Page 45 of A Recipe for Love
Bella’s jaw dropped.
Flinty nudged her. ‘Don’t look like that, love. Sandra didn’t mind.’
‘Terry’s wife did though.’
‘All right then,’ Anna brought the conversation back to the point. ‘Talent auction but we specify no nudity.’
‘Without the nudity we’d only have made £350. What about topless only?’ Nina grinned.
Netty whispered something inaudible to Bella. The rest of the group roared with laughter. ‘Of course it wouldn’t be compulsory,’ Flinty laughed.
‘Fine,’ Nina said. ‘Fully clothed fundraising only, but preferably something that’ll bring in more than a couple of hundred quid or we’ll be at this for decades.’
‘How much do you need?’
Nina sighed. ‘Forty grand for the roof. That’s the most urgent thing, but then really the whole place needs decorating, and it needs a new boiler, and the oven was condemned so we can’t do food in there. So I don’t know – fifty or sixty ideally.’
Right. ‘And how much have you raised so far?’
All eyes turned to Netty. She mumbled a response. Faces fell slightly.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that.’
‘About three thousand,’ Flinty supplied. ‘And we’ve been fundraising for two years.’
‘Well we had to spend some getting the big hole in the roof patched until we can do it properly. And then that window got broken so we had to board that up. People want to be generous, but money’s tight all over,’ Anna explained. ‘Nina’s right, though. We need something bigger.’
Bella was aware that looks were being exchanged between Nina and Anna, and glances were being thrown towards Flinty and herself squashed together on the little sofa in front of the window. Flinty folded her arms. ‘No.’
‘What’s going on?’
‘These two want to go cap in hand to the bloody enemy.’
‘The what?’
‘The McKenzie estate.’
Bella was entirely lost. ‘I don’t know what that is.’
‘The estate on the other side of the village. They’re big and all…’ Flinty shuddered. ‘Flashy.’
Bella stifled a giggle. Nothing in or around Lowbridge could ever be described as flashy, even the castle itself had a certain tired lived-in air.
‘They’re very successful, Maggie,’ Anna countered. ‘They do whisky tasting, and shooting parties, and all that tartan shortbread bollocks for tourists.’
‘For Americans with more money than sense.’
‘We had thought of asking them for sponsorship. They have a whole thing on their website about community engagement. Forty grand’s pocket change to Johnny McKenzie.’
‘Maggie’s dead against it though,’ Nina added.
‘I certainly am. What’s McKenzie ever done for us? Pushed the MacCellans out of their own home and fenced off a whole lot of land that’s supposed to be open to everyone. He’s a snake. I’ll have nothing to do with him.’
‘He’s a businessman.’
Netty mumbled what sounded like agreement.
‘Quite right,’ Nina agreed. ‘Maybe Lowbridgecoulddo with a bit more of a business head at the helm after…’
