Authors: Trisha Ashley
‘I’ve been reading the literature they sent me and it says some children recover really quickly after major heart surgery,’ I told them, ‘but others take longer … even if the operation is a total success.’
‘Stella’s
will
be a total success,’ Celia assured me, as if she had the power of second sight. ‘But you’re right, she may need extra time before she’s fit to fly back.’
‘You can stay on at the Great Western afterwards, or we could find you a hotel in a more central location,’ Will suggested.
‘I’m inclined to think we should just stay put. I’d certainly like to be near the hospital in the early days, at least. But Jenny’s son’s family, who live near Salem, have kindly given us an open-ended invitation to stay with them once Stella’s recovered enough, so we might go there for a few days.’
‘Salem? Is that where the witch trials were?’ Celia asked interestedly.
‘That’s the one. I think I’ll give their tourist trail a miss, though: Stella has such a vivid imagination!’
‘No, perhaps that’s not exactly the soothing kind of day trip she’ll need while convalescing,’ Jago agreed.
Jago fitted in so well with my friends that it was as though he, Celia, Will and I had known each other for ever and I left the three of them chatting while I went to finish off the dinner. I make a good Yorkshire pudding, but it needs concentration.
Stella woke while I was still busy, but Celia got her up and she seemed revived by her long nap, so she must have needed it. She helped Celia and Will to lay the table while Jago went to the studio to fetch Ma and Hal.
No one needed to fetch Moses and Toto: the smell of the roasting beef had done that.
By an unspoken consensus over dinner we talked about everything but Stella’s operation and the conversation was free ranging and interesting. I do love to look down a dinner table packed with family and friends!
Everyone voted the mincemeat Eton mess a huge hit but I didn’t try them with the first batch of Christmas ice cream, because I’d tasted it and I didn’t think I’d got it quite right yet.
Will and Celia left after coffee, because they wanted to get back to let the dogs out, but Will said he’d work on finalising our travel insurance and tying up all the other loose ends within the next few days.
Hal went earlier, right after his pudding: he’d thanked me and said it had been a grand dinner, but he was off home, because there was something on the box he wanted to watch. Ma must have felt the same, because she took her cup of coffee and vanished without a word into the garden room, from which faintly issued the theme music heralding the start of the
Cotton Common
omnibus. She’s strangely addicted to this period locally set soap drama.
Stella and Jago helped me clear up and load the dishwasher, then we went into the sitting room and did a big alphabet floor jigsaw. But after her busy day, Stella soon started to flag again and I got her ready for bed.
Once she was tucked up she insisted on Jago reading her a bedtime story, even though he explained that with his dyslexia he was the world’s worst reader. But in the event it didn’t really matter because he’d barely got into her favourite Moomin book before she was fast asleep.
We tiptoed out, leaving the door ajar so we could hear her from the kitchen if she woke. I wanted to look up recipes for castle pudding, because I’d suddenly thought that little individual ones might be a nice recipe for ‘Tea & Cake’. I actually had a little Victorian copper jelly mould shaped like a turret.
‘I always worry Stella will be poisoned by copper things, so I don’t use it,’ I said, getting it off the dresser.
‘I think that’s only if they aren’t thoroughly cleaned,’ Jago suggested.
‘I know, but I’m so neurotic about anything that might affect her health, however unlikely, that I wouldn’t risk it.’
‘That’s only natural.’ He was examining the old china and glass I’d displayed along the shelf and added, ‘I like these three old glass rabbit moulds.’
‘I got them from jumble sales. Stella likes chocolate blancmange rabbits and it’s one way of getting milk into her. I make jelly ones with fruit juice sometimes, too.’
‘Have you tried her with caramel custards?’
‘No, but she might well like them. I haven’t made those for ages … and I don’t think I’ve done that recipe for “The Cake Diaries”, either.’
‘Good old-fashioned chocolate blancmange, served in individual ramekins, would be quick and simple for “Tea & Cake”, too,’ he suggested. ‘A swirl of cream on the top and one of those mini chocolate flakes.’
