Alice's Secret
Page 29
Alys, raising her glass in turn, caught Rob’s eye and their gaze locked for a few seconds. It seemed to Alys that her life, already so much more fulfilled since she’d been living here, was about to offer up some very interesting possibilities.
That night, warm and cosy in her bed in Moira’s cottage and drifting off to sleep, Alys thought she could hear a melodic humming somewhere in the room. Once again, as her eyes closed, she found herself seated by the fire, a young woman sitting sewing in the chair opposite. Alys struggled to wake herself to speak to her but words wouldn’t come. The young woman’s attention was caught, though, and she looked directly at her. Alys was convinced she could see her. She smiled calmly at Alys, then looked back down at her work as the humming faded and she was lost to view.
Epilogue
The timer beeped and Alys heaved herself out of her chair. She manoeuvred the oven door around her bump. The eye-level oven had not only been a great choice for checking on the progress of the cakes, but it was proving invaluable in the later stages of pregnancy. No bending over and back strain – given that she planned on working until the very last moment, this was a blessing.
She took the lemon poppy-seed cake from the oven and set it down on the work surface. It could cool in its tin for ten minutes or so before she turned it out onto the cooling rack. Alys looked down at the raised golden-brown top, cracked slightly in the centre exposing a sprinkling of dark poppy seeds and releasing a mouth-watering aroma. She was glad she’d found a foolproof recipe. It had become one of the most popular cakes in the Nortonstall café and it was Alys’s own personal favourite.
It seemed so long since her first disastrous attempt at baking it, and so much had happened in the meantime. In the last eighteen months alone, her life, which had changed such a great deal since she arrived to help Moira in Northwaite, had simply taken off in a dizzying spiral. Her future was most definitely here, among the very fields, valleys, woods and lanes that had been home to her family, through good times and bad, for so long. The businesses had gone from strength to strength and they had branched out into providing cakes and table settings for weddings, as Alys had planned. Moira and Tom were married now and they’d taken in Lottie and Ralph, her cats from London who’d adapted very happily to country living. Hannah had arrived back in Nortonstall with her boyfriend Matt, declaring that she’d quite fallen in love with the area. They’d bought a house in the countryside near Haworth and proceeded to have a baby. And now Alys’s own twins were due at any moment. She could foresee that she and Rob were going to need all the help they could get, but she figured that Julie, Derek, Moira, Tom and now Kate, who had already arrived and was ensconced at Moira’s, much to everyone’s surprise, would take care of that.
Her scan had shown that she was expecting a boy and a girl, and Alys had already decided on their names: Alice and Albert, who would undoubtedly be Bertie from birth. Rob, who was just generally thrilled with life at the moment, was perfectly happy with her choice but had suggested ‘Allie’ as a pet name for their daughter. ‘Otherwise we’ll all get hopelessly confused,’ he’d said. Alys could see his point but she hoped that her choice of names would be a fitting tribute to their ancestors. She’d come to feel very close to them, and the bench in the Northwaite graveyard overlooking Alice’s gravestone, beautifully carved by Albert, had become her favourite spot to sit and think things through. There was a kind of stillness and peace there. Alys would never have acknowledged this to anyone else, except perhaps to Rob, but she felt so safe there, as though someone was watching over her. In fact, when she was quite sure that no one else was around, she sometimes had conversations with Alice. She didn’t expect any response, but she always felt the better for them. Of course, if anyone had spotted her, she knew they’d think she’d gone quite mad.
Alys looked at the kitchen clock. Time to get on – the lemon poppy-seed cake was ready to turn out of its tin, and it was time for the sign on the café door to read ‘Open’, ready for the start of another day.
Recipes
Alys’s lemon poppy-seed cake
(Serves 12)
Ingredients
50 g poppy seeds
185 ml warm milk
220 g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
300 g self-raising flour
200 g unsalted butter, softened
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
100 g icing sugar, sieved
Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.
Lightly grease a small loaf tin.
Combine the poppy seeds with the warm milk in a bowl and set aside for 15 minutes.
Beat the caster sugar and 185 g of the butter together until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs. Fold in the flour, alternating with a little of the poppy seed and milk mixture. Stir in the lemon zest. Beat well, until the mixture is pale and thick.
Pour into the loaf tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 40–50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
Melt the remaining 15 g butter and add to a bowl along with the icing sugar and around half the lemon juice. Beat until smooth, then drizzle over the cooled cake.
Coconut cookies
(Makes 20)
Ingredients
170 g butter, chopped into small pieces
2 level tbsp golden syrup
110 g desiccated coconut
225 g self-raising flour
85 g caster sugar
Half a level tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
Melt the butter and syrup together in a large pan over a low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Remove the pan from the heat, add the coconut and sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into the mixture. Stir well, add the sugar and stir again.
Form the mixture into small balls, using a rounded teaspoon of mixture for each one. Put the balls onto ungreased baking trays, allowing space between them so they can spread.
Bake the cookies at 180ºC/gas mark 5 for 12–15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes on the trays then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in an airtight tin and eat within three days.
Cardamom shortbread
(Makes 15)
Ingredients
180 g plain flour
125 g butter, softened
55 g caster sugar
6 green cardamoms
Method
Cream the softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods and crush them into a fine powder using a pestle and mortar.
Sieve the flour into the mixing bowl and add the powdered cardamom. Mix well to form a dough.
Form the dough into a ball and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Lightly grease two baking trays and preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to 5 mm thick.
Cut out using a fluted cutter and place the biscuits on the trays. Bake for 12–15 minutes until pale-golden in colour. Cool on the trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in an airtight tin for up to three days.
Chocolate brownies
(Makes 16)
Ingredients
200 g plain chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
110 g unsalted butter, chopped
150 g caster sugar
3 eggs
110 g plain white flour
Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3. Grease and line a 20 cm square cake tin.
Break the chocolate into pieces into a heatproof bowl, add the chopped butter and set over a pan of water, brought to a gentle simmer.
Stir gently until the butter and chocolate have melted together, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Remove the bowl from the heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
Beat the sugar into the chocolate mixture. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after
each addition. Sift in the flour and beat the mixture until smooth.
Pour into a tin and bake for 25–30 minutes, until no longer wobbly in the centre. Cool for 10 minutes in the tin then cut into squares and finish cooling on a wire rack.
Store in an airtight tin for up to three days.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks go to Susanna Jones and Arvon for setting me on this journey, to The Old Ship and Writing Matters writing groups for helping me on my way, to Kiran at Keane Kataria Literary Agency for believing in me and to the team at Avon for their work in bringing this book to life.
About the Author
LYNNE FRANCIS grew up in East Yorkshire. After gaining a degree in English Literature from London University, she worked in non-fiction publishing. She now lives in the unspoilt East Kent countryside – perfect for writing, walking and inspiration.
Ella is trying to put the past behind her, but the past won’t always stay hidden.
Out now.
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
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HarperCollins Canada
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United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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