Licking His Cane Read Online Free PDF Page A

bubbling starts and move the paddle slowly through the sugar.”
    He wrapped his arms around her and helped her move the paddle in the proper motion.
    She grinned and enjoyed the moment.
    He taught her how to stir, how to check and, finally, how to shift the dangerous mass to the cooling table. Working with the pallet knives was difficult, but after a little practice, she got the hang of it.
    Her phone chirped, but she ignored it.
    Rex chuckled. “Don’t you have to get that?”
    “Nope. I am my own boss. They can leave a message and I will get back to them when I am done here. This is fun.” She grinned.
    “We are making another batch of blueberry. It is surprisingly popular. So, how did you end up as a mechanic?”
    “I was always mechanically inclined and born near the beginning of the industrial revolution. It was a time when new discoveries were everywhere, including my being a shapeshifter.”
    She worked carefully and folded the sugar over on itself.
    “How did that happen?”
    She shrugged and kept working. “I don’t know. Even Santa was never able to tell us. All he said was that it was fate, that we had a purpose and only we could keep the magic of Christmas going. My family didn’t really follow Christmas, but they knew a calling when they heard one, and the horns kind of gave it away.” She chuckled. “The first time I met Ru, the horns appeared.”
    “I thought she was the youngest.”
    “The most recently born, but she has been with Santa the longest. She was on all our recruitments. She came to us and we changed, some for the first time, others not. When our families gave us up, they took us to the workshop. When we were all grown, we became part of the team and have been for hundreds of years now.”
    “I thought the team grew over time.” He corrected her grip on the knife, and she was able to flip more on the next sweep.
    “It did. We didn’t all grow up at the same time. You know that time doesn’t work properly at the workshop. It is why the reindeer got so bored. It is an eternity of filing reports from the naughty-or-nice list.”
    She looked to him and pointed to the mass. “I think it is ready for flavouring.”
    He chuckled. “First, cut the sections to be coloured. Use either the shears or the knives.”
    He helped her to separate the sections, and she mixed the colours into the hot mass, the gloves barely protected her. She could handle heat, but she didn’t know how human hands could get used to it.
    The rest of the cane was a little more awkward. It wasn’t due to weight but, rather, the necessity of going up on tippy toes to reach the hook.
    “Let me guess. You make all the candy canes?”
    He chuckled. “The hook will lower when I leave.”
    She sighed. “Okay, you finish it.”
    “I will pull the candy. You are going to need to test your repair work on the crank mold. Get the colours.”
    She retrieved the coloured pieces from near the fire and handed them to him, a few pulls and he had something that was more ivory and purple than anything else.
    “You crank and I feed?” She bit her lip.
    “Other way around. I trust you not to crush me.” He smiled, and the blueberry mass wobbled in his grasp.
    She darted over to the machine and started a slow crank. The candy pressed through the molded rollers and came out the bottom, embossed with a reindeer’s head.
    Rex balanced the still-hot candy, and she kept a steady, strong crank on the handle. She swept the cooling pieces away as the area under the press filled up.
    They worked together for five minutes until the mound of candy was huge and the press had proved that it was completely fixed.
    Rex dusted the candy with powdered sugar and cracked the small, round pieces apart. He ran his hands over them until the layer was one candy thick.
    “Now, we do some packaging. If you have time.”
    Bel smiled. “In for a penny, in for a pound.”
    “Don’t you have to be getting to your other client?”
    She shrugged. “I