The Peridale Cafe Cozy Box Set 4

by Agatha Frost

  “I didn’t until you reminded me.”

  “Age is just a number, dear.” Dot pushed at her curls before sipping champagne. “You’re as old as you feel.”

  “How old do you feel, Gran?” Sue asked as she peered at the twins, sound asleep in their pram.

  “Oh, about twenty-five?” Dot waved her hand. “Twenty-six?”

  “And you don’t look a day over eighty-four!” Barker lifted his champagne flute.

  “I am eighty-four.” Dot pursed her lips as she wriggled her brooch. “Did you get everything you wanted for your birthday?”

  Julia looked at the small pile of gifts at the end of the table. A new dressing gown and slippers from Dot, a hair curler that she would never use from Sue, and a brand-new electric mixer for the café from Barker. She smiled and nodded, but the one thing she craved was still in Australia and wouldn’t be home for another week.

  “Good!” Dot announced before reaching into her bag to pull out a stack of wedding magazines. “Because we only have two months to plan this wedding! Sue, Katie, and I have agreed we will help you organise the whole thing free of charge. I know Leah has probably offered to continue planning, but after everything she went through, we don’t want to overload her, do we?”

  “That’s so kind of you, Gran,” Julia said, “but I’ll have to decline your services.”

  “Decline?” Dot cried as she dropped the stack onto the table. “Two months, Julia! Two! How do you think you’re going to plan a wedding in two months?”

  “I’m not.”

  “What?” Sue spat, choking on her drink. “You’ve called the wedding off?”

  “No.” Julia shook her head as she glanced at Barker. “We’ve already planned everything.”

  “P-planned everything?” Dot wrinkled her nose. “In the two weeks since you stopped hunting for Leah like a sniffer dog?”

  “We did it together,” Barker jumped in. “It was quite easy, actually.”

  “Easy?” Dot cried. “Oh, no! This is worse than I feared. If it was easy, dear, you’ve done it wrong.”

  “We did it exactly as we wanted to do it.” Julia reached out and gripped Barker’s hand. “We’re having a simple village wedding.”

  Dot looked like she was about to pass out, but there was a knock at the door before she could protest. Julia hurried out and answered the door to Roxy and Johnny.

  “Happy Birthday!” they announced together.

  Roxy handed over a wrapped bottle of what Julia assumed was wine, and Johnny passed her a card. They both kissed her on the cheek as they let themselves in. Johnny was holding a large bouquet of red roses.

  “Beautiful flowers,” Julia said.

  “They’re not for you.” Johnny fiddled with his glasses, smiling awkwardly. “They’re for Leah.”

  “Besotted, I tell you!” Roxy cried, shaking her head as she walked into the dining room. “I’d feel sick if I wasn’t so happy for him.”

  Julia could barely contain her smile. She knew Leah and Johnny had been seeing each other, but to see a visual representation of their blossoming love in the flowers turned her into something of a mushy mess.

  “It’s going good between you?” Julia asked, holding back in the hallway with Johnny.

  “I think so,” he replied, his cheeks reddening. “I know a lot has happened, but it feels right. Now that things have calmed down, I’m going to ask her to be my girlfriend. If Craig and Heidi are giving it another go after everything they’ve been through, I don’t see why I can’t try with Leah. Do you think she’ll want to?”

  Julia bit into her lip. She wanted to tell Johnny that Leah had already visited that morning to give her a birthday card and had mentioned that she was going to ask Johnny to make their relationship official.

  “I have a good feeling.” Julia winked. “I’m really happy for you.”

  “I’m happy for me too. Things seem to be looking up. I’ve even been promoted at work. The editor called me into a meeting, and I thought he was going to either fire me or announce more budget cuts. It turns out, he’s retiring, and he wants me to take his job. You’re now looking at the brand-new editor of The Peridale Post.”

  “That’s wonderful news!”

  “It’s everything I ever wanted.”

  “Do you have time for birthday cake before you rush off, Romeo?”

  “Only if you baked it.”

  “Of course.”

  “Then I’ll have a tiny slice.” Johnny smiled. He set off towards the dining room before stopping and looking down. He turned back to Julia with a smile. “Thank you, Julia.”

  “What for?”

  “For being a good friend.”

  He headed into the dining room, and Julia was about to follow him, but there was another knock at the door. She turned, immediately recognising the platinum hair through the frosted glass. Julia opened the door to Katie, who was holding baby Vinnie. Julia’s father, Brian, was behind them, and even though he had a tall, wide frame, she could tell he was hiding someone. He stepped to the side, revealing Jessie.

  Julia didn’t say a word. She and her daughter ran towards each other, exploding into a hug. Julia squeezed tight, sure she was about to wake up from a dream any second.

  “You’re not supposed to be back for another week!” Julia’s voice was muffled against Jessie’s denim jacket. “What are you doing here?”

  “I changed my flight.” Jessie pulled away, her grin beaming from ear to ear. “I couldn’t miss your birthday, could I, Mum?”

