Page 11 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm (Highland Cookery School #2)

‘So I guess your job is to take all our mad ideas and impose some order on them.’

Not exactly a formal job description but it was the best Jodie had had so far.

‘And then to work out how we’re actually going to persuade anyone to come and spend money on them,’ Bella added. ‘So organisation, and marketing.’ She paused. ‘And social media.’

‘Right.’

‘And special events.’ Bella grinned. ‘I should have said that first, shouldn’t I? I mean, that’s the actual job title.’

Jodie suddenly felt she ought to be writing things down.

She opened her notebook and wrote events and social media.

She knew there’d been more in Bella’s list than that but the other things had already danced out of her head.

Things did that. Catching hold of her thoughts was like chasing butterflies across a meadow.

Her mother loved butterflies and hated those displays in museums where some mad Victorian had pinned pages and pages of the poor things into a scrapbook.

How on earth did they get the butterflies to stay still?

They probably gassed them, didn’t they? That sounded awful.

Did they make them fly into a box and then fill it with gas, or did they put tiny masks on them like a creepy insect doctor?

Jodie had only been under anaesthetic once.

She remembered the anaesthetist though. He had blond hair and kind eyes.

‘So what you do you think?’

Bella had been talking to her the whole time, hadn’t she? Jodie had been chasing butterflies and counting backwards from ten and Bella had been talking to her about the actual job she was supposed to be doing. Jodie nodded hopefully. ‘I agree.’

‘Great. I’ve been telling Adam we need to go for it and do something big but he’s nervous about the money. He’s always nervous about money, but I think you have to grasp the nettle.’

‘Right.’ What on earth had she agreed to?

‘That’s why I was so excited about your Hogmanay proposal. Everyone else’s plans were all for small, sustainable growth and I get that, but yours was bold. And you were so confident you could pull it off.’

‘Absolutely.’ What proposal? thought Jodie.

‘Great. So where do you want to start?’

No idea.

‘What do you need from me?’

Absolutely everything.

‘Well…’ Jodie had nothing.

Bella pulled up an email up on her phone and scrolled through. ‘I love it. The balance of community and visitors coming in. Properly Scottish but not cheesy.’

Jodie nodded. ‘Yeah. That’s what I was going for.’

‘Brilliant. Where do we start?’ Bella was staring at her, eyes full of faith and hope.

There was no choice, was there? Jodie had no clue what they were supposed to be talking about.

‘OK. Well, the thing is…’ The thing was what?

Jodie was back in school, standing in front of a teacher desperately trying to explain why, despite her genuinely good intentions, she hadn’t done the coursework or finished the project or remembered her reading book.

‘It’s just that…’ The dog ate her homework?

She left her folder on the bus? Her mum put the permission slip in the washing machine?

‘Oh my goodness!’ Bella gasped.

‘What?’

‘You lost your email, didn’t you?’

What?

‘Your laptop blew up.’ Had it? Of course. She’d had to explain why Gemma suddenly had a new email address. Had Jodie actually said her computer blew up? In her head she’d been vaguer and, she thought, more plausible than that. ‘You’ve probably lost all your notes.’

Jodie could have kissed her new boss. She didn’t. Spontaneous snogging was not Gemma’s style at all. ‘Yeah. Sorry.’

‘I’ll forward all this back to you to your new address.’

Thank goodness.

‘Morning.’ The voice behind them was deep and already familiar.

Bella jumped up. ‘Pavel! When did you get here?’

‘Just bringing the toddler group outdoor play stuff back for Mum. Adam said we could stick it in the south wing.’

‘Course you can.’

‘Mum said to give you a few quid for the storage.’

Bella shook her head. ‘Don’t be daft.’

Pavel folded his arms. ‘You know she’ll insist.’

‘And I’ll refuse. It’s space we’re not using anyway.’

‘I thought we needed the money.’ Jodie blurted her thought out loud before her embryonic inner Gemma had the chance to censor her. ‘I mean, it’s not up to me. Sorry.’

Pavel nodded. ‘She’s right.’ He pulled a small wodge of notes out of his pocket and pushed them into Bella’s hand.

‘Fine.’ Bella half smiled at Jodie. ‘See. You’re already paying for yourself.’ She turned back to Pavel. ‘I’m guessing this won’t get enough building work done for it to be worth handing it straight back to you for the coach house, will it?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m sorry. I know the quote was higher than you were hoping.’

‘It’s OK. Stuff’s expensive.’

It certainly sounded as though everything at Lowbridge was expensive.

