by Agatha Frost
“It’s cold out tonight,” Julia said calmly as she walked towards the girl. “Do you want me to drop you off somewhere?”
“I’m waiting for my mum,” Poppy said, startled by Julia’s arrival. “Thank you, though.”
Julia took the thanks as an invitation to sit down. She had been desperate to talk properly to the girl since what she had witnessed in the dressing room between her and Marcus. With Poppy’s mother seemingly on the way, she knew they probably did not have long.
“When I was seventeen I met a boy at a party,” Julia started. “Stanley Kray. He was drunk, and he tried to kiss me. I told him not to, but he didn’t seem to understand until my best friend, Roxy, punched him in the nose. You know it’s not your fault if things like that happen.”
“Okay?” Poppy said, staring at Julia with an arched brow, reminding her of Jessie. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I saw what happened in the dressing room when you ran out crying before opening night,” Julia said, resting her hand on Poppy’s knee. “And it’s okay to talk about it.”
A red car pulled into the village and drove around the green towards them, the headlights blinding them. Poppy jumped up, her brows tensed hard over her eyes.
“I’ve got to go,” she said, unable to look at Julia. “Bye.”
Poppy jumped into the passenger seat next to her similarly redheaded mother who looked suspiciously at Julia before driving away.
“Poor girl,” Julia whispered to herself as she climbed into her own car. “Poor, poor girl.”
When Julia snuck back into her cottage, her note had gone unnoticed, and Barker did not seem to have moved from his typewriter at the dining room table. Julia silently snuck in with a fresh cup of black coffee before curling up on the couch in front of the fire while ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ played quietly on the television.
10
The next morning, Julia drove into the village to see that the travelling Christmas market, which made its way around the Cotswold villages in the run-up to Christmas, had pitched up on the village green. When Julia opened her café, it seemed she was the only person who had not known the market was coming today. Christmas market day was always a busy day for the café, and she usually made sure to bake extra cakes and be fully stocked on all drinks, but she had been so distracted by everything that had been happening, she had not been tuned to the same frequency as the rest of the village.
“Oh, I do love this time of year,” Shilpa announced as she sipped a hot chocolate by the counter. “I know I don’t technically celebrate Christmas, but there is something so magical about the whole thing.”
“I have to agree,” Evelyn said as she stared out of the window, transfixed by a candle making demonstration on one of the stalls. “I usually spend my winter under a foreign sun, but now that I have a grandson, I thought I’d experience a Peridale Christmas, and I must say I have quite enjoyed it. The snow, the music, the movies on TV, the food, the drinks. It really is the most wonderful time of year.”
Julia attempted to smile as she stared out of the window at the hundreds of people milling around the market. She looked at the door, half-expecting her gran to burst in any second to say something outrageous about the crowds being a nuisance. It had taken Dot going away for Julia to realise how much her interruptions had become part of her day.
A flash of red hair caught Julia’s eye as a snuggly wrapped up Poppy walked past the candle making demonstration, Jayesh on her arm. Julia and Shilpa shared a look before they both watched the young adults walk to a German biscuit stall. Poppy picked something out before Jayesh handed over some money. He fed the young redhead something, making her toss her head back and laugh. It struck Julia that it was the first time she had seen the young woman even smile.
“She is a beautiful girl,” Shilpa said as she hugged her mug of hot chocolate. “But there is so much sadness in her heart. And besides, a girl like her will never work with my son.”
“A girl like her?” Evelyn asked, looking more than a little confused. “You mean a white girl?”
“No!” Shilpa cried, throwing her hands up to the ceiling. “Ginger! Imagine the babies. My skin with that hair. It’s a culture clash no one is asking for, but by all the spices in India, Jayesh seems besotted with her.”
