by Poppy Blake
Over the last four months, her enthusiasm for creating new and exotic recipes, and to try them out on the customers of the little Windmill Café, had blasted forth with frequent regularity and she loved it. With the calm encouragement of Mia, and Georgina, she had been able to turn the page of her autobiography and start to write a new story for her future. She suddenly experienced an intense craving to speak to her sister, to hear her sensible words of advice.
‘Hi, Georgie. How’re things?’
‘Fabulous. I’ve just been offered a part in a historical drama that’s being filmed down here in Hampshire next month. It’s only a small role but it should be fun and I’ll get to meet Darcie Fowler who’s playing the lead! How’s that cute little café of yours? Any hunky guys on the horizon? Oh, how did the garden party go at the weekend? At least you had good weather for it!’
Rosie waited for her sister to draw breath. She had always been the more gossipy child as they grew up. Instead of the turmoil of their teenage years causing Georgina to retreat into her shell, Rosie thought it had made her fearless, unafraid of speaking out, of trying something new or putting herself in difficult situations. After all, as her sister repeatedly said, what was the worst that could happen? Georgina’s self-confidence had stood her in good stead as she made her way through drama school and onto the stage at the local theatre, and then into small TV roles. Rosie was certain that her sister’s star was in the ascendant and that it was only a matter of time before she got a lead actress role in a Hollywood blockbuster.
‘Well, if you count poisoning your guests as a successful outcome, then the garden party went swimmingly.’
‘What are you talking about?’
Rosie immediately regretted telling Georgina about the disastrous ending to what had been such a wonderful day. She decided to give her the sanitized version of events for fear of having her indignant sister rush to her side and stand guard against unwarranted accusations.
‘Oh, it was nothing really. Just one of the guests had a stomach upset and her boyfriend thought it was food poisoning and threatened to call in the food inspectors.’
‘Were any of the other guests affected?’
‘No, no one else.’
‘And you’re okay?’
‘I’m fine. Don’t worry.’
‘Didn’t her boyfriend realize that there is no way any malicious germ could survive after an encounter with Rosie Barnes and her faithful antibacterial spray?’ giggled Georgina.
‘Clearly not.’
Rosie prayed that her sister wouldn’t dwell on the issue as she had never been good at keeping the truth from her. She cast around in her tangled thoughts for a change of subject but Georgina beat her to it.
‘So, tell me more about the summer garden party. Have you emailed photographs to Graham like I suggested? Has he agreed to your suggestion to do an autumnal-themed party yet? What did the guests think of the raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes?’
Rosie spent the next ten minutes playing up the positives of the Windmill Café’s first summer party to her sister, almost convincing herself that it had been a total success. She asked for details of the historical drama she was rehearsing for and about the progress of the rock musical her husband Jack was working on. Her mood started to lift as it always did when she and Georgina spent time gossiping, until the inevitable question was asked.
‘And are you really expecting me to believe that there was not one hot-blooded male at the party? Or in the whole of Willerby for that matter?’
‘Well, I…’
‘Oooh, there is! Spill the details, Rose. Come on, please, Jack is about as romantic as a wet fish at the moment. It’s this damn musical he’s got himself involved in, it’s eating up every spare bit of his time and more. Actually, I was thinking of coming up to Norfolk and bunking up with you in that cute little windmill of yours for a few days until opening night or I think I might just go crazy.’
Panic spread across Rosie’s chest. The last thing she wanted was for Georgina to discover what was going on and put on her metaphorical deerstalker. She had to deflect her suggestion without upsetting her or raising her suspicions about the café, or indeed organizing her wedding to the first unattached guy she set her eyes on – suitable or otherwise.
‘Matt and I are just friends…’
‘Does he work at the café?’
‘No. He owns an outward-bound centre in the village…’
‘Ah, so he’s a real-life hunk? He must be if he spends his days scrambling over obstacle courses, riding quad bikes and flying along zip wires! Has he invited you to go yomping with him yet? Or skinny dipping?’
