Kate
Kate gasped and turned huge eyes to Emma. ‘How on earth did you manage to do this?’
‘Your mum is completely awesome. I wanted a way of showing off some of her baking so that guests would want to visit the tearoom during the day just as much as the bar in the evening. I gave her a tiny not-to-scale drawing and she did, well, this…’
In front of the Christmas tree Juliet, Emma and she had decorated, there was now a waist-height semi circular table covered in acres of satin the colour of the snow falling gently outside.
‘Big Kev built the table,’ Sheila said proudly as she came to stand beside Kate, looking very pleased at how it had all turned out.
‘It’s so beautiful, Mum,’ Kate whispered.
‘Magical,’ agreed Juliet.
‘It’s Christmas on a table,’ sighed Melody happily.
Along the table were stationed five different glass domes and inside each one was a complete scene from Whispers Wood made entirely out of gingerbread, and decorated with white icing and glitter. Her mum had recreated the row of cottages at the other end of the green with tiny roses climbing up the walls. Then there was the Welcome to Whispers Wood sign on the green with tiny woodland animals peeking out from the trees in the wooded area. Knightley Hall and its beautiful gardens took up another of the glass domes. She’d also recreated the tiny parade of shops on the other side of the green to the woods.
And right in the centre, in the largest snow-globe dome, Sheila had recreated The Clock House, complete with the courtyard, the moon-gate and Bea’s beehives.
‘It’s absolutely incredible,’ Kate murmured, taking in the exquisite detail as she tried to breathe past the lump in her throat.
‘I know, right?’ Emma smiled. ‘And look,’ with a press of a button, a miniature train puffed along the table.
‘Each empty carriage is going to have a miniature Christmas treat that I’ve baked,’ Sheila said. ‘I thought Emma could announce a particular time each day during opening hours and the children could watch the train and line up to take one of the treats.’
‘I can’t believe what you’ve created,’ Kate sighed and then swallowed, ‘Actually I can. Maybe I get some of this from you.’
‘The creativity and the drive,’ Sheila said with a nod of her head, ‘absolutely. The baking? Not so much, dear.’
‘True,’ Kate laughed. ‘Okay, a few words before guests start arriving.’ Turning around she called out to her beauty therapists, Juliet’s stylists and the wait-staff Emma had hired for the evening to gather around. ‘I just want to say thank you, really. Thank you for being here tonight to celebrate what we’ve all been working so hard to bring to life. I’m sure Daniel, Juliet and Emma have all given you the same spiel I gave my staff: tonight is for celebrating – but not too much. We all need to bring our A-game to The Clock House tomorrow … when,’ she grinned and with an almost can’t-believe-we-made-it-here shake of her head, said reverently, ‘we officially open for business.’ Then, because she needed to release some of the tension, she let out a, ‘Waaah!’ that had everyone laughing, before she finished with, ‘Right, stations everyone. Let’s do this.’
Music filled The Clock House, along with the sounds of amiable chatter and glasses clinking, and whenever Kate had a moment to think – which seemed only possible between making sure everyone had a drink and trying to capture every detail of the evening – that moment was spent making sure her head didn’t swell too badly from all the wonderful compliments.
‘Kate!’ Juliet appeared through the crowd and grabbed her arm as if she could barely contain herself. ‘We have appointments in our appointment book at reception! People are making appointments!’
Kate grinned. ‘It was a good idea to have staff stationed at reception, right? Daniel is a genius.’
‘Who’s a genius?’ Daniel asked, smiling as he walked up to them, cupping his hand behind his ear, to hear her say it again.
‘You are,’ she grinned. ‘You are a genius.’
‘Hubba-hubba and genius, you are so getting lucky tonight.’
‘You hear that?’ Juliet said to Oscar as he joined them.
‘What?’
‘These two,’ she said, nodding to Kate and Daniel. ‘They’re going to have their own private party after this party.’
‘Well, given that Melody has asked if she can stay over at Persephone’s tonight,’ Oscar said, with a waggle of his eyebrows, ‘I was planning on the two of us having a party of our own as well.’
‘How’s it all going?’ Emma said, squeezing through a gap in the crowd and holding out a honey martini for Kate. ‘This is for you. I think it’s going great. Isn’t it going great? So many people have taken photos of your mum’s snow globes, and they’re already booking tables for afternoon tea tomorrow.’
‘You having yourself a little Happy Dance, there, Hollywood?’ Jake said, as he joined them. ‘This is a party, you know. Show some respect,’ he joked and then broke out into a strange sort of Running Man shuffle that had them all laughing.
‘What on earth are you doing?’ Gloria interrupted, marching up to them, and looking at Jake as though she was thoroughly embarrassed for him.
