Pancakes and Corpses: A Cozy Murder Mystery (Peridale Cafe Mystery Book 1)
Page 13
Julia tossed back her satin duvet and slid her feet into her fluffy sheepskin slippers. She stood up, her knees creaking more with each day. A quick glance in the mirror at her pale pink nightie and her wild curly hair reminded her that she was only thirty-seven, and she wouldn’t have to start worrying about her knees giving way for another couple of years, or so she hoped. She thought of her octogenarian Gran, who was still darting around the village like a woman in her twenties.
She hurried along the hallway, a chill brushing against her exposed legs. Her grey Main Coon, Mowgli, was curled up on the doormat and purring softly, unaware of the night time disturbance.
Julia stopped outside of her guest bedroom, which was currently occupied by her new sixteen-year-old lodger, Jessika, who went by the name Jessie. Julia had never expected to take a young girl into her home, but she also hadn’t expected to find that same girl breaking into her café and stealing cakes on a regular basis. Julia could have taken the young homeless girl to the police, but she decided to do the kinder thing. She gave the girl a home, and a job helping out in Julia’s café.
Hovering her knuckles over the wood, she almost knocked, but she decided against waking Jessie. She knew how dangerous that could be for a sleepwalker.
Julia carefully pried open Jessie’s bedroom door as silently as she could, which wasn’t easy in the centuries old cottage. She felt the entire timber frame scream out, a piercing creak cracking like a whip through the silence. In the corner of her eye, Mowgli looked up from his slumber, before tucking his nose back under his paw.
Jessie had been living with Julia for just over a month, but the sleepwalking was new. This was only the fourth time it had woken Julia, and Julia had felt useless to help her young lodger at first, but after a quick internet search, she was more equipped to deal with the situation.
Through the darkness, she made out the outline of Jessie, who was delicately and rhythmically pounding her head against her wardrobe door. Her long, dark hair hung over her face, contrasting against her stark white nightie, making her look like she had crawled out of the screen of a horror film. Julia wasn’t scared; she was just a girl after all.
Julia did the only thing she could do. She carefully placed her hand between Jessie’s forehead and the wood, softening the blow. As though she could consciously sense the change, the movement stopped, but her eyes didn’t open. Without saying a word, Julia guided Jessie back to her bed, which she climbed back into with ease. It hadn’t been so easy the night before.
After tucking Jessie back in, Julia gazed down at the girl, wondering how she had survived living on the streets for six months. Jessie didn’t seem to want to talk about it, so Julia didn’t ask, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t curious.
Julia turned on her heels, but she spotted a book on Jessie’s nightstand. The cover and title made her smile. She picked up ‘Baking For Beginners’ and flicked to the front page. It seemed that Jessie had borrowed it from Peridale’s tiny library without Julia’s knowledge. In the weeks Jessie had been working in the café, she had been clearing tables, washing up, and assisting in Julia’s baking, but Julia could sense Jessie was itching to get her hands properly stuck into baking her own creations.
When she seemed at peace in bed, Julia placed the cookbook exactly where she had found it, and backed out of the room, cautiously closing the creaking door again. She walked past her own bedroom, and straight into the kitchen. She was awake, so she put one of her favourite peppermint and liquorice teabags into a cup and filled the kettle.
She flicked on her under-counter lights and pulled up a stool. The cat clock with the flicking eyes and swishing tail told her it was a little after six. Letting out a slow yawn, she knew she would pay for her early morning later in the café. Saturday’s were always the busiest days, but at least she had Jessie’s help now.
Julia cast her eyes to the white envelope sitting on the corner of her counter. The divorce papers enclosed within had been read over, signed, and the envelope resealed ready for posting to her solicitor. It had taken her nearly two weeks to pluck up the courage to face them, but it was taking even longer to get them out of her house.
The moment they were with her solicitor again, she would be divorced, and considering she didn’t like her soon-to-be ex-husband very much, she should have been happy about that, but happiness was an emotion that evaded anything surrounding her divorce. More than anything, she felt like she had failed, not just her marriage, but herself. She had changed so much and abandoned her village to join her husband, Jerrad, in London. Twelve years later, she found her bags on the doorstep along with a note telling her he had changed the locks because he was in love with his secretary, who was ten years Julia’s junior and twenty pounds lighter around the middle.
Two years later, she owned her small cottage on the outskirts of Peridale, the village she had grown up in. She had opened her own café in the heart of the community, and now she had a lodger, as well as her cat. She felt she was truly content with her life, so why couldn’t she just mail the envelope?
Tossing back the last of her tea, she cursed herself under her breath. She swore today would be the day she dropped them in at the post office. No more excuses.
Jessie woke with her alarm clock at eight. The sun was high in the clear sky and Julia was already washed and dressed for work. She had also already made good progress with her usual morning baking to fill up the display cases in her café.
“This was on the doormat,” Jessie grumbled as she rubbed her head with one hand and tossed a lavender envelope on top of the white divorce papers envelope. “I had the craziest dream last night.”
“Oh?” Julia asked, avoiding Jessie’s still half-closed eyes. “What about?”
“It’s already gone,” Jessie said with a shrug. “What are you baking?”
Julia added the finishing touches to the orange icing roses and placed one proudly in front of Jessie.
“I’m trying to perfect Sally and Richard’s wedding cake recipe,” Julia said. “I just can’t seem to get the balance right.”
