Snowy Nights at Castle Court

by Holly Hepburn

  Smooth, Cat thought with a secret grin of delight. His gaze lingered on her for a long second, then he half-turned to beckon the beekeeper forwards. ‘Can I introduce you to Adam Tucker? Adam, this is Cat Garcia – she’s opening the new shop on the ground floor.’

  ‘Hi,’ Cat said, as Adam smiled in greeting. ‘You need to meet my business partner, Sadie.’

  As Seb went to whisk up the drinks, Cat tapped Sadie on the shoulder. ‘There’s someone I want to introduce you to.’

  Excusing herself to Andrew and Earl, Sadie swivelled around and gazed up enquiringly. Her eyes widened at they met Adam’s. ‘Oh! It’s you.’

  ‘Hello again,’ he said, smiling.

  Cat glanced back and forth between the two of them, puzzled. ‘You know each other already?’

  Sadie nodded. ‘We – uh – bumped into each other a few days ago.’

  ‘Literally,’ Adam confirmed. ‘I dropped my sprouts.’

  ‘And I helped him pick them up,’ Sadie added. ‘How did they taste?’

  ‘Fine,’ Adam said. ‘Like I said, they’re sturdy. I fried them up with some butter and pancetta.’

  Cat followed the exchange with interest, noting the sparkle in Sadie’s eyes when she looked at Adam and the answering gleam in his. She sat back, a plan beginning to form in her mind. ‘Adam is a beekeeper and supplies a lot of the Castle Court businesses with honey,’ she told Sadie, her tone as guileless as she could make it. ‘Which is lucky, because we need a good supply of honey for our biscuits. So as long as Adam doesn’t mind another customer, it looks as though we might be seeing quite a bit more of him in the immediate future.’

  To Cat’s immense satisfaction, Adam didn’t take his eyes off Sadie when he replied. ‘No, I don’t mind that at all.’

  Chapter Five

  ‘Ow!’

  Cat opened one eye and instantly closed it again as a burst of pain shot through her skull. ‘Ow, ow, ow.’

  ‘I told you not to have that last tequila shot,’ a voice said from the side of the bed.

  Cat squinted up, ignoring the pain, and saw Sadie standing there with a cup of tea. ‘What time is it?’ she croaked, shading her eyes.

  ‘Nine-thirty,’ Sadie replied. ‘I’m heading home soon to get on with the next batch of biscuits. Is there anything you need before I go?’

  ‘Apart from a new head?’ Cat groaned. ‘What time did we leave Seb’s last night?’

  Sadie shook her head. ‘Three-thirty. And I’m not surprised you don’t remember – I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drink so much.’

  For a moment, Cat thought her friend was cross but her lips were twisted into a reluctant smile. ‘It’s Seb’s fault,’ she said in a plaintive tone. ‘He kept making all these amazing-looking cocktails – it would have been rude not to drink them.’

  ‘And yet somehow I managed to resist without mortally offending him,’ Sadie said. ‘Although I will say that the ice is well and truly broken with our Castle Court neighbours. It’s hard to stand on ceremony once you’ve snogged half of them.’

  Cat sat up in bed. ‘I did not.’

  Sadie grinned. ‘No, you didn’t. But for what it’s worth, I don’t think Seb would have minded a bit of snogging action. The two of you seemed to be getting on awfully well.’

  Gingerly, Cat lowered herself back onto her pillow. She remembered talking to Seb on several occasions, and laughing a lot. They’d definitely flirted. But she hadn’t overstepped the mark . . . had she? ‘What about you and Adam?’ she countered. ‘You couldn’t take your eyes off each other.’

  Sadie’s cheeks turned pink. ‘I like him, he’s nice. But we were both just being friendly, nothing more. Don’t try to change the subject.’

  ‘I’m too hungover for this,’ Cat grumbled, closing her eyes. ‘Can’t you make yourself useful and cook me some breakfast?’

  ‘Don’t you remember?’ Sadie said, in a voice that contained far too much gleeful satisfaction for Cat’s liking. ‘You’ve got a brunch date with Seb. That’s why I woke you up – I’m sure you don’t want to be late.’

  Cat’s eyes flew open as a hazy memory of arranging to meet Seb surfaced. ‘Shit, you’re right. We’re going to check out that new chicken and waffles place on Watergate Street.’ She rubbed a hand across her face. ‘Why didn’t you wake me earlier?’

