Indeed, the girl's heart was troubled. Ever since her lover succeeded in uncovered a tax fraud case involving the king's son, her lover has yet to show his face. From where she was, Nivea could only hope that Matias was now in good condition.
"What do you plan to do next, miss?"
"Hmm? What plans, Seri?"
"After His Majesty announced that the marriage plan was canceled?"
"Ah, that. I'll just keep on living." she replied as she rolling out her bread dough on the table.
"I know about that, miss. But, do you and Mr. Matias have a relationship?"
"Shh... Keep your voice down! They can hear it, Seri." she glanced at Clara and David who were sitting with their backs to them on the other side.
"Ah, yes miss."
"You know what? Actually that night, in the Edelweiss garden I proposed to Matias." she said flatly.
"What???"
"Hsshh! Seri!"
"You're not joking, miss?"
"No! And he has also accepted my proposal." Nivea smiled happily turning to Seri's face.
"Wow. I'm happy to hear that, miss."
"Hmm. Can you keep that a secret for a while?"
"Of course, miss! You can always trust me."
An hour later, Nivea's bread had risen to perfection. Nivea still continued to help with David's task of spreading various kinds of jams on the top surface of the bread. Meanwhile, Seri and Clara were already busy, serving the orders of the customers lined up in front of the ordering table.
And as lunchtime approached, the number of customers who had arrived diminishing. Seri and Clara exchanged positions with the lady.
"Hi, Miss Nivea!" with a graceful little bow, Martha greeted greetings in front of Nivea.
"Hi! You are so bright, Miss Martha! Hmm. I'm guessing, that today you're in a very good mood."
"Ah, of course, Miss! Please pack me six pieces of bread with peanut butter, berry jam and strawberry jam. Two pieces each, miss."
"Alright! Hmm. Miss Martha!" Nivea leaned forward to whisper.
"Hmm? What's wrong?" asked Martha who followed her whispering tone.
"Did you buy these buns for your family? Why didn't you buy the chocolate jam bread?"
"Ah, I bought them to take to Daniel's house, miss!" she replied excitedly.
"I see. Okay! So, are you going straight to Daniel's house now?" Nivea asked as she prepared all the bread Martha had ordered.
"Of course, miss! You know, Duchess Valerie invited me there. Daniel told me that his mother wants to cook with me."
"Wow. She seems to approve of your relationship."
"Hmm. Thank you miss!" Martha nodded and accepted the paper bag with the bread.
"Alright! Please give my regards to Matias. Hahaha. No, no... I'm kidding."
"Hahaha. Alright Miss Nivea, excuse me."
On her way to Daniel's family residence, it seemed that Martha could not wait to get there. She was curious, wondering what duchess Valerie would invite her to cook any food.
Martha had also looked at the paper bag in her lap several times. She hoped that Duchess Valerie would be pleased and that she would like her choice of bread. In a matter of minutes, Martha had arrived when Daniel accidentally had just dismounted from his carriage.
"Martha, have you arrived, dear?"
"Hmm. I bought some bread for you and your mother." she smiled and took Daniel's hand guiding her down from the carriage.
"Ah, thank you Martha! I'm sorry I didn't pick you up. You see, I'm quite sweaty."
"Hmm. No problem, Daniel!" the two began to walk together towards the inside the house.
Duchess Valerie, in her simple dress, stepped gracefully approaching them. She greeted Martha with a cheerful smile.
"Good afternoon, Duchess Valerie." Martha bowed to her.
"Good afternoon, Martha! Come here girl! We're going to cook together today."
"Yes, ma'am! I brought some sweet bread. I hope you like it, ma'am."
"Really? Thank you Martha! Of course I'll eat them later." she smiled and accepted the paper bag from Martha's hand.
"You guys have a chat, I have to clean up first." Daniel said to them.
"Ah, alright Daniel" said his mother. "Come on Martha, let's go to the kitchen." she continued as she put her arm around her and directed their steps to the side of the house.
There was a spacious but simple kitchen. Some several types of cooking utensils were neatly arranged in their respective places. The family also had a refrigerator, which stood firmly in the corner of the room. Martha was more than enthusiastic to get started.
"Have you ever cooked in your house, Martha?" she asked as she laid out on the table the ingredients they would use to cook.
"Of course, ma'am! Mom asked me several times to watch Aunt Puff as she cooking. And the other day Aunt Puff taught me how to cook."
"Ah, that's very good Martha! We're going to cook haggis this afternoon. Do you like haggis?"
Martha nodded, "Of course ma'am! I love it."
"Have you ever made it yourself?"
"No ma'am." she smiled shyly.
"Well, you can help me cut the ingredients and.... You can watch how I cook it."
"Yes ma'am!"
"Now I'll mince these offal. And you, can you slice all these onions, Martha?" with a smile she patted two large onions in front of her.
"Ah, of course, ma'am!" the girl moved to reach for her knife on the table.
"You must know that cooking haggis doesn't take long, Martha."
"Of course, ma'am! We can only enjoy it after three hours."
"Exactly Martha! And while we're boiling it for three hours, we can wait by doing something else."
"Very well, ma'am!"
A few minutes later, duchess Valerie and Martha were seated in the chairs that overlooking the backyard of the house. There was also Daniel, who was feeding the wild birds that stopped by.
"Have you finished cooking?"
"Not yet. We're waiting for the haggis to boil." replied the mother.
"Ah, so you're cooking the haggis. Hmm. I can't wait to taste it."
"Of course Daniel! You'll love it and eat it with gusto."
"Yes, I think so, Martha."
"This peanut butter bread is very soft, Martha. There's quite a lot of it, too." Duchess Valerie commented after eating a slice.
"Of course, ma'am! I bought it at Miss Nivea's bakery. The daughter of the duke Eduardo. Miss Nivea made the bread herself."
"Really? It's even better than the sweet bread I had ordered for the banquet the other day. That girl is very talented, Martha!"
"That's right ma'am! Even she always gives the best service at shop. She's always friendly to all her customers. She doesn't care which customer it comes from, all of them will get the same treatment."
"Really?"
"Of course, ma'am! She wants everyone to be able to enjoy her bread."
"Hmm. She really is a humble girl."
"You're right mom! Next time, I'll take you to visit her shop." Daniel said.