“Ah, there you are,” Nancy called. “We were just about to start without you.”
“Sorry I’m late,” Janet said as she slid into the last seat at the table.
“Yes, well, see to it that you don’t make a habit of it, won’t you?” Harriet asked with a grin that was more of a sneer.
Janet took a large sip of wine and bit back a snappish reply. It looked like it was going to be a very long evening.
Chapter Two
“We were just discussing the menu,” Nancy told Janet. “None of us have eaten here before, so we were trying to decide what it might be safest to order.”
“I have a friend who said the fish and chips are good,” Janet offered.
“Oh, I can’t eat fried foods anymore,” Harriet said. “I’ve always had a delicate constitution, but since I lost poor Stanley, I find I have to be so much more careful with everything I eat. It’s the grief, of course. I keep thinking it will get better, but it never does.”
“I think I shall try the fish and chips, then,” Nancy said. “I can always blame Janet if I don’t like it.”
Janet flushed. “As I said, it was a friend of mine who suggested it,” she replied.
“Are you having that as well?” Nancy demanded.
Janet shrugged and looked over the menu. She wasn’t a very fussy eater, but she rarely ate out, so she tended to be quite particular when she did. What she wanted was something that Joan didn’t prepare. Fish and chips fit the bill, but so did a few other selections on the menu.
“Oh, maybe I’ll try the Cajun chicken,” she said after a moment. “Joan would never make anything that spicy and it sounds interesting.”
“I can’t possibly eat anything like that,” Harriet said loudly.
“It sounds good, from the description, anyway,” Martha chimed in. “I like the idea of salad and chips with it. Maybe I’ll try that as well.”
“What you are having?” Janet asked Edna.
“Me? Oh, I don’t know,” the woman said, sounding flustered. She glanced at Janet and then smiled shyly. “Maybe I’ll try the chicken, too. It sounds quite exotic, really, at least for me.”
The man from behind the bar stuck his head into the room. “If you could, I’d appreciate it if you’d order at the bar,” he called. “My waitress is sick and I’m on my own out here.”
“I suppose we’d better all go,” Nancy said, sounding annoyed. “That way we can each pay our own way.”
“Why don’t you and Harriet go and then the rest of us will follow?” Janet suggested. “We don’t want to overwhelm the poor man all at once.”
Nancy frowned, but she nodded and got to her feet. “That makes sense,” she said grudgingly.
Harriet followed her to the door, muttering something under her breath. As the door shut behind them, Janet sighed deeply.
“You, too?” Martha giggled. “I love having a night out, but those two can be such hard work.”
“I was hoping I’d come to appreciate them once I got to know them better,” Janet said.
“Hasn’t worked yet for me, but you never know,” Martha told her.
“How long have you know them?” Janet asked.
“Oh, only sixty years or so,” Martha replied.
“Oh, dear,” Janet said.
“Nancy and Harriet and I all grew up in Doveby Dale,” Martha explained. “We all actually lived in the same row of terraced houses in childhood. We went to school together and then I went away to Derby for nurses’ training. After I got my qualifications, I lived in York until I retired a few years ago. For whatever reason, moving back to Doveby Dale suddenly seemed quite appealing, and here I am.”
“York is one of my favourite cities in the world,” Janet said. “I love the Minister and the city walls and the Shambles, and, well, just about everything about the city.”
“It’s a beautiful city, but where I was living was getting quite run-down and I simply couldn’t afford anything else there,” Martha told her. “My little house here was less than half the price of what I sold my home in York for, which gave me a nice little nest egg to use for holidays and small treats now and then.”
“And Doveby Dale is lovely,” Janet added.
“Oh, yes, and it truly feels like home in a way that only the place where you grew up ever can,” Martha agreed.
“What about you?” Janet asked Edna. “Did you grow up in Doveby Dale?”
“Me? Oh, no,” she said, blushing. “I grew up in London, but my husband was from Derbyshire. We couldn’t afford to buy in London, though, so we bought our little house in Doveby Dale with plans to retire up here. Unfortunately, he passed away before he was able to retire. I didn’t really have anywhere else to go after he’d passed, so here I am.” She blew out a long breath and looked down at the table, seemingly embarrassed.
“And how do you like Doveby Dale?” Janet continued.
“Like it? Why, I mean, it’s fine,” the woman said. “I mean, it’s very nice and quiet and safe, which is just what I need now that I’m on my own.”
The words were said in a recitation manner that made Janet think that Edna was parroting something that someone had told her. “Are your children still in London, then?” Janet wondered.
“Yes,” Edna nodded. “They don’t really like it up north. It’s awfully quiet, isn’t it? But they pay for me to come down and see them for Christmas and my birthday. Mustn’t complain, really.”
Because no one would listen, Janet thought to herself, grateful that she didn’t have children who might have sent her off to live far away from them as she got older.
“Well, we won’t be coming here again,” Nancy announced loudly as she stomped back into the room. “That took ages. That man behind the bar took care of everyone else before he took our order and then he didn’t want to write anything down. ‘I’ve a good memory,’ he said, as if I would trust that. Really! Of course I insisted that he write down exactly what I wanted, but then we had to wait while he found a pen and paper.” She shook her head. “They take much better care of us at the café in Doveby Dale, I must say.”
