Page 108 of All Wrapped Up
‘Not a clue,’ she shrugged. ‘There have been so many people in and out already this morning, I couldn’t tell you. Sorry, my love.’
She rushed off and I looked at the paper again.
‘Well, let’s hope they’ve learnt their lesson,’ Lizzie tutted. ‘And this prankish bad behaviour has been nipped in the bud.’
‘I think they must have,’ I said. ‘Otherwise, they would have just got rid of the box and not said anything. I daresay Joanne’s right and it was playing on their mind.’
‘Mysteryalmostsolved then,’ Joanne pointed out. ‘And at least now you won’t be expecting the box to turn up or wasting time wondering about who took it.’
‘I feel so bad for assuming that it was Jason,’ I muttered.
‘Well, don’t,’ said Lizzie. ‘He gave you enough cause.’
I was just about to say how he’d now made amends, but we were fast running out of time, so I folded the paper up and slipped it into my pocket.
‘Right,’ said Joanne, rubbing her hands together. ‘Let’s get this show on the road!’
I hadn’t known exactly what the workshop was going to entail, but it was simple enough. The adults were going to decor-ate glass jars and lanterns with leaves Lizzie had previously collected from the Skylark Farm nature trail and dried and the children were making card lanterns with brightly coloured cellophane woodland motif shapes to create a stained-glass effect.
‘I’m going to encourage everyone to use them in the Halloween procession,’ Lizzie told me. ‘They’ll be perfect for that.’
‘Oh yes,’ I agreed, as I helped set everything out. ‘What a wonderful idea. It’s the ideal opportunity to include things from one event in another.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ she smiled. ‘Joanne, you can work with the children’s table today.’
Joanne, for some reason, was reluctant but eventually agreed and headed off to the café to collect the welcome drinks. She looked far less happy than she had when she’d been setting things up and chatting about her move to Australia.
‘I don’t mind working with the children if Joanne would rather not,’ I offered once she’d gone, but Lizzie wouldn’t hear of it.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to subject you to that and put you off my offer!’
‘Subject me to what?’ I frowned.
Right on cue, the gallery door was flung open and in marched a tiny terror who Joanne was going to have the pleasure of helping. Rather her than me.
It was a busy morning, so I didn’t have time to further think about the note in my pocket. Unsurprisingly, I was the object of some interest, but not too much and most of it centred around AutumnEverything. I wasn’t sure if that was because the people present weren’t yet aware that I was a widow or if they were too diplomatic to bring it up. I didn’t have to wait long to find out…
‘Clemmie Bennett,’ tutted the woman who had been in raptures over AutumnEverything at the felting and decoupage workshop. ‘You’re a dark horse! All that talk about that magnifi-cent account we were swooning over and you never said a word.’
‘Well,’ I smiled, as I helped her decide where to paste her selection of leaves, ‘at the time, I was trying to keep it a secret.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ she sighed. ‘From everything I’ve seen online about your husband, I daresay you were worn down with all the attention when he died.’
‘I was,’ I nodded, as Lizzie rushed around the table to check I was okay.
I realised then that everyone was listening and felt my cheeks flush red.
‘And no wonder,’ the woman carried on, the volume of her voice rising. ‘Well, other than I’m very sorry for your loss, my dear, I won’t say a word. Widowed at your age, though. I mean—’
‘This is you not saying a word, is it?’ came a voice from the other side of the table and I looked across to find the person who had pulled her up, shaking her head. ‘I’m sure we’re all very sorry for the lass. Now, let’s leave her in peace, shall we?’
‘Right,’ said Lizzie, as she placed a hand on my shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. ‘Who’s ready to start pasting?’
The noise from the other side of the gallery suggested Joanne wasn’t making much headway with a couple of the children, so I took the opportunity to head over and give her some moral support. With two adults at the table, and enough attention for everyone, things soon settled down.
‘You know what,’ I said, popping in a battery operated tealight and holding up the lantern the most vociferous and bossy child had made. ‘I think you’ve made the scariest one out of all of us.’
He looked thrilled about that.
