"I'm sure that you'd do just fine picking out cinnamon," Zoe says. There's a light bit of laughter in her voice, something that hasn't been there much lately. "But he's probably sending you to Raja's and I think they had...eight? Varieties the last time I went there." Less of vanilla, and she didn't do the kind of cooking that required a finishing touch of truffle oil.

Luckily, the first time Zoe had needed to stock her own spice rack, she'd had Iollan Chives' son to point out what she needed to buy.