“So why aren’t we having our meeting there?” Janet asked as she stood up to go and place her order.
“We like to try new places,” Harriet replied.
“Some of us do, anyway,” Nancy said sourly.
Janet swallowed a smile as she and Martha and Edna headed to the bar to order their food.
“Harriet doesn’t like the café in Doveby Dale,” Martha told her as they waited for the bartender to finish serving a young man at the opposite end of the bar. “And Nancy never likes anywhere else. I think I only keep coming to these meetings to watch them fight over where to have the next one.”
Janet laughed. “I’m afraid I’m with Harriet on this one,” she said. “I’d love to try somewhere new every time. But I might just keep my opinion to myself.”
Martha nodded. “Sometimes when those two get started, it’s easiest to just keep quiet.”
With the food ordered and their drinks refilled, they rejoined the others in the dining room. As they walked back into the room, Janet felt that they’d interrupted something, but she wasn’t sure what.
While they waited for their food, Nancy told them all about how she’d spent her Christmas. As the woman had never married, was retired, lived alone and had no near relatives, Janet wasn’t sure how she managed to fill twenty minutes with the long and boring recount of everything that she did in the month of December, which amounted to not very much at all.
“What did you do over Christmas?” Janet asked Edna as the food was being delivered.
“Oh, the children and I went to Paris,” Edna said quietly.
“Paris? How exciting,” Janet exclaimed. “Do you go often?”
“My husband and I honeymooned there,” Edna explained. “So it’s always been a special place for us. We used to take the children every year when they were small and we all still love taking holidays there when we can.”
“I haven’t been in many years,” Janet said. “But it’s one of my favourite cities. So beautiful and with so much history.”
“Yes, and it’s very romantic,” Edna said. “My son proposed to his girlfriend at the top of the Eiffel Tower on Christmas Eve.”
“How lovely,” Martha said. “Assuming she said ‘yes,’ of course.”
Edna laughed. “She did,” she confirmed. “They’ll be getting married in August.”
“I do hope you like the young woman,” Nancy said. “I might have married once, but I couldn’t stand the man’s mother. She was a miserable old cow who spoiled her son no end. In the end I finished with him so that I didn’t have to see her anymore.”
“Oh, no, Keira is lovely,” Edna said. “She’s perfect for my Henry and I’m sure they’ll be very happy together.”
“Will the wedding be in London?” Janet asked.
“Yes,” Edna said. She opened her mouth to continue but Harriet interrupted.
“Well, the food here isn’t great, is it?” she demanded, poking at her steamed vegetables.
“No, it isn’t,” Nancy agreed. “The fish and chips at the café in Doveby Dale is much better.”
“Mine is delicious,” Janet said truthfully. Her chicken was spicy, but not overwhelmingly so, and the chips and salad were very good as well.
“Mine, too,” Edna said.
“This is the best meal I’ve had in a long time,” Martha told the others. “I’m so glad Janet suggested it.”
“Yes, well, clearly Janet found the only thing on the menu worth having,” Nancy said sharply. “Next time we’ll all have to copy her, won’t we?”
“I can’t eat that sort of rubbish,” Harriet snapped. “Although I’m not really eating this, either.”
Janet bit back a sigh and focussed on her meal. It was excellent and she was almost sorry to swallow the last bite, even though she was quite full.
“What about pudding?” Martha asked.
“I don’t eat pudding,” Nancy said. “I’m surprised you didn’t remember that.”
“I wonder if they have plain vanilla ice cream,” Harriet said. “There isn’t much they can do to ruin that, I suppose.”
“I’ll just go and see if they have a sweet menu,” Janet said. She walked quickly out of the room, eager for a few minutes away from everyone. Perhaps she was just too used to having only her sister for company, but she wasn’t enjoying herself tonight. She wondered if she could start her own group with just Martha and Edna, but there was no way they could do that without angering the other two women, and Janet didn’t want to upset anyone. She sighed as she took a handful of menus from the barman.
“Here we are,” she announced as she walked back into the room. “And there are a variety of different ice creams on offer,” she told Harriet.
“Just vanilla is all I want,” Harriet said. “And only a single scoop of that.”
“I’m going to have the sticky toffee pudding,” Janet announced. “It’s just right for a cold and rainy day.”
“Oh, me, too,” Martha exclaimed.
“I hope you don’t mind if I have that as well,” Edna said shyly.
“Of course I don’t mind,” Janet laughed.
Janet ordered for everyone, paying for the puddings with money the others had handed her.
“I’ll bring everything back as soon as it’s ready,” the barman promised.
Janet nodded and then rejoined the others. Harriet was talking about her Christmas when she sat back down.
“Of course, I wanted to go and stay with Melanie, but she’s in a tiny flat and she simply didn’t have any room for me. Alistair and his wife went to her family this year. Her mother isn’t well, you see, so I could hardly complain. That just left Michael. I know I would have been welcome at his, but he lives with four other young men and I simply didn’t want to impose.”
