Page 14 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm (Highland Cookery School #2)

The following morning Jodie hid at the Dower House, scouring over the Hogmanay plan real Gemma had written for her job interview.

A month ago Gemma had put a bomb under Jodie’s life when she’d announced she was leaving for a new job in Cornwall.

She’d got her fresh start all sorted before she’d told Jodie anything was amiss, so Jodie already knew, on some level, that this had been a well-planned break-up.

But now she knew Gemma had applied to Lowbridge as well.

That meant it wasn’t an impulsive application to the hotel in Cornwall.

It wasn’t an opportunity that had fallen in her lap.

She’d been planning to go. She might have applied for hundreds of jobs. And Jodie had had no idea.

The realisation sat heavy in Jodie’s gut.

Her partner had been disengaged enough to spend weeks, or longer, preparing to make a break and hadn’t given Jodie any sort of warning.

Jodie could imagine why. Jodie would have made a scene, wouldn’t she?

The conversation would have ended with Gemma having to calm her down and pointing out that this was why it was so hard to talk to Jodie about things.

She’d created an atmosphere where the person who loved her didn’t dare talk to her about how she was feeling.

She dragged her attention back to the plan.

She could see why Bella was so impressed by it.

Gemma’s imagined Hogmanay Gala sounded incredible.

There was a ceilidh, a full three-course meal, whisky, champagne, and options for residential guests to take part in cookery classes and wildlife walks and even a New Year’s Day cold-water wild swim.

It all sounded fabulous. And like it would require a lot of organisation.

Jodie started with all good intentions. She got out her notebook with a definite resolution to start a proper to-do list from which she would then tick off tasks one by one until Hogmanay was upon them and the gala was complete.

What she actually did was stare at the item Vegan Cheese in her, now heavily annotated, notes from yesterday, spend nearly an hour googling vegan-friendly cheese alternatives, and then look at wellingtons online.

She was in the Highlands. Buying wellies on her credit card wouldn’t be wasteful. It would be sensible.

She reminded herself that she wasn’t spending.

Instead she added thirteen options for wellingtons to the hundred open tabs in her phone’s browser.

And she hadn’t spent a penny. Jodie congratulated herself.

She was definitely growing as a person now she was working on being more Gemma. She probably deserved a little reward.

Ten minutes later she had ordered a luxury pamper kit of bath products and two boxes of chocolates. But that wasn’t shopping. That was a little treat because she’d done so well with the wellingtons. Thinking about it though, she probably did need the wellingtons.

She was saved from further expenditure by a knock at the door. She answered to find Veronica Lowbridge, the more frightening of the two dowager ladies of the estate, standing on her doorstep.

Veronica smiled tightly. ‘Miss Bryant, may I come in?’

‘OK.’

Veronica walked straight into the Dower House dining room. Jodie flitted past her and flicked her notebook closed. ‘How are you settling in, dear?’

‘Fine. Thank you.’ Jodie was on edge. ‘Of course, you used to live here, didn’t you?

It must be strange seeing someone else in your house.

I mean, not your house, not any more. But, well, still the estate’s house so sort of.

And I hope you don’t think I’m taking over, well, I suppose I am a bit, but not in a bad way I hope and…

’ Her guest made no move to interrupt or respond.

Jodie could not have silence. Silence in company was almost as bad as too much noise.

And it was never really silent, was it? There was always something.

A hum from an overhead light or a whistle from a radiator.

‘I just meant that you’re always welcome.

Well, of course you are. It’s your estate.

Well, Adam’s estate, but yours too I suppose and, well… mi casa, su casa …’

Finally Veronica nodded. ‘I see. I just came to check your National Insurance number. I’m helping Darcy set up your PAYE.’

‘Right. Yeah. It’s NP…’ Wait. No. National Insurance numbers identified you, didn’t they?

How had she not thought of that? She knew her own backwards and forwards.

She’d had to sign on enough times to have that down, but what would happen when Veronica put that in the computer to sort out Gemma’s pay?

Would lights flash and Jodie’s real name appear instantly on the screen?

Then what? Jodie was picturing police helicopters and a cage dropping from above to capture the villain.

‘Actually hold on… Not NP… Oh. Silly. I thought I knew it.’

‘It will be on your payslips from your last job,’ Veronica pointed out. ‘If you’ve got those.’

