Christmas at the Little Village Bakery

by Tilly Tennant

  ‘Mum, Dad, maybe we can catch up with Ruth properly at the Dog and Hare later? It’s Frank Stephenson’s turn to man the bar, and I think you’re helping him, aren’t you, Ruth?’

  ‘Yes, I—’

  ‘Wonderful!’ Spencer said. ‘That’s all settled then. We’ll be in around eight.’

  Ushering his parents and Tori inside, he shut the door, leaving Ruth in the snow. Tori stared at him.

  ‘I can’t believe you left that poor old lady out there!’ she said, half laughing but looking slightly shocked all the same.

  ‘Trust me,’ Lewis said with a chuckle, ‘that old lady is tougher than she looks. She probably has enough whisky in her bloodstream to fight off hypothermia for days on end.’

  Spencer nodded agreement. ‘If you’re going to live in Honeybourne there’s a lot you need to learn about its residents or it’ll drive you potty.’

  As soon as he said it, he bit his lip, colouring as his gaze went to the floor. They had talked vaguely about where they were going to live when they got married, each scared to say something that would upset the other, but it was the first time he had said something that so obviously assumed they would end up in England. He’d done it completely unconsciously, but it was out of order and Tori would think so too. He realised there were going to be tears on one side or the other, because although she hadn’t said it outright, he knew Tori wanted to stay in Colorado as much as he wanted to come back to England.

  But whatever she was thinking, she offered no reply, clearly courteous enough towards his parents to wait until they were alone. Instead, she turned to them and smiled. ‘How was your flight?’

  ‘Boring,’ Lewis said, ‘as all flights are. When you step on a plane, the only thing you want to do is step off again as quickly as possible.’

  ‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Tori said. ‘When we came over from the States a couple of days ago I thought the flight was going to last forever. If I’d been handed a parachute, I think I would have happily used it.’

  ‘Oh dear,’ Jenny smiled. ‘I’m glad they didn’t give you a parachute or we’d have had a very strange Christmas. Have your parents arrived yet?’

  ‘Not yet. They’re flying in tomorrow and we’re going to collect them – I thought it might be easier as they’ve never been to the UK before.’

  ‘Wise,’ Lewis said, ‘public transport here when you’re not used to it can be a baptism of fire. They’d never want to visit you again.’

  Spencer winced inwardly. There it was again, the assumption that they’d settle in England, only this time his dad had put his foot in it. Lewis could hardly be blamed for the mistake, but it wasn’t going to go down well with Tori or her parents if it kept happening. He resolved to have a quiet word with his mum and dad later when she was out of earshot and realised that he probably should have briefed them before. ‘Let me take your bags to the bedroom,’ he said, moving things into safer territory.

  ‘I hope you haven’t felt the need to give up your room for us,’ Jenny said as they followed him through into the living room.

  ‘Actually, we did think it would be nicer for you to have the bigger room,’ Tori said.

  ‘Which does happen to be mine… And used to be yours, of course,’ Spencer added.

  Jenny waved her hands. ‘It’s not necessary. When you’ve slept on the floor of a shanty in São Paulo you can cope with a small room in a perfectly nice cottage in England. It’s really not necessary for you to worry about where we sleep.’

  ‘Speak for yourself,’ Lewis said. ‘I’ve fallen asleep in far too many lab chairs this last couple of years to do my back any good. I’ll take a bit of luxury and you can keep your shack in South America.’

  Jenny slapped him on the arm, but it was done with a smile. ‘Honestly. You’d take your only son’s bed?’

  ‘Yes,’ Lewis grinned. ‘Without hesitation.’

  ‘Your cooking skills have definitely improved,’ Jenny said, swallowing a forkful of the lasagne Spencer had set in front of them. He took a seat at the table with a broad grin as he reached for the pepper grinder.

  ‘They couldn’t have got worse. And I had Tori to help too, don’t forget.’

  ‘That would explain it,’ Lewis laughed. He turned to Tori. ‘Have you ever before met a man who could burn a tin of beans?’

  ‘I didn’t think I had,’ Tori smiled.

