The Confectioner’s Tale
In 1988, Petra Stevenson has been working on her Ph.D. thesis at Cambridge on the period of history known as the Belle Époque. She attends a lecture by Simon Hall and discovers he intends to publish something about her grandfather, J. G. Stevenson, which will discredit him historically. She also finds an old photo of a couple in front of the Patisserie Clermont, with the words “Forgive me” written on the back of it. It turns out that Petra’s father sold her grandfather’s house and granted Simon Hall permission to utilize all of her deceased grandfather’s papers.
So begins a fiercely competitive race to find out the truth, something that Petra fears in the unknown story yet to be told. It’s a mystery and romance on two levels, which immediately engages the reader’s rapt attention. Petra travels to France and learns about how Guillaume (Gui) du Frere falls in love with the creation of pastries at Patisserie Clermont, luck obviously favoring him as he moves from being a railway worker to a pastry apprentice who will do absolutely anything to learn and create these masterpieces under the tutelage of Master Chef Clermont’s assistants.
Between reading descriptions of luscious eclairs, sugar sculptures, macaroons and other scrumptious delights, Gui falls in love with Clermont’s daughter, Jeanne. Jeanne’s a rebel, born in an age when arranged marriages for business purposes are the norm, but this young couple is determined to escape society’s strictures. How was J. G. Stevenson or Jim involved with this daring couple? Petra’s discoveries focus on truth, loyalty, forgiveness, and stalwart courage. Marvelous historical fiction!