‘No, Georgie, he has not. As I said, we’re just friends.’
‘Friends can turn into lovers, you know, Rosie.’
Rosie managed to deflect her sister’s cross-examination to the subject of their mother and her recent penchant for synchronized swimming and they ended the conversation with promises to speak again at the weekend. After they had said their goodbyes, she craved a dose of friendly company, unable to admit to herself that what she really wanted to do was escape the arrival of one of the holiday site guests. She decided to make her second trip in two days to Ultimate Adventures, a place where she knew she would receive a warm welcome.
When she arrived at the outward-bounds centre, the car park was already full of gleaming 4X4’s and mud-splattered vans belonging to the people crowding the wooden reception area eager to make a start on that day’s schedule of activities. She grabbed a seat on one of the sofas and waited for Freddie to process everyone and send them in the right direction.
‘Why don’t you come through to the kitchen, Rosie, and I’ll make you a brew?’ said Freddie, dropping his Ultimate Adventures fleece on the kitchen table and adding to the mountain of chaos already there. She could feel the familiar craving for order rushing through her veins, moving ever upwards until, with huge effort, she forced it from her mind.
‘I don’t think you’ve ever made me a cup of tea before! I’m looking forward to this.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll taste it first and you can wait to see if I keel over and die before you risk taking a sip. I won’t be offended. And I don’t know about you, but I’m starving – want to take your life in your hands and share an omelette with me, too?’
‘You make the tea, Freddie and I’ll rustle up the omelettes,’ Rosie laughed.
Once again, the task of feeding others came to her rescue. She threw herself into making the fluffiest omelettes possible, whisking the eggs until her hands ached, hunching over the stove and the heavy cast iron frying pan, her eyes smarting from the fragrant steam. The aroma of fresh, herb-filled omelettes served to encourage Matt out of his office. She rummaged in the fridge and tossed together a salad; a combination of lettuce, tomatoes and carrot strips fashioned into broad ribbons, with a ‘secret recipe’ vinaigrette and they all dug in.
‘You make a mean omelette, you know, Rosie. But this salad is… well, different.’
Rosie giggled when she saw Freddie sniff, and then inspect, the ingredients of the salad before raising a forkful into his mouth. What was he expecting to see? Curled purple petals nestling between the rocket and the radicchio? But still, she noticed he waited until Matt had taken a mouthful before devouring his.
Watching them relish every mouthful gave Rosie pause for thought. Maybe she should think more positively about the imminent arrival of the inspectors that day, view the recent upsetting turn of events as part of the patchwork of living life to the full, an event stitched into the rhythm of her life which added to what she would become. She knew for sure that any philosophical acceptance of the possibility she could have no job or home by the weekend was not only down to her affinity with food preparation, but to the man who sat opposite her scraping his plate of the last morsel.
‘It’s a particularly nasty thing to do though, don’t you think?’ mused Matt. ‘Lacing Suki’s throat spray with poison. It’s as though someone wanted
her to really suffer.’
‘But why? She’s lovely. She’s kind to her sister – even though Jess is a bit flighty. We know William adores her. And she’s paid for a week’s break in luxury lodges with outdoor spas just because she wanted everyone to have fun. She’s generous, popular, well-liked, excited about her future and on the brink of something special. Can it really be one of her friends who did this to her and not an unbalanced fan or spurned admirer who followed Suki here?’
‘I’m sure of it, and that person clearly used the spray because they wanted her next live performance to be affected – which leads me to believe it was someone who was envious of her success. What they didn’t foresee was that Suki would offer to sing whilst on holiday in Norfolk.’
‘What do you mean? Oh!’ Freddie picked up on Matt’s train of thought. ‘Yes! Suki has been offered the recording contract – jealousy. And what if Nadia knew about William and Suki’s affair but was biding her time, planning her revenge?’
‘It’s a theory.’