‘That’s another good idea, and I might even stretch my “Tea & Cake” remit to include mini cheesecakes – at least that has
cake
in the title. They don’t seem to mind at the magazine, so long as the recipe is quick and easy. Isn’t it amazing what you get served as buffet food at London events these days?’ I added. ‘Little pots of this or that, or tiny portions of paella served on Chinese soup spoons. Once, I was even given a teeny paper cone of fish and chips.’
‘I know, though I was usually on the other side of things setting up the cake display. I did go to some parties that Aimee organised but I felt like a fish out of water,’ he added slightly morosely. ‘Did I tell you that organising events for her friends was what she used to do for a living? But not
really
a living, because Daddy was still paying her a huge allowance then.’
‘I think you did mention that she organised parties.’
‘I went to one house party she organised as well, but it was all a bit wild and they played really silly games … it wasn’t my kind of scene, at all.’
‘It wouldn’t be mine either; I like a peaceful life. I used to enjoy going to the theatre and museums in London, and Stella loved the zoo, but that’s about all we miss.’
‘Yes, me too. It made it a bit difficult when I was engaged to Aimee, because she’d never been short of money and she didn’t seem able to grasp that I couldn’t afford to go nightclubbing in the kind of place she and her friends did, even if I’d wanted to, which I didn’t.’
‘Funnily enough, my ex-fiancée was much the same and
he
had elderly, well-off parents to dole out a generous allowance, so he and Aimee would probably have been a better match for each other,’ I said and then it suddenly occurred to me that Jago and I also suited each other, which I suppose is why we’d instantly hit it off … in a friendly way. Neither of us was looking for more than that and perhaps that was why we felt so comfortable together?
He sighed. ‘Really, Aimee and I had nothing in common at all. I can’t imagine what she saw in me and I certainly don’t know why she wants me back.’
His thin, handsome face looked pensive and a lock of dark, shiny, curling hair fell forward over his forehead. I resisted the urge to reach out and smooth it back but it was a struggle.
Part of his charm was that he had no idea he was gorgeous and I could see exactly why Aimee would want him back, even if they
were
polar opposites!
And speaking of polar opposites, I didn’t suppose mine had ever given me another thought after he’d waltzed off back to the Antarctic!
Stella was still tired on the Monday morning, which worried me so that I was in two minds about going to the playgroup, but in the end I drove her down and just popped in for half an hour.
One side of the huge room was slowly filling up with stacked boxes and bags of things for the jumble sale, which apparently Effie Yatton’s Brownies would sort and then spirit across to the village hall on the day.
Stella just wanted to sit on my knee and didn’t even look at the pink castle. Sophy’s little girl, Alys, very sweetly and gravely came and held her hand out to Stella in an invitation to come and play, but she shook her head so that all her silvery curls danced, and carried on sucking her thumb.
Zoë and Rachel, the two young mothers who lived next to each other in the neat row of pebble-dashed council houses on the edge of the village, had both brought paperback copies of
Around the World in Eighty Cakes
for me to sign. Unlike all my own favourite cookbooks, they were pristine – entirely unmarked by greasy fingerprints or food stains, so I’m not sure they’d ever been opened.
We didn’t stay long after that, but as we were leaving Poppy kindly invited us up on Friday to her riding school, Stirrups, to see the horses and the old donkey they had.
‘Stella hasn’t stopped talking about it since,’ I told Jago later when he rang to say how much he’d enjoyed spending time with us at the weekend and to hope it hadn’t been too much for Stella.
‘She does seem very tired today, but it was probably the fresh air and excitement that did it, because you carried her round practically the whole time,’ I said. ‘When she’s had another nap today, I think she’ll be fine again – she’s perked up already since Poppy told her about the donkey. No, I’m more worried about her catching coughs and colds, because she’s so susceptible and one of the children at playgroup had the sniffles.’
‘Weren’t you supposed to be warned if there was any infection going round?’
‘Chloe did promise to let me know, but obviously not everyone will tell her if their child’s a bit off colour before they turn up.’
‘If
I
catch anything, I promise not to come near either of you,’ he said.
‘Well, you could, but only wearing a surgical mask,’ I suggested half-seriously. ‘I think I’m going to get more and more worried about her catching something as the date to go to America gets closer. I might be terrified about the risks of the operation, but I couldn’t bear for anything to prevent it, when I know it’s her only chance of leading a long and normal life.’
