A Brambleberry Manor Christmas - Rosie Green Page 0,8

payments, I really need this week to be a success…

CHAPTER THREE

Menu – Day 1

Hot-smoked salmon, with apple and lemon pickle, served with toasted sourdough bread

***

Roast fillet of beef, stuffed with wild mushrooms, shallots and herbs

Fresh horseradish sauce

Mini Yorkshire puddings & crispy roast potatoes

Green beans and maple-glazed carrots

***

Cherry and white chocolate meringue roulade

Black cherry ice-cream

***

‘Are you nervous about the dinner tonight?’ asks Flo, when I arrive at her house to pick her up that afternoon.

I look across at her and laugh, a little hysterically. ‘Is the sky blue?’

She glances out, stifling a yawn. ‘Well, no, actually. Those snow clouds look pretty grey.’

‘Another heavy night?’ I raise an eyebrow, grinning. ‘I hope you don’t mind me saying it, but you look like you’ve had no sleep at all.’

She grimaces at the dashboard. ‘I was out with an old friend. We should have left the pub way earlier than we did, but it was such a great festive atmosphere.’

‘Sounds lovely. Is that the old college friend who just got back in touch with you? Carole, was it?’

Flo told me about Carole the other morning when I picked her up. They’d been out the night before, she said, for ‘one or two lemonades’. I went into the house because she wasn’t quite ready. (I had a suspicion she’d actually just rolled out of bed when I knocked.) But after drinking the tap in the kitchen dry, she was ready in ten minutes.

She grins. ‘Proper party animal is Carole. Hates staying in.’

‘Well, good for you. You deserve some fun. You’re young, free and single.’

She groans. ‘Hardly young. Forty-two is probably far too ancient to be waking up with a hangover!’

‘Rubbish. You’re not old.’

‘I feel it sometimes.’ She grins. ‘You’ll know what I mean in twelve years’ time, when you’re my age.’ She peers at me. ‘You should get out more yourself.’

‘Oh, no. It’s…it’s still too soon.’

‘It’s been a year, Jenny,’ she says softly. ‘I know you must miss Harvey so much. But there comes a time when you have to think about moving on?’

I swallow. ‘I know. But there’s Tavie to think of. I could never bring another man into her dad’s house.’ I shudder at the thought of how she’d feel if I did. ‘She’d hate me even more than she already does.’

Flo sighs. ‘She doesn’t hate you. She’s just hurting. And unfortunately, you’re a convenient punch bag.’

‘You’re right there.’ I attempt a smile but it feels more like a grimace.

‘She needs you. Just give her time. She’ll come round.’

I nod, a lump rising in my throat. But what if she doesn’t? What if we never get back the closeness we once shared?

I take a deep breath and change the subject. ‘So do you really think the ice-cream will be okay?’

‘Yes. It’s delicious. Don’t worry, Jenny. The guests are going to love the food.’

‘Here’s hoping.’ I bite my lip, thinking about the stern warning letters from the mortgage company and other creditors, safely stored in my bedside drawer so that Tavie never sees them. Flo knows nothing about the financial mess I’m in. No-one does. It’s a shameful secret I’m keeping all to myself.

Flo yawns again, but this time it’s louder and she doesn’t attempt to hide it.

I smile over at her, feeling a pang of envy. Aside from Carole, Flo has loads of friends she’s known since school days, and she seems to be out socialising three or four times a week. How amazing would it be to have people you could just pick up the phone to, whenever you felt like going out?

When I started seeing Harvey, I gradually drifted away from the friends I had back then, and I really regret it now. Flo is the nearest I have to a good friend these days. I’ve only known her a few months, but we got on well right from the start, and without her, my business would probably have flopped even before it had a chance to take off.

The day I met Florence Baxter in the corner shop in Sunnybrook was a game-changer, that’s for sure…

*****

I’d been having a really bad day.

I’d started up the business a few months earlier, and I’d catered half a dozen private dinner parties in the area, mostly through word of mouth. The feedback so far had been really promising. People seemed to love the food, and I’d actually started to feel that this could be the answer to my prayers…that I could finally claw myself out of the financial hole I’d found myself in after