‘And poison. It’s not like a blow to the head, is it? In fact, the person didn’t even have to be around when Suki took it,’ added Rosie.
‘Mmm, interesting point, Miss Jessica Fletcher, I think you may be onto something.’
The tinkle of a brass bell reverberated through to the kitchen and interrupted their deductions.
‘I’ll go,’ said Matt, leaping from his chair and striding from the room.
Rosie couldn’t stop her eyes from roaming over Matt’s strong physique, those broad shoulders, those taut buttocks, and the memory of his firm hands as he’d guided her own on the bow. She could still feel the warmth of his body moulded perfectly next to hers and smell the faint whiff of his aftershave on her jacket.
‘Freddie? Can you come out here, please?’
Freddie shoved a whole chocolate biscuit into his mouth and shrugged his shoulders at Rosie. When the kitchen door swung open, Rosie saw who Matt was talking to and her stomach gave a sharp nip of surprise.
‘I needed to get away from everyone, so I thought I’d come over here,’ explained Nadia. ‘Please tell me there’s something I can join in with to get rid of all this pent-up energy. If I don’t do something soon I think I might explode!’
‘Come on, I’ll take you over to the climbing wall,’ said Matt. ‘Freddie, can you hold the fort here, please?’
‘Sure.’
‘Actually, Rosie had the same idea this morning. Would you mind if she joins us?’
‘I don’t mind at all.’
When Rosie appeared at the kitchen door, Nadia flicked the sides of her auburn bob behind her ears and attempted a smile. Rosie could see how agitated she was, her hands constantly restless, her eyes jumping from one thing to another and a spasm of sympathy shot into her chest, coupled with a generous helping of apprehension if Matt was expecting her to join Nadia on the climbing wall. She had never been top of the leader board when it came to heights, or ropes, or anything remotely connected with climbing for that matter; Georgina had been the tomboy of the family.
‘Here, take these.’
Matt handed each of them an Ultimate Adventures fleece and they followed him to the store room to collect the safety equipment before tramping through to a small clearing at the rear of the office where the climbing wall was situated. Rosie tipped her chin upwards to look at the top and it was so high she almost fell over backwards.
‘Looks daunting, doesn’t it?’ said Nadia, vocalizing Rosie precise thoughts.
‘Terrifying!’
‘Do you think it’s too late for us to back out?’
‘Erm…’
Rosie glanced at Matt who was emptying a huge rucksack of gear. ‘Sorry, girls, forgotten your elbow guards. Be back in a minute.’
Matt gave Rosie a meaningful stare and an imperceptible nod in Nadia’s direction. It was a couple of seconds before she realized what he meant. She tried to shake her head at him but he had already turned his back and sprinted off back to the storeroom. However, if they were to have any chance of finding out who spiked Suki’s throat spray and why, she had to grasp the opportunity to ask questions of their suspects whenever it presented itself. She had no idea how to broach the subject of Suki’s chance to shoot for stardom, other than to launch straight in.
‘So, how do you feel about Suki’s record deal?’
Nadia stared at her for a moment and Rosie thought she was going to tell her to mind her own business, but instead her shoulders slumped. She indicated a wooden bench fashioned from what looked like a railway sleeper and started to fiddle with the silver chains at her neck, her eyes fixed on an indeterminate point in the canopy of trees above their heads.
‘Suki’s my best friend and I’m happy for her. She’s worked so hard for her big break – we both did. The music business is a tough industry to make any progress in. If you’d seen some of the places we were booked to perform in you’d appreciate how much a recording deal means to Suki. Sure, I would be lying if I said I didn’t wish it had been me, who wouldn’t? But I’m not jealous, I’m really not. If I’m brutally honest, she’s a much better vocalist than I am. And even if I was jealous, I would never have sabotaged her chances by poisoning her! The contract doesn’t transfer to me in the event of her sudden unavailability or anything like that!’
