The door to the Revolutionary Council Room, formerly the Pahree Mayor’s office, opened.

  Gilbert, the Marquis de Lafayette, looked up with a relieved expression.

  “Finally, you’re here. We need to—”

  “Hey, listen!” Lily yelled, interrupting. “I only have five minutes, then I need to—”

  And then the smell hit her.

  The overwhelming scent of freshly baked bread!

  The room was filled with buns!

  Lionel was standing in the back, looking extra smug in his baker’s apron and his baker’s hat!

  “Heheheh… I heard you needed buns for your Lilyburgers, but you forgot to say what kind, and how big! So I stayed up all night baking every kind of bun! What do you think of that?!”

  Lionel…

  Was crazy about baking bread!

  Lily had accidentally challenged him the previous night!

  And now, with every conceivable kind of bun filling the entire room, he was ready!

  Now, the little girl would tell him how to make Lilyburgers!

  Lily looked all around the room.

  So many buns!

  She had never seen so much bread in her life.

  Tiny little buns for sliders…

  Big, pillowy buns for giant burgers…

  And…

  There!

  In the corner there was a batch of buns just like the ones they made at the bakery in Three Creeks Village!

  They were the perfect size for a grilled beef patty, slice of cheese, ketchup, and slice or two of pickle!

  “Mama, how many buns do you think we need?” Lily asked.

  “Hmm…” Sally thought as she stroked the purring Mr. Cat.

  “We’ll have to visit Sophie today and see how many people she wants to invite.”

  “Ahem, uh, Mademoiselle Lily…” Gilbert said.

  The office being full of bread was really distracting!

  He was trying to plan a Revolution here!

  But Lionel was obsessed with buns, and had been all night…

  And Lionel ignored him now, too!

  “So? Which buns are ze correct buns for ze Lilyburgers?” Lionel prodded.

  “Those ones!” Lily pointed, then walked over and picked one up.

  “See, you cut it in half like this, then the burger goes inside!”

  “Oho! I see!” Lionel whipped out a notepad. “And what else goes in a Lilyburger!”

  Three of Lily’s ghosts reacted to that!

  “Lily, stop! Wait!” they cried.

  Duke was bored, and already felt like he had done his daily quota of ghosting with his little speech at breakfast.

  Now it was the WcDonald Brothers and Ghost Ray Croc’s turn!

  Lily stopped, mouth open, and then looked up at three of her ghosts!

  “Lily, look, he’s gonna write it down!”

  “You gotta be careful, he might try to steal the Lilyburger idea!”

  “Make him buy a franchise fiiiiiiirst!” Ghostly Ray Croc wailed.

  “Ooooh, that was pretty ghostly!” Mac praised.

  “Yeah, we should lean into that more! Oooooh,” Rich moaned.

  “Please don’t…” Lily muttered.

  She liked that her ghosts weren’t particularly scary!

  “Ahem.”

  The sound of a mother clearing her throat silenced the room, even the ghosts.

  “Lily, we have a lot of party planning to do today,” Lily’s Mama reminded her.

  “Oh, that’s right. Ahem,” Lily cleared her throat like her Mama did.

  “I can help with the Revolution, but only for five minutes! Then, I need to plan my friend Sophie’s birthday for tomorrow!”

  Lionel frowned.

  So did the rest of the Council!

  Max Robesy-P looked rather silly, since he was sitting under a shelf piled high with buns.

  Napoleon was shamelessly snacking!

  “But you said you would tell us more about Lilyburgers today!” Lionel protested.

  And…

  Lily frowned at him!

  “I’m running a business here!” she retorted. “I can’t just tell everyone the recipe willy-nilly!”

  Even though she usually did!

  “So, it’s a secret recipe… A formula, perhaps?”

  So spake Max Robesy-P.

  “Uh, sure!” Lily said. She had more important things to worry about!

  “If you were going to open a franchise, I’d tell you how to make it all you want! But there’s no time for that.”

  “Indeed!” Gilbert managed to interject. “We need to plan the Revolution, and overthrow the tyrant Queen Marie!”

  “No!” Lily said. “We need to plan Sophie’s birthday party!”

  “The Duchess?”

  “Yes! She’s my friend, and I promised to get this wrapped up so she could have a birthday party.” Lily gestured at the Revolutionary Council Room and the Council members, crammed in with all the fresh buns.

