mumbled something that seemed to fill the silence.
‘I won’t wear it,’ Dina said, making her long face suddenly longer. She stared at the cake batter, as though daring it to contradict her. Her eyes narrowed and she tossed the spurned ring into the batter. ‘There! Send it to someone.’
She stormed out of the room without a backward glance. Mary stared at the batter, then at Mrs Morison. ‘She can’t be serious.’
‘Poor Mr Page,’ the cook said with a shake of her head. ‘He’s in for a merry dance.’ She chuckled and picked up the wooden spoon that Mary had leaned against the side of the bowl when Dina demanded everyone’s attention. She gave the spoon a few turns, then sent Mary into the scullery for the tin of glacé cherries and orange peel.
‘Fold them in, my dear,’ she told Mary.
‘Really?’ Mary asked, amazed at Mrs Morison’s audacity.
The cook nodded. ‘It’s not much of a ring.’ She laughed a little louder. ‘Let’s hope no one bites down hard!’
Mary joined in the laughter. ‘I don’t think anyone really eats these cakes, do you?’
‘I wouldn’t know and I would certainly never admit such a thing to your aunt.’
* * *
After everything was added, Mrs Morison exercised the power of her culinary office and spooned the batter into the four weathered and venerable tins that the Rennies had probably used since Emperor Hadrian built his wall. Mary hesitated when Mrs Morison opened the Rumford.
‘You’re certain?’
The cook shrugged as Mary slid in the pans. ‘I’ll put these cakes in a separate place. If Miss Flibbertigibbet changes her mind, we can find the ring.’
‘But that’s...’
‘A waste? I think I will call it a diversion.’ Mrs Morison narrowed her eyes and glared at the ceiling above. ‘Your cousin owes us one.’ She put her hands on her hips. ‘Do you realise we will have to listen to Dina up to and including the wedding in March?’
* * *
Mary thought about the ring later that night after she put on her nightcap and padded down the hall to see if her cousin needed anything. I wonder why I do this? she asked herself and nearly turned around. She remembered Mrs Morison’s words in the kitchen and reminded herself to keep the peace. It was a long time to March.
‘I’m not interested,’ her cousin said when Mary suggested there was still time to retrieve the ring. ‘Hand me that coverlet, Mary.’
Mary did, wondering when it was that Dina had stopped saying thank you for little services rendered. Funny she hadn’t thought of that before her epiphany. She waited a moment, but Dina only waved her hand in a peremptory gesture. ‘You’re welcome,’ Mary said softly. After that, she did not ask about the ring again.
* * *
After two weeks’ incubation, the cakes for home consumption were boxed and stacked in the scullery. The next batch went to the postal office on the Royal Mile, taken there in all ceremony by the newest footmen. Mary worried over the last batch of four, asking Dina if she had changed her mind. Her cousin only gave her ringless hand an airy wave as she went out the door with Aunt Martha for a dress fitting. The plan was to announce the Rennie-Page engagement at a Hogmanay party, which required a new gown.
‘Very well, Dina,’ Mary muttered as she handed the footman the last four rum-soaked cakes, wrapped in gauze, boxed and addressed, along with exact change. She went upstairs to her room to frown over her paltry wardrobe and wonder what she could refurbish for the Hogmanay party. She knew Aunt Martha would allow her to have a new dress, too, but it would be even nicer if her aunt suggested it first.
She looked out the window as the footman walked towards the postal office. ‘And that is that,’ she said, thinking of the ring.
But that wasn’t that, not by a long chalk.
* * *
When she was seated on the mail coach one day later, Mary decided that Thursday, December the 1st, 1814, would be long remembered
