Page 67 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘It’s a good idea though,’ suggested Veronica. ‘To get a person on the inside.’
‘What do you mean, Grandmother?’ Adam asked.
Anna and Nina both glared at him.
‘Sorry. Sorry. I’ll be quiet.’
‘Quite right too, lad,’ Flinty muttered. ‘What do you mean, Veronica?’
‘Obviously nobody here is a mole, but if the McKenzie estate are trying to sabotage things, we’re not going to find out what they’re planning next, sitting here. We need somebody over there.’
‘Pavel might be working over there?’ Bella suggested.
Nina shook her head. ‘Most of that’s not until the new year and it’ll be out at the new spa site, not in the office where he can see what’s going on.’
‘I’m not sure Pavel is built for espionage,’ Jill added.
‘That’s true. He gets all flustered if he has to tell a fib,’ Nina conceded. ‘Always has.’
Jodie could picture Pavel’s honest face, him leaning towards her, just inches away from…
‘Oooh.’ Darcy clapped her hands together and pulled her phone from the pocket of her dark indigo jeans. ‘I saw something. Wait.’ She tapped and scrolled. ‘Here we are.Executive Assistant required. Major Highland Hospitality Business. Duties include… blah, blah, blah. Enquiries by email to Fiona MacCellan. That’s them, isn’t it?’
Bella nodded and shot a look at her fiancé. ‘That’s Fiona that wants in your pants, isn’t it?’
‘She doesn’t want in my pants.’ He caught the look from the group. ‘Sorry. Sorry. Silent observer. She doesn’t though.’
‘She works at the McKenzie place?’ Jill asked.
‘She does,’ Flinty confirmed. ‘It’s sad. The whole place ought to be hers.’ She turned to Jodie. ‘It was her pa that John McKenzie bought most of the land from.’
‘And now she’s their visitor experience manager or some such bollocks,’ Bella added.
Jodie felt, as she so frequently did, that she wasn’t keeping up. ‘OK, but how does her hiring an assistant help us?’
‘I believe that what Darcy is suggesting is that one of us applies for the job,’ Veronica explained.
Bella nodded. ‘And she knows me.’
‘And me, obviously,’ Adam added. ‘Sorry. Silent.’
‘And me,’ Darcy continued. ‘Presumably you too, Jill?’
‘Yep. And also, in case you forget, I do have a full-time gig that isn’t just this place. Reporting to a higher power?’ Jill tapped her dog collar.
The group nodded indulgently. ‘It’s nice for you to have something to do, love.’ Flinty smiled.
‘She knows me as well,’ Nina explained. ‘I taught her and her sisters in primary school.’
‘Well, if I’m the only one,’ Anna sighed dramatically. ‘I suppose I could be persuaded to go undercover.’
For a second even Nina was reduced to silence. Flinty and Veronica exchanged a look. Eventually Bella cracked. ‘I wondered if someone younger might…’
‘Oh. Well, that’s age discrimination straight away.’ Anna folded her arms. ‘I thought you were better than that.’
‘Yes. Well, of course. No. It’s not that. It’s more…’ Bella floundered and gave up.
‘I mean, are you sure she doesn’t know you?’ Jill tried. ‘A lot of people come into the shop.’