  ‘There’s Berocca and ibuprofen on your bedside table and you need to be outside Water Wings in just less than an hour,’ Sadie said as she headed to the bedroom door. ‘I expect a full report later – don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!’

  *

  Seb was waiting outside the restaurant as Cat puffed up five minutes late, her breath making steamy clouds in the chilly morning air.

  ‘I thought you were going to stand me up,’ Seb said, smiling at her from behind a pair of sunglasses.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said, squinting up at him in the wintry sunlight. ‘It took longer than I thought to feel human again. I am never letting you make me cocktails again.’

  He grinned. ‘You’re not the first person to have said that, actually. Come on, what you need is medicinal protein and carbohydrates.’

  It was busy for a Sunday morning, although Cat noticed a higher than usual proportion of sunglasses were on display, suggesting she wasn’t the only person nursing a hangover. Seb looked as fresh as a daisy, which irritated Cat even more; he clearly hadn’t been drinking his own creations.

  ‘So,’ he said, once they were seated at a table in one corner. ‘What do you think of the Castle Court crew?’

  Cat revisited her patchy memories of the night before. Andrew and Earl had turned out to be every bit as hilarious as she’d anticipated. Elin had relaxed once she’d observed Cat and Seb flirting, which suggested Cat’s suspicions about her interest in Jaren were right. Whether Jaren himself had noticed was another thing entirely . . . She hadn’t spoken to Greg, the bistro owner, much, especially after he had tried to pump her for information about her time at La Perle, but he’d spent most of his time whispering with Cherie; Cat caught them firing unfriendly glances her way from time to time. And Seb – well, he’d turned out to be an extremely attentive host. Cat had enjoyed flirting with him, which was probably why she found herself sitting opposite him now. Overall, she’d found her neighbours at Castle Court to be a fun, friendly bunch. With one or two notable exceptions.

  ‘Honestly?’ she said. ‘I really like them. Jaren said the Court is a bit like a family and I can really see that. So I suppose it’s inevitable that there’s one person I didn’t really get along with.’

  ‘Cherie,’ Seb guessed.

  ‘Cherie,’ Cat repeated. ‘Elin said she took a while to warm to her too so I’m trying not to take it personally but there were times last night when I could feel her eyes boring into me. I understand that she’s protective of her business but really, Smart Cookies is no threat.’

  Seb tilted his head. ‘Give her time. Some people cope better with change than others and I don’t think her relationship with Greg is necessarily what she needs. They wind each other up.’

  ‘That makes sense,’ Cat said, thinking back to the way Greg and Cherie had huddled together. ‘Even so—’

  ‘Even so, Cherie isn’t a bad person,’ Seb said. ‘Greg is probably worse, to be honest.’

  Cat rubbed her forehead as she considered his words. ‘Are you sure? Because I’m starting to wonder whether these pains in my head are because Cherie made a voodoo doll of me and is sitting at home sticking pins into the skull.’

  He laughed. ‘I’m afraid the only spirits to blame for your hangover are vodka and gin.’ Passing her a menu, he gave her a sympathetic smile. ‘But luckily, I know the perfect cure.’

  Their food arrived faster than Cat expected, given the bustling tables. Seb had been right, the twin hit of fried chicken and sweet syrupy waffles helped her almost immediately. She allowed him to do most of the talking, listening as he described growing up in Port Elizabeth and explained how he’d ended up l
iving in one of the garret apartments that lined the top floor of Castle Court. ‘Whirlwind romance with a model from Chester,’ he confided with a grimace. ‘I gave up everything to relocate. Then she met a Premier League footballer and I was unceremoniously dumped. But the city had me under its spell by then so I stayed.’

  By the time he’d finished talking, she knew he was thirty-seven, had three sisters and one ex-wife, had spent several years working the bar scene in New York, learning from master mixologists there, and that he hated celery to the point that he’d reinvented the Bloody Mary to avoid ‘any taint of the evil stuff’. On the surface, he was witty and charismatic but Cat was certain there was a lot more to him than he was letting her see – she sensed he used his good looks and charm as a shield to prevent anyone from getting too close.

  ‘Now it’s your turn,’ he said, once Cat had mopped up the last remnants of maple syrup from her plate. ‘Tell me all about you.’

