Brownies—not the little girls or the fudgy treat kind, but the Scottish pixie kind—help take care of households by being superior with household chores.

Agnes and Neil, from different brownie clans and working at different manor houses, both pride themselves in their custard. Custard, which requires the best, freshest eggs.

A chance meeting over a favorite clutch of eggs starts Agnes and Neil on an adventure, and the chance to create something new.

Their story will never be forgotten.

Editor Dean Wesley Smith says of “Custard,” “Dayle Dermatis…is a storyteller whose compelling and playful prose I will follow down virtually any path.”

“Custard: A Romeo and Juliet Story (Sort Of)” originally appeared in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, 2021.