Christmas Secrets in Snowflake Cove (Michaelmas Bay Book 1)

by Emily Harvale

  ‘Sorry, Dad. What?’

  He smiled. ‘Off on your daydreams, as usual? I said I thought you looked a bit peaky, but the colour seems to be coming back. Perhaps a little too much. Your face looks like a beetroot now. Come along. Let’s get you in the warm. You might be coming down with something.’

  John put an arm around her shoulders and marched her towards the front door.

  ‘I’m fine. Just … a little confused.’

  ‘Oh? What about? The lights?’

  ‘No. Gran didn’t say she actually knew Zachary Thorn, did she? Or that she’d texted him my number?’

  He tilted his head to look her in the eye. ‘My mum text Zachary Thorn? I don’t think so. She doesn’t know him or his number as far as I’m aware, so how could she? Unless she contacted the TV station. That’s a possibility, knowing her.’

  ‘I’ve just had the strangest conversation with a man claiming to be him and he said that Gran had texted him my mobile number and told him to contact me if he had any questions. That’s a bit bizarre, isn’t it?’

  ‘Completely. Why’s the front door open? Don’t tell me.’ He let out a sigh. ‘Raven’s pulled the door knob off again. I must add that to my list.’

  ‘I keep adding it to your list, Dad – and to mine – but the list just seems to get longer. We really need to get all this stuff done if we’re going to stand a chance of impressing Zachary Thorn. Oh hell. I must speak to Gran about that. It’s all very strange.’

  She stumbled as her phone rang again; her dad’s arm stopped her from falling.

  ‘Are you OK, sweetheart? You seem a bit jumpy.’

  Regaining her composure, she smiled and checked the screen, where a dancing reindeer spun around and shook its bottom at her. ‘I’m fine. It’s Juniper. I’ll meet you in the kitchen in a second.’

  He kissed her forehead and marched off, humming another combination of cheerful Christmas tunes.

  ‘Oh my God, Juniper! Wait a minute. It is you, isn’t it?’

  ‘Of course it’s me, you numpty. Didn’t my name and the jolly reindeer appear when it rang?’

  ‘Yes but … Oh never mind. You won’t believe what’s just happened.’

  ‘Tell me.’

  Evie told her best friend about the recent phone conversation, almost word for word and Juniper chortled with laughter.

  ‘It’s not funny. I wanted to see if I could find some way to get him and his crew to come here, so that we could get some publicity. Even five minutes on his show would boost interest in the inn a million-fold. We’d have people clamouring for rooms. But how can I do that now? Not only did I insult him – because I thought it must be some loony on the phone, or one of Raven’s friends she’d asked to call me to wind me up – but I also called him a sex-god, hot bod. How was I to know it was Zachary Thorn?’

  Juniper continued to laugh. ‘You weren’t. And it might not have been. Just because he said he was, it doesn’t mean he was.’

  ‘Wh-at? So you’re saying that it still might have been a joke then? It might not have actually been Zachary Thorn.’

  ‘I’m saying that it’s odd. I know Jessie gets away with murder, but how – and why – would she have the mobile number of a thirty-six-year-old, ex-SAS officer turned TV star? And if she had, how has she managed to keep it a secret? Your gran never keeps anything secret.’

  ‘She never keeps anyone else’s secrets, secret, but I know she’s got a few of her own that she’s never shared with me, Severine or Mum, and probably not with her own son, either. She’s told us a few times that we’ll get the shocks of our lives when she joins Grandad on the other side and we finally get to read her diaries. Severine and I searched for them for years, but we never found them. I began to think they didn’t exist but I mentioned them to Dad once and he said that she’d kept a diary ever since he could remember.’

  ‘She must hide them well.’

  ‘She does.’

  ‘So … perhaps Zachary’s her secret love child or something and she’s been keeping an eye on him all these years.’

  ‘Juniper! Apart from the fact that she and Grandad were madly in love their entire lives, and they got together when she came to live in Snowflake Cove at the age of fifteen, Gran’s eighty-eight. That would mean she was around fifty-two when she had Zachary. I think Dad would have noticed his mum was pregnant, don’t you? And wondered what happened to his sibling. You’ve been watching too many soaps.’

