Let's Start A Bakery!

Chapter 80

After lunch, there were a few minutes before lessons with Mrs. Abbott started. I hurried into the kitchen and grabbed my plate of cookies, then headed to the ballroom for the lessons.

I placed the plate onto a table as Mrs. Abbott entered the room, right on time.

"What's this?" she asked, looking down at the plate of cookies.

"These are oatmeal raisin cookies. I used less sugar in them since I made them just for you," I explained.

I could feel my brothers' eyes on me as I waited for Mrs. Abbott's reaction.

"Makes sense that someone like you would make peasant food," she sneered, before turning around and ignoring me in favor of my brothers.

Our jaws dropped at her attitude, and Rex's face turned red.

"You can't speak to her that way!" He yelled, clearly upset.

"Yeah, who do you think you are to talk to us in such a disrespectful manner!" Lionel jumped in. "Corvalia and I worked hard to make those cookies! The least you can do is try them!"

"You helped make them too!?" she exclaimed. Figures she would only focus on that sentence.

"Of course, the two siblings with a peasant mother would be the ones to find solace in the kitchen," she shook her head solemnly.

Wow, I wasn't expecting much, but this kind of reaction is way worse than anything I could have imagined!

Lionel was taken aback at that insult, and before he could retort, Isaac spoke up.

"All seven of us are each other's siblings. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. And before you insult Lionel and Corvalia using their mother, should I also remind you that Lady Catherine was once a peasant too?"

Mrs. Abbott's face turned bright red, and she spun around, screaming, "Class today is canceled!" before slamming the door shut behind her.

Lionel rolled his eyes, muttering, "Good riddance!"

"I'm surprised she was so aggressive," I added.

"Me too," Isaac admitted. "I thought she would eat the cookie and say it tasted terrible, and then go back to teaching us like normal."

"Speaking of which," Lionel cut in. "If that hag doesn't want the cookies, can I take the rest of them?"

"Lionel, you have to share with everyone else," Rex reprimanded him.

"Yeah, you guys should split it between yourselves and the other three," I said.

I'm still stuck on the fact that Lady Catherine wasn't always a noble lady.

"If neither Lady Catherine nor my mom were noble at birth, what about your mom, Rex?" I asked, curious.

"She was born a Lady, but she was always a pretty frail person. That's probably why she died giving birth to me," Rex said.

"Oh... I'm sorry." I awkwardly apologized, fidgeting with my dress.

I watched Lionel and Isaac argue over the cookies.

"I should get a larger portion! I helped make them!"

"By your logic, Corvalia is the one who should be getting the most, since she did most of the work."

"That's not true at all. You have no idea how difficult making butter is. It's far more labor intensive than whatever she did, therefore I did more work."

Rex shook his head at their argument, and turned back to me.

"You don't have to apologize. I don't really remember her, and it was actually your mom who raised me. She was a really nice lady."

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

I wonder what kind of person my mom was...

"She was a lot nicer than Lady Catherine, that's for sure," Rex admitted. He seemed hesitant about her.

"My mom died when I was born, right?"

He shook his head no.

"She passed away about 2 years after you were born," he frowned. "I don't remember her being very unhealthy, but she apparently died of a sickness. No one was allowed to see her for about a month before she died."

"Actually, Isaac, Lionel, and I think that..."

He leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"Either Lady Catherine or our father might have poisoned her."