Page 48 of All Wrapped Up
‘You’re doing brilliantly,’ she said, in a hushed tone. ‘I know it’s been hard, felt impossible at times, but you’ve taken the right step at every turn. You’ve given yourself time and there’slittle that’s more precious than that. You’ve tuned in to what you’ve needed and allowed yourself to accept it…’
I was completely taken aback, and my initial reaction was to want to ask her if she was talking about how I had stepped in to manage the festival, but the quickest glance into her eyes, eyes that felt like they could see into the very depths of my soul, told me she wasn’t referring to that at all.
‘You’re almost there, you know,’ she whispered and the pressure of her hand increased a little. ‘If you could just find it in your heart to—’
‘Come on, Clemmie,’ said Ash, and Molly let me go. ‘Come and look at this.’
‘Are you all right?’ Hayley frowned at me as I walked over. ‘You look a bit peaky.’
The truth was, I had been more than a little unsettled by Molly’s words. It wasn’t every day I encountered someone like her and her words of wisdom, for want of a better expression, had felt a little too personal for my liking. Especially given that I had kept my private life very private since my move to the Fens and that I’d never laid eyes on her before.
‘Ohhh,’ Hayley then said, drawing the word out as she glanced to the other side of the room where her friend was now looking out of the window towards town. ‘It was Molly, wasn’t it? What did she say to you? Something lovely, I hope. She doesn’t always engage the old filter when she feels the need to share whatever it is she’s… received.’
‘Received?’ Ash questioned. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Nothing,’ I said, with a quick glance at Molly myself. ‘It was nothing.’
‘She’s already told me the autumn festival is going to be ahuge success.’ Hayley grinned. ‘So, I hope it was something along those lines.’
‘Beautiful branding will help make it a success,’ I said, as I tried to pull myself together and change the subject. ‘So, come on, let’s look at what you’ve so kindly designed.’
‘Here you go then,’ said Hayley, as she pulled some sheets from an A3 notepad towards us with a flourish. ‘Take a look at these.’
‘Wow!’ I said as I made the hugest effort to forget Molly and focus on Hayley’s art.
We loved everything she had come up with, but in the end, between us Ash and I settled on a banner featuring entwined autumn leaves and pumpkins and a simple, but bold font to go with it.
‘That’s it. That’s perfect,’ Ash said excitedly, as a few minutes later, Hayley expertly melded the two together via her laptop and then mocked up a poster so we could see the overall effect.
‘And the colours?’ Hayley prompted.
‘Perfect,’ I confirmed, admiring the red, orange, brown and mustard hues. ‘Classy and classic, exactly the aesthetic I was hoping for.’
They were very similar to those I’d used to decorate the rooms at Rowan Cottage and the palette I favoured for AutumnEverything, but obviously, I kept that to myself.
‘In that case, I’ll mail them to you now,’ Hayley said, suiting the action to the words. ‘And once you’ve got all of the events confirmed, you can start advertising them using the designs you’ve settled on.’
It was all going to look beautiful.
‘And not a moment too soon,’ I said with a glance at the schedule I’d spread out on the table for us to refer to. ‘We’relaunching in just over a week, so we need to keep pushing on now. Thank you so much, Hayley. You’re incredibly talented and your design is perfect.’
‘It was a pleasure to come up with it,’ she smiled, while she also looked at the calendar of events I was hoping to soon confirm. ‘But how are on earth are you going to oversee all of this lot, Clemmie? There’s so much here.’
‘I’m helping,’ said Ash.
‘And I’m not actually running the events myself,’ I told her. ‘I’m pulling it all together and keeping everyone up to date online, but the events, workshops, clubs etc are being completely overseen by the person or people hosting them. I’m just doing the admin stuff and running the calendar and, so far, it’s under control…’
‘So,’ Ash nudged. ‘Does that mean that you might end up not needing me after all?’
‘Want you rather than need you, might be a better way of putting it,’ said Molly as she joined us at the table. ‘And she’ll certainly do that.’
‘She’s off again,’ said Hayley, rolling her eyes.
‘Do you want me, Clemmie?’ Ash asked.
‘Of course I do,’ I stoically said, ignoring the impossible implications of Molly’s words. ‘You’re my right-hand man and I’m going to delegate all the trickiest stuff to you.’
‘Great,’ Ash snorted. ‘I’ll look forward to that.’