  ‘OK. Maybe Zachary’s dad was her love child and Zachary is her grandchild. No. You’re right. That’s too far-fetched even for me to believe.’

  ‘Are you still coming over tonight for a drink? I’ll ask Gran now and tell you all about it later. Oh, and I don’t suppose you could persuade Roland to come with you, could you? I think Raven fancies him.’

  ‘Raven? Did she say that?’

  ‘Of course she didn’t. But she went all starry-eyed when she asked if he’d be coming to the bar with you.’

  ‘Oooooh. I’ll see what I can do. I’d better go. You know what Miranda’s like if she sees me having a personal conversation during office hours. Should I casually mention that Zachary Thorn was asking about her knicker elastic? See you later.’ With a burst of laughter, Juniper rang off.

  It was only then that Evie realised she’d forgotten to ask her about the Christmas lights. She’d have to call her back. Or send her a text. But that could wait. What she needed to do right now was find out whether her gran had texted Zachary Thorn. And if she had, how on earth had she got his number and why hadn’t she bothered to mention it earlier when she’d told them she had heard he was coming to Michaelmas Bay?’

  Chapter Four

  The aromas from the kitchen took Evie back to the old spice market of Marrakesh where towers of colourful spices sat like shelves of pointed hats and the air was filled with such a variety of smells her nose twitched as she breathed them in. Three months earlier, her, now ex, boyfriend Nigel took her to Morocco for the weekend as a birthday treat. Having discovered he’d taken another ‘girlfriend’ to stay at the same riad just a few weeks later, Evie told him she never wanted to see him again, and tipped the contents of the pepper pot over him. It seemed like a good way to make her point. Spices extracted a mixed reaction from her now. But those associated with Christmas – ginger, mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, myrrh and star anise, still warmed her heart and filled her soul with happiness. She forgot the hurt and humiliation Nigel’s cheating had caused. She even forgot about the embarrassing conversation with Zachary Thorn until she walked into the kitchen and saw the look on her gran’s face.

  ‘Before you say a word,’ Jessie said, from her armchair beside the Aga the moment Evie entered the kitchen. ‘Yes, I do have Zachary Thorn’s number and never you mind why or how. You wanted him to come here. He’s coming. At least I hope he is. John tells me you had an odd conversation with the boy a few minutes ago. I gave him your number to speed up the process, not for you to put him off visiting.’

  ‘Well, thank you for telling me, Gran. Why didn’t you mention that when you told us you’d heard he was going to be in Michaelmas Bay? And who told you he was coming? We’ve watched his show umpteen times and you’ve never once said you know him, let alone have his personal phone number.’

  ‘We all have our little secrets. I know the lad’s grandpa, that’s all you need to know. You said if you could get him here, it would help the inn. While you were off formulating your plans, I got to work to make it happen. You should be thanking me, not hauling me over the coals and interrogating me like someone from the Spanish Inquisition. Now pour me a glass of sherry, there’s a dear and tell me about the conversation. Word for word, mind. Don’t go leaving anything out.’

  ‘I’ll pour the sherry,’ John said.

  For the second time, Evie repeated her conversation with Zachary. Jessie chuckled. John tutted. Molly giggled and shook her head, repeating the words ‘sex-god, hot bod’ as she took a tray of mince pies from the oven and placed it
to cool on the Christmas tree-shaped trivet on the worktop.

  ‘Sounds to me like the young whippersnapper’s got an even better reason for visiting now,’ Jessie said before sipping her sherry.

  ‘You must be joking, Gran. I can’t face the man after this. You, Mum and Dad will have to talk to him if he does come. And you’ll have to show him around.’

  ‘What about me?’ Raven asked. Still wearing her coat, she was perched on the edge of her seat and hunched over the kitchen table.

  ‘You’re too young to be drinking sherry,’ John said.

  Raven rolled her eyes. ‘I’ve drunk far stronger stuff than sherry, Grandpa, but you can keep that muck. Yuck. Can’t stand it. I meant what about me meeting Zachary? I won’t say anything stupid like he’s got a ‘hot bod’, or anything. He’s waaaay too old for me to find attractive.’

  Molly passed her two mince pies on a plate and smiled. ‘That should make him feel wonderful, Raven. We’re trying to impress him, not tell him he’s past it.’

