Page 27 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm (Highland Cookery School #2)

‘He has to earn a living.’ That was Gemma. He glanced up. She didn’t meet his eye.

Bella folded her arms. ‘What were they saying?’

‘Just something about New Year and not having someone outdo them, or outshine them. Sorry. I didn’t hear much.’

Adam sighed. ‘Sounds pre-planned then.’

‘So what are we actually going to do?’ Darcy asked.

Pavel hated to be the voice of reality but someone had to. ‘What can you do?’

‘I’ll tell you what we can do,’ Gemma answered. ‘We can fucking destroy them.’

She looked across the room at the four faces staring back at her. ‘I mean destroy might be quite a strong word. Sorry.’

‘No.’ Bella folded her arms. ‘Destroying them sounds good to me.’

‘Bel, I mean…’ Adam’s tone was more placatory.

His fiancée caught him in her eyeline. ‘I am going to have to push an actual human out of my vagina because of you.’

He nodded. ‘Destroy away, sweetheart.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

‘So what’s the plan?’ Darcy asked.

Jodie and Bella stared at each other for a second. Jodie had a number of initial ideas but they all required tanks and flamethrowers. Gemma would think of something smarter than that.

Finally Bella broke the silence. ‘Council of war,’ she announced.

A council of war turned out to involve Jodie, squashed into the big sofa in the yellow room once again, this time between Anna and Nina, while Flinty and Jill followed Bella out towards the office, fussing over whether she was doing too much ‘in her condition’, and Adam and Darcy went to make tea.

Veronica sat, silent and apparently serene, in front of the fireplace.

‘While we’ve got you,’ Nina started.

‘Elton John,’ Anna interjected before Nina could get going. ‘Do you think he’ll be all right with a room at the pub or will he have an entourage?’

‘I don’t know Elton John.’

Anna pursed her lips. ‘Darcy said…’

‘Sorry.’

‘What about Kylie Minogue?’ Anna asked.

Jodie shook her head.

‘Well,’ Anna frowned, ‘any of the Nolan sisters?’

‘Like off Loose Women ?’ Jodie could feel herself getting sucked in. ‘Coleen?’

‘Yes.’ Anna’s voice was hopeful.

‘Sorry. No.’

Nina folded her arms. ‘Do you think we’re getting hung up on the celebrity idea?’

‘Maybe a bit,’ Jodie muttered.

‘What if we let Miss Bryant tell us her vision for the switch-on?’

Anna harrumphed slightly. ‘Go on then.’

Across the room, Veronica, who had not been joining in the conversation at all, very slightly tilted her head towards them.

Gemma had no plan for a Lowbridge Christmas lights turn-on.

Jodie was fully on her own now. Both Nina and Anna were staring at her expectantly.

Jodie had never been to a Christmas lights switch-on.

In her mind they involved a member of Steps pressing a big red button.

She added ‘all of Steps’ to the list of celebrities she did not know.

‘Perhaps you could tell Miss Bryant a little more about the lights themselves?’ Veronica spoke quietly but definitely. ‘I imagine it’s hard for her to come up with a plan when she’s never seen the thing.’

Why hadn’t Jodie thought of that?

‘Well, they start at the pub, and they go right through the village to Anna’s shop at the far end. Lights up outside as many houses as possible.’

‘And the boats,’ Anna added.

Nina nodded. ‘Some of the small boats put lights round the cabins or up the masts.’ She smiled. ‘That’s my favourite part. My father started that years ago. My Pavel organises that now. You’ll have to liaise with him.’ She turned to Anna. ‘Liaise is what they call it in business, you know.’

Jodie’s body and brain flashed back to a moment in the ballroom a few hours before. She could liaise vigorously with Pavel Stone.

‘And this year, the lights are going to be all white,’ Nina added.

‘Yours might be,’ Anna muttered.

‘They all will be.’

‘It’s been red and green for years. Red and green was good enough last year. I don’t see why it’s not good enough now.’

‘It wasn’t all red and green. It was white and red at the pub, and then blue at the community hall. It looked like we’d all come out for different football teams.’

There was a noise from the seat by the fireplace that almost sounded like someone suppressing a giggle.

‘Are you all right, Veronica?’ Jodie asked innocently.

She was biting her lips together as she nodded. ‘Absolutely fine.’

‘OK. So predominantly white lights,’ Jodie continued. ‘Right through the village?’

‘Exactly.’

‘Does the castle get involved?’

Nina shook her head silently, shooting a very definite sort of look in Veronica’s direction. ‘I think the previous laird thought it was a bit frivolous, perhaps.’

Veronica wasn’t laughing any more. ‘I’m sure my son had his reasoning. However, the Lowbridge family did used to get involved.’ She turned to Anna. ‘Don’t you remember coming to carols by candlelight here when we were children?’

‘Even after you were the lady,’ Anna confirmed.

‘Yes.’ Veronica nodded sharply.

