Page 95 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
Fiona still looked bemused. ‘Jodie’s family?’
‘That’s right. I lived near them when I was younger. When Jodie moved to Reading her mum asked me to keep an eye out, you know?’
‘Right.’ Fiona rallied. ‘What a coincidence.’
‘Isn’t it?’ Diane squeezed Jodie’s arm. ‘Are you doing this lantern-walk thing? It sounds absolutely lovely. Are visitors allowed to join in?’
‘Of course. If you go over there’ – Jodie gestured towards the shop, expecting to see Nina and Anna handing out lights. They seemed to have found a new minion – ‘Jay from Redd Level will give you a lantern.’
Fiona stayed quiet until Diane was out of earshot. ‘I am so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. I do this. I don’t think and I jump to the wrong conclusions and…’
Jodie shook her head. Now she had to add gaslighting Fiona to her list of crimes. ‘No. It’s fine. I mean, I did sort of borrow your Santa. I’m sorry about that.’
Fiona pursed his lips. ‘His contract does say he can’t take any other jobs while he’s with us.’
‘We’re not paying him.’
‘That’s probably technically allowed then.’ She sighed. ‘John will be…’
‘What if we didn’t tell Mr McKenzie?’
Fiona’s face froze as if she was struggling to process this radical idea.
‘I mean, what we all do on our days off isn’t really up to him, is it?’
‘I am his…’ Fiona lowered his voice. ‘We don’t make a show of it in front of people. He’s very private, you know. But I amwithJohn.’
‘He’s not with you today though?’
‘He had to be somewhere else today.’
At home with his wife probably, Jodie thought. And with a flash of certainty she knew she was right. Maybe not a wife, but another Fiona somewhere out there picking up scraps and desperately trying to piece them together into something that made her feel special. She had another question though. ‘Fiona, why did you come to this?’
‘No reason. I was passing through.’
Lowbridge wasn’t a place people passed through. It was barely a place people came to. ‘OK.’ Jodie didn’t bother to hide the scepticism in her voice.
‘Ge…’ Pavel’s voice stopped abruptly. ‘Fiona.’ He smiled. ‘Lovely to see you. And Jodie, hi.’
The recovery was fast enough and Pavel’s big, honest face was trustworthy enough for the slip-up to go unchallenged.
‘We’re starting the walk through the village,’ he told them.
‘Are you going to come?’ Jodie asked.
Fiona shook her head. ‘I should get back. I don’t want to intrude.’
‘You wouldn’t be.’
‘I might. There are plenty of people here who think my family sold out.’ She nodded quickly. ‘Lots to do anyway. And John said he might be around this evening so I should go.’
Jodie watched her leave, heading back to a car parked across from the shop in front of the small pebble beach. ‘I feel sorry for her.’
‘Me too, and she’s wrong.’
‘What about?’
‘People don’t blame her family. They definitely don’t blame her. You’ve seen what it takes to hold on to an estate these days. Adam’s barely managing and he’s got his own business somewhere else.’