  ‘It was less about my lack of cooking skills and more about being distracted from the task,’ Spencer protested. ‘You would be telling me about some new supernova that had just been found or Mum would be showing me photos from whatever war torn country she’d just got back from. It’s no wonder I forgot about the beans in the pan. It wasn’t easy growing up in a house full of genius.’

  ‘Well I’m not going to apologise for giving you an interesting childhood,’ Jenny said.

  ‘I wouldn’t have had it any other way…’ Spencer dropped some salad onto his plate. ‘But there were certainly a lot of normal skills that I had to wait to develop.’

  ‘You took a long time to develop a lot of things,’ Jenny said, winking at Lewis. Spencer looked up sharply, but she didn’t say the thing he was afraid she had been about to say. Instead, she turned her attention to Tori. ‘So, tell us something about yourself. We’ve heard Spencer’s version, but what makes you tick?’

  ‘I’m not all that complicated,’ Tori laughed. ‘I certainly didn’t grow up in a house full of genius. My childhood was pretty conventional. My parents are both lawyers and I had a regular upbringing. They worked pretty long hours so I spent a lot of time with my grandma, but she passed away five years ago. They’re good people and I was happy.’ She shrugged. ‘Not much else to tell, really.’

  ‘There must be more to you than that,’ Jenny insisted. ‘What about you as a person? What are you into, what gets you excited, makes you mad? You must have hopes and dreams for the future.’

  ‘I don’t worry too much about the future. Right now I’m happy with Spencer, and I want to get married and settle down, maybe get a promotion at work, then we’ll see where life wants to go from there.’

  ‘A good philosophy.’ Lewis nodded approvingly. ‘You can map your life journey until the stars go out, but life will always have a way of forcing you to take a detour. The best you can do is be ready to go with the flow.’

  ‘I suppose it will be a huge change coming to live in England as it is,’ Jenny agreed, ‘you don’t want to create too many other complications just yet.’

  Spencer choked on his wine. ‘Mum!’ he spluttered. ‘We haven’t really decided where we’re going to live after we’re married.’

  ‘Oh? So you might not come to England?’

  ‘We’re still thinking it over,’ Tori said.

  ‘But…’ Jenny glanced at Lewis. ‘Colorado is so far away.’

  Spencer stared at her. ‘How can you say that when your job takes you much further away?’

  ‘That’s different. I don’t live in those places.’

  ‘You live in Spain! What difference does it make to you if I’m in England or not?’

  ‘We’re only in Spain until your dad’s research project comes to an end, then we may well move again. And Spain is a lot closer to England than it is to America. I’ll want to visit my grandchildren, won’t I?’

  ‘Steady on! Nobody has mentioned kids yet!’

  ‘Of course not,’ Jenny said in an irritatingly level voice. ‘But it will happen, won’t it?’

  ‘I suppose… But then Tori’s parents will be just as keen to see their grandchildren. And we can’t assume that it’s ok for them to travel thousands of miles all the time.’

  ‘I’m sure they would if they had to.’

  ‘I’m sure they would too, but that’s not really the point.’ Spencer grabbed his wine glass and took a gulp. Why did conversations with his parents always end up with him feeling frustrated? He had wanted this to be a nice dinner where they could get to know Tori, and now it was turning into a battlegro
und. Tori shot him a hopeless glance. She was clearly feeling the pressure of being in the middle of a stand-off and it wasn’t fair to do this to her. He smoothed his features into a tight smile. ‘So, Mum… Is your Spanish housekeeper managing to keep her clothes on these days?’

  Jenny raised her eyebrows. ‘Well, we haven’t caught her cleaning in the nude for at least three months, but we suspect that’s down to the temperature drop more than the telling off we give her when we catch her. I have no objections at all to naturists, but the only full moon I want to see after a hard day at work is the one in the sky.’

  Tori’s eyes widened. ‘She cleans in the nude?’

  ‘Only when she thinks we’re not around. We laughed at first, but then it really started to get too much.’

  ‘She said it was because she gets hot,’ Lewis added, chewing serenely. ‘But she’s about ninety, so we think maybe she’s doing it to be belligerent… Like that poem.’

  Tori frowned and glanced at Spencer for clarification.

  ‘You probably haven’t heard it,’ Jenny said, ‘but it’s something like when I am old I will wear purple and red and basically go out of my way to piss people off, just for the hell of it because I’m old.’