  Lionel frowned. “Well, there won’t be any parties as long as the Revolution is still going. All the bakers are in revolt! Nobody’s baking any bread or cakes until the Queen is gone!”

  So spake the Baker, who had been up all night baking, and currently surrounded by hundreds of freshly baked buns.

  And, Lily…

  Chuckled smugly!

  And Lily’s Mama…

  Also smiled! The narrow-eyed smile of a housewife on the edge!

  All the men gulped nervously.

  “You see… My Mama bakes the best cakes!” Lily declared.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  All the men jerked to their feet.

  Max Robesy-P knocked over a pile of buns!

  “Impossible!”

  “French bakers bake the best cakes, everybody knows this!”

  “Je suis Napoleon!”

  “Hey, listen!” Lily raised her voice over the clamor. “Sophie’s only going to have one birthday this year, and she deserves to have a party! That’s what’s really important here!”

  Lily could always make more money later!

  The Revolution could always take a break!

  The Queen could stop being bossy for one day!

  But Sophie wouldn’t have another birthday this year, and she’d never turn nine years old again!

  “So your Mama’s going to break the strike, huh?” Max said.

  As the Chief of Police, and the Council member in charge of security, he was in charge of enforcing the strike, and making sure everyone stuck with it!

  He was pretty bossy, himself…

  But…

  Mr. Cat yawned!

  “Lily and her Mama aren’t French, meow.”

  “Sacre bleu!” Max cried.

  That’s right, they were out-of-towners!

  He didn’t have jurisdiction!

  And, in fact, they had diplomatic immunity!

  They were here representing the Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin, and they had the Medals of Freedom from the Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas!

  “Yeah! So if we want to throw a party, we can!” Lily declared in a very Texan way.

  She was gonna do what she wanted!

  Gilbert buried his head in his hands.

  First, the bread filling the room, now this talk of a party…

  He felt like nobody was taking the Revolution very seriously…

  But he was wrong!

  Lionel was extremely serious.

  Serious about those Lilyburgers!

  “So, if I bought a franchise, you would tell me about these Lilyburgers?”

  Lionel was a very successful baker!

  He was the most famous baker in all of France, and he sold the most bread out of anyone!

  He could afford a franchise.

  Lily folded her arms.

  “I can’t start selling franchises until the Revolution is over, and only nobles can be regional franchise managers…”

  Lily had started explaining this last night before she got too sleepy.

  “But if we overthrow the Queen, and institute a Republic, then anyone could be a regional franchise manager!” Gilbert said, trying to get the meeting back on track.

  “No, no, no,” Lily said, wagging her finger. “Not just anyone can be a regional franchise manager! They have to be responsible, and good at business, and have the free time for the job!”

  Mayor George was her regional franchise manager in Appalashia, and her good golf buddy!

  Davy Sprocket, the President of the Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas, was her regional franchise manager there. He had lots of free time, since the government hardly ever did anything!

  Flo Pomum was the regional franchise manager in the Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin. She was already a good businesswoman, and she had lots of time when she wasn’t in school!

  Plus, her Granny and Brenda would help out if she needed it!

  But Lily didn’t know anybody good yet in France!

  “Maybe I’ll meet someone good at Sophie’s birthday party!” Lily said. “So can I have these buns for the party?”

  They really were the perfect buns for Lilyburgers…

  “For the party?” Lionel asked.

  “Yeah, I’m going to make Sophie Lilyburgers for her party! That’s gonna be my present!”

  “Okay, but only if I can come.”

  “Lionel!” Gilbert cried!

  “Napoleon…” Napoleon muttered.

  “Hmm…” Lily thought. “It’s Sophie’s birthday party. Do you promise to be nice?”

  Lionel thought about it.

  He had nothing against Duchess Sophie nor the House of Bourbon.

  He was mainly mad that the Queen ordered him to stop baking bread.

  He nodded!

  “Oui, I can promise that.”

  Gilbert groaned.

  “Lily, don’t you think Sophie should decide who’s invited? It’s her birthday,” Lily’s Mama reminded her.

  “Oh, yeah. But I can ask her, right?”

  “Sure.”

  “But what if she says no?”

  Lily was thinking ahead!

  “Well, if she says no, then we’ll just have to give up on Lilyburgers. But you can still make fries, and I can still make a cake. Remember, the important thing about a birthday party is having friends to celebrate with!”

