Chapter Seven
‘Morning.’ Looking up from where she was refilling the coffee beans in the coffee machine, Merri grinned as Tilly and Brooke entered the bakery.
‘Hi, Merri.’ Closing the front door behind her, Tilly placed her handbag on the counter before shrugging off her coat. ‘The wreath on the door looks gorgeous.’
‘Yes, I love the yellowy-gold ribbon.’ After taking her coat off, Brooke picked up Tilly’s and hung them both on the hooks by the door to the flat upstairs before throwing Tilly an apron. ‘Catch.’
‘Thanks.’ Deftly catching the apron, Tilly slipped it over her head. 'I think we're in for a busy one today. I'm sure Carrie mentioned a big Christmas craft fair was going on at the community hall all day today.'
'All day? They normally only go on for the morning or the afternoon.
Not all day.' Brooke grimaced before turning to Merri.
'You probably remember a few craft fairs in the summer, well, they don't have a patch on the Christmas ones.
Penworth Bay is well known locally for holding the best and biggest craft fairs so they'll be a few coach loads of people being dropped off from the surrounding areas. '
'Yikes.' Merri secured the lid of the coffee machine again before putting the bag of coffee beans away in the cupboard beneath the counter.
She remembered how busy the bakery got when any coaches came into the bay.
People would descend on the bakery enmass because of they'd all be arriving and departing at the same times.
Still, she liked it being busy. Since volunteering she'd realised she actually loved meeting new people and talking to them about their lives, something she never had the opportunity to do back at the paper supply company she worked for back home.
which reminded her, she really should ring her boss and attempt to find out if there was any truth in the assumption she'd made about the company closing.
'I wonder if Elsie knows? She normally bakes extra for days like today.' Brooke tied her apron around her middle. 'I'll go and warn her.'
With the coffee and cake counter ready to go, Brooke in the kitchen talking to Elsie and Tilly setting things up behind the bakery counter, Merri pulled her mobile from her pocket.
Now she'd thought about work and the possibility of the company closing down, she just wanted to check she didn’t have any weird emails from Brian or Martha which suggested anything.
She scrolled through her apps until opening her email one.
Nope. Plenty of spam emails trying to encourage her to recent to the gym she attended for four weeks six years ago and enough offers of money off the food delivery companies that she'd be able to eta like a king for a month if they didn’t start out as grossly overpriced to begin with. But nothing from work.
Maybe she should check in with Brian? Perhaps she wouldn’t ask outright but she could send one asking something generic like how many days holiday she had left to use up by April or something.
No, she knew she didn’t have any left and she knew Brian knew that too because that's why she'd taken these few weeks as unpaid leave.
She'd have to think of something else. Leaning her hip against the counter, she opened a fresh email and added the company's email address.
'You look deep in thought.' Tilly glanced up from where she was wiping the bakery counter down.
'Yep. I've just got this strange feeling that I'm about to lose my job. My boss has been making a couple of comments recently that makes me wonder whether he’s closing the business or selling it on.
' Merri scrunched up her nose. She was aware it all sounded pretty vague, but she just couldn’t shake the feeling now the idea had been created in her mind.
'So, I want to just check in with my boss to see if he'll give anything away but I'm not sure what to say or what I could ask him. '
'Oooh, that's a tricky one. you could ask about holiday days or ask for a pay rise.'
Merri laughed. 'I've not had a pay rise since I started working there, if I ask for one, he'll know something's up. And he knows I'm aware I've sued all my holiday up. I need something else...'
'I know! How about saying you promised a friend to ask if there were any jobs going at the company?'
'That’s a god one and plausible too. In fact, my flatmate’s boyfriend is looking for a job right now. Not that I'd want him working in the same office as me, but my boss doesn't know that.'
'Perfect.' Tilly went back to the cleaning.
As she began writing the email, she automatically reached towards her neckline to fidget with her necklace, as was her habit when she was concentrating.
Not being able to find it, she straightened her back and reached around her neck, ready to pull the chain to release her snowflake pendant from her jumper.
That was strange. She could feel the chain.