  ‘Kind of like Ruth,’ Spencer said with a grin.

  Tori gave a bemused smile. ‘No, I’ve never heard that poem. I’ll be sure to look it up, though.’

  ‘Anyway,’ Jenny continued, ‘I have a feeling Bonita has reached that stage of her life. But she does work bloody hard, and she’s reliable, and I really wouldn’t want to part with her, despite the occasional peep show.’

  ‘If we ever employ a cleaner I’ll be sure to check whether she’s partial to taking her clothes off while she’s got the hoover out,’ Spencer smiled. ‘I’m not sure I could be as forgiving about it as you.’

  ‘Me neither,’ Tori said, ‘especially if she was young and hot. I wouldn’t want her leading my husband astray.’

  ‘I don’t think you’d need to worry on that score,’ Lewis said. ‘Spencer’s never been what you’d call a ladykiller.’

  ‘Thanks, Dad,’ Spencer frowned. ‘Make me sound like a complete loser who couldn’t get a girlfriend.’

  Tori gave a little laugh, but she looked uncertain as to whether she should be laughing or not.

  Jenny turned to her. ‘For years we honestly thought he was gay.’

  ‘Mum! Do we have to have this conversation? As you can see, I am quite straight so you needn’t worry any longer.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have had a problem with it,’ Jenny replied. ‘As I told you on many occasions. I just wanted you to be open and honest with us.’

  ‘And I told you on every occasion that I wasn’t gay,’ Spencer said, trying to keep his voice level.

  ‘Yes… We realised that when you started following Jasmine Smith around like a lost puppy. You were so obviously smitten that we knew we’d been mistaken.’

  Spencer shoved a forkful of lasagne into his mouth so he wouldn’t have to reply, and hoped that Tori wouldn’t work out that Jasmine Smith was now Jasmine Green. Not because he had anything to hide, but he’d somehow never got around to telling Tori the truth. The trouble was, he was beginning to realise that he would always have feelings for Jasmine, and sometimes he worried that it was a bit more obvious to onlookers than it should be.

  ‘You never mentioned a girlfriend named Jasmine before,’ Tori said, her eyes narrowing a little. Had she already worked it out?

  ‘Oh no, he never went out with Jasmine – daft sod never asked her,’ his mother helpfully chipped in. ‘He was friends with her brother. They still live in the village.’ She turned to Spencer, oblivious to the fact that his face was burning. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing Dylan again. Who’d have thought he would have settled down and got himself a baby?’

  Tori looked from one to the other but said nothing, clearly piecing together what she had just heard and arriving at the truth.

  ‘But that’s all in the past now,’ Spencer said, forcing a laugh. ‘I was a daft teenager. And she’s been married for years.’

  ‘Rich Green,’ Jenny snorted. ‘He’s alright but I could never see what he had that you didn’t.’

  ‘Muscles, for a start,’ Spencer said, hoping the attempt at humour would defuse the situation. What was Tori making of all this? Their relationship had yet to be tested in that way. He had no idea if she was the jealous type or not, but he didn’t fancy finding out – and not so close to home when so many other problems could be raked up with it.

  ‘Didn’t you have a fight with Dylan Smith?’ Lewis said, looking at Spencer thoughtfully.

  Oh, God, not this as well!

  ‘You had a fight?’ Tori turned to him, her eyes wide now in genuine shock.

  ‘It was over something and nothing and we’re ok now,’ Spencer said quickly.

  ‘I just can’t imagine you fighting.’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t so much a fight, because that implies that both parties were capable of fighting. It was more Dylan throwing a punch and me lying on the floor afterwards.’

  ‘I can’t imagine Dylan fighting either,’ Tori said, shaking her head. ‘He seems so sweet.’

  ‘There’s a lot more than meets the eye in this village,’ Jenny said. ‘It might look like a chocolate box place, but there’ve been scandals enough through the years to keep the longest running soap opera in scripts.’

  ‘That’s what everyone keeps telling me. Is that why you left?’

  ‘Oh no,’ Jenny laughed. ‘Why would I leave that much fun behind? No, we moved when Lewis got handed this research project. I expect we’ll come back one day soon.’