  Julia held Jessie at arm’s length. It had only been three weeks since she had driven her to the airport, and yet she looked so different. Her pasty skin had been kissed by the sun, bringing out freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her red-highlighted, dark brown hair had been braided on one side, and she had two piercings in her ear that Julia was sure hadn’t been there before.

  “I didn’t have time to get you anything.” Jessie reached into her pocket and pulled out a blue fridge magnet in the shape of Australia. “I grabbed this at the airport.”

  “It’s perfect.” Julia fought back the tears as she pulled Jessie into another hug. “I’m so glad you’re home. I’ve missed you so much.”

  “I missed you too,” Jessie whispered, her fingers clinging tightly to Julia. “A lot.”

  Julia opened her eyes, and through her tears, she saw Billy and Alfie climbing out of Katie’s pink Range Rover.

  “Hey, Miss S,” Billy said, patting her on the shoulder as he walked in. “Happy Birthday.”

  “Happy Birthday, Julia,” Alfie said as he followed him in. “It’s good to be home.”

  Julia finally let go of Jessie when everyone was in the dining room. Mowgli slipped through the crack in Jessie’s bedroom door and meowed loudly before circling her feet. She scooped him up and clutched him to her chest.

  “What’s been going on around here?” Jessie asked as she tickled Mowgli’s head. “I feel like I’ve missed so much.”

  “The usual,” Julia said casually. “This and that.”

  Jessie raised a sceptical eyebrow raise before shrugging and letting go of Mowgli. They had one last hug before they walked into the dining room to finish the rest of the birthday cake.

  Though Julia’s life had been flipped upside down recently, as she sat in the dining room with her whole family around her, she felt it flip back to normal. Leah was alive, Brooke and Max were in jail awaiting their trial, and Julia had her daughter back; there was very little else she could wish for on her birthday.

  Johnny and Roxy were the first to leave, followed by Katie and Brian, and then Billy and Alfie. Sue and the twins left as the sun started to set, and Dot, as stubborn as usual, stuck around until the last drop of champagne was gone. When Julia, Barker, and Jessie were alone, they exhaled and sat in the familiar silence, glad to be in each other’s company.

  While Barker showered before bed and Jessie unpacked her suitcase, Julia snuck into her bedroom. She dug to the back of her wardrobe and p
ulled out a long, plastic, zip-up bag. She hung it on the door and unfastened it to steal another look at her wedding dress. It never failed to make her smile. It was not the tainted dress she had fallen in love with at Brooke’s Bridal Boutique, but it was a close match, and Julia somehow loved it even more. It had caught her eye when she was walking down Riverswick’s high street, and she had instantly known it was the dress for her.

  She sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the dress until she heard the shower cut off. Before Barker could see it, she quickly buried it back in the wardrobe, changed into her pyjamas, and climbed into bed. She snuggled up to Barker when he joined her.

  “How was your birthday?” he asked.

  “Perfect.”

  “I suppose you don’t want this, then,” Barker said, gesturing at himself and raising a cheeky eyebrow.

  Julia laughed, brushing a kiss across his lips.

  “Perfectly perfect,” she whispered, as his mouth once again found hers.

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  Book 15. Wedding Cake and Woes

  Published by Pink Tree Publishing Limited in 2018

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © Pink Tree Publishing Limited.

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  For questions and comments about this book, please contact pinktreepublishing@gmail.com

  www.pinktreepublishing.com

  www.agathafrost.com

  About This Book

  Released: November 27th 2018

  Words: 49,000

  Series: Book 15 - Peridale Cozy Café Mystery Series

  Standalone: Yes

  Cliff-hanger: No

  After nearly a year of being engaged, the time has finally come for Julia and Barker's wedding, but like most things in Peridale, things don't exactly go smoothly. Julia wakes up late on the damp and grey morning of her wedding to find that her cake has been ruined, her flowers are the wrong colour, and the cars are stuck in a flood. However, all of that pales in comparison when the choirmaster, Gloria Gray, drops down dead during her solo in the middle of the ceremony.

  With their wedding ruined, Julia and Barker must pick themselves up again, but they soon find purpose when Gloria's best friend, Flora Hill, begs them to investigate Gloria's death. Julia soon discovers that Gloria's dictator-style running of the choir created more than a few enemies, and when the police confirm that the bossy choirmaster was poisoned, Julia vows to solve the case. Who killed Flora, and more importantly, why in the middle of Julia's wedding?

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  Chapter One

  Julia awoke with a feeling that something was very wrong. Bolting upright, she looked around her bedroom. The pale, November-morning light streamed through her curtains.

  Sunlight.

  Her grey Maine Coon, Mowgli, was snuggled up where her fiancé, Barker, should have been. She scratched at her head as she let out a yawn; Mowgli did the same. It would have been so easy to fall back and let her fluffy pillows return her to her dreams. She was exhausted, after all, and her room was nice and toasty for once. Was the radiator on?

  Radiator heat.

  Julia rubbed her eyes as she tried to focus. Something important had been swirling through her mind all night, keeping her from sleep until the dark early hours. Another yawn forced open her jaw. She stretched out and stared at her wardrobe, where a white dress hung motionlessly like a phantom.

