Page 30 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘So tell us about this Hogmanay thing?’ Pavel’s mum dragged them back to the previous topic.
‘I thought you wanted to talk about the parents and toddlers?’ Bella asked.
Nina patted a hand to her forehead. ‘Completely slipped my mind. Yes. I hope Pav paid you for storing the play stuff, but we still need to talk about parking and…’
‘Shall we go in the yellow room?’ Bella led Nina away. ‘I’ll let Gemma bring the rest of you up to date.’
Fantastic. Jodie watched her boss disappear into the heart of the castle and lifted her head to meet the three pairs of eyes opposite her. To her side, Pavel was leaning on a cupboard. He didn’t seem so keen to pepper her with questions but his presence was still front and centre of her mind. There was something about the way he looked at her, something far more unnerving than the constant questions about Richmond and Reading and her past career.
She smiled as brightly as she could manage. Gemma would be great at this. Gemma was charming. Gemma didn’t fluster. What would Gemma do?
‘Would you like a cup of tea?’
‘Oh, don’t bother yourself. I can do that.’
Jodie was pushed back onto her stool as Flinty started filling the kettle.
‘You tell us about your big plans.’
‘OK. Well, New Year’s Eve.’
‘Hogmanay.’ All four of them corrected her.
‘Quite. Yeah. Well then, anyway.’ She peered at her notes. She’d tried to write down all the things Bella was saying but her only plan at the moment was to try to read the plan she was claiming to have written to get the job and somehow hope the real Gemma had made it sufficiently detailed that fake Gemma could learn how to stage a gala event from one read-through. That obviously hadn’t happened quite yet though. ‘The plan is for an event, which will be here, at the castle, on Hogmanay, for…’ For what? ‘For people to come to and to be at and…’
‘What people?’
‘People who buy tickets?’ Jodie tried.
‘So long as they’re not a hundred quid a pop like that McKenzie place,’ Flinty muttered.
‘Do they have a Hogmanay party there?’
‘Not like this,’ Flinty conceded. ‘Theirs is more the great and the good for McKenzie to schmooze up to. MPs and MSPs and all that. But if they did sell tickets you can bet they’d cost a pretty penny.’
Jodie wroteprice?on her notepad.
‘Give us the chapter and verse then, love.’ Flinty, still the only one of the three women in front of her she actually knew, folded her arms.
‘Give her a break.’ That was Pavel. He was looking straight at her. Jodie looked back and caught his gaze. She found she was smiling.
Three other heads also swivelled towards Pavel, all offering much harder stares.
‘It’s only her first day.’
Flinty stepped back from the table and started pouring boiling water into the teapot.
‘Have you even introduced yourselves?’ Pavel added.
‘We met last night,’ Flinty replied.
‘And I’m Anna. I run the village shop.’ The older of the two strangers nodded a greeting. ‘And this is Netty. Nina’s through with Bella.’ She shot a look at Pavel. ‘All friends now.’
Flinty was pouring the tea. Anna was talking again. Netty was joining in too. From the hallway she could hear Dipper barking.
‘So how many people at this thing?’
Jodie barely registered the question.