Placing her mobile down on the counter, she pulled out the neckline of her jumper, feeling around for her necklace. No luck. It wasn’t there.
'Is everything okay?' Pausing again, Tilly frowned.
'No, I can’t find my necklace. Can you see if it's there please?' Hurrying over to Tilly, she stood in front of her and lifted her ponytail off the nape of her neck so Tilly could check.
Running her hand across the back of Merri's neck, Tilly shook her head. 'Nothing. has it got caught in your jumper? Maybe when you were getting changed this morning?'
'I don’t know.' Merri tapped her hands across her front. She couldn’t feel anything.
'Why don’t you pop upstairs and check in your room, it might have come off during the night or something.' Tilly glanced towards the large clock above the counter. 'We've got a few minutes until opening so take your time.'
'Okay, thanks.' Without hesitating, Merri pulled open the door to the flat and ran up the stairs, barely noticing the brightly coloured wallpaper she normally took the time to admire going up and down the stairs.
Once in her bedroom, she both switched the light on and opened the curtains, something she hadn't got around to doing before going downstairs to help Elsie with the morning baking.
With the room now bathed in light, she carefully pulled her jumper and turned it inside out, Nothing.
It was there. Next, she threw the duvet back and ran her palm across the sheet.
Again nothing. Trying not to panic, she walked slowly around the room, her head bent and her eyes searching the floor for the sparkle of her snowflake pendant.
Where was it? Where could it have gone? When did she have it last? Taking her hair out of her ponytail, she quickly tied it back up again. She needed to think. Downstairs! It wasn’t in the bedroom, the only other place it would be is the bakery.
Retracing her steps downstairs, she kept her eyes on the floor in case she spotted it before pulling the door leading to the bakery open and stepping through.
'Are you ready to open?' Brooke smiled from where she was waiting at the front door.
'No, I...' She shook her head. She couldn’t say the words. She couldn’t admit she'd lost the only thing she owned from her mum.
'No luck?' Tilly walked through he kitchen door, two trays piled high with the robin shaped chocolate chip cookies Elsie had been baking last night. 'Did you find your necklace?'
Merri shook her head.
'The snowflake one? You can't find it?' Leaving the door closed, Brooke walked towards her.
'The catch was a bit dodgy. I should have got it fixed.' Merri clasped her hands together as she felt panic rising from the pit of her stomach. What if she never found it?
Sensing Merri's panic, Brooke took charge of the situation. 'I'll go and look in the kitchen, you two check out here. We'll find it, Merri.'
'Yes, we will. It's got to be here somewhere. I'll start this side of the room, you start that side and we'll meet in the middle. That way we know we've covered it all.' Tilly began walking slowly, her eyes trained on the floor.
'Don’t we need to open?' Merri croaked. As much as she wanted to, no, needed to find her necklace, she could see a small queue already forming outside the door.
'We'll open just as soon as we've found it. With the four of us looking, I'm sure it won't take long to find.' Glancing across at her, Tilly smiled.
'Okay, thanks.' Tilly and Brook were right, they could cover every inch of the bakery between them. She hurried towards the other side of the bakery to begin her search. They'd find it.
'IT'S NOT LIKE IT CAN have just disappeared. it's got to be here somewhere.' Elsie rubbed Merri's forearm. 'Do you know when you had it last?'
Pulling a stool out from beneath the stainless-steel table int he kitchen, Merri slumped heavily onto it.
Diane had arrived just after they'd finished their search and so had taken over Merri's role serving coffees and cakes while Merri and Elsie strategised in the kitchen.
'No, I don’t. I have it on all the time.
I never take it off. I never have. not once. '
'Try to think back to this morning or yesterday. Do you remember seeing it in the mirror when you were getting ready this morning? Or fidgeting with it last night?' Elsie glanced around the kitchen as though pure will might just make it appear again.
'No, I...' Had she seen it in the mirror this morning? Normally when she woke up some of her hair would be tangled in it and she'd have to spend a few moments untangling it. Today though, she’d got straight up and into the shower, she hadn’t noticed any hair having got caught in the chain overnight. How hadn’t she noticed she'd missed out one task she did every single day?
'I don’t think I had it on this morning. '