‘But that’s why Jodie’s here.’ Bella looked up as Adam came into the kitchen. ‘We’re totally doing the Hogmanay thing.’

Adam rolled his eyes. ‘Are we?’

‘Yes. And don’t be a killjoy about it. One big event to put Lowbridge on the map.’

‘With no accommodation?’

Bella’s face fell. ‘Right. No.’ She leaned forward, burying her face into her fingers for a moment.

Jodie’s brain raced to catch up with the conversation. ‘So what exactly is the problem?’

‘The problem,’ Bella’s voice was flat, ‘is that we’re planning a late-night party in a village miles from anywhere and we have no overnight accommodation for people to go back to afterwards.’

That did sound like a problem. Late-night parties meant drinking and that meant no driving back to hotels which meant people needed to either stay close by or be driven to wherever they were sleeping. ‘The castle’s massive though. We must have loads of room.’

Adam shook his head. ‘Loads of damp, unheated, unlit room with no working hot water. Your cottage is fine. The wing of the castle where we actually live is ok. Bit dated but liveable. There’s maybe one room in the coach house that’s not too bad?’

He glanced at Pavel, who nodded. ‘Yeah. The one where you and Bella stayed when you first came back is OK so long as you’re not too set on the hot water working all the time.’

‘The coach house is watertight?’ Bella offered.

‘So why can’t we put people in there?’ Jodie asked. She could see it in her head. ‘Call it high-end glamping or something. Historic living? I don’t know. Make it a feature somehow?’

Bella was staring at her. ‘That’s what I said.’

‘So why can’t we?’

The two women looked at each other. Bella turned to Adam. ‘Why can’t we?’

‘Is it safe?’

Pavel didn’t quite meet anyone’s gaze. ‘It’s not going to fall down. If you sold it as camping I could disconnect the electric so it’d be safe. You could have battery lamps or something?’

Jodie could see it. Twinkly lanterns lighting the way from the castle to the coach house. Rustic accommodation but rustic accommodation in a solid stone castle outbuilding. ‘I think it would be lovely.’

‘Can we?’ Bella asked Adam.

‘We wouldn’t be able to charge much.’ He was smiling though. ‘Honestly, it’d be easier to sell to McKenzie than try to distract you when you’ve got an idea.’

‘Don’t even joke about that!’ She turned back to Jodie. ‘The McKenzie estate is further up the coast.’

‘Yeah. We drove past it?’ She looked to Pavel, who nodded his confirmation.

‘The guy who owns it offers to buy this place about twice a week, but it is not for sale.’

‘Why not?’ From the hard set of Bella’s face that was absolutely the wrong thing to say. Gemma wouldn’t have asked. She’d have politely accepted Bella at her word.

‘Because it’s everything that’s wrong with tourism in a place like this. No soul. No authenticity. No sense of community.’ Bella was adamant. ‘And the brownies in the cafe are awful.’

Adam nodded. ‘All true. She’s mostly mad about the brownie thing though.’

‘There’s no excuse for bad cake,’ Bella hissed.

‘Pavel hasn’t told you he’s working for the enemy then?’ Adam asked.

Jodie turned around quickly enough to see Pavel wince. ‘I’m not working for the enemy. I’m helping a mate out with a quote for some work there. He probably won’t even get the job, and he might not need my help if he does.’

‘Hmm.’ Bella turned back to Jodie. ‘Anyway, once we’ve planned our grand Hogmanay extravaganza we’ll leave them in our dust.’

Jodie nodded. So she was planning a grand extravaganza of some kind. Excellent.

Pavel left Lowbridge and headed back over the footbridge to the village.

Bella had been frosty about him possibly working for the McKenzies.

He understood it. McKenzie would see the Lowbridge estate broken up and subsumed in a heartbeat, but the building work they were doing there had the potential to keep a full crew of labourers in work for months, and it would be better if those workers were local.

At least that way the money McKenzie was paying out would find its way back to the shop and pub, rather than disappearing from the Highlands altogether.

Which didn’t mean he wasn’t still planning to make it up to Bella.

He glanced behind him before heading into the coach house.

The electrics were the trickiest part, but he knew a couple of sparks who owed him favours.

The rest he could do himself. The coach house was a slightly beaten-up little Cinderella but, to help his friends, Pavel could fix up the downstairs and a couple of first floor rooms at least. Gemma’s rustic glamping idea was all very well but there was no way they’d be able to charge as much as if the space was properly renovated, and Adam and Bella needed some proper income.

Happy that he understood the scale of the work he needed to do, Pavel wandered back over the bridge and along the shoreline towards home, where he jumped straight in the shower.

