The baker’s morning

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

Martha unlocked the bakehouse while the street lamps were still burning. She tied on her apron, weighed flour into a bowl and opened the shutters. She was turning towards the oven when a sharp knock sounded at the back door. Martha stood quite still and waited for it to come again.

Before Martha hears the knock at the back door, she completes several tasks. Give one of them.