  ‘There’s not much to tell,’ Cat said, shrugging. ‘Went to catering college, took a variety of jobs in London to get onto the career ladder, travelled a bit to expand my knowledge of food and ended up at La Perle. Now I’m here.’

  Seb stared at her. ‘That’s it? No disastrous career moves, no sweeping romances that broke your heart but taught you more than you dreamed possible in the process? No moments of insane happiness followed by the depths of despair?’

  Cat took a long sip of water and avoided his incredulous gaze. ‘I didn’t say that,’ she said quietly.

  He grew still. ‘You don’t want to talk about it.’

  ‘Not really,’ she said and looked up. ‘For a long time, I was married to my work. Does that make me boring?’

  He gave her a rueful smile. ‘No. It’s probably easier than being married to a person. Cheaper when you need to get divorced, too.’

  He was being flippant on purpose, she realised, trying to make her laugh. ‘Thank you.’

  He shrugged and picked up the menu. ‘Don’t mention it. Now, do you think your hangover can cope with sharing a dessert or shall we save that for next time?’

  ‘Next time?’ Cat repeated, smiling at his cockiness. ‘There’s going to be a next time?’

  Seb’s gaze was warm when it met hers. ‘Oh, I think there are going to be lots of next times. Don’t you?’

  Cat felt the flicker of attraction she’d noticed the night before turn into a surge. ‘I hope so.’

  *

  Monday morning dawned grey and foggy. Sadie dropped Lissy off to school and drove into Chester, painfully aware of the slower than usual traffic. Cat had been at the shop for hours, baking fresh batches of biscuits so that they would be cool enough for Sadie to ice when she arrived, and it didn’t really matter that the traffic was crawling along today. But it would be a different story once the shop was open; Cat couldn’t be downstairs baking and upstairs serving customers at the same time. Sadie needed to find a way of making sure she reached the shop by nine-thirty each day. The trouble was that Lissy’s school day didn’t start until eight-fifty and it only took one accident on Sadie’s route into the city to cause major problems. She was starting to wonder whether they were going to need some help to run the shop, especially in the run-up to Christmas.

  She arrived at the shop just after ten o’clock, red-faced and flustered from hurrying through the slippery streets. It didn’t matter how many times Cat reassured her that there was no harm done, Sadie felt uncomfortable and out of sorts for the rest of the morning. She couldn’t settle to pipe icing onto the biscuits, something that she’d come to find soothing now that she was more practised at it, and began to arrange the shelves instead.

  Cat appeared at her elbow just after midday. ‘Come on,’ she said, handing Sadie her coat and bag. ‘I’m taking you out for pancakes.’

  Let’s Go Dutch was starting to fill up with lunchtime trade. Jaren greeted them both warmly and found them a table in the window so they could observe the behaviour of customers around the Court.

  ‘He’s so thoughtful,’ Sadie said, watching Jaren stop by another table and check everything was to the diners’ satisfaction. ‘Don’t you think?’

  Cat’s eyes were fixed on Seb’s, three floors up. ‘Hmmm?’

  ‘Jaren is so thoughtful,’ Sadie repeated, narrowing her eyes at her friend. ‘He and Andrew are planning to elope together on the big yellow school bus.’

  ‘Good,’ Cat replied absently. ‘That sounds like a great idea.’

  Sadie folded her arms. ‘Is the only reason you brought me here so that you could spy on Seb?’

  ‘What?’ Cat stared at her in guilty surprise. ‘No, of course not. I just thought you could do with a change of scene, that’s all. And I’m quite curious about Jaren’s menu so coming here seemed like a good idea, but we can go somewhere else if you’d rather.’

  ‘Of course we can’t,’ Sadie said. ‘What would Jaren think?’

  ‘What would I think of what?’ Jaren said, appearing at their table with a small notepad in his hand.

  ‘Nutella-flavoured pancakes,’ Cat said without missing a beat. ‘They’re very popular in France but I’m not sure so I wondered how you felt about them.’

  Sadie wanted the ground to swallow them up. He must know Cat was lying, surely? But he shook his head, as though giving the question serious thought. ‘If you asked me outside of these walls,’ he said in a hushed tone of voice, ‘I would tell you that Nutella and pancakes have no business even being in the same sentence. But since they are one of our most popular menu items, my official response is that they are a match made in heaven.’

