Page 79 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘I have had a lot of what you would call fancy dinners, but I think my favourite food would be a buttered crumpet.’ Veronica nodded. Job done.
‘You have to say more than that. Why’s it your favourite?’
‘It’s what my…’ There was a fraction of a hesitation, but only a fraction. ‘My partner brings me in bed if I’m ill. Food made with love, that’s the best thing, I think.’ She turned to Gemma. ‘Is that enough?’
Flinty nodded. ‘Even better than Old Man Strachan’s bin bit.’
‘That was perfect. Thank you.’ Gemma took the phone from Flinty. ‘I should go and…’ She rushed back out of the kitchen towards the courtyard.
Pavel followed. ‘Gemma!’
She’d stopped in the courtyard. He jogged over to her. ‘Are you OK?’
She nodded. ‘I’m fine. Just, I don’t know… I made Ge… my girlfriend breakfast in bed not very long before she moved out. I’d really made an effort, you know. Scrambled eggs, and I knew they weren’t quite right cos they were runnier than I thought they were supposed to be, and our toaster was weird so one side of the bread was a bit darker than it should have been, but I really tried.’
She was talking too quickly, words tumbling over each other.
‘It wasn’t good enough though.’ Gemma was tapping her hand against her leg.
Pavel’s heart went out to her. ‘Why did you break up?’ he asked.
‘She got a job in Cornwall. She worked in hospitality for a restaurant and then she got another job…’
‘Is that where you met?’
‘What?’
‘Working for restaurants?’
For a second Gemma’s face was blank and then it was like someone had hit reboot. ‘Yeah. Yeah. I worked for Pizza Now. That’s how we met. And then she moved. And now I’m here.’ She folded her arms across her body.
Pavel felt like he’d done something wrong. She’d been upset before but she’d been open. Now she’d closed down. He couldn’t piece her together. He’d seen her panic the first day she’d arrived. He’d seen her desperate to run away. He’d seen her charming everyone at Lowbridge with her impulsiveness and sense of fun. He’d seen her covered in dust in the ballroom, just on the brink, he thought, of kissing him.
But then there was another Gemma. A Gemma who watched every word she said, a Gemma he caught in the corner of his eye watching and thinking, a Gemma who seemed terrified of making a wrong move.
He couldn’t place the two Gemmas together. The second Gemma was here now. ‘I’d best get back,’ she said.
By the next morning’s meeting with John, Jodie’s murderous fantasies were becoming more elaborate. Maybe she could feed his tie into the shredder and just watch as it slowly pulled his whole body after it. Maybe it was possible to suffocate someone by laminating them. He was, she was sure, only saved by the brevity of the meeting.
As soon as he was out of the door Jodie set about finding an excuse to get out of Fiona’s immediate eyeline for a while. Her interrogation from Veronica on the way home the previous day had really pressed home that she needed to get on with some actual spying as soon as possible. ‘So you’ve got checking on the spa team on the list for today? I could do that?’
Despite Fiona being adamant that John took the lead on the physical maintenance and development of the estate, overseeing the builders still seemed to be on Fiona’s to-do list.
‘Would you mind?’
‘Not at all.’
‘Great. If you could make sure they’ve got everything they need that would be so helpful. I’m overrun with things for New Year.’
‘I can help with that too?’ Jodie offered.
Fiona nodded. ‘It’s fine. It’s in hand.’
‘Whatever needs doing when I’m back.’ Damn. She’d engineered a pass out from the office right when she needed to be here looking over Fiona’s shoulder. ‘Whatever you need.’
The short walk over to the spa site took Jodie past the whisky experience area and beyond the bird feeders, which were sadly devoid of birds. Actually the whole estate was eerily quiet. At Lowbridge there was the constant sound of the sea, and the gulls overhead, and of people coming and going, kids playing in the courtyard on parents and toddlers days, students arriving for the cookery school, pots bubbling on the stove. And birdsong. When you stepped outside and walked up the path towards Adam’s garden and the top of the headland there was birdsong.
The building site was fully up and running. She scoured around for Tom, the lead contractor, and tried not to look disappointed when she saw him. ‘Jodie.’ He waved in greeting.
