(Untitled)

[flowers_on_skin]

Eostre was attempting to make a pumpkin pie. It felt that time of year and, even though the weather hadn't discernably changed, Eostre could have sworn that she'd smelled autumn in the air on her way to the compound that morning. The twins were slouched in the matching high-chairs that Eostre had managed to talk the tall Scottish kid into and

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[youngestqueen]

"You're baking! It smells lovely." Lucy liked Eostre, ever since the woman had let Lucy help with Susan's wedding cake. "Isn't San Francisco in America?"

[flowers_on_skin]

"I am baking, and San Francisco is in America," said Eostre, with a broad smile for the little girl. "Do you want to come and scratch my nose for me, Lucy? My hands are a bit disgusting."

She help up pumpkin covered hands.

[youngestqueen]

Lucy laughed brightly, wrinkling her own nose which was suddenly itchy at Eostre's words. "Of course. Only if I can help you bake."

[flowers_on_skin]

Eostre bent down so that Lucy could easily reach her nose, carefully holding her sticky hands out of the way of Lucy's clean clothes.

"Of course you can help me bake."

[youngestqueen]

It made Lucy's smile grow, even as she scratched Eostre's nose. "What are we baking," she asked, careful to stay away from the pumpkiny hands. After her adventures with Guy at the beach, she didn't quite trust Eostre to not pumpinkfy her.

[flowers_on_skin]

"We're baking pumpkin pie," said Eostre, solemnly. "For the Americans. There's one already in the oven, but this one needs filling."

[youngestqueen]

"Pumpkin in pie?" She sounds doubtful but she's willing to try it, at least once. "That sounds awful."

[flowers_on_skin]

"It is, rather," said Eostre. "But Americans rather like it, and there's Thanksgiving, soon."

[youngestqueen]

"Is it? They have such odd holidays." Really Lucy doesn't know much about American holidays, other than that they celebrated the rebellion, and that they had Halloween.

[flowers_on_skin]

"They're very odd people, for the most part," said Eostre, holding the wooden spoon out to Lucy. "I lived there for a very long time."

[youngestqueen]

"Did you really?" Lucy was tall enough to reach the counter, but she pulled up a chair to stand on anyway. It made things easier. Taking the spoon she carefully added a dollop into the pie crust. "Susan went once, with my parents. What was it like?"

[flowers_on_skin]

"Far away from home," said Eostre. "But I loved it, all the same. I had a shop where I sold sweets and cakes...a garden where I grew flowers. I was different, then. I was...younger."

[youngestqueen]

"I could see you having a shop like that," Lucy was concentrating hard on not splashing the pie mixture around, not looking at Eostre as she spoke. "Why were you there?"

[flowers_on_skin]

"I loved my shop," said Eostre, wistfully. "It was mine and I owed it to nobody."

She smiled, watching the little girl intently make her ie.

"Somebody...bought me there. A long time ago. When I was younger."

[youngestqueen]

"They brought you there? Was it like being brought to narnia? You couldn't control when you went or came back?" Her spoon held aloft, a blob of pie filling fell to the floor. "Oops."

[flowers_on_skin]

"Don't worry, Miss Piemaker," said Eostre, picking up a cloth and bending down to clean it up.

"I...suppose that it was. I was carried there, and I couldn't leave. For a very long time."