She did not step sideways. She came back on Sunday and Nathan was there. Same time, same approach. But this Sunday, he stopped at the table and he didn't look at the pies. First, he looked at her and he said, I heard something this week that I want to address.
Margaret went very still. Mr. Brooks, Nathan, he said it was the first time he'd offered that. She looked at him. I heard what Clara Hutchkins has been saying, he said. He said it flatly without heat.
The way a man said something he'd already processed and arrived on the far side of. I want you to know that anyone who has a problem with where I buy my groceries is welcome to take that problem somewhere. It will do them more good. A pause. And I told her that personally yesterday.
Margaret stared at him. you. She came to my property. He said to discuss the matter. I listened. Then I told her what I just told you.
He looked at the pies. I'll take the peach and the sweet potato today. Emily's contest is next Saturday. She wants to compare her crust to yours one more time. Margaret wrapped the pies.
Her hands were not entirely steady. He took them and started to turn. and she said before she could stop herself, "You didn't have to do that." He turned back. He looked at her with those careful eyes and he said, "I know I didn't have to a beat. That's why I did."
He walked away. Margaret looked at the space where he'd been standing. Around her, the market kept moving. The noise, the cold air, the smell of wood smoke and horses, and autumn going full into itself before it surrendered to winter. She had four pies left.
She had a table to run. She had a month of rent covered and a month after that that wasn't. And she had things to think about that were real and practical and demanded her attention. She thought about all of those things. She also thought about a man who had gone to someone's property on her behalf, not asked about it, not mentioned he was considering it, just done it quietly, the way he did everything, and then come to her table and bought two pies and told her so plainly she couldn't mistake it.