Page 21 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm (Highland Cookery School #2)
‘Portree,’ Veronica offered.
‘And you don’t want a trip in Pav’s boat if you’ve got morning sickness.’ She grinned. ‘No offence, Pav.’ She looked around the room. ‘Although in this case, Bel, I think most of the village might already know.’
Veronica shook her head. ‘Not at all. Only family here.’ She glanced across the room. ‘And Miss Bryant.’
‘And me and Pav,’ Jill pointed out.
Veronica waved a hand to suggest that either they were family or they didn’t count as being here. ‘The point is, nobody here will say a word. Will they?’
A room full of adults stared at the floor and shook their heads as one.
‘Very good.’
Jill looked up first and the whirlwind of brightness and big hair finally stopped with her beam of attention on Jodie. ‘You must be Gemma.’
‘Yes. I must.’
‘Are you a hugger? I’m a hugger.’
There wasn’t room to be hugged or hugger on the cramped settee but it didn’t seem to deter Jill one bit, and Jodie found herself enveloped in warmth and perfume and goodwill.
‘So great to have you here. Have you settled in all right? Do you need anything?’
‘I’m fine.’
Veronica cleared her throat. ‘Reverend, are we perhaps getting a little distracted from the main point?’ She nodded towards Bella, who had managed to stop pacing but was now rooted to the spot, turning increasingly pale.
‘Right. Yes. Of course.’ She held the pregnancy test out to Bella. ‘You just pee and wait.’
‘Right.’
‘Shall we wait here?’ Jill asked.
Bella nodded. ‘Yes. I’m not telling you though. If it’s positive, I have to tell Adam first.’
‘That’s fine,’ Jill reassured her.
Jodie glanced around the room. Flinty and Veronica looked decidedly like the idea of anyone knowing anything before them was an anathema.
Bella made it as far as the door. ‘I don’t think I can…’ She looked around the room. ‘Gemma, I know this is really outside of your job description, but can you?’ She nodded towards the door. ‘Moral support.’
‘Oh!’ Jodie pulled herself out of the sagging sofa and followed Bella into the hallway. ‘Are you sure? I mean, Veronica’s family and Darcy and Jill’s…’
‘That’s why. I can’t… I mean, I do not have time to be pregnant. I need someone who isn’t going to gush.’
‘I don’t think Veronica would gush,’ Jodie pointed out.
Bella’s tense face cracked a smile. ‘No. But… you’re not a gusher, are you?’
Jodie thought she might well be a gusher, but that was Jodie. Gemma was much more contained.
They’d reached the door to what turned out to be a bathroom. ‘Now stand there and don’t let Poppy come in.’
‘What?’
‘I mean, not that you can stop her.’
‘What are you talking about?’
Realisation crept over Bella’s face. ‘You haven’t had taps randomly turn themselves on, or stuff turn up somewhere completely different from where you put it?’
Well, yes, actually she had. Just yesterday the pen Jodie had been using had completely vanished from the arm of her chair and reappeared an hour later on the floor next to the main hall coat stand. Not knowing where she’d left things was an entirely normal part of Jodie’s day though. ‘Maybe.’
‘That’s Poppy. Castle ghost.’
‘Ghost?’
‘She’s harmless. I think she gets bored and…’ She stopped talking and stared at the pregnancy test in her hand. ‘I’m putting this off, aren’t I?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Do you want to take it for me?’
Jodie shook her head.
‘Right.’ She ripped the cellophane off the box and read the instructions. ‘One minute then.’
‘Good luck. You know, for whichever you’re hoping for.’
Bella took a deep breath in. ‘Right.’
Jodie waited in the hallway. It couldn’t have been more than fifteen seconds before Darcy joined her. ‘I’m sorry. I couldn’t wait.’
Jill was only a second after her. And then Flinty. Finally Veronica. ‘Well, if everyone else is out here.’
Only Pavel had stayed in his place on the other side of the door. Jodie made her way back to where he was waiting. ‘Everyone’s on tenterhooks.’
He shrugged. ‘Bella said to wait here.’
‘Do you always do what you’re told?’
He considered for a second, more seriously than Jodie’s tone deserved. ‘I try to do what’s right,’ he finally responded.
‘That’s…’ What was that? ‘How do you know what’s right?’
‘What’s best for the people around you.’
‘What about what’s best for you?’
He didn’t get the chance to answer, before Darcy yelled from the hallway. ‘She’s coming out.’
Jodie ran back into the corridor. ‘I’m sorry. They all just appeared.’
Bella’s eyes were red but she was smiling. Jodie found she was holding her breath.
‘And?’ Veronica asked.
Bella smiled even wider. ‘I’m afraid I need to talk to Adam first.’
Jodie let out an un-Gemma like squeal of glee, that was hidden by Darcy’s much louder shriek.
Within seconds, Bella was enveloped in hugs and shouts and congratulations.
Jodie hung back, composed herself. Gemma was here for work.
It wasn’t for her to get excited. This wasn’t her family. This wasn’t her home.
Sooner or later she would mess things up.
She would do something wrong, or they would find out about the massive, great, definitely wrong thing she was already doing and everything would fall apart.
She wasn’t going to be here when Bella had her baby.
She wasn’t a part of this. She never would be.
Being part of a place like this was more than Jodie would ever deserve.