Heart in the Right Home

by Lisa Hill

  Louise pursed her lips. Not quite the same as her and Johnnie then. Normal marital bickering was building into resentment and monumental rows. On her part, anyway.

  ‘Hmm,’ Louise finally said, ‘I think it might be a starting point. Perhaps if I draw up a rota for supper duty? The girls could have a go once they’ve finished their exams.’

  ‘Why wait until they’ve finished their exams? Cooking is a life skill, it’s just as important as filling their heads with facts about the English civil war.’

  Louise laughed. ‘I guess we’re from a bygone era, Audrey. But thank you, I do appreciate your input; I am doing too much, and I do need to find time for myself—’ Louise paused, thinking about what Duncan had said earlier, ‘—and when I get that time, I need to use it wisely.’ Perhaps cake decorating was going to be her escape in more ways than one.

  ‘No problem dear, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon. I can’t say I miss Countryside, but they did have a wonderful schedule of activities to keep one busy. I love living in Church End, but Lottie and the children are out most of the day so it’s nice to have something to fill my diary with and earn a few pounds into the bargain!’

  Judging by the fact Audrey had turned up to her shift in an expensive looking Phase Eight dress with matching cardigan and pearls – more atone to a low-key wedding – Louise assumed that the earnings were not high on the list of priorities when considering whether she wanted to work in the tearooms.

  ‘Well, I’m glad it’s an arrangement which suits both of us,’ Louise said, wondering if she could convince Johnnie to stretch to having Audrey cover a couple more mornings so Louise could invest her time and efforts into the cakes.

  ‘I wonder what Jean will say?’ Audrey said, idly returning to her polishing.

  ‘Jean?’

  ‘Yes, my other daughter, the one that had me installed in the retirement home.’

  Louise laughed. ‘I’m not sure, but I sure hope she doesn’t come in here having a go at me, saying I’m taking advantage of you!’

  Audrey chuckled. ‘Knowing Jean, she’d be too distracted by your delicious looking cakes!’

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  ‘Gah! Remind me why I thought co-ordinating the summer fete was such a good idea?’ Lottie held her head in her hands and scrunched her hair. Across the kitchen table sprawled piles of paper, a rainbow of post-it notes and plastic boxes to compartmentalise everything once it was organised. What was the betting this was exactly the sort of mess Theresa May had spread over the cabinet table when she was trying to negotiate Brexit?

  ‘Because you were so desperate to have free advertising for HG1?’ Jude said, smiling as she picked up her mug of tea. ‘Standard Lottie; taking too much on.’

  Lottie sighed. ‘Yes, and you weren’t even here to hold me back with your nagging voice of reason.’

  ‘Oi!’ Jude flung a pad of post-it notes in Lottie’s direction. ‘Why aren’t the rest of the committee here helping you, anyway?’

  It was Saturday afternoon and only two weeks until the summer fete. Drew was working at HG1, the kids were wreaking havoc with water guns in the garden and Lottie was really missing Jack living next door. It was silly, really, he was only on the other side of the village. Audrey was the perfect replacement in every way, but even she’d taken on some shifts at the stores so there was no-one to poke their head through the door and offer a helping hand.

  Still, Jude was here. Reliable, helpful, Jude.

  ‘I didn’t want them involved; we’d never get anything decided.’

  ‘Spoken like a true Yummy Mummy veteran.’ Jude winked.

  ‘Yes, well those days are behind me. I’m a working mum now, so I’m going to put on my power suit and be assertive. I’ll draw up an itinerary for the day and then divvy up the responsibilities and email out a schedule.’

  ‘You make it sound so simple.’

  ‘Luckily, everyone in the village is so engrossed in the new development, no-one’s batted an eyelid about the summer fete. Apart from the fact they didn’t want Hardwickes sponsoring it this year.’

  ‘I know, it’s like the battle lines have been drawn when you go in the playground at drop-off and pick-up. There are the village mums on one side, totally opposed to more houses and the ones that come from outside the village, desperate to know when they can put down a deposit on one of the new homes. I haven’t told Tom any of that.’

  ‘Talking of Tom, can I put him down for opening the fete?’ Lottie asked, pen poised to write down the first victim on her list.

  ‘Yes, of course, I’d already made him stick the date in his diary.’