  Sadie laughed. ‘What do you recommend for someone who only eats pancakes once a year, with lemon and syrup?’

  He studied her thoughtfully. ‘For you, I recommend the creamed spinach and ricotta pancake, with a side order of bitterballen. They’re a kind of meatball, with a mustardy sauce.’ He turned his gaze to Cat. ‘And for you, perhaps the smoked salmon pancake with sliced green beans and a lemon and dill dressing, with cheesy kaasballen as a side?’

  Sadie gave Cat an enquiring look. ‘Sounds delicious,’ Cat said, nodding.

  Jaren made a note of their order and hurried away to the kitchen. ‘He’s probably going to warn him that he’s got a Michelin-starred chef to impress,’ Sadie joked, but she knew it was probably closer to the truth than either of them wanted to admit. All of Castle Court’s food business owners had seemed a little in awe of Cat once they’d discovered where she’d worked before coming back to Chester; all except Cherie and Greg, who continued to remain aloof. And Cat would probably maintain that a bit of awe and respect was no bad thing in the food industry but Sadie wasn’t so sure.

  ‘Cat, do you think we’ve bitten off more than we can chew by diving straight into opening a shop?’ she said suddenly. ‘Do you think perhaps we should have done a business course first, learned how to do things properly?’

  Cat frowned. ‘What do you mean, properly? What have we done so far that isn’t proper?’

  ‘It just feels a bit sudden, that’s all,’ Sadie said, beginning to wish she’d kept quiet. ‘A bit rushed.’

  ‘It’s taken a while to get to this stage, Sadie,’ Cat replied, still frowning. ‘And things are starting to come together – I’m not sure what you think we ought to be doing differently.’

  Sadie hesitated. Cat wasn’t wrong; the various strands of Smart Cookies did seem to be dovetailing. But worry still nagged at her. ‘Maybe we should have gone with an online business first,’ she said, gnawing at her lip. ‘Started small and worked up.’

  ‘What is this really about?’ Cat demanded, staring at Sadie. ‘Come on, out with it.’

  Heart thudding, Sadie explained her concerns about getting into the shop each morning. ‘What if Lissy is ill and I can’t come in at all?’ she said. ‘How will you cope on your own?’

  ‘We’ll hire some staff,’ Cat said, gazing at Sadie as though she’d grown two heads. ‘I was going to wait until the shop was open but we ca
n start the process now if it makes you feel any better. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that you can’t do it all yourself.’

  Sadie sagged in relief; she’d expected Cat to hate the idea but it turned out they were thinking the same thing all along. ‘Great,’ she said weakly, just as Jaren appeared with their food.

  ‘Here you are – the finest Dutch pancakes this side of the North Sea,’ he said, laying plates of delicious-smelling food before them.

  Cat smiled at him. ‘Do you serve all your customers personally?’

  Jaren grinned back at her. ‘No. Only the VIPs.’ He waved a hand at the steaming plates. ‘Enjoy.’

  Sadie sighed as he walked off. ‘I’ve always admired a man who can cook.’

  Cat picked up her knife and fork. ‘Believe me, the appeal wears off after a while. But Elin clearly agrees with you. I think she’s got a bit of a thing for Jaren.’

  Sadie took a mouthful of food, savouring the delicate flavours for a moment. ‘You’re right,’ she said, once she’d swallowed. ‘But I’m not sure he has a thing for her. He told me on Saturday night that he was definitely single.’ She paused. ‘I also got the impression Seb and Elin had got together at some point in the past.’

  ‘Me too,’ Cat said. ‘But Seb practically admitted he’s been a bit of a ladies’ man since his divorce came through.’

  ‘Just be careful,’ Sadie advised. ‘The last thing you want is to end up just another one of his conquests.’

  Cat gave her a look that suggested she wouldn’t mind that at all but she said nothing. They ate in silence for a few minutes. Sadie couldn’t believe how good her pancake tasted; maybe she’d try and introduce Lissy to the idea of savoury fillings too. She glanced around; everywhere she looked, people were enjoying their food. Jaren had a very successful business on his hands.

  She spotted him in the corner, watching their table like a nervous parent on the first day of school. ‘Don’t look up, but Jaren is staring at you.’

  Cat sighed. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have told him about working at La Perle. Now he thinks I’m judging him when all I want is a decent lunch.’