'What a lovely surprise! How kind of you,' said Cassiopeia as she accepted the little blue box from Richard. 'And you are quite right, family matters more than ever in a place like this. You must call me Cassiopeia,' she added with a gentle smile. The connection was a distant one, but they were so far from home, both of them, that it didn't seem to matter very much. He wasn't a Black, but he was pureblood and he understood what that meant, in a place where very few seemed to.
Settling comfortably on the couch, she began to carefully unwrap the layers of tissue paper, and her eyes lit up in delight as she first glimpsed the silver rose within. She picked it up, and raised it to inhale the scent. 'Richard, this is exquisite!' she exclaimed. 'Such a clever little charm. Thank you – it's so thoughtful of you.' Cassi had never seen anything quite like it. There were enchanted flowers at home, and artificial ones, but the craftsmanship evident in this one surpassed those she had seen before.
She kept hold of it as she leant over the table to look inside the pastry-box. Her expectations weren't terribly high, because she couldn't think of a gentleman taking up baking as anything other than a novelty, a curiosity. Work for women and house-elves, that was the sort of thing Pollux would have said, and her brother's attitudes were hardly unusual among the most ancient pureblood families. So she peered into the box, planning on making some polite comment even if what greeted her was a complete culinary monstrosity.
And Cassiopeia was surprised by Richard once again. She looked up at him and smiled. 'Wherever did you learn to make this? It was one of my favourites in my time abroad, and quite impossible to find in London.' At least in the parts of London where Cassi did her shopping.