  ‘Where is he, anyway?’

  ‘Where do you think? Down at the stores having an unofficial VOCAB meeting with Johnnie.’

  ‘Oh.’ Lottie raised her eyebrows. ‘Still not happy about that then?’

  ‘Lottie, it practically ruined our honeymoon! He was on the phone to lawyers, trying to find out if he could slap a preservation order on the land surrounding Clunderton Hall, he—’ Jude hesitated, obviously considering whether she told Lottie something.

  Juicy gossip, no doubt.

  ‘Go on.’ Lottie raised a playful eyebrow.

  ‘—he’s even considered approaching Edward and seeing what price he’d sell the land for.’

  ‘Oh, reaaaally?’ Now, that was interesting.

  ‘Oh God, please don’t tell Drew! I’ll be in so much trouble!’

  ‘Your secret’s safe with me, BFF; I’ll just squirrel that little bit of information away in case it comes in handy for Pamela’s imminent divorce proceedings.’

  ‘I thought Rebecca was your BFF, these days?’

  Lottie looked up from doodling on her list. ‘My goodness Jude, two weeks away and you become so insecure! She just needs a friend, that’s all. A bit like when I moved to Clunderton and you were there for me.’

  The front doorbell rang, and Jude sprang up. ‘I’ll get it,’ Jude said, scraping her chair back, evidently embarrassed by her out-of-character show of jealousy.

  Lottie returned to her list, her mind settling on Rebecca. James kept hanging around every evening like a bad smell, obviously keeping out of Jack and Pamela’s way and constantly nagging Lottie to help him find a solution as to how he could win over Rebecca’s affection.

  ‘Hmmm,’ Lottie tapped her pen down the list of jobs she needed help with at the fete. Her eyes settled on the refreshments tent.

  ‘It’s Louise,’ Jude said, returning and thudding back into her chair, evidently still in a strop over the Rebecca comment.

  ‘Hi, Lottie,’ Louise said, hovering in the kitchen doorway.

  Lottie turned around. ‘Hello! How are you? I haven’t seen you in ages! Come in,’ she said, standing up, ‘can I get you a drink?’

  ‘Oh, no, I shouldn’t stop.’ Louise waved her hands in front of her.

  ‘Nonsense, sit down,’ Lottie said, filling up the kettle.

  ‘You’ll have to forgive, Lottie, she’s become even more bossy since becoming a business bitch,’ said Jude.

  ‘Ha!’ Louise laughed. ‘Oh, go on then,’ she said, pulling out a chair. ‘I’ll have a tea please, Lottie.’

  ‘Coming up,’ Lottie said, picking a tea bag from the jar. ‘Now, what can I help you with?’

  ‘Um, the summer fete, actually. I heard you were organising it and I wondered how much it was to rent a stall?’

  ‘Oh, we don’t charge you,’ Lottie said, pouring hot water into a mug. ‘You provide the ice cream stand for the afternoon, don’t you? We need to have those on sale; I wouldn’t expect you to give up any of the profits.’

  Louise shook her head and looked slightly flustered. ‘Sorry, I’m not here about the stores, I meant for myself.’

  ‘Oh?’ Lottie cursed herself for the clear sound of intrigue in her voice. She bit her tongue.

  It was no good.

  ‘A separatist movement?’

  Lottie watched Jude lean in, clearly as interested.
>
  ‘Yes, um, well, everyone keeps saying how good my cakes are—’

  ‘Oh, they are, Louise, everything you bake in the stores is delicious, I really don’t know how you find the time!’ Jude chipped in.

  ‘Says the woman who was a single mum with two jobs only last year.’ Lottie added.

  ‘—this isn’t my normal baking,’ Louise rushed on, ‘this is for celebratory cakes, like wedding cakes.’

  ‘Ohhh,’ Jude clasped her hands together. ‘Our wedding cake was magnificent. You do have such a talent, Louise, I think you should definitely set up a business for them.’

  Louise grinned. ‘Thank you,’ she said, blushing and looking slightly bashful.

