Page 18 of All Wrapped Up

‘No,’ Ash said, as he bent to untie his bootlaces, but he was a little flushed when he stood back up. ‘Of course not. I don’t know why I said that. Now, what’s on the menu?’

I’d made a classic quiche which was hearty enough to satisfy Ash’s healthy appetite and I served it with a homegrown late summer salad and freshly made slaw which was full of apples, red cabbage and chopped walnuts and was a nod to the approach of autumn.

‘Do you eat like this every day?’ Ash asked, once he’d had his fill, having enjoyed an extra slice of the quiche.

‘No,’ I told him. ‘Not anymore, but I do love to grow and cook with some of my own ingredients.’

‘And you do it wonderfully,’ he gratifyingly said. ‘But why did you change?’

‘Change?’

‘Your eating habits. You suggested that you used to eat like this, but that you don’t now.’

‘Oh.’ I blushed, as I gathered the dishes together. ‘I just meant that what with the cottage renovation taking up so much of my time and being without a finished kitchen for so long, I just got out of the habit.’

‘And now you’re getting back into it?’

‘I am,’ I said, with a nod to his empty plate. ‘And just in time by the looks of it!’

‘I’m always willing to act as taste tester,’ he grinned. ‘Now, come on, I’ll let Pixie out and then we’d really better get into town and try to nab a parking space.’

‘There won’t be so many people coming that we can’t park,’ I laughed, but it turned out he was right to be mindful about that.

We could hear how many people had packed out The Mermaid even before we’d fully opened the door and Ash threw me a knowing I told you so look before letting me cross the threshold ahead of him.

‘Oh, crikey,’ I gasped, as the noise of everyone chatting rushed to meet me and I tried to back out. ‘Ash, I don’t think—’

‘It’s fine,’ he said softly behind me. ‘You’ve got this. We’ve got this.’

In spite of his encouragement and the memory of Callum’s wise words, I suddenly wasn’t sure that either I, or we, had got anything.

Being with Pixie all day and then with Ash for dinner, had served to stop me worrying, but now, faced with a properly packed pub, I felt overwhelmed and underprepared.

This was as far from pacing my reintroduction to living a more social life as it was humanly possible to get.

‘We’ve got this,’ Ash said again, this time even more sincerely, while he discreetly reached for my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

I turned to look at him and found him staring down at me.

His striking blue eyes were full of kind encouragement and I nodded and took a deep breath, full of appreciation for his support and assuming the jolt that the feel of his hand in mine gave me was down to the emotion of the moment, rather than anything more meaningful.

‘Yes.’ I swallowed, squeezing his hand in return before letting it go and hoping Joanne wasn’t somewhere watching and getting the wrong idea. ‘You’re right. We have. Let’s go and find Lizzie and the others.’

Lizzie took no finding as she was on the lookout for us and within a minute, she had set us up in front of everyone and was joking with the assembled crowd about the disaster that Jason’s interference had caused the previous week.

Everyone seemed to be in good humour and I attempted to use that to my advantage when Lizzie introduced me a second time and then offered me the floor.

‘Good evening, everyone!’ I loudly said, keeping a tight hold on my notebook to stop my hands from shaking.

‘As Lizzie has just said, I’m Clemmie Bennett.

And as someone else previously pointed out, I’m the blow-in the majority of you have never clapped eyes on, but have no doubt heard of after last week’s cock up, and I’m also the person planning to push in and organise the autumn festival in honour of Moses Talbot this year. ’

That raised a laugh and a cheer, most loudly from Bella and Jeanie, and I felt myself relax a little as a result.

‘Well, thank goodness someone’s willing to take it on!’ shouted a woman I’d never seen before and who was at the front of the crowd.

Another cheer went up and I started to laugh.

‘Well done!’ Lizzie mouthed at me as Evelyn rang the bar bell which was everyone’s cue to pipe down. ‘I think we’re off.’

We were well and truly launched after that. The next couple of hours flew by with me presenting what Ash and I had envisaged the autumn festival could include, and a show of hands used as the easiest way to decide what everyone thought would be the most popular events as I talked through them.

Nothing in my notebook was abandoned. In fact, the list had grown exponentially as the time went on and my head was a muddle of names as I struggled to make notes about who was willing to host what, what their businesses were and where they were located.

‘Given that the first week of September has already passed us by, and thanks to Jason’s meddling we’ve still not got a definite plan or announced anything yet, what do you think the odds are of getting something going by next week?