‘Yeah. Of course.’ Jodie gestured vaguely towards the rest of the house. ‘Haven’t unpacked those yet.’

‘That’s fine. Why don’t you find it and bring it over to the office?’ Veronica nodded curtly. ‘As soon as possible.’

Jodie saw her visitor out, hoping her heart wasn’t thumping so hard that Veronica could hear it. Could she find out the real Gemma’s number somehow? Could she make one up? What would happen if she used Jodie’s NI number and Gemma’s name?

‘Gemma!’ Bella was walking towards the Dower House, passing Veronica on her way back to the castle, waving enthusiastically, jacket pulled tight around her against the Highland chill. ‘I’m doing some lunch. Bit early cos students’ll start turning up in an hour or so. Do you want to come over?’

Jodie nodded. What choice did she have? She couldn’t refuse on the ground that she was busy trying to sort out the finer points of the fraud she was currently committing.

‘So how did you get on this morning?’

‘Good,’ she lied. ‘Mostly reviewing the plans and starting to put together a fuller to-do list.’

‘Brilliant. You’ll have to let me see that later.’

Jodie nodded vaguely. Later. She would definitely be able to show Bella her list at some point later.

‘So this afternoon you’re going to start your social media stuff?’

Right. The thing she’d hoped wouldn’t come up for weeks, and then accepted was going to come up soon but not until after she’d had a sleep, was now an hour away. And she hadn’t made a plan. That was fine. It was still a whole hour away. She nodded brightly. ‘Yeah. Lots of ideas.’

‘Brilliant. What have you got in mind?’

‘Erm…’ It was the obvious next question when you thought about it.

‘We could do little mini interviews with some of the real students, I thought? Just super short. Like what they learned. And…’ And what?

Jodie was not a social media guru. She mostly mindlessly scrolled through reposted Reddit threads and Instagram reels of what people’s toddlers ate in a day.

‘And sprouts! Obviously. Loads of stuff with sprouts.’

Bella laughed. ‘You really think you can make sprouts happen.’

Jodie did not think that at all. She nodded anyway.

‘Why not?’ There were a million reasons why not.

It wasn’t even clear to Jodie how talking about sprouts online would help them get through the incoming glut anyway.

‘I’ll film some normal stuff as well. Just bits of the class we can use for promotion. ’ Was that right?

‘We’ll have to ask their permission, but if anyone objects we can work around them. And you can film me doing demos.’ Bella paused. ‘Probably don’t put full demos online? I guess we don’t want to be giving it away free?’

Jodie followed her boss back into the castle kitchen.

‘Unless that’s like a loss leader sort of thing,’ Bella continued. ‘And you think it’s worth it to give people a proper taste of what they’d get if they came on a course?’

Loss leaders? They were a thing, weren’t they?

That was what Diane had called it when they gave away yesterday’s croissants free with large drinks at the coffee shop.

‘I think on social media people always want more content, so we could probably put some demos up.’ That was how Jodie scrolled anyway.

Like how she never tired of watching buttered toast being cut down into toddler-appropriate triangles.

Logically she should, but actually every video just made her want to watch more.

‘Whatever you think. Our marketing and promotion are in your hands.’

Jodie tried not to look actively terrified at the idea.

‘Lunch is just soup and bread rolls. They’re not quite the right shape. I’m keeping the nicer-looking ones for them to make steak sandwiches this afternoon.’

‘I’m sure it’ll be great.’ She watched Bella ladle soup into bowls. ‘It’s not sprout, is it?’

Bella grinned. ‘I did think about it. Chicken and vegetable so you’re safe. Using up the veggies from the garden that were about to go over, and roast chicken in the fridge from the weekend. Waste not, want not.’

Jodie shuddered at the familiar phrase from childhood. Everything in Jodie’s home had been handed down, repurposed and mended a thousand times. She could picture her mother scooping leftovers into a big pan on the stove. ‘Waste not, want not,’ she would say, just like Bella.

‘What’s up?’

‘Nothing. It smells great.’ She started on the soup, which, like everything Bella had served her so far, was absolutely delicious. ‘This is wonderful.’

‘We’re not paying you very much. The least I can do is feed you.’

They ate quickly and then Jodie was happy to help Bella set up for the cookery school session. She had a very clear idea of where she wanted everything and Jodie was very happy to be able to look helpful without having to demonstrate any aptitude for events planning or marketing.