  ‘Duh-uh. I wouldn’t tell him he’s old. I’m not stupid, you know. How many calories are there in these?’

  ‘Not enough for you to worry about. Just enjoy them, darling.’ Molly sprinkled them with icing sugar. ‘That’s to make you even sweeter than you are, if that’s possible.’ She blew her granddaughter a kiss and reached out and stroked her hair.

  Raven smiled at her before shoving an entire mince pie into her mouth and grinning at Evie.

  ‘Delightful,’ Evie said, grinning back. It made a change to see anything on Raven’s face other than a frown.

  ‘Well someone’s got to speak to the man,’ Jessie said, ‘and it won’t be me. I do enough around here as it is and he’s not going to drag himself from The Grand Hotel in Michaelmas Bay to see an eighty-eight-year-old. Don’t I get a mince pie? It is my secret recipe and I did help to make them, after all.’

  Molly put two mince pies on a plate and sprinkled them with icing sugar. She glanced at Jessie, grinned and sprinkled more icing sugar over them before passing her the plate and winking at her.

  Jessie screwed up her eyes. ‘Don’t think that was lost on me, Molly Starr because it wasn’t.’ She smiled and bit into one, closing her eyes and leaning back in her armchair. ‘Heaven. Even if I do say so myself.’

  Evie grabbed one. The pastry melted in her mouth and the sugary filling oozed onto her tongue as she munched on the chopped nuts, cranberries, glacé cherries, raisins, sultanas and currants. But it wasn’t the abundance of fruit and nuts that gave her gran’s mince pies a taste that no other mince pies had. It was Jessie Starr’s secret recipe and no one was getting that until Jessie Starr was – to use her own words, ‘Dead, burned and floating to the heavens over Snowflake Inn.’

  ‘You can do it, sweetheart,’ Molly said, smiling encouragingly at Evie. ‘You dealt with Nigel without any help. Zachary seems to have a good sense of humour on his show. If he’s like that in real life, I’m sure he’ll see the funny side of it. And you didn’t say anything too embarrassing. Not really. He should’ve told you who he was from the off, so it’s his fault, not yours.’

  Evie sipped her sherry. Her mum was right. She was making a drama out of nothing. So what if she’d told him he had a great body. It wasn’t as if the guy didn’t know that. And he’d no doubt heard it hundreds of times, from hundreds of women. One more wasn’t going to make a difference. If he’d got the impression that he was on to a good thing, or that she’d jump into bed with him the minute he batted his long, honey blond lashes, he was in for a surprise. Not that he’d be interested in her anyway.

  ‘You’re right. I’m being silly. And it’s not as if I even have to persuade him to pay us a visit, now. Thanks to you, Gran, he’s going to come here no matter what. At least, that’s the way it sounded. It’ll be fine. All we want is five minutes of his time and a shot or two of him outside the inn, and possibly drinking a glass of something, stretched out in a chair beside one of the fires. And maybe just a line or two about how picturesque Snowflake Cove is and what a warm welcome visitors receive at Snowflake Inn. That’s not much to ask … is it? But millions of people will see our little corner of the world and surely some of them will want to visit the inn? Even if it’s just to sit in the chair Zachary Thorn occupied for five minutes during one of his shows. I’m convinced it’ll drum up some business for us. It has to.’

  ‘He’s a TV star,’ Raven said. ‘Or he thinks he is. Getting five minutes of his time is like getting an audience with the Queen. He’ll expect to be paid. Even that Z-list celeb they got to turn on the Christmas lights in Michaelmas Bay got paid, I bet. Don’t give me that look. I wasn’t interested. Mum showed me the photo you sent when she was trying to convince me that it’d be all festive and fun to come and stay here. Wrong! Anyway. He’ll want money or something. No doubt about that.’

  Evie’s heart sank. Raven was right. Why hadn’t that fact occurred to her? He was coming to Michaelmas Bay to do a show. She was hoping to get him to spend five minutes at the inn and give them some free publicity. But why would he do that? Just because he seems like a nice guy? Lots of people must ask him to do this sort of thing. He couldn’t possibly accommodate everyone. What had seemed like a good idea earlier now seemed like the dumbest idea she’d ever had.

