Page 128 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
‘He says he’ll be glad when your head isn’t exclusively occupied by bad fairies and teashops,’ she reported, when she returned. ‘So now we know what he’s waiting for.’
‘If he’s waiting for anything … and I suppose Ihavebecome a bit of a bore on both counts lately,’ I said, ‘though once the tearoom has opened Tilda will run it and I can take a back seat.’
‘That’s what I told him, but I warned him you’d always been away with the fairies and he’d just have to get used to it.’
‘I do keep wondering how the characters from the book I’ve just finished are getting on now,’ I admitted. ‘I’m sure there’s a sequel gathering itself together somewhere in my head.’
‘Let’s hope this one has a bit more happy-ever-after,’ she said, but I told her not to get her hopes up.
When I’d waved her off, I went back indoors. Although I was going out to Oldstone for Sunday lunch next day, I had too much to do this weekend to stay over. There was now less than four days to go till we opened!
But after I’d marzipaned one of the fruitcakes, so I could ice it later, I made the mistake of having a scroll down through my email inbox to see if anything needed answering urgently – and there was one from my editor saying Senga had forwarded the manuscript of my new book and she loved it!
The next bit wasn’t quite so good: the edits for it would be with me in a couple of weeks.
I could see the pace was going to be relentless … and shortly, the telephone messages booking tables began to be relentless, too. I don’t know if it was the draw of my having been the abandoned baby of the moors, or the lure of a teashop promising to feature the rudest waitresses in Yorkshire, but by afternoon, the phone was ringing off the hook with bookings, and there were more by email, too.
I’d begun to check for email hourly anyway, just in case my birth mother chose to communicate that way, but there was nothing from her then or later.
I knew it was still early days, yet with every hour that passed, the faint hope of her contacting me died a little.
Finally, it was the evening before The Fat Rascal opened and we were as ready as we’d ever be.
Tilda, Nell and Daisy had come in that afternoon and laid the tables ready with snowy white cloths and napkins and gleaming cutlery. The float was in the till, the reserved signs put out on every table, and a healthy number of bookings for the rest of the week written into the ledger behind the counter, next to the phone extension.
The beautiful blue and white jug in the bow window was now full of flowers presented to me earlier by Nile, along with a bottle of champagne, and when the others had finally gone home, we retired tomy flat with fish and chips and swilled them down with glasses of bubbly … as you do.
‘Have you heard anything from Robbie?’ Nile asked afterwards as he bagged up the greasy wrappers, ready to put in the bin.
‘No – but then, I haven’t really had time to think about him since he went back to London with Zelda. I’ve been way too busy. Haveyouheard from Zelda?’
‘Well, that’s just the thing,’ he said, a glint of something that looked very like amusement in his grey eyes. ‘She’d gone quiet again and wasn’t picking up her phone, so I checked her Facebook status earlier and … she says she’s in a relationship.’
I stared at him. ‘You can’tpossiblymean …?’
He nodded. ‘Yes – it’s now the Robbie and Zelda Show. I finally got her on the phone and she said Robbie was everything she’d ever looked for in a man.’
‘If she was looking for someone big, good-natured and stupid, then she’s certainly found her match – but I have to say I didn’t see that one coming.’
‘Nor me: it seems a very unlikely pairing.’ He looked at me more seriously. ‘Do you mind?’
‘What, about Robbie? No, of course not!’ I said. ‘I hope it works out well for both of them.’
‘That’s how I feel. And now she wants us to sell the antiques stall and she’s putting her houseboat on the market, because they’re going back to Australia. They’re talking about setting up some kind of white-water rafting adventure centre, or something like that. It’s so un-Zelda, I think she must have had a personality transplant.’
‘Well, I hope she’s soon got a little Joey in her pouch, too,’ I said generously, then suddenly yawned.
‘I feel boneless with exhaustion – but excited at the same time!’ I said.
‘I think you need an early night, ready for your big day,’ Nile agreed, ‘so I’d better leave you to it – but just tell me if you need my help with anything in the morning and I’ll be right across.’
Then he smiled, cupped my face in his hands and kissed me lingeringly on the lips, before going off downstairs to let himself out. Despitemy best intentions, there may have been a bit of reciprocal lip action going on there. I was starting to think my attempts at resistance were futile.
Despite my exhaustion, I didn’t get to bed immediately because both Lola and Edie rang to wish me every success the next day.
I wished they’d been able to come for the opening, but at least I’d have Nile and the rest of the Giddingses to support me. And even if my natural mother never came forward to claim me, I had a new family, for the Giddingses seemed to have absorbed me into the clan by some kind of osmosis.
As I finally drifted off to sleep, I felt as if I was at the top of a helter-skelter, about to get on my mat and slide off into an unknown future.
