Chocolatiers of the High Winds: 49

Sep 08, 2011 10:00


Chocolatiers of the High Winds by H.B. Kurtzwilde

A gay steampunk adventure. Follow the weekly travails of young Mayport Titus, and his intercontinental airship journey to restore the fortunes of the Titus Chocolate Company. (Do you need to start at Chapter One?)

Chapter 49: Deviation

What elation Mayport felt at Joseph’s capitulation was soon lost in an agony of labor. Captain Cully arrived with a cargo of cacao from May Port. He also brought gold ornaments from his expedition to the western kingdom across the water. To Mayport, it was apparent that Cully expected gratitude, reward and forgiveness for all his adventures.

Joseph had no patience for his initiative. The cacao needed processing, and had grown more expensive for being moved north. His plans for porting their factory works south was thrown off its timetable. The gold offset the overhead, but in principle irritated Mayport’s sense of accounting.

For weeks, Mayport ran his factory at its hardest pace. The weather shifted for the worse, but he raced on anyway. The local tinsmiths turned an easy penny supplying him with packages for his powder. Meanwhile, Chef Gasteau enjoyed a spate of fashionability with his innovation in cocoa butter. Mayport knew the recipe to be a revival of lost confection. The town knew nothing of it, and awarded the chef all honors for its recent introduction.

As shocking as white, waxy chocolate was, Joseph’s change of stripes went far beyond it. One afternoon, Joseph presented him with a sapphire ring fashioned after the broad signets that were still popular in the north. Mayport accepted the gift without hesitation, but wondered over the sudden treasure.

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Mirrored from Circlet Press: Welcome to Circlet 2.0.

serialized fiction, h.b. kurtzwilde, gay, chocolatiers, steampunk

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