  Spencer looked up at her over the rim of his glass. Only with the greatest sarcasm could he say he was looking forward to that prospect right now. Judging by the complications they had already caused him after being home for less than a day, married life in America was looking more appealing by the second.

  Ruth sneezed again. It was far louder than it needed to be and Spencer knew that it was for his benefit. Ruth’s memory wasn’t what it had once been, but when it came to petty slights she was as sharp as one of Jasmine Green’s put-downs. Spencer shot Tori and his parents an exasperated look as they stood at the bar of the Dog and Hare, apparently not a bit tired after their long day of travelling and embarrassing their son, and now ready for some hard drinking at the pub they fondly still referred to as their local, even though they now lived in a trendy, bar-filled suburb of Barcelona.

  ‘Look,’ Spencer said to Ruth again, ‘I’m sorry about you being caught in the snowstorm. I would have asked you in but—’

  ‘He forgot his manners,’ Jenny said, firing a mischievous grin at her son. ‘But we have given him a jolly good scolding and he won’t do it again.’

  Spencer bit back a grin. While he hadn’t missed his mum and dad’s sometimes embarrassing behaviour, he had missed their humour.

  Ruth grunted as she polished a pint glass but offered no reply – which in itself was a weird occurrence. The glass didn’t really need polishing, but presumably it made her feel as if she looked the part, which had been given to her only when Ruth had looked like she would burst into tears at being left off the emergency shift rota. There had been some mention of her age and health and she’d looked even more devastated. In the end, it had been easier to let her do it. Colleen was back on duty too, and seemed happier than she had done for days now that Doug was home. He was in no state to do work of any kind, but Spencer imagined that the pub must have felt vast and empty at night without him there. He could see why having him back would cheer her up. Doug was currently in the living quarters watching TV and probably feeling useless but at least calm and happy to be home. That might all change the next day, when Tori’s parents would arrive to take the largest guest suite, because he had a feeling they were going to shake things up even more than his own parents had.

  They were spared further grovelling to Ruth when Jasmine and Millie arrived, giggling l
ike a couple of schoolgirls sneaking out and already drunk on their parents’ stolen home brew. At the sight of Jenny and Lewis, Jasmine broke into a huge smile and flew at them with a squeal.

  ‘Hey!’ she cried in a flurry of pink curls and wool, throwing her arms around them both at the same time. ‘I’m so happy to see you!’

  After warm hugs and expressions of delight, Jasmine finally stepped back to appraise them both. ‘You look really well,’ she said with a tone of approval. ‘In fact, you both look incredible. How do you manage to stay so young looking? Have you got a mysterious painting in the loft or something?’

  ‘I wish,’ Jenny laughed, smoothing a hand over her black leather jacket, clearly flattered but too modest to acknowledge the compliment. But with her elfin hair, healthy tan, and jeans and boots that accentuated her long, lean legs, she did look good for her age. Spencer smiled to himself – he knew that she probably thought that sort of vanity was intellectually beneath her.

  ‘It must be all the sun,’ Lewis said cheerfully, less reluctant to acknowledge that he had the sort of physique that would make most men his age green with envy. It was even more surprising when you considered that he spent a lot of his days locked away in a windowless lab or doing experiments with impossible to pronounce bits of atoms in darkened rooms. He turned to Millie. ‘And you must be the goddess who managed to tame Dylan Smith.’

  Millie blushed. Spencer couldn’t decide whether it was the overt compliment, or the mention of Dylan’s less than angelic past that made her face burn, but he guessed it might be a bit of both.

  ‘I’m Millie,’ she said, offering a handshake. He brushed her hand aside and pulled her into a hug.

  ‘Very pleased to meet you, Millie. And here you are, out on your own. Don’t tell me Dylan is at home holding the baby?’

  ‘I’ve insisted it’s the girls’ night out tonight,’ said Jasmine. ‘So he didn’t have a choice. He’s at our house with Rich and the triplets. I thought Millie deserved it as she hasn’t had a night out since Oscar was born.’

  Lewis shot Spencer a grin. ‘Now I really have seen everything. Are you sure Dylan hasn’t been abducted by aliens and replaced with a replica?’