  But he was coming. Her gran had seen to that. All Evie had to do was persuade him to bring his film crew and take a few shots. At the very worst, she could ask for a selfie with him and post it on the website and all the social media pages for the inn. That would be better than nothing. Surely he wouldn’t expect to be paid for that?

  ‘Gran? How did you get him to agree to visit us? Is he expecting money? Because we don’t have any.’

  Jessie smiled and tapped the side of her nose. ‘Never you mind. That’s one of my little secrets. He’s not expecting anything. Well, not in a financial sense.’

  ‘What is he expecting?’

  ‘A warm welcome, a good meal and a drink.’

  Evie studied her gran’s smiling face.

  Perhaps she’d make sure there was a pepper pot nearby when Zachary came to visit. Just in case.

  Chapter Five

  ‘It’s freezing out there,’ Juniper said, dashing into the bar of Snowflake Inn and making a beeline for one of the floral armchairs in front of the crackling log fire.

  ‘At least it’s not raining.’ Evie poured a large glass of red wine and walked around the bar towards her friend. ‘On your own?’

  Juniper shook her head and her shoulder-length auburn curls bounced around her long, slim neck as she removed her coat. She tossed the coat on the back of the armchair and grabbed the glass from Evie, taking two large gulps. ‘No.’ She wiped a trickle of wine from her chin and licked her finger, smiling. ‘Mustn’t waste a drop. Roly is helping your dad fix the door knob on the front door. He’ll be here in a sec. Where’s Raven?’

  ‘Sulking.’

  Juniper raised a perfectly shaped brow. ‘That goes without saying, but where is she sulking? In her room?’

  Evie grinned. ‘No. Gran has insisted Raven learns how to make mince pies. I almost feel sorry for her.’

  ‘Who? Jessie or Raven? They’re both as bad as each other.’

  ‘That’s true. What did you say to Roland to get him to come? You didn’t tell him Raven fancies him, did you? She’ll kill me if she finds out I said that.’

  Juniper dropped into the chair and took another two gulps of wine. ‘You’re kidding. If I told Roly someone fancied him, you wouldn’t see him for dust. He’s going through that ‘too cool for girls’ phase. I told him you needed a hand with some Christmas lights. He was on his way here before I’d even finished the sentence. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he has a secret crush on you. But I think he just likes doing things with his hands. Take that smirk off your face. That’s my baby brother you’re getting smutty about.’

  ‘What? I’m not getting smutty. Can’t a person grin without being accused of having dirty thoughts?’<
br />
  ‘It depends on the grin … and the person.’

  ‘Oh come on. I may look desperate but I’m really not into seventeen-year-old boys. Even if they are incredibly good-looking. And take after their older sister in that department.’

  Juniper smiled. ‘Flatterer. How do you plan to get Roly and Raven together?’

  ‘I hadn’t. I don’t want to get involved in case it blows up in my face. I just thought if she was here and he came over.’ Evie shrugged. ‘If it’s meant to be, it’ll be.’

  ‘How philosophical of you. Why don’t you get Raven to make Roly and your dad some coffee? They’ll need it to stop themselves from freezing to death with that door open.’

  ‘That’s a good idea. I’ll go and tell her.’

  ‘Any chance of a mince pie?’ Juniper yelled as Evie dashed towards the kitchen.

  A few seconds later, Evie returned with a plate of mince pies and shortbread. ‘Let the games begin. Raven’s turned the colour of a holly berry, but I’ve never seen her move so fast. Kettle’s on, Christmas mugs are out and she was checking her reflection in the window pane when I left. Not a terribly good mirror. She’ll be wondering why she’s got criss-crosses all over her face.’

  ‘Huh?’

  Evie nodded towards the row of windows to Juniper’s right. ‘Leaded-light windows. Those little triangles and the antiquated glass distort the view of anything.’ She walked back to the bar and poured herself a glass of wine plus another for Juniper. ‘Where’s Darren tonight?’

  ‘Your guess is as good as mine.’

  Evie glanced at her. From the tone of her voice, something was troubling her. For once, it might be a good thing that the bar was empty save for Evie and her friend. ‘Oh? Is everything OK between you and Darren?’

  Juniper stared into the fire and, as Evie strolled back towards her, brushed a lock of hair from her face and let out a long, sad sigh. Logs crackled in the hearth, broke into clumps and sent sparks flying into the air.