He was going on a date. With Jill. Jill was probably his best mate these days.

They got on well. They always had a laugh.

She was pretty, kind, funny – there was no reason not to be excited about this date.

He closed his eyes under the flow of the hot water and told himself that again. Going out with Jill was a good thing. He was very happy about it.

‘Knock, knock!’ His mother’s voice rang through from the living room.

Pavel flicked the shower off, and grabbed a towel. ‘I’ll be through in a minute.’ By the time he was half dry and had the towel properly secured around his waist his mother was in his bedroom pulling clothes out of the neatly organised wardrobe and throwing them on the bed.

‘Where’s your purple shirt?’

‘What?’

‘Your purple shirt. For tonight?’

‘I don’t own a purple shirt.’

His mother pursed her lips. ‘Don’t get smart with me, young man.’

Pavel rolled his eyes. ‘I’m not being smart. I can’t magic clothes that don’t exist into being.’

His mum pulled a hanger from the rail. ‘This one.’

‘That’s red.’

She barely paused. ‘That’s what I said.’

Another set of footsteps came up the stairs and knocked at the front door.

‘We’re in here, Netty.’

‘I’m not dressed, Mum.’

Another sigh. ‘It’s only Netty.’

His mum’s friend popped her head around the bedroom door, glanced at the shirt and nodded. ‘Good choice. Purple suits you, love.’

‘It’s red,’ Pavel muttered.

‘What trousers is he wearing?’

‘I’ll wear jeans.’ The question wasn’t directed at him but Pavel answered anyway.

His mother shook her head. ‘Jeans? For a first date?’

‘We’re only going for a drink and a pizza in Portree. I’ve been for pizza with Jill a million times.’

‘Those were friend pizzas. This is date pizza. It’s a whole different thing.’

Netty nodded. ‘She’s right. Date pizzas are fancier.’

Pavel took a deep breath. ‘It’s just pizza and I think I’m capable of dressing myself. Thank you very much for your input.’

The two women shook their heads. ‘We’re just excited,’ his mum muttered.

‘The whole village is excited,’ added Netty.

Wasn’t that the truth? Anna in the shop had spent a good twenty minutes trying to persuade him he needed twelve red roses when he’d popped in earlier to get bread, milk and dog food for Mrs Timberley.

The shop didn’t normally have flowers. He had a strong suspicion they’d got them in specifically for him.

‘It’s such a good match.’

Netty nodded.

‘And we’ve not had a wedding in the village for years.’

‘Not since Darcy and the old baron.’

‘God rest him,’ his mother added.

‘Adam and Bella are getting married,’ Pavel pointed out.

‘Well, they say so, but they’ve not set a date yet, have they?’

Netty clapped her hands together. ‘You could beat them to it.’

‘It’s just pizza.’ Pavel felt like he was stuck on repeat.

‘Such a good match though,’ his mother murmured. ‘And you like her, don’t you?’

For the first time there was a hint of disquiet in his mum’s voice that stabbed at Pavel’s gut.

She wanted him to be happy. Of course she did, and she was excited about the idea of him finding someone and falling in love.

There was nothing wrong with that. Pavel was the one overcomplicating things here.

Jill was great. He and Jill together were great.

Everyone agreed that they’d make a great couple.

The only people not besides themselves at this apparent blooming of new romance were the ones who’d thought they were already going out.

Pavel’s phone buzzed on the floor next to the bed.

Jill calling

He tapped to answer.

‘Hi. I’m really sorry. Mr Oakley from the post office in Lochcarron had a heart attack.’

‘Is he OK?’

‘I’m not sure, but his wife’s on her own cos Millie’s on bed rest until the baby comes, so I need to go and be with her.’

‘That’s fine.’ Pavel felt the knot in his chest ease a little. ‘I understand.’

‘Thank you.’ She paused. ‘I’m really sorry though. We can reschedule?’ Her voice was hopeful.

‘Yeah. Yeah. Of course we can.’ Pavel nodded. ‘Looking forward to it.’

His mother folded her arms. ‘She’s dumped you already?’

‘Something came up with work.’

Netty nodded. ‘That’ll happen if you’re married to a minister.’

‘I’m not married to…’

The women had already moved on though. His mum took Netty’s arm. She cast a glance back towards Pavel. ‘These are your choices, pet. Reverend’s wife or lonely old cat woman.’

‘I don’t even have a cat.’

‘See,’ his mum stage-whispered to Netty. ‘Can’t even hold down a pet.’

‘I thought you were going over to see Bella this afternoon.’

His mum grinned. ‘We are. Plenty of time to torment you first, love.’