  Lily’s Mama was full of wholesome wisdom!

  “Okay!”

  And that was that!

  “Five minutes is up!”

  Lily declared, running entirely on vibes and having no idea how much time had actually passed!

  “But we didn’t even do any Revolution planning…” Gilbert groaned.

  “Napoleon…”

  “Hrmph, fine. But these buns won’t be fresh tomorrow, so I’ll just bake more, and bring them to the party.”

  “Okay, I’ll ask Sophie to include in her invitation how many buns to bring.”

  Lily and Lionel moved right along!

  Having made her plans with the Revolutionary Council, Lily, her Mama, and her kitty-cat advisor left.

  Shopping time!

  Jacques was waiting outside the meeting room.

  “So, how’d it go?”

  “It went good!” Lily declared, with not a thought to how Gilbert felt about it!

  “Oh, good!” Jacques said innocently.

  “Can you show us to somewhere we can go shopping? We need to buy ingredients for the party!”

  “Lily, we should buy them tomorrow morning, when they’re fresh…”

  Up in heaven, the Goddess of Shopping squealed in frustration!

  “But we can still go window shopping now, right?”

  The Goddess of Shopping held her breath!

  “Yes, I suppose that’s fine. But we have to hurry, so we can talk to your friend Sophie about the party.”

  “Right!”

  “You’ll want to visit the Marché d'Aligre, then,” Jacques suggested. “It’s the biggest, best market, and most likely to have anything you’re looking for.”

  Lily’s Mama put a hand to her cheek. “Even with the Revolution?”

  Jacques nodded. “Oui, everything except cake, and bread will be more expensive…”

  “We got our buns covered!” Lily said proudly.

  Then, she tilted her head.

  “The marshed alley gruh?”

  “Er, you can call it the Aligre Market,” Jacques said.

  “Mrow,” said Mr. Cat, and off they went!

  They picked up Dale from the city hall parking lot where he was discussing literature with the French Revolutionaries, and set off to the Aligre Market!

  “Wow!” Lily exclaimed.

  “Oh my,” said her Mama.

  “Meow!” said Mr. Cat!

  “Heheh, it’s something, no?” Jacques said proudly.

  Lily and her Mama had never seen such a big food market before!

  It was huge!

  And there was so many kinds of food!

  One section for cakes was roped off and empty, and next to it was a section with overpriced bread…

  But there was a meat section even bigger than the entire market back in Three Creeks Village!

  Chicken, Turkey, Pork, Beef, Venison, Duck…

  On and on it went!

  Dozens of kinds of cheese!

  Endless rows of bottles of wine!

  Fruits and vegetables Lily had never even heard of!

  Despite the Revolution, the people had plenty of food!

  And yet…

  The French people all looked a little grumpy!

  “How come the people look grumpy?” Lily asked.

  Jacques looked around, and saw what she was talking about.

  “Oh, well, the French people like bread, and they like cake, too. So the Revolution is messing up the bread and the cake supply. Nobody’s starving, but nobody can eat their favorite foods, either.”

  And yet, all the French people were super skinny!

  “You’re sure nobody’s starving…?” Lily’s Mama asked with her hand on her cheek.

  “Honhonhon, that is just how us French people are!” Jacques reassured her.

  “Look, Mama! Potatoes!”

  There was a small stall selling vegetables, and they had a box of potatoes.

  “Magnifique!” the vegetable seller said. “You have a good eye, mademoiselle! These potatoes are specially imported from the Kingdom of Appalashia! Nobody else is selling them in the entire city!”

  Lily and her Mama and Mr. Cat all shared a look.

  “We’ll take everything you got!” Lily said.

  The vegetable seller was ecstatic. “Thank the Gods! No take-backs! Nobody has wanted to buy them for some time now…”

  Potatoes weren’t the most visually appealing vegetable, after all.

  Besides which, they were a starch, technically...

  Lily bought all the potatoes!

  “Praise the Gods! Thanks, Missus Goddess of Shopping for helping me find the potatoes!”

  “Thanks, God of Business, for helping me sell the potatoes!”

  They both prayed, and their Piety Points went up!

  That done, Lily and her Mama found where ground beef and ketchup and pickles and the cheese they needed were sold, confirmed that the sellers would be there tomorrow morning, and left the market.

  Jacques carried the box of potatoes!

  He was really nice.

  Next stop, Duchess Sophie’s estate!