SotD: Raspberry Gingerale

Hello wondrous Ninjas!!

Work is going well this week. I haven’t made it on the mat to train yet and I don’t know that I’ll get to until next week. My wonderful Mother In Law will be there for the weekend along with some other members of my husband’s family so I’ll be busy! Hopefully we’ll get a chance to go to the archery range on Friday; apparently my MIL was in an archery league when she was in college. That totally explains why my husband is a natural with a bow!

Today’s beautiful scent is another one of One Hand Washes the Other’s solid perfumes: Raspberry Gingerale. This was a scent I got as a free sample with one of my previous orders. I adore this scent!! Needless to say, I went ahead and put a full sized solid in my next order. My husband is a big fan of this one because it smells very fruity when it goes on. I’m fairly certain he’s a fan of anything that smells like a food he would eat.

* Raspberry Gingerale: Ripe red raspberries floating up and down in a pitcher of freshly-poured gingerale, thanks to help from millions of fizzy pinprick bubbles. A touch of blackcurrant adds a syrupy sweetness to the blend without weighing it down. A bright and lively scent!

* On me: First nose for RG smells very very fruity. I adore this; it’s a warm raspberry smell with very faint vanilla/ginger undertones. As this mellows down, it becomes more of a warm ginger sugar scent with a faint strain of raspberry underneath.  

*The Scene:

 

The baker had sent her out to pick raspberries for the seasonal tart to be offered this week. Although it was meant to be a task to get her out of the bakery, she really enjoyed being out in the sun with the fragrant berries. The grove wasn’t hard to get to; she made good time if she tucked up her skirt and frolicked through the field. Far from prying eyes, she was free to do as she wanted. No one could tell her to stop humming or pull her skirt all the way down over her shoes in modesty here; she could revel in being young and alive. 

He hadn’t stopped thinking about the baker’s apprentice since he tucked the lilacs behind her ear last week. Since he was a squire, although a lucky one with a kindly knight, he wasn’t free to pursue the girl without telling the knight where he was going. As kind as he was, the knight did need his squire most hours of the day for running errands, keeping his armory spotless, and making sure any summons could be answered immediately with a well-armed knight. The squire was daydreaming as he was shining the knight’s helmet when the knight called for him from the Great Hall. 

Running to answer the call, the squire nearly tripped over his own feet at the sight of the baker in the hall discussing something in great detail with the knight.  “We need you to run out to the berry fields. I’m to have noble guests tonight and they have taste for raspberry tarts.” While the sentence was simple enough, the squire wasn’t sure why this concerned him; he didn’t usually procure ingredients for artisans. With a huff, the baker threw a basket at him and spoke crossly, “Take this to my apprentice, tell her to pick thrice the amount of berries and hurry back. That cow may yet get to bake something with the size of this order.” 

She was almost done picking ginger for the sugared candies that were the baker’s vice when she heard a rustling across the field. It was him. Her heart stopped and she started furiously un-tucking her skirt from her boots to cover her knees and she stopped humming. By the time he made it over to her. She was blushing furiously and trying her hardest to wipe her hands on her apron so she wasn’t muddy as he arrived. 

She was blushing, and trying very hard to change her appearance as he walked up. She’d looked lovely, humming and smiling in the sun as she worked to delicately free the ginger from the soil. Without the watchful eye of the town, she glowed with happiness and was even more beautiful than he remembered her. His words came out cluttered as he tried to convey why he interrupted her harvest. “Th-The baker sent me….More berries… Three times more, this basket… Hurry back.” Well, that was humiliating. He blushed profusely as he set the basket next to her and turned around to leave.

Slightly stunned by the shortness of the interaction she cried out, “Wait, which berries?” 

He almost jumped when she spoke, surprised. He turned around slowly and took a breath. “My master is having guests. They will need more raspberry tarts. Thrice the amount of raspberries and be swift with it.” That sounded like a command from his own lips! “Um, I could help you pick if you want…”

Thrice?! She wasn’t even sure if the groves held that many berries this early in the season and she certainly wasn’t sure she could find that many ripe patches before the sun went down. Exasperated, she picked up her ginger and went towards the nearest berry bush, calling back to him, “Well hurry up, there’s probably not even enough to fill the order! And be careful, berries are delicate. Don’t squish them or you’ll stain the basket.”

Stunned at the demand, he picked up the basket and followed her to the grove. The bushes were prickly but she was deft at freeing the fragrant fruits from their stems without getting pricked. She had to pause and teach him tricks to avoid getting stung by the thorns but soon they were filling the baskets at a steady pace. Side by side, shoulders sometime brushing and causing a blush, they finished their gathering before sundown.

Smiling, she thanked him as she packed the baskets for a swift run back to the bakery. She gave a small nervous giggle as she blushed and kissed his cheek before running across the field. 

Once again left without words, he watched her go as he pressed his hand to the place her lips had landed. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he leaned down to pick up his discarded vest, safe from berry stains. Her basket of carefully cleaned ginger was sitting there, full and abandoned. A twang of anger and fear went through him, remembering the way the baker had slapped her for dropping the croissants. With quick movements, he wrapped the basket in his vest and took off in the direction of the bakery to make sure the order was properly filled.