Page 49 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘In the mornings you say?’ Flinty added.
‘What do you…’ Bella’s face froze. ‘Morning sickness? No. I mean, it can’t. I mean…’ She pulled her phone from her pocket and opened the calendar app. ‘Oh.’
‘Hello!’ Forty minutes later a voice carried through the castle to the yellow room, where Jodie was squashed onto the sofa between Flinty and Darcy, while Veronica was sitting neatly on the wing-backed chair near the fire and Bella paced up and down along the full length of the room.
Pavel was standing quietly by the door, having tried to make his excuses several times and been instructed to stay right where he was by everyone from Veronica down.
Finally a body associated with the voice appeared in the doorway. The woman was in her thirties, wrapped in a bright pink coat over jeans, cherry-red Doc Martens, a head of hair that looked entirely uncontrollable and, Jodie noted, a dog collar. This must be Pavel’s famous vicar. She stopped in the doorway when she saw him. ‘Oh. Pav.’
And then she looked up.
‘Oh. And everyone. I didn’t realise this was a group activity.’
‘Did you get it?’
Jill nodded, and pulled a small carrier bag from the capacious pocket of her coat.
‘And not from the village shop?’ Bella asked.
‘Straight out of the vestry.’
Jodie was as confused as she’d ever been. ‘You keep pregnancy tests in your vestry?’
‘Yep. Imagine being a young lass round here who’s worried. Buy one of these in the village shop, or even in Lochcarron, your dad’ll know before you’ve even got it home. And there’s not a chemist until…’ She frowned.
‘Portree,’ Veronica offered.
‘And you don’t want a trip in Pav’s boat if you’ve got morning sickness.’ She grinned. ‘No offence, Pav.’ She looked around the room. ‘Although in this case, Bel, I think most of the village might already know.’
Veronica shook her head. ‘Not at all. Only family here.’ She glanced across the room. ‘And Miss Bryant.’
‘And me and Pav,’ Jill pointed out.
Veronica waved a hand to suggest that either they were family or they didn’t count as being here. ‘The point is, nobody here will say a word. Will they?’
A room full of adults stared at the floor and shook their heads as one.
‘Very good.’
Jill looked up first and the whirlwind of brightness and big hair finally stopped with her beam of attention on Jodie. ‘You must be Gemma.’
‘Yes. I must.’
‘Are you a hugger? I’m a hugger.’
There wasn’t room to be hugged or hugger on the cramped settee but it didn’t seem to deter Jill one bit, and Jodie found herself enveloped in warmth and perfume and goodwill.
‘So great to have you here. Have you settled in all right? Do you need anything?’
‘I’m fine.’
Veronica cleared her throat. ‘Reverend, are we perhaps getting a little distracted from the main point?’ She nodded towards Bella, who had managed to stop pacing but was now rooted to the spot, turning increasingly pale.
‘Right. Yes. Of course.’ She held the pregnancy test out to Bella. ‘You just pee and wait.’
‘Right.’
‘Shall we wait here?’ Jill asked.