’ Bella asked hopefully, while holding up both hands with crossed fingers.

‘As daunting as that timeframe is,’ I responded, ‘I think it’s doable.

Tomorrow I’ll be going through everything we’ve discussed tonight and starting to put an event schedule together.

I’d love to see the market square decorated and the shop windows dressed in time for the equinox on the twenty-second of the month, wouldn’t you? ’

Making the town centre and surrounding shops look seasonal had been a hugely popular idea and the enthusiastic show of hands was confirmation that everyone was in agreement that the equinox would be perfect timing.

‘The equinox is on a Monday this year,’ said Ash, who had pulled up the calendar on his phone.

‘How about we aim to get everywhere decorated and prepared and then have an official festival launch, here in town the Saturday before, on the twentieth? It will be a much better day for attracting attention than a Monday.’

Again, everyone was in unanimous favour of that and the town dressing and official festival launch on Saturday, the twentieth, became our collective initial aim.

‘Myself and the other yarn bombers are really keen to pitch in,’ said a man at the back of the crowd. ‘Are you happy for us to get together to start making things now? If we’re going to help with the decorating in time for the twentieth, then we really need to.’

‘Oh, yes please,’ I enthused, feeling thrilled that the group was keen to offer some seasonally themed adornments. ‘It would be lovely to have some autumn knits and crocheted pieces on display around the town, along with everything else.’

‘I’ve found a fab pattern for crocheted leaf garlands,’ he told me.

‘They sound perfect,’ I happily told him. ‘I can already imagine them festooned around the market square. Thank you.’

‘Count me in for helping with that, Bill!’ shouted someone else.

‘And me!’ came another voice. ‘And we’ll need bunting, too.’

‘There you go then, Bella; it looks like the town will be autumn ready for the big day.’ Lizzie laughed and Bella gave us a thumbs up.

‘Here’s hoping the rest of us are!’ I smiled.

‘We will be,’ Lizzie said quietly to me. ‘I told you that you were the perfect person for the job, didn’t I?’

‘I’m not sure if this is anything like what Moses originally had in mind,’ I smiled at her, ‘but we’re off and running now!’

Numerous sheets of paper for everyone to add their details and availability to were in circulation by the time the meeting came to a close. No one seemed keen to leave and I was delighted to see so many names, places and dates being scribbled down.

‘We’re going to come up with some autumn themed cocktails and mocktails,’ the guy from Brambles Distillery told me, as he added his details to the food and drink list. ‘We can sell them on the market as well as on site in the shop.’

‘And Grandad and I will happily host an autumn feast night and a family gathering at Fenview Farm,’ beamed a woman, who I think was called Fliss. ‘So, you can promote your drinks there, too, Jack, if you like.’

As I stood there, trying to take it all in, my head was full of names, but I wasn’t sure how many of them I could match to the right faces. Hopefully, having the next day to go through the lists would help me make sense of everything.

‘I’m Hayley,’ said another woman, who had been keen to share her ideas all evening. ‘I’m the housekeeper at Wynthorpe Hall.’

‘Wynthorpe,’ I repeated, latching on to the name I had heard before. ‘That’s the hall owned by… the Connelly family, isn’t it?’

‘That’s it.’ Hayley nodded.

‘I’ve seen some photos of it online,’ I told her. ‘It looks like a magnificent place.’

‘It is,’ she agreed. ‘And the woods would have been perfect for hosting some events, but the site is currently out of bounds, I’m afraid.’

‘Is everything okay?’ asked Lizzie who was standing next to me and had heard what Hayley had said.

‘Yes,’ said Hayley. ‘Everything’s fine, but when the festival idea was originally shelved Angus and Catherine decided to forge ahead with their improvement plans for the Winter Wonderland because the woods weren’t needed.’

‘Oh, I see.’ Lizzie nodded. ‘I know they’ve been thinking about making some changes for a while. Are they having much done?’

‘Tree work and path laying mostly,’ Hayley explained. ‘Hence the lack of access. They’re gutted that they can’t help out now.’

‘Maybe next year,’ Lizzie said and then rushed off because Jemma was beckoning to her.

‘It is a shame,’ I said to Hayley, thinking there could have been scope in the woods for a fungal foray.

‘But please tell them not to worry. Like Lizzie said, it will be great to have them onboard next year. It always helps keep momentum going with this sort of thing if you’re offering something new, so I daresay this was all meant to be. ’