Nadia’s face flushed with indignation as she re-tucked her copper-streaked bob behind her ears. Her outfit that day was a lemon, scoop-necked T-shirt embroidered with sunflowers and tight black designer jeans. Rosie knew that Nadia relished displaying her impressive cleavage and had shaped her wardrobe to reflect that – but in the middle of a deserted patch of woodland, she looked out-of-place and out-of-sorts and Rosie felt sorry for her.
‘Okay, ready to go now,’ announced Matt, handing out the elbow guards.
‘You know, I think I might have been a little hasty when I said I wanted to do something to take my mind of things.’
‘Nothing worthwhile is ever easy,’ said Matt, his dark blond hair standing up in tufts, looking like he’d just left his surfboard behind in the storeroom.
‘That’s exactly what Suki says before we go on stage. We both suffer from nerves before a gig; Suki more often than me, to be honest. She’s always coming out with crazy mantras, and she sticks rigorously to her little pre-show rituals – if she can’t find her throat spray, all hell breaks loose. Performers often have little routines before they go on stage – you know the sort of thing – if she has three sprays before a concert it’ll go well; if she forgets, or she’s run out, or only sprayed twice, it will be a complete disaster and we’ll never get a repeat booking. Actually, looking at this climbing wall I could do with a couple of squirts of the magic stuff myself!’
‘Mm, me too,’ murmured Rosie.
Suddenly Nadia’s eyes narrowed at Matt and Rosie. ‘I know what people are thinking – that I was so jealous of Suki’s record deal that I put something in her spray so she couldn’t sing for everyone on Sunday night. That’s what you think too, isn’t it?’
‘Well, you did go to Suki’s lodge to change into one of her dresses, so you did have access to…’ began Matt.
‘We all went to Suki’s lodge before the party – except for that idiot of a boyfriend of hers. Trust him to be in the clear! If I had to pick a person responsible for this it would be Felix!’
Nadia ripped off her helmet and knee guards and flung them to the ground, ready to take flight until Matt asked softly ‘I take it you know William and Suki are having an affair?’ and her indignant demeanour deflated as if a needle had been stabbed in a balloon. She crumpled back down onto the bench, twisting one of the silver chains at her throat. A succession of emotions floated across her expression – shock, outrage, acquiescence.
‘Yes, I knew,’ she whispered, tears trickling down her cheeks.
‘And had you spoken to either of them about your suspicions?’ asked Rosie, taking a seat beside Nadia. She reached for her hand and was unsurprised to find her finger
s were trembling and freezing cold.
‘No. To be honest, I was hoping it would fizzle out, but if anything, they seemed to grow closer. I knew William was going to dump me. Actually, I was surprised he didn’t do it before we came up to Norfolk.’
‘How did you feel about your best friend and your boyfriend being in a relationship?’
‘Matt!’
Rosie recognized the hurt in Nadia’s eyes and her heart squeezed with empathy. After what had happened with Harry and Heidi she understood exactly how Nadia felt. Taking a few moments to shove her emotions back into their box, Nadia’s habitual spark emerged from the shadows of her pain and she met Matt’s eyes with a challenge.
‘How do you think I felt? Angry, worthless, sad. I loved him. I still do. But I did not try to poison my best friend! If you want to know who did, maybe you should look at the other person scorned! I’m not staying here any longer to be accused of something I had nothing to do with!’ Nadia stalked from the clearing, every muscle in her body clenched in anger.
‘Matt, why did you have to bring up the affair?’
‘Rosie, someone poisoned Suki, and that same person couldn’t have cared less about the effect their actions would have on the Windmill Café’s future, or yours! And before you say anything else, think about it. Nadia not only had the opportunity to tamper with Suki’s throat spray when she changed her outfit, but also a reason for wanting her to suffer discomfort and either cancel her performance or sing badly. There’s not only the motive of professional jealousy, which, I might add, was instigated by William, but Suki has also stolen her boyfriend who she’s just confessed she still loves.’