The three women laughed as they watched the lovebirds wander deeper into the market. Julia knew what she had witnessed between Marcus and Poppy, and it was probably not the only time the old man had pushed himself on the girl. She wondered if Poppy had shared this information with her new boyfriend, making her unable to look at Shilpa. She was more than aware that it would implicate the post office owner’s son, making him a potential suspect along with Poppy. As she caught a glimpse of the couple looking at a stall of hand-carved Christmas ornaments, she could not bring herself to imagine either of them plotting something so cruel and framing Dot in the process; even if it was just for today, they looked so carefree and in love.
“I must go,” Shilpa said as she stood up, throwing her red sari across her shoulder. “My lunch breaks are getting longer and longer, and I put all of the blame on you, Julia South. Your festive menu is quite something. Pass my love onto your grandmother for me.”
Julia promised that she would, touched that Shilpa had dropped Dot into the conversation. It had been five days since the shooting, but as usual with Peridale, it seemed the gossip train had moved onto a new topic, leaving Dot at the bottom of the pile until further developments arose. Julia felt the pressure to bring out those further developments, especially since there were only six days until Christmas Day.
“I’m sick of seeing festive themed nonsense,” Jessie said as she brought a freshly cooked pile of Christmas tree shaped gingerbread biscuits from the kitchen. “All of this for one day.”
“Your aura seems tense,” Evelyn exclaimed as she fiddled with the crystal around her neck. “Why don’t you drop by the B&B later? I’d be more than happy to perform Reiki on you.”
Jessie looked down her nose at Evelyn in a way only she could. Julia stifled a laugh.
“I don’t know what that is, but it sounds cult-y,” Jessie said with a shake of her head. “I’ll pass.”
“Then I’ll ask the universe to send you positive vibes,” Evelyn said with a soft smile, unaffected by Jessie’s sharp tongue. “All the answers you seek are already within you.”
Jessie pouted and rolled her eyes as she stacked up the biscuits in the display case. Julia thought about her gran. Were the answers she sought for Dot’s freedom already within Julia? Had she heard something, or already discovered the crucial clue to unpicking the stitching of the mystery? She sipped her hot peppermint and liquorice tea, sure that if she had the information already, it had yet to be framed in a light clear enough for her to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
After finishing her apple turnover, Evelyn floated out of the café, claiming she was going to the graveyard to channel spirits to wish them all a Merry Christmas. She was immediately replaced with a group of chatty women who seemed to be visiting the village for the Christmas market. Leaving Jessie to serve them, Julia began clearing up the tables. She peered out of the window, spotting Poppy and Jayesh sitting on wooden stools drinking hot mulled wine at a makeshift bar; they did not seem to have a care in the world.
When Julia returned from the kitchen with a cloth and surface spray to wipe down the tables, her eyes homed in on a figure marching towards the market. If everyone else had not been lazily wandering from stall to stall in their scarves and woolly hats, Julia might not have seen Catherine speeding like a bullet train, the fury of a thousand scorned women consuming her expression. Unlike the rest of the shoppers, she was inappropriately dressed in a black skirt and jacket, a small fascinator balancing on her head, a mesh veil covering one half of her face. She hurried onto the village green, her heels sinking into the frosty grass. Julia sprayed the table as she watched Catherine march around the stalls, clearly looking for someone. W
hen she spotted Poppy and Jayesh chatting as they cupped their mulled wine, her pace increased, and her expression twisted into the one Julia had seen when Catherine had pinned her to the door the previous night.
Julia dropped the bottle and cloth before heading for the door. As though she could sense what was coming, she made her way towards the young couple, the cold nipping at her exposed arms and legs poking out of her festive red and white flared dress.
“You!” Catherine cried, her finger extended at Poppy. “I’m going to kill you! How did you do it, you little witch?”
Poppy turned around, clearly startled by Catherine’s sudden appearance. She stood up, the mulled wine falling from her hands. She stumbled backwards behind Jayesh, who puffed out his chest, blocking Catherine, but her rage seemed to know no bounds. She pushed Jayesh out of the way as though he weighed no more than a crunchy fallen leaf. Poppy walked backwards away from the advancing woman, but she was too slow. Both of Catherine’s fists grabbed Poppy’s red hair before swinging her around like a dog toy. The market suddenly stopped, the happy chatter replaced with gasps, but no one rushed forward to help Poppy.