Kate had nearly got used to Gloria being around.
She was trying her hardest and to be fair, so was Gloria!
‘Who have you come as tonight, Gloria?’ Jake replied. ‘A party pooper?’
‘Try the dance police,’ she shot back, ‘because you just violated every dance code possible. Speaking of codes,’ she turned to look at Kate, her expression changing to awkward. ‘You have a code red situation on the first floor.’ Turning to leave, she threw over her shoulder, ‘You’re welcome.’
Kate stepped in front of her to prevent her from leaving. ‘What the hell is a code red?’
‘I would have thought that was obvious,’ she smiled and then impatiently leant forward, ‘You have a situation.’
Kate’s gaze narrowed. ‘A situation? What kind of situation?’
‘An au natural situation,’ Gloria advised.
‘Au natural?’
‘As in sans apparel.’
‘Why do you keep speaking in French?’
‘Oh for heaven’s sake,’ Gloria said, looking about nervously before gesturing with her arms for the group to move in much closer so that she could state in a low voice, ‘Betty Blunkett is in Treatment Room 2 starkers. As in, in the buff. As in, naked.’
‘What the what?’ Kate said, unable to believe her ears.
‘My eyes still hurt,’ Gloria continued. ‘You think a person can just unsee that?’
‘You’re sure it was Betty?’ Kate asked, before urgently looking at Juliet who nodded and immediately left the group to go and check the room.
‘Like I was going to ask for ID?’ Gloria asked. ‘I was showing a few people around, and thank God one of them stopped to answer their phone, which meant they all stopped – why old people move in packs like they do, I will never understand.’
Kate suspected it wasn’t only the elderly that moved in packs for protection from Gloria.
‘Anyway I opened the door and there she was. I don’t know which of us was more shocked.’ Gloria put her hand to her chest. ‘I quickly backed out then pretended the door was locked and sent the pack back down the stairs to look around Juliet’s salon. And then I came over all duty-bound to tell you.’ Gloria breathed deep and blinked a few times but she wasn’t quick enough to mask the sadness. ‘I guess she’s having one of her episodes, or something.’
‘You didn’t lock her in the room, did you?’
Gloria looked thoroughly offended. ‘I may be mean but I’m not cruel. Everyone knows you don’t lock a confused and naked person in a room. I borrowed your ‘Private’ office door sign and swapped it with the Treatment Room 2 sign and hoped anyone else taking a tour would leave that room alone.’
‘Good work.’
‘Oh, how sweet. Are we doing peer review already? Thank you. I live for your positive encouragement.’
Kate didn’t have time to count to ten. ‘Aren’t you still on trial here?’
‘You’re right,’ Gloria nodded and smiled tightly. ‘And this one is way above my pay-grade, so, like I said, I thought you should know.’ And with that she sauntered off.
Juliet appeared back in the group’s circle. ‘I checked the room and the showers and she’s not there.’
‘Is it possible Gloria was spinning us a line?’ Oscar asked.
‘No,’ Kate said, watching Gloria carefully. ‘Look at her, she looks like she’s scanning the room looking for Betty as well.’
‘Okay. We should all split up and search,’ Emma said.
‘I have to do my speech in a moment.’ Kate looked around the room nervously.
‘Don’t worry,’ Daniel said calmly. ‘We’ll find her. You stay here and schmooze and then do your speech.’
‘Fine. And if you find her—’
‘We’ll handle the situation sensitively,’ Emma supplied.
‘Thank you,’ Kate told them all.
Halfway through her formal speech to all the guests, Daniel, Oscar and Juliet appeared in the doorway, shaking their heads helplessly at her.
Where on earth could Betty be?
Aside from the shock everyone would get if they saw a naked octogenarian wandering around, was the shock Betty was going to get if she suddenly encountered a crowd, or worse, Kate swallowed, the shock to her system if she wandered outside into the freezing cold night.
As she talked about all the different services the day spa was going to offer, she saw Daniel, Oscar and Juliet leave, presumably to re-search all the ground they’d just covered. They tag-teamed with Emma and Jake and right as Kate started talking about hot-stone massages, she saw a flash of pink.
With her heart beating wildly in her chest, she moved her hand up on the pretence of fiddling with her locket watch and pointed to her left while looking determinedly at Emma.
She saw Emma’s head swing to the left and then saw the moment Jake realised Betty was walking bold as brass towards the kitchen at the back of the bar.
Eyes wide, she watched him hesitate and then start after her.
Kate’s gaze shot over the crowd to Emma who gave her a thumbs up, and then slowly, calmly, started walking after Betty and Jake.