  Lottie eyed Louise sceptically. She knew that expression, she’d worn it herself when she was desperate to get away from Hardwickes and make a career for herself, in her own right. Tom had offered her the opportunity to become a relocation agent for some celebrity friends of his, Sam and Fran, who ended up buying Audrey’s farm, Oak Acre. Finding her own feet hadn’t come without its own hurdles though, namely a temporary separation from Drew. Lottie couldn’t help but wonder if there was something behind Louise’s sudden choice to set up her own business on the side.

  ‘Sugar?’ Lottie asked.

  ‘Please.’ Louise rubbed her bare arms with her hands, like she was cold

  Lottie placed the steaming mug of tea in front of Louise. ‘There you go. Now,’ she said, sitting back down, ‘want to tell us all about your new venture?’

  ‘Um,’ Louise looked between the two women like a rabbit in the head lights.

  I’ve seen that expression before as well, thought Lottie.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  James watched Rebecca tapping away at her desk, from on the other side of the archway. She was so elegant and graceful, like a swan. Even the art of typing made her more desirable to him. He couldn’t let her leave.

  He just didn’t know how to make her stay.

  ‘Not lunching with Lottie today?’

  The click-clacking of her long nails on the keyboard abruptly stopped as she looked up to survey him walk into the office.

  ‘Drew’s working today, Lottie’s got the kids,’ she said, returning to the patter of her typing.

  ‘Quite a friendship you two have struck up,’ he said, pulling out the chair opposite her desk. Three weeks had passed since he rocked up in Harrogate, but it seemed like a lifetime. How was he supposed to convince her they were meant to be together? It was like they’d been in a game of chess for the past twenty years, dancing around each other, across the chessboard.

  Only now he wanted to be in checkmate.

  Rebecca paused from typing again. ‘No one is more surprised than me.’

  She had that cut-glass accent on. It softened when she was relaxed but came out strongly when defending herself.

  He nodded. ‘She does tend to weave herself into people’s heads and hearts. No wonder she’s going great guns at being a relo agent.’

  ‘Nosey. She always has been.’ Rebecca cocked her head to one side. ‘But I’m glad she’s taken me under her wing; it’s a shame she’s working with Drew now and not at Hardwickes, I actually think we’d have made a great team.’

  James’ jaw clenched. Was that what Rebecca was going to do? Leave here and go and work for HG1? At least that would mean she’d be staying in Yorkshire.

  ‘Is that why you wanted to hand your notice in?’ he laughed, nervously. ‘To go and work for the competition?’

  ‘Pah!’ Rebecca laughed. ‘They probably couldn’t afford to pay me what I get here, they employ lots of young staff, I guess to keep the wages down. Although,’ Rebecca detached herself from her keyboard, ‘she did suggest I move to Clunderton! Can you imagine it?’ She flung her head back laughing.

  James laughed with her, relaxed that her wall of defence was being broken down, although he had no idea why he was laughing. It sounded like a brilliant plan. Cosy evenings in the pub, driving to and from work together every day, long, lazy, Sunday mornings in bed together… evidently, in this fantasy, he’d already moved in.

  ‘Where was she suggesting you move to?’ Available property in Clunderton was scarce. Hence why Edward had identified some land to make a killing on.

  ‘A cottage in the high street, it belongs to Jude’s mum?’ she asked it like a question, as if she’d done no more than dismiss it out of hand.

  This was his opportunity.

  ‘Sounds perfect, right by the Clunderton Arms.’ He assumed Lottie had suggested Rebecca purchase but now that he racked his brains he had seen a HG1 ‘To Let’ board in the high street. ‘What’s Lottie suggesting then? Rent your flat out?’

  ‘Suggested. Suggesting sounds like I might actually be considering it.’

  ‘Why not? Now that you’ve struck up a friendship with Lottie.’

  ‘Since an open house a fortnight ago! She’s just helping me with a few things. It’s like free therapy. Actually,’ Rebecca said, stretching her long bare legs out, under the desk, and crossing them over, ‘she would make an excellent counsellor.’

  ‘Life coach, more like; counsellors aren’t actually meant to suggest what you do with your life.’

  They both dissolved into giggles.

  ‘Oh, James, stop it, my stomach hurts!’

  Now was his chance. ‘Well, why not think about it? Perhaps a change is as good as a rest? I’m living in Clunderton at the moment, the new development will be there; we could look to assign you there, if you wanted; we’ll be having a temporary sales office on site.’

  Rebecca stopped laughing but her smile remained. ‘Really?’