‘That’s entirely understandable. I’ll mask up like an extra from a medical soap any time you like,’ he offered, and I laughed.
‘If you hadn’t been going to the stables, I’d have asked you if you’d like to meet me at Honey’s on Friday,’ he went on. ‘Tim Wesley from Hemlock Mill is going to see it. The estate agent spoke to Miss Honey, and she gave permission.’
‘I’d have loved to have seen it again, but hopefully before long you’ll have the keys and I can come and be nosy.’
‘You’ll always be welcome – we’ll nosy round together.’
‘I’ve written up some of those dessert recipes you suggested for articles,’ I told him, ‘and early this morning I froze a batch of brandy butter ice cream.’
‘How has that turned out?’
‘Even weirder than the first mincemeat one, though Ma had a taste and said she thought it would be good served with Christmas pudding.’
‘She’s probably right, and you could spice up a basic Christmas pudding “Cake Diaries” page with it, couldn’t you?’
‘True,’ I said, thinking that he had already spiced up both my life and my ideas no end …
Stella was still not quite herself by the time we went to the hospital for her check-up on Thursday. They said she had a slight temperature, though nothing to worry about and a little Calpol should take care of it. But of course, everything worries me and sends me into panic mode, so instead of going into Ormskirk, we went straight home.
That made Stella cross. ‘I want to see Jago and I want my gingerbread piggy! And we might have seen the three Graces in the café too!’
‘We’ll go in next week, darling, I promise.’
‘Jago will wonder where I am.’
‘We’ll tell him,’ I assured her and rang his mobile. Luckily he answered and I said, ‘Hi, Jago, it’s me, Cally. We won’t be in the shop today and Stella wants a word with you.’
I handed the receiver across.
‘Mummy wouldn’t bring me to see you, because I had a tiny tiny
tiny
little temperature, so I’m cross with her.’
I couldn’t hear what Jago said in reply and obviously he couldn’t see her nodding, but some kind of agreement must have been reached because she handed the phone back to me.
‘That’s all right now,’ she said. ‘Not as good, but all right.’
‘What did you say?’ I asked him as she wandered off towards her room, dragging Bun behind her by one threadbare ear.
‘I said I’d pop out later and bring her a special gingerbread pig … if that’s all right with you?’
‘Of course. But aren’t you way too busy?’
‘Unless I’ve got a croquembouche to make or David’s got a big order, I’m fairly redundant now Dorrie’s here, actually. She’s so capable and she keeps saying she doesn’t want me under her feet. It’ll be even worse when Sarah moves up at the end of June!’
‘Let’s hope you complete on the house in Sticklepond quickly then.’
‘I’d settle for a bedroom of my own at the moment, now they seem to be storing the stepladders and pasting table in mine,’ he replied ruefully.
Jago was about to leave for his appointment with Tim Wesley at Honey’s when he made the mistake of popping his head into the shop to tell David and his mother that he was off.
‘There you are!’ Aimee exclaimed, with a triumphant look at the other two. ‘They said you’d gone out and they didn’t know where to, or even when you’d be back.’
‘I
am
on my way out. What on earth are you doing here?’
‘Oh, I’ve got to organise a ghastly lunch party at a racecourse somewhere round here tomorrow – Haydock? Something-dock, anyway – I’ve got it in my sat nav. So since I had to come up today, I thought I’d drop in and see you. I’ve brought the estate agent’s brochure for that hotel I told you about too, because I don’t think you’ve thought this pit village thing through properly.’
‘Aimee, it isn’t in a pit village, and in any case, you’re way too late,’ Jago said impatiently. ‘I’ve had my offer accepted and I’m just on my way to meet someone there, who’s interested in clearing the old stock out of the shop.’
Her mouth dropped open and for a minute she didn’t look quite so pretty.
‘So you see, I was quite serious and you’ve wasted your journey.’
She rallied and smiled sweetly at him. ‘It’s not too late until you’ve actually signed the contract, is it? And anyway, aren’t you pleased to see little me?’
‘Yes, but I’m afraid you’ve had a wasted journey, because I really will have to go now, or I’ll be late.’
‘Then I’ll just have to come with you,’ she said quickly, and his heart sank.