‘Why don’t we do that then?’ All of a sudden Jodie had a vision of the Lowbridge Christmas lights switch-on in her mind. And it didn’t require a single pop star or loose woman to be lured to the middle of nowhere with the promise of a night in a room above the pub and one of Nina’s pies for dinner.

‘Do what?’ Nina asked. ‘I mean, anyone can get some random celebrity to come and press a big red button.’

‘Not anyone apparently,’ Anna snipped.

Jodie ignored her. ‘What’s special about Lowbridge is that the lights are done by the whole community, so what if we gave the whole community the chance to shine and then finished up here for carols to kick off the festive season?’

‘What do you mean?’ Nina asked.

Jodie could see it all. ‘We make it a rolling light switch-on, so we start at the shop at the far end of the village and then it’s a slow walk along the coast road and people put their lights on as we go past and then join the walk, until everyone’s together and we come to the pub and then over the Low Bridge to the castle, which is lit up last, and then Jill could lead a… ’

‘Jill could do what?’ The woman herself appeared in the doorway – Reverend Jill, who was, apparently, perfect for Pavel.

Jodie couldn’t quite meet her eye. ‘I was wondering if we could end the Christmas lights switch-on with carols in the chapel here.’

‘Oh, that would be wonderful. The chapel hasn’t been used for years, apart from…’ She stopped and glanced at Veronica.

‘Apart from my son’s funeral. It’s all right, dear. Say what you mean.’

‘It would be nice to use it for something joyful?’ She directed the question at Veronica, who simply nodded silently.

‘So?’ Jodie looked from Nina to Anna.

Nina nodded. ‘I think that sounds charming. A real community event.’

Anna was less convinced. ‘If the shop’s first not many people will see us switch on. If they’re all joining along the way. Last year we did the whole thing in front of the shop. That’s where the big tree goes.’

‘I thought this year we might put the big tree up by the pub,’ Nina shot back.

‘The big tree has been in front of the shop ever since we opened.’

‘Which was only four years ago.’

‘Four years is a tradition.’

‘It is not. Tell her, Gemma.’

‘I… er…’ She glanced up and caught Veronica’s gaze. The older woman gave a tiny shake of the head. ‘I mean, I think that could go either way.’

‘I believe many people set their lights on a timer,’ Veronica cut in. ‘So if the timings were worked out, it wouldn’t necessarily have to stop them joining the parade from the beginning.’

Jodie noted her slow walk had been upgraded to a parade, but she did appreciate Veronica’s attempt to defuse the situation. Was that twice in one conversation that she’d helped Jodie out now?

‘It won’t be the same without the tree.’

Jodie felt Nina’s shoulders slump slightly next to her. ‘I suppose if we’re starting at the shop, having the main tree there would make for a nice start to the big parade.’

It was a big parade now? Great.

‘We’d be the grand opening then?’ Anna asked.

‘Yes.’ Nina clearly knew when she was beaten. ‘Fine. But white lights on the tree.’

‘Of course.’ Anna smiled. ‘Never let it be said I’m not a team player.’

If Nina was going to take issue with that claim she was robbed of the opportunity by the rest of Bella’s council of war arriving. Darcy, Adam, Flinty and Bella squashed themselves into the available space.

Nina glanced at Adam. ‘The laird’s joining us?’

‘Yep.’ He nodded.

Jodie could feel the look Nina and Anna were trying to exchange around her. ‘We’ve never had a gentleman at one of these before,’ Anna noted.

‘Well, it’s his house and he wants to come,’ Bella pointed out. ‘And it’s his estate we’re trying to save.’

‘Yes, but…’ Nina shook her head. ‘Normally we get on with things and tell them what they’re supposed to be doing later.’

Flinty nodded in agreement. ‘You don’t want them getting ideas that they’re actually in charge.’ She glanced at Adam. ‘Sorry, lad.’

‘What if I promise to just sit quietly? You can treat me like Bella’s assistant,’ Adam suggested.

The women nodded as if to acknowledge that that was exactly how they viewed the laird of the manor whether he was in the room or not.

‘So why have you got us all here?’ Anna asked. ‘It’s not Ladies’ Group until…’ She paused, and muttered to herself, ‘Meat delivery yesterday, book club last week, Netty’s nail appointment tomorrow… Thursday.’

‘This couldn’t wait. I think the McKenzie estate are trying to sabotage us.’

‘What?’

‘I wouldn’t put it past them.’ Anna sucked the air in. ‘That boy was a terror even as a child. Once shot his catapult right at Edward Woofwoof.’ She turned to Jodie. ‘My Hugh’s previous dog.’

‘OK. Well, he’s moved past catapults now,’ Jodie explained.

‘Of course. You can’t sabotage a castle with a catapult.’ Anna explained this as if to a particularly slow child.

‘You can if it’s a big enough catapult,’ Nina pointed out.

‘If it’s that big it’s not a catapult any more, is it? It’s a trebuchet.’