Page 16 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘And I’m the cook obviously.’
‘Bit more than that,’ Adam interrupted. ‘Bella is the absolute driving force behind all of this.’
‘It’s a team effort, but I run the cookery school and actually teach the classes.’
So there was an estate and a cookery school. Jodie tried to nod like someone who totally understood what running those things would involve.
‘And I’ve got so many ideas but there are only so many hours in the day. Like we could develop the garden more.’ She squeezed her fiancé’s arm. ‘You’re growing so much amazing stuff now but next summer we’re going to have a glut so if we could do a pop-up farm shop?’
‘We don’t want to compete with Anna and Hugh.’
Bella shook her head. ‘Of course not.’ She turned back to Jodie. ‘They run the village shop.’
‘And Anna is slightly terrifying,’ Adam added.
‘She’s not that bad, but yeah. It all needs thought. And marketing! We’re all over the place with that.’ Bella grinned. ‘We were so excited when you said you’d designed campaigns for Pizza Now!’
Had Gemma done that? She definitely remembered a phase when they got free takeaways.
‘So we know you’re going to be so much help with promotion and marketing. We’ve got Instagram and a Facebook page but I never know what to put on it. And there’s a lot more to marketing than that, isn’t there? I bet you’ve got loads of ideas.’
‘Well…’
‘But Hogmanay first. That’s what we’re most excited about. That whole plan is incredible.’
Jodie swallowed hard.That whole plan?What plan?
‘So bold to suggest putting on such a big event so soon. That’s what we need though, isn’t it?’ Bella turned to her fiancé. ‘Bit of ambition?’
‘Sure.’
‘So what do we need to do first?’
Jodie was screwed. Apparently there was a whole plan that she was supposed to know about and she was also supposed to be some sort of digital-marketing guru. They were all waiting for her to speak. What would Gemma say? Business things probably. Important, clever business things. ‘So… I think the strategic thing to do would be to really think strategically and focus in on the strategy and make sure we have the right…’ Jodie paused. She couldn’t say strategy again. What were other words?
Adam held up his hand with a smile. ‘No work after six on a Sunday. Come on, Bel. She’s been travelling all day. She’s barely had time to unpack.’
Hadn’t started unpacking, actually.
‘Give the woman a minute to get settled.’
‘Sorry.’
‘It’s OK.’ Jodie smiled as brightly as she could. It wasn’t OK. By her reckoning she had until about tomorrow lunchtime to work out how to do Gemma’s job, once she’d worked out what on earth that job was.
Once Bella started dishing out food the conversation moved on, allowing Jodie a few minutes’ respite. The rich meaty sauce sent warmth through Jodie’s body. She’d always thought of comfort food as nursery food – fish fingers and beans, dippy egg and soldiers – food that was easy and that brought back the safety of childhood. This was something else. This was very grown-up comfort – luxurious and heartening. If this was the rejected practice batch, Jodie could only imagine the final version must be food beyond her puny understanding.
Bella chewed thoughtfully. ‘I put a little bit more pork in the finished one. It adds flavour but keeps it moist as well.’
‘This is perfect,’ Jodie insisted. She would love to be able to cook like this.
Darcy nodded.
‘Bella’s never entirely happy with a recipe,’ Adam explained. ‘She’s always got an idea for how to make it a little bit better.’
While they ate, Adam and Darcy filled her in on a bit more of the history of Lowbridge Castle. By the time she was pushing her bowl away after her second portion, she thought she had it clear in her head. Adam was Baron Lowbridge, generally known by people who bothered as ‘the laird’ or, given how recently he’d inherited the title, ‘the new laird’. Darcy shrugged at that. ‘I was the lady for fifteen years and I was always the new lady.’
‘You’re still the lady,’ Bella pointed out.