  Bingo.

  ‘Yes, why not? Makes sense and if you really don’t like it, or when sales of the development come to an end, you can always move back into Harrogate, if you’ve only rented your flat out.’

  Rebecca positively beamed. Then her smile dropped. ‘It sounds idyllic, James, I actually really like the idea, but there is one looming roadblock in my road to recovery.’

  James heart sank; he thought he had this in the bag. ‘What?’

  ‘Your mum.’

  Goddamn it. He smiled at Rebecca sympathetically, his mind racing. He’d got this far with Lottie’s help. He was going to have to speak her again and see if she could nudge this situation, once and for all, in the right direction.

  ***

  ‘It’s just that as everyone keeps telling me how good I am at cake design, I thought that I would give it a go as a business, see if I could turn a profit out of it.’ Louise swallowed hard. Oh gosh, this didn’t sound convincing, even to herself.

  Lottie pursed her lips and nodded. ‘I hear you. That’s why I wanted to go into relocation work. I identified something I was good at and with Tom’s help,’ she looked over in Jude’s direction, ‘I found a way of breaking away from Hardwickes, become independent so to speak.’

  ‘Not be controlled by Edward.’ Jude added.

  ‘So, what are you trying to break away from, Louise?’

  Oh, heck.

  ‘Um, well, I wouldn’t say it was like that—’

  ‘Yes,’ Jude rounded on Lottie, ‘not everyone is like you, Lottie; Louise might have realised she has a talent for making wedding cakes, after making ours, and wants to explore it.’

  ‘Yes!’ Louise said, a bit too over-enthusiastically. ‘That’s it! That’s definitely it.’ Phew, Jude got her off the hook there and it was sort of true. Everyone kept telling her how good her decorating skills were, otherwise, she wouldn’t have come up with the idea in the first place, would she?

  Or did Duncan come up with it?

  Lottie eyed Louise sceptically. The silence was deafening; Louise could hear her ears ringing. She took a sip of her tea. ‘Um, so could you accommodate me with a stall? I could make a couple of mock-up cakes. I was thinking of getting some business cards and price lists printed, but I don’t really know where to start.’

  ‘Oh, Lottie’s your person to go to ab
out starting up a business, she knows all about that.’ Jude enthused.

  ‘Yes, I can put you in touch with our printers,’ Lottie said, pulling her notepad and pen towards her. She fingered the edges of the pad. ‘But first, when you say you don’t know where to start; do you mean with setting up the business, or something else?’

  ‘I—’ oh God, Lottie knew. Had she seen her and Duncan together yesterday lunchtime? ‘—I really don’t know what you mean, Lottie. I just want to set up my own business.’

  ‘You already have your own business.’ Lottie said, gently. ‘Why not incorporate the celebration cakes into that? Why make it a separate business?’

  Busted.

  Louise was flushing hot and feeling icy cold all at once.

  ‘I, um, well—’

  ‘Louise,’ Lottie leaned in and tried to get Louise to meet her gaze. ‘You’re talking to a woman who separated, albeit briefly, from her husband last year, and a woman,’ Lottie pointed her finger in Jude’s direction, ‘whose first husband cheated on her and made her homeless.’

  ‘Thanks, Lottie,’ Jude said flatly.

  Louise watched Lottie look at Jude. ‘It all turned out okay in the end, didn’t it?’

  ‘Yes,’ Jude said, beaming in only the way someone loved-up and just returned from honeymoon would.

  Louise had been married so long her honeymoon was simply a faded memory.

  ‘All I’m saying,’ Lottie returned her gaze to Louise, ‘is that if there was something you wanted to get off your chest, confidentially, we’re here to listen.’

  ‘Oh!’ Louise sobbed, ‘don’t be kind.’ She flapped her hands. ‘I don’t think I can bear it, I feel like such a bad person!’ She closed her eyes and tried to block out an image of Duncan. Too swiftly he was becoming her happy place.

  ‘Oh, Lottie! Now look what you’ve done.’ Jude said, standing up.

  Through bleary eyes, Louise watched Jude walk around the table to where Lottie kept her tissues, on the long kitchen window sill, which looked out over Church Cottage’s wide garden and vast amounts of fields, with corn swaying in the summer sunshine.