Page 40 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
Jodie pulled her phone out of her pocket. She’d switched it to silent while trying, and failing, to sleep, but now she saw her notifications were going crazy. It wasn’t just comments on the original post. It was duets and stitches on Instagram and TikTok. She tapped to see more. Old Man Strachan declaring, ‘Stick it in the bin, love. Stick ’em all in the bin,’ had been repurposed for discussion of bad boyfriends, toxic bosses and multiple governments. ‘Strachan’s going viral,’ she giggled.
Adam nodded. ‘And look at this too.’ He flicked to the Messenger screen from the cookery school’s Facebook page. ‘So many new enquiries about the cookery school off the back of it too. People want to learn to cook at the place the sprout guy goes to.’
Bella’s jaw fell open. ‘Oh my God.’ She jumped up out of her seat and wrapped Jodie in a hug. ‘Thank you.’
‘I don’t… I didn’t…’ This hadn’t been planned. It was one stupid clip. It was luck. Not skill. Jodie shook her head. ‘I didn’t know it would do that.’
‘But it did. And you did it!’ Bella squealed.
She had done this, hadn’t she? Jodie exhaled. None of this changed anything. She couldn’t stay. She was still going to slip up at some point. National Insurance. Forgetting where she grew up. Failing entirely to know how to plan a big event. Something was going to catch her out.
‘And that’s not all.’ Adam opened a different screen on his computer and placed it down on the island unit between them. It was open on the castle’s official website. ‘I know we’d only talked about it but Bel was so excited. She woke me up at about half-five and I figured once we were both awake we might as well get stuff done, so the website is officially updated.’
Finally Jodie focused properly on the screen in front of her.
Lowbridge Castle Hogmanay Gala! Book tickets
No. No. ‘You’re selling tickets?’
‘Well, we’re not exactly flush for time,’ Adam pointed out. ‘Only two months to go, and imagine if you did all the work and nobody came.’
‘That would be awful,’ Bella replied.
‘And it would probably pretty much bankrupt us,’ Adam added. ‘I’m sure that won’t happen though. In fact we already have our first two bookings.’
‘What?’ Jodie whispered.
‘I mean, it’s Nina and Anna, who must be cyberstalking us to get in that fast, but still. They bought four tickets each, so they can stalk away. Darcy’s putting the basic info up on our socials right now, and sending something for the parish newsletter and Visit Highlands and Lowbridge Online. I’m sure you’ll be able to make some cool videos and stuff as well though?’
The metaphorical stable door was open. Jodie’s horse was miles away skipping across the mountains beyond her control.
Bella was beaming. ‘It’s so exciting. Seriously, this is a whole new phase for us, and I feel like it’s the proper beginning of everything Lowbridge could be. Still with the cookery and the garden and all the produce at its heart but more than that. Bringing people here and…’ She grinned. ‘Sorry. I know how I get. I fell in love with this whole place as soon as I got here. There’s this spot up past the walled garden, right up on the cliff where you can see right out to Skye and there’s the sea and the clouds and everything feels possible.’
‘I know where you mean.’ Jodie had stood there herself. She’d felt the calm and the vastness of possibility and, for once, it hadn’t terrified her.
‘More enquiries for the cookery school, and a good Hogmanay would make a real difference?’ Bella was looking at Adam for confirmation.
‘It could.’
‘So we could really stay here?’
Adam nodded. ‘And keep the estate together.’
‘Is it really that desperate?’ Jodie asked.
‘Yeah. We’re still waiting for the final inheritance-tax bill from my dad, but even with a payment plan I can’t see how we’ll manage without selling a massive piece of land at least. And the most likely person to want to buy around here is McKenzie.’
‘And he’ll squeeze and squeeze and make it harder and harder for anyone else to survive.’ Bella shook her head. ‘Sorry. We didn’t want to put all this on you.’
But it was all on Jodie.
‘I know you’re going to do everything you can anyway.’
Jodie nodded.
‘What was it you were trying to tell me?’ Bella asked.
‘What?’
