Page 9 of Markets & Mooncakes

He looks at the bowl of soaked fruit. "Tea loaf is that," he says quietly.

"Only if you want it to be."

He gives me a surprisingly hesitant smile. One that I'm not sure I've ever seen directed at me before. "I won't know until we try."

I nod, not really sure how I should be feeling about this now, but not wanting to cause more confusion. "What do you want me to do?"

"Will you grease the tin?" he asks. "Just a standard loaf tin will do."

I nod and head over to the rack where they live, pulling one out and using butter and flour to line it while Nate gets the rest of the ingredients ready.

He gets himself a spoon and dips it into the soaked fruit, trying a little bit and then holding the rest out to me. We never used to share a spoon, but it's something I've found I like now that we're together. "It's still quite salty."

"I've been warned." I take it from him and try it. The salt hits my tongue immediately, but it isn't as overpowering as when we tried the plums in the tea shop. "What's in it?" I ask curiously.

"Some of the tea that I got yesterday. Then I replaced a third of the sultanas with the dried fruit. Not all of it is the salty plums." He's still a little hesitant, but I can hear his confidence returning as he talks about the ingredients. "Oh, and I added some preserved ginger."

"The crystallised version we had?"

"No. Some of the ginger bulbs preserved in syrup. I thought the flavour would complement everything else, and it would offset some of the saltiness. I'm not sure it's done that. Maybe I should have used less of the plums." He looks at the bowl of fruit and considers it for a moment.

"It might be fine," I say. "It's salty, but it's not as strong as when the plums were on their own, and it goes with the flavour of everything else. And that's without the sugar and flour to mellow it out."

He nods. "All right, maybe that will be fine."

"There's really only one way to find out," I say. "And if this is an experimental recipe, then it isn't a problem if it doesn't work, right? You can make adjustments and decide what you're going to do with it after that."

"I know you're right. I just feel more nervous about it when you're here."

"We really can stop," I assure him, even if I'm curious about how this is going to work out.

He shakes his head. "No. Let's make it, and then we can try it tomorrow." He looks at me. "I'm sorry, I don't know why this is so hard."

I put a hand on his arm. "I don't know either." I wince even as I say it. "That wasn't what I meant."

To my surprise, he laughs. "It made me feel better though. Will you get a couple of eggs?"

I'm confused about how it helps, but I'm not going to question it, especially when he seems to be feeling a bit better, and that's all I want, even if this situation is completely of my making.

I return with the eggs, and he adds them to the bowl along with flour and sugar and mixes it all up until it's a brown, gloopy mess.

"I'm always surprised by how simple some things are to make," I say as I look at it.

"That's because the hard bit was prepping everything for the overnight soak," he says. "I came down here when we got back yesterday so I could do it." He tips the mixture into the loaf tin and spreads it out so that it's even.

"I didn't realise."

"I wasn't intending on doing it, but Camille asked me a question, and then I was here, so figured that I might as well. I thought I'd finish the tea loaf when I had a free moment today and have it ready for when you came down so you could try it. If it tasted good, anyway." He carries it over to the oven and slides it in before grabbing an hourglass.

"What happened that you couldn't?" I ask as I put the top back on the caddy of flour and return it to the right place for him.

"There's a lot to do with the arrival of the Shengdanese ambassador," he says with a shrug. "I know the menu isn't particularly complicated, but it still has to be right."

I grimace. "I'm sorry if I've made that more difficult for you."

"By making requests for the banquet that it's your job as princess to organise, and mine as the pastry chef to bake?" he asks.

"Well, when you put it like that, I suppose not."