Page 99 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘What?’
‘You were in a world of your own for a moment.’
‘Thinking about what we might do tonight.’ Which suddenly didn’t involve a can of summer-white emulsion at all.
‘Miss Bryant.’ Veronica interrupted what was about to be a very detailed and quite explicit explanation of how little sleep Pavel Stone was going to get that night. ‘Could I have a word?’
‘OK.’ Jodie dropped Pavel’s hand. ‘I’ll see you back at the Dower House? It’s not locked if you’re there before me.’
She followed Veronica out of the courtyard and into the lane outside the coach house. Veronica looked to each side as if to confirm that they were alone.
‘My dear.’ There was something in Veronica’s tone that set Jodie’s nerves on edge already. ‘I’ll come straight to the point. I overheard your conversation with Miss MacCellan and the lady who was visiting from Reading earlier.’
‘Right.’ Jodie didn’t respond straight away. What had Veronica heard? Maybe she hadn’t got the whole story.
‘Just when I feared you were exposed and Miss MacCellan was going to realise that you were, literally, working for the enemy, you were saved.’
‘Yes.’
‘By someone who knew you long before you came here.’
So she’d heard enough. More than enough. ‘Yes.’
‘Who thought you really were Jodie Simpson.’
‘Yes.’
‘Which should make no sense at all.’
Should?
‘But actually a lot of things slipped into place.’
Now Jodie was confused. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The lack of National Insurance number.’
‘I just couldn’t find…’ she started.
Veronica held up a hand. ‘Don’t. When we interviewed you… sorry. When we interviewed Gemma Bryant, I wasn’t convinced she was the right fit for Lowbridge.’
That was ridiculous. Gemma was the perfect fit everywhere she went.
‘But, even if it pains me, this is not my estate any more. I must let my grandson and his fiancée have their heads. And they were quite taken with her…’ Veronica paused. ‘Shall we say her poise? So imagine my confusion when you turned up.’
‘Are you saying I’m not poised?’
‘You, young lady, are a walking chaos engine.’ Veronica’s face cracked ever so slightly into a hint of a smile. ‘Much more our sort of person, I would say.’
Was that another lifeline being thrown her way? ‘You’re not cross.’
The smile vanished. ‘I am furious. With myself for not nipping this in the bud much earlier. I knew something was wrong, but I don’t know. Maybe I’m getting old but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.’ She looked Jodie squarely in the eye. ‘You are, I take it, not Gemma Bryant?’
She could try to lie her way out of things. She could probably buy herself a little more time, but a little more time was all it would be. Veronica was clever and she knew, in her gut, that she was right. She’d squirrel out the evidence whether Jodie came clean or not. ‘I’m not.’
It was almost a relief.
‘Presumably there is a real Gemma somewhere?’