  Dress.

  White dress.

  Wedding dress.

  Wedding!

  “Why am I still in bed?” Julia cried. “It’s my wedding day!”

  She tossed back the covers and stuffed her feet into her sheepskin slippers, glancing at the alarm clock on the bedside table.

  8:13 am.

  “No, no, no, no!”

  Julia should have been up way before the sunrise and the radiators turning on. Why hadn’t the alarms blared at 6 am, or 6:01 am, or 6:02 am? She had set three to avoid this very situation.

  Skidding on the rug, she snatched her fluffy pink dressing gown off the bedpost and messily dragged it over her pyjamas. She caught her balance, bypassing the dress without daring to give it a second glance.

  Leaving Mowgli on the bed, Julia burst into the hallway, and it became instantly apparent that she was the only one who had slept in. Sue, Julia’s younger sister and matron of honour, was in the sitting room with Julia’s best friend and bridesmaid, Roxy. They had slept over to be there for the early morning wedding preparations.

  “What’s going on?” Julia shouted, barely able to breathe. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

  Sue and Roxy jumped up from the couch, staring at her with matching smiles made from equal parts guilt and sympathy.

  Julia’s eighteen-year-old adopted daughter, Jessie, hurried out of the kitchen, a flour-covered apron over her black silk pyjamas. She opened her hands and held her palms out as though surrendering.

  “Don’t freak out!” Jessie’s voice wobbled. “I snuck in and turned your alarms off this morning.”

  “Why would you do such a thing? It’s my wedding day! This isn’t time for games, Jessie!”

  “It’s not a game.” Jessie bit into her lip as she shuffled on the spot. “There’s been an accident.”

  “What kind of accident?”

  “A terrible one,” Sue muttered as she crept sheepishly into the hallway. “It was Jessie’s idea to turn your alarm off. I wanted to wake you up.”

  “Wake me up for what?”

  “The important thing to remember is that it’s nobody’s fault.” Jessie’s palms flapped back and forth. “And I’m going to fix it.”

  “Fix what?”

  Roxy sighed and followed Sue into the hallway. Julia stared at her with an imploring gaze. If anyone couldn’t keep a secret from Julia, it was her oldest school friend.

  “I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to make some hot chocolate,” Roxy began. “I opened the fridge to get the milk, and it seems the fridge broke sometime during the night.”

  “Okay.” Julia nodded, unsure why that mattered. “Is this going somewhere?”

  “Your wedding cake,” Sue said, the ends of her brows turning down. “It’s ruined.”

  The words hit Julia like a slap across the face. It was awful enough to hear that any cake she had passionately baked was ruined, but her wedding cake?

  “Are you sure?” Julia pulled her dressing gown together. “A wedding cake can survive without being refrigerated for a couple of hours. The icing would have protected it.”

  From their hopeless expressions, Julia knew there was more to the story. Jessie dropped her head and walked into the kitchen, and Roxy and Sue nodded for Julia to follow. Mixing bowls and baking ingredients cluttered every inch of the counters, and it looked like something was in the oven. Jessie stepped back and gestured for Julia to open the fridge.

  “I’m really sorry,” Jessie said.

  Julia’s mouth felt like the Sahara as she reached out with a shaky hand and pulled on the door of the dead machine. The scent of warm, sour milk hit her nostrils as soon as the door cracked open.

  “What the—” Julia gagged, covering her mouth with the sleeve of her gown.

  She let the door swing open to reveal the four-tier white wedding cake with its intricately detailed icing. To the na
ked eye, it still looked as pristine as it had been when she added the finishing details the night before, but it reeked like it had been left out in the sun for weeks.

  “I may have left the cap off the milk,” Jessie muttered, “again.”

  Julia gritted her teeth as she looked at the large bottle of soured milk in the inside of the door. How many times had she asked Jessie not to be so lazy when putting the milk back?

  “I thought we could air it out?” Roxy offered. “Stick it outside for a bit to get some fresh air, but Jessie said the smell will have stuck to the icing.”

  “She’s right.” Julia nodded.

  “And I said we couldn’t have your wedding guests eating a cake that smells like milk gone off,” Sue added. “Especially since you made it yourself. The last thing you want is for your wedding to ruin your reputation as the best baker in Peridale.”

  “That’s why I got to work on a replacement.” Jessie glanced at the glowing oven. “I thought I could get it finished before you woke up, but I couldn’t find your recipe, and I have no idea what’s underneath the icing. I thought about cutting it but—”

  “I said that wouldn’t be right,” Sue jumped in. “Only the bride and groom should cut the cake, spoiled or not.”

  Julia closed the fridge door, sealing her creation inside its rancid tomb. It felt like she was saying goodbye to a child before it’d had a chance to reach its potential. She loved nothing more than seeing people enjoy her products, but the most important cake of her baking career would never pass anyone’s lips.

  “Julia?” Roxy prompted. “Say something.”

  Julia took in the mess Jessie had created. She sighed, but she couldn’t be angry at her daughter; not today.