“How did you do it?” Catherine cried as she rattled Poppy. “How? I’m going to kill you!”
Julia snapped to her senses, rushing forward into the fray. She grabbed at Catherine’s jacket, but her hands were clamped to Poppy’s hair like a shark biting into its prey.
“Get off her!” Jayesh screamed, joining Julia in trying to pull Catherine off the whimpering girl. “Have you lost your mind?”
“No, but she has!” Catherine cried. “She’s stolen my fortune!”
Julia remembered something Barker had once told her about self-defence techniques. She nipped hard under both of Catherine’s arms, causing the woman to scream. She released Poppy before spinning around, the back of her hand striking Julia’s face. She felt the rough surface of Catherine’s diamond wedding ring cut across her lip as she stumbled back.
The gasping crowd was replaced with a tribal scream as a second figure dressed all in black launched across the village green. Julia did not realise what was happening until she saw Jessie fly on top of Catherine, tackling her like an experienced rugby player into the mud. Everyone screamed and gasped, jumping back as the savage teenager pinned the manic woman into the mud.
“How dare you hit her!” Jessie cried, her eyes filled with rage as she shook the lapels of Catherine’s jacket. “How dare you!”
Cupping her bleeding lip, Julia hurried forward, pulling Jessie off Catherine just as her fist raised in the air. Jessie reluctantly gave in, letting Julia drag her back. Poppy hid again behind Jayesh, the confusion across her face letting Julia know she had no idea why Catherine had suddenly attacked.
“What is going on here?” Julia cried, putting her hands between Jessie and Catherine when the widow had staggered to her feet. “You’re a fully-grown woman, Catherine. Poppy is a teenager.”
“She knew exactly what she was doing!” Catherine cried, bumping into Julia, but not trying too hard to get past her. “I’ve just come from the will reading, and my beloved idiot of a husband has left that little witch every penny! Every last penny! How did you do it, huh? Did you flutter your eyelashes and flash a bit of leg?”
Julia opened her mouth to speak as she turned to Poppy, but no words came out. Jayesh stood his ground protecting Poppy, but even he seemed confused. Poppy looked down at the ground before bursting into tears. Without waiting another second, she ran off, closely followed by Jayesh.
“That’s right!” Catherine cried as she straightened up the fascinator balancing on her blonde curls. “Run! You’ve just made yourself a very rich little girl!”
“I think you should go,” Julia said, holding up a hand to Catherine. “For your own sake.”
Catherine dusted down her jacket as she looked around the watching crowd, her eyes showing her sudden realisation of where she was and what she had just done. She wobbled on her heels for a moment before turning and heading back the way she had come.
“Isn’t that her from the play?” a woman in the crowd whispered.
“She’s probably grief stricken!” another announced. “Poor thing.”
“Who was that redheaded girl?” another cried. “What did she do?”
Leaving the crowd to erupt into a flurry of gossip, Julia walked back to the café with Jessie, which had emptied. Julia twisted the lock, flipped the sign, and walked into the kitchen.
“I could have killed her,” Jessie whispered as she dabbed at Julia’s cut lip with a cold cloth. “I wanted to. I’ve never felt so protective of a person before.”
Julia tried to smile, but winced instead as Jessie pressed down on the cloth.
“I appreciate you having my back,” Julia said. “But maybe next time, we keep the public assaults to a minimum, okay?”
Jessie smirked as she grabbed the first aid kit from on top of the fridge. She pulled out the antiseptic spray before spraying it on Julia’s lip without warning. She cried out, knowing it was for the best, but wincing nonetheless. Jessie then applied a small plaster before telling her she was done.
“You know I’d do anything for you,” Jessie said, reaching up to the fridge to put the kit back. “Adoption certificate or not, you’re still my mum.”
