Chapter SEVEN
It was just two weeks to go till Sylvia and Mick’s wedding and I was at my friend Lottie’s house, sitting chatting over a coffee in the kitchen of the B&B she ran with her mum.
Twins Liam and Lottie were playing with some cardboard boxes they’d found beside the recycling bin. They’d already sat in them, pretending they were cars and having rather noisy races. And now they were trying to scare each other by pretending to be Hallowe’en monsters with the boxes on their heads!
Rob and I had enjoyed a special bond with Lottie and her fiancé, Liam, ever since Liam had rescued me at the roadside, hugely pregnant and just about to pop! He’d driven me straight to the hospital where I’d given birth to the twins, after which Rob and I had decided to name them after Liam and Lottie . . .
A qualified pastry chef, when Lottie had heard that a last-minute Hallowe’en wedding was on the cards for Sylvia and Mick – and arrangements were having to be made fairly speedily – she’d immediately offered to make their wedding cake, and Sylvia had accepted gratefully.
Now, though, Lottie seemed to be having second thoughts about offering.
‘It’s such a big thing, isn’t it? A wedding cake.’
She smiled sheepishly.
‘I don’t mean “big” as in size. I mean it’s such an important part of the day and there’ll be loads of people taking photos, and my cake will probably end up in Sylvia and Mick’s wedding album.’
‘Yes?’
I smiled.
‘So? Lottie, you’re a brilliant baker and it won’t exactly be the first celebration cake you’ve made.’
‘True. But I love Sylvia and Mick and I really want them to have the perfect wedding – including the cake.’
I chuckled.
‘You’re mad. Whatever you make will be gorgeous.’
‘I hope so. Sylvia’s coming over tomorrow to talk Hallowe’en cake designs.’
‘Lovely. So come on. Let’s have a look at these designs.’
Smiling, she pushed her artist’s pad over.
‘So the first one I’m calling “Psycho Cake”. It’ll be three tiers, covered in white icing with a blood-red drip design, and there’ll be a miniature rocking chair sitting on the top?’
I started to laugh, looking at her sketch.
‘Wow, does it actually rock? The chair? I mean, I know the cake will rock!’
‘Ha ha! Yes, it does.’
‘Brilliant. An empty rocking chair in action is such a scary motif in horror movies.’
She grinned.
‘I know. I’m just worried it might be a bit too gruesome? With the blood and everything? So then I was also thinking about a “Spider Cake”. Dark purple icing decorated with white icing cobwebs and sugar paste spiders crawling over it?’
I shuddered at the very thought.
‘Not sure about that one.’
‘I know. Lots of people are funny about spiders,’
she agreed.
‘So what do you think about my “Bat Cake”?’
She pointed at the sketch.
‘I think that’s my favourite. It would be quite a simple, classy three-tier cake, lacy white icing, with a little group of bats flying over the top. You can make them out of twists of black ribbon and stick-on eyes and they look really cute rather than out-and-out ghoulish.’
She ginned.
‘Hey, did you know that a group of bats is called a cauldron of bats?’
I chuckled.
‘That’s brilliant. I did not know that. So this cauldron of bats? How do they fly exactly?’
‘Oh, each one would be attached to something like a long lollipop stick and then stuck into the top of the cake.’
‘That looks great.’
I tapped the sketch.
‘Definitely my favourite.’
We were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and Liam walking in. He poked his head round the kitchen door.
‘Hi, Fen. Talking wedding cakes, I guess?’
I smiled at him.
‘Yup. Lottie’s got some great ideas here.’
Grinning, he came over and kissed his fiancée, then he peered over my shoulder at the sketch pad.
‘The psycho cake’s the best but you should forget the rocking chair and go for a huge axe sticking out of the top instead, surrounded by a big pool of blood.’
Lottie laughed.
‘For a Goth teen’s birthday party, maybe. But this is a wedding we’re talking about here.’
She looked at me and shook her head.
‘Men! Honestly. No subtlety whatsoever.’
‘Yes, I’m not sure Sylvia’s into axe murder, even in cake form,’
I chuckled.
‘I’d definitely go with the bat cake if it was me.’
‘Boring!’
joked Liam.
‘But it’s up to Sylvia and Mick, anyway, so it doesn’t really matter what I think.’
‘Precisely.’
Lottie gave him a jokey pat on the butt and he pretended to skip away, offended.
‘How did the show go, anyway?’
Liam was a DJ on local radio.
‘Really well, thanks. Right, I’m off to get changed if that’s okay?’
‘Of course.’
‘Any B&B guests arriving tonight?’
‘None tonight. But we’re full up tomorrow night. Mum’s gone out to stock up on bacon and eggs.’
He nodded.
‘I’ll grab a bite to eat then I’ll help you with the bed linen?’
Lottie smiled at him.
‘What on earth would I do without you?’
He shrugged sheepishly.
‘Well, I know how much you hate changing duvet covers.’
‘Doesn’t everybody?’
I pointed out.
Lottie looked pained.
‘It’s getting the duvet to stay in the corners that makes me want to scream.’
‘It’s much easier with two,’
said Liam.
‘Oh, always!’
Lottie crossed her hands over her heart and gazed at him dreamily, and even though she was joking, I could see that the spark was still there for them.
‘Get a room!’
I told them.
‘There’s plenty to choose from in this place. Good to see you, Fen.’
He waved and vanished. Then a second later, he popped his head back round the door.
‘Instead of a psycho cake, what about a sophisticated white-iced one with black roses sort of tumbling down one side? Made out of that sugar paste stuff?’
He shrugged.
‘Just a thought.’
Then he disappeared again.
We exchanged an impressed look.
‘Hey, that’s not a bad idea!’
Lottie called after him.
‘I’ll send you my invoice for artistic services rendered,’
he shouted back.
We chuckled and Lottie asked.
‘So what’s Sylvia doing for flowers?’
‘Oh, didn’t you know?’
I looked at her in surprise.
‘Celia Dearlove is doing them.’
‘What? You don’t mean Celia Dearlove off that telly programme?’
‘The very same. Apparently, Sylvia used to live next-door to her family many moons ago and was best friends with Celia’s mum.’
‘Wow!’
breathed Lottie.
‘The flowers will be pretty spectacular then, I guess?’
‘I would think so.’
Lottie sighed.
‘Which means my cake has to be equally spectacular.’
She grimaced.
‘No pressure there, then.’
I smiled.
‘Stop worrying. It’s going to be fab.’
‘I hope so. I wish I’d managed to get along to the Pudding Club the other night.’
‘It was great. Annalise made things suitable for a Hallowe’en wedding.’
‘Nice. I hope Sylvia was taking notes.’
‘She asked Annalise if she’d make one of her desserts for the wedding.’
‘Oh, brilliant.’
I nodded.
‘Sylvia seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening. Well, until we were all leaving and she found two giant nails in her car tyres.’
‘Oh, no.’
‘Yes, it was odd, really. I mean, of course it happens. You drive over a nail. But it wasn’t just one tyre that was punctured. It was two. And the nails were huge.’
‘Weird.’
‘I thought so. But maybe it was just one of those freaky things that happen sometimes. Nothing to be worried about . . .’
Celia