Jessie took a big bite into the cupcake. Julia didn’t have to wait long for the verdict. Jessie immediately spat the mixture back into the cake casing and pushed it across the counter.
“Oh, God,” Jessie cried. “What’s in that?”
“Cinnamon, orange and rose,” Julia said with a heavy sigh, casting a look to the dozen cupcakes she had just baked, hoping to be able to sell them in the café. “I might just have to tell Sally it can’t be done. Was there too much rose?”
“There was too much everything,” Jessie said, shaking her head, looking down at the cupcake with disgust. “Who wants a cinnamon, orange and rose wedding cake, anyway?”
Julia had to wonder. She was often people’s first port of call when they wanted a wedding cake, but didn’t want to pay the out of town bakery prices. Julia prided herself on her baking, and she humbly accepted that she was the best baker in the village, but even she sometimes got it wrong. She had quickly learned she could count on Jessie to tell the truth. She was a girl who did not mince her words.
“Can I have one of your fancy teabag things?” Jessie asked as she wandered over to the kettle. “And some painkillers? My head is banging.”
Julia fished two painkillers out of her one designation junk drawer in her kitchen, and slid them across the counter to Jessie. She thought about telling her about the sleepwalking, but she didn’t want to alarm her. Julia was hoping it would stop before it got too serious, but from her Internet research, it could be a recurring problem that usually intensified when somebody was under extreme pressure or stress. Julia thought giving Jessie a home and a job had taken that stress off her young shoulders, but she wondered if she had given her too much responsibility too soon.
Julia sat at the counter and pulled a corner off one of the cupcakes. As usual, Jessie had been right about the overpowering flavour. It wasn’t often her bakes found their way straight into the bin, but these were n
owhere near the high standard the villagers of Peridale expected from her café.
Jessie put a cup of peppermint and liquorice tea in front of Julia and pulled up the chair next to her. Julia turned her attention to the lavender coloured envelope, suddenly realising it was far too early for the postman to have made his way up to her cottage.
“You found this on the doormat?” Julia asked as she picked up the envelope.
“That’s what I said.”
Julia turned it over in her hands. It had no stamp, and it was simply addressed to ‘Julia’ in such ornate and delicate lettering, it resembled art.
“Who hand delivers letters this early in the morning?” Julia whispered under her breath, almost to herself.
“A nutter, that’s who,” Jessie called out. “I’m going for a shower. I smell like Mowgli after he’s been rolling in the garden.”
Leaving her tea unfinished, Jessie slopped off to the bathroom, and it wasn’t long before rushing water and the sound of Jessie’s singing floated through the cottage. Julia smiled to herself. She had come to enjoy Jessie’s company more than she had expected.
After taking a sip of her hot tea, Julia tore open the tight seal of the envelope. The overpowering scent of lavender immediately filled her nostrils, making her wince. Her mother had hated the smell of lavender, and Julia had inherited that quirk. As she pulled the letter out of the envelope, Mowgli jumped up onto the counter. First, he sniffed the unfinished cupcake, and then the letter; he turned his nose up at both.
The heavily scented letter appeared to be an invitation, handwritten in the same ornate lettering as her name on the envelope. She scanned the invitation, her eyes honing in on the signature at the bottom. When she saw ‘Katie Wellington-South’, her stomach knotted.
Starting back at the top where her own name was, she read through the detailed invitation:
Dear Julia,
It gives me great pleasure to invite you to Peridale Manor for a very special garden party, where I, Katie Wellington-South, and my dear husband, Brian South, will be making an exciting announcement.
Please find yourself at Peridale Manor at noon on Sunday March 11th. You are welcome to bring one guest.
We are looking forward to your attendance, and we cannot wait to share our very special news with you.
With hugs and kisses,
Katie Wellington-South.
Julia didn’t know how many times she read over the invitation, picking over every word, trying to decode what secrets were going to be revealed at the ‘very special garden party’. She didn’t like where her imagination was taking her.
“Katie Wellington-South?” Jessie mumbled as she read the invitation over Julia’s shoulder, breaking her from her thoughts. “Who’s that?”
“My father’s wife,” Julia said, pushing the scented paper back into its envelope. “She’s inviting us to a garden party tomorrow.”
“Don’t you mean your step-mother?” Jessie said as she rubbed a towel through her dark hair. “I’ve been with enough families to know your dad’s missus is your step-mum.”
“Katie Wellington is not my step-mother,” Julia said quickly. “Come on, get dressed. We’re going to be late to open the café.”
Jessie rolled her eyes and headed off to her bedroom, leaving Julia to read over the note again. When her sister and Gran both called one after the other asking if she too had received an invitation, she was only surprised it had taken them so long to call. They both asked her the same question.
“Are you going?” Sue had asked.
“Are you going?” her Gran, Dot, had asked.
Julia had given them both the same response.
“I don’t know,” she had said.
And she didn’t. As they drove towards the centre of Peridale village with the morning’s bakes carefully fastened in on the backseat, Julia drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, wondering what kind of announcement could be important that it needed a garden party to make it. In the depths of her mind, she heard the sound of a baby crying, and every hair on her body stood on end.
It wasn’t until she was pulling into her parking space between her café and the post office that she realised she had, once again, forgotten to pick up the divorce papers off the corner of the kitchen counter…
To be continued in Lemonade and Lies, out February 17th 2017!
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