Julia’s heart swelled in her chest, the pain vanishing from her lip for a moment. She pulled Jessie into a hug, and the two women stayed there for what felt like a lifetime. So much had changed since that first night Julia had caught Jessie stealing cakes from her café at the beginning of the year; she could hardly believe it was the same girl.
“We’re going to get that certificate,” Julia said when she finally pulled away, Jessie’s face cupped in her palms. “Even if we have to kick open every door and fight until the end. We will make it official.”
Jessie nodded, and for a moment, she seemed to believe and trust Julia without question. They both jumped when knuckles rattled the glass of the café door. Julia headed through the beads and squinted at Barker as he cupped his hands against the glass.
“What just happened?” Barker asked, his eyes drifting to the plaster on Julia’s lip. “Are you alright? We just had half a dozen calls about a fight.”
“I’m fine,” Julia said, looping her arm around Jessie’s shoulder when she joined her in the café. “Jessie handled it.”
Barker looked down at them both, his eyes clearly full of questions. Instead of asking, he simply wrapped his arms around them, and the three of them hugged each other. Julia peered over his shoulder at the Christmas market as uniformed officers in high visibility yellow jackets walked from person to person.
Julia’s mind wandered to Poppy as Barker’s clean aftershave tickled her nostrils. Poppy had looked surprised to hear that she inherited Marcus’ fortune, but two questions were burning in Julia’s mind: how, and more importantly, why?
11
“Marcus left his money to Poppy?” Dot cried down the phone. “But that makes no sense!”
“I know,” Julia mumbled through a mouthful of hot, buttery toast, the early morning winter sun blinding her through the kitchen window. “Maybe he felt guilty for trying to seduce Poppy, so he wrote her into his will?”
“That quickly?” Dot mumbled, the cogs in her brain echoing down the phone as she tried to figure it out. “And with what you told me about Catherine, surely she made sure that Marcus had written her into his will? It would make more sense if Marcus had left everything to Ross, but Poppy? It’s so random.”
Before Julia could ask how prison was treating her, a warning message beeped to let them know they only had a minute left, not that Dot used it. She told Julia she needed to grab some breakfast because she was going to a Christmas card crafting class. After she hung up, Julia sat at her kitchen counter, the reams and reams of notes she had made in front of her. She had written pages and pages about Catherine, repeating most of what she had read in the destroyed file from memory. She had as many notes about Marcus
and his history with her gran. She had a page written about Ross’ shake up of the Peridale Amateur Dramatics Society, a page about Jayesh being protective of his girlfriend, and a single question mark on a page labelled ‘Poppy’.
“You’re up early,” Barker whispered as he kissed her on the top of her head. “Is there any bread left for toast? The smell is making my stomach rumble.”
Julia nodded at the bread bin as she sipped her peppermint and liquorice tea. She almost choked when she registered that Barker was wearing a Santa Claus costume, complete with the beard. She watched as he dropped two pieces of bread into the toaster, waiting for an explanation.
“We’re volunteering at the children’s hospital this morning,” Barker said, finally turning around with a hot cup of coffee in his hand. He pulled the white beard down and let it hang around his neck. “Believe it or not, I pulled the long straw. The rest of them are either elves or reindeer.”
“It suits you,” Julia said with a smirk. “Brings out the red in your cheeks.”
Jessie stumbled out of her bedroom, her hair matted and her eyes half closed. She let out a long yawn as she walked over to the kettle. After plopping a peppermint and liquorice teabag into a cup, she grabbed the toast when it popped out of the toaster before slathering it in butter.
“I guess I’ll grab something on the way in,” Barker said with a scowl while Jessie munched on the toast as she waited for the kettle to boil.
“You’re five days early,” Jessie said as she licked the butter from her lips before poking Barker’s padded stomach. “Can you still fit down the chimney?”
“Very funny,” Barker said before ducking in to kiss Julia. He hovered there for a moment, resting his finger on the healing cut on her lips. “I don’t think it will scar. You know you can still press charges.”
“And implicate Jessie?” Julia replied with a shake of her head. “The only thing stopping Catherine running to the police is that she did the exact same to Poppy.”