“Here we are,” the young man who brought in the tray of puddings said brightly.
Janet smiled at him as he set a plate in front of her. “You must have been working the kitchen all night,” she said.
“I have, yes,” he agreed. “I’m the assistant to the chef, but Jake, out front, is run off his feet at the moment, so I said I’d bring you your puds.”
“The Cajun chicken was excellent,” Janet told him. “Thank you.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” the man beamed. “It’s one of my favourites.”
“It’s now one of mine,” Janet said. “I’ll be back to have it again for sure.”
“I hope everyone enjoyed their meals,” the man said politely as he turned to leave. “And I hope you enjoy your puddings.”
Janet tasted hers and smiled. “It’s delicious,” she told the others. “Just what I wanted.”
Edna and Martha were quick to agree with her. Nancy sat quietly with a frown on her face as everyone else ate.
“Well, I suppose it was fine,” Harriet said with a shrug as she pushed her empty ice cream bowl towards the centre of the table. “Not much you can do wrong with vanilla ice cream, of course.”
Janet had to stop herself from scraping her plate too enthusiastically. While she didn’t really care what these women thought of her, she was certain any bad behaviour on her part would end up reported to Joan at some point, and she hated when Joan lectured her about etiquette.
“Well, that was very nice, I’m sure,” Nancy said as the last bites of the sweet course were finished. “But now we have to get down to business.”
“I thought this was a social group,” Janet said. She didn’t recall any “business” at their last meeting.
“It is, of course,” Nancy said. “But sometimes certain issues come up that need to be discussed by the entire membership.”
“What sort of issues?” Harriet demanded.
“Oh, just little things,” Nancy said airily. “I wasn’t even certain I was going to bother mentioning it, but, well, I suppose it’s best discussed, even if it isn’t really significant.”
“What are you talking about?” Harriet asked.
“We’ve always had an open policy on membership,” Nancy said. “Which is why we were happy to welcome Janet into our little group, even though we’ve been meeting for many years as a foursome.”
Janet raised an eyebrow. Was Nancy about to kick her out of the Doveby Dale Ladies’ Club after only two meetings?
“Maybe we should be doing more things to encourage new members,” Martha said.
“Yes, exactly,” Nancy said quickly.
“What sort of things?” Harriet asked suspiciously.
“I was thinking that, perhaps, we should invite some men to join,” Nancy replied.
Chapter Three
After a moment of stunned silence, Harriet was the first to speak.
“Because the Doveby Dale Ladies’ Club needs more men,” she drawled sarcastically, putting a great deal of emphasis on the word ladies.
Nancy flushed “I just thought it might be nice to add some new members,” she said. “And I’ve recently met a wonderful man who I thought would be a welcome addition to our little group. Maybe you should meet him before you pass judgment.”
“I don’t have to meet him to know that he’s not appropriate,” Harriet said. “If you want to spend time with the man, do it on your own. We only get together once a month. You would still have twenty-nine or thirty other days every month to see this man.”
“It isn’t like that,” Nancy protested, turning an even brighter shade of red. “He’s just a friend. I don’t even know him all that well. He’s new to the area and he said something to me about how difficult it is to meet people when you’re retired and live alone. I thought it might be nice of us to allow him to join us and make some new friends.”
“I don’t think so at all,” Harriet said.
“Well, maybe we should ask the other members for their thought
s,” Nancy said crossly. “Martha, what do you think?”
Martha made a face. “I think maybe Harriet’s right this time,” she said slowly. “If there aren’t any appropriate groups for him to join, maybe he should start one of his own. I’m glad Janet has joined, but I’m not in a rush to swell the ranks any further.”
“Exactly,” Harriet said with a smug smile.
“Edna, what do you think?” Nancy asked. Janet thought she sounded disappointed, as if she already knew what Edna was going to say.
“I think we should give the idea some serious thought,” Edna replied, surprising Janet and probably the others as well.
“Really?” Harriet asked.
“Yes,” Edna said, blushing. “It might be nice to have a larger group. Then, when just one person is ill, we won’t have to cancel the monthly meeting like we do at the moment.”
Janet smiled to herself. Nancy had fallen ill the previous month and cancelled the meeting rather than see the others meet without her.
“I’m not objecting to enlarging the group,” Harriet snapped. “I’m objecting to letting men into the group.”
Edna shrugged. “I’m not bothered about what gender the members are,” she said. “If he’s a nice person who has had an interesting life, I think maybe he should be welcome. In fact, I know a man who’s looking for a group like this to join as well. Maybe we should welcome them both.”
“Two men?” Harriet asked. “That’s two more than we need and quite unacceptable.”
“It looks as if Janet is our deciding vote,” Nancy said brightly. “Janet, what do you think?”
Janet swallowed hard. She barely knew these women and she really didn’t want to have a vote in their decision. “I hardly think,” she began. “That is, I haven’t been coming to your meetings for very long.”
“So perhaps you’re best placed to see how unwelcoming we are at the moment,” Nancy said.
The Green Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 7) Page 2
