Gratitude Knows Not The Passage Of Time.

This story is now published as part of the anthology ‘Loyal and True’.

Pies ran in the family, or at least the making of them did.

Brenton Chesteen founded the firm back in the early 1900s.

The ingredients for the pies were nothing special; just the usual fare.

What made Chesteen pies special was the crust.

The formula was a closely guarded family secret and only two members of the family were allowed to know it at any one time.

The holder of the secret would hand it down before his death to his son and occasionally to a daughter.

It was rumoured that lives had been lost in the quest for the secret ingredient.

The most famous of which was Brenton Chesteen himself who was tortured for several days before being rescued by a passing band of gypsies.

Brenton eventually died of his wounds but he did not give up the secret.

For all the generation since, Gypsies have been welcome to camp on Chesteen land.

Gratitude knows not the passage of time.