Christmas at Hope Cottage: A Magical Feel-Good Romance Novel(30)

The range hadn’t stopped all week, keeping the windows steamed up. Today the air was full of the scent of cinnamon from the spiced cake Dot and Aggie were mixing on the table, adding in the spices and currants as they consulted The Book.

‘That’s a lot of mixture,’ said Emma, staring at the enormous cream mixing bowl the size of a trough.

‘Well, it needs to be – it’s for the whole village.’

‘Everyone?’ asked Emma in surprise.

‘Yes. It’s the one time of year we make something for everyone in the village,’ said Evie. ‘It’s our way of helping to bring some good into people’s homes during this time.’

‘And everyone gets a piece – even…?’

‘Everyone,’ said Evie, not mentioning the Allens or the Leas.

‘They won’t eat it anyway,’ said Dot, who knew exactly who Emma meant.

‘Why not?’

‘Oh, an Allen will never take a crumb of food from us ever again,’ said Dot. ‘Not after—’

‘What?’ asked Emma. ‘Evie said that it was a recipe that went wrong, many years ago.’

‘Oh, it did. It went about as wrong as a thing could go, really.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, it was a long time ago, during your great-grandmother’s time – Christmas time too, I believe, when Geoff Allen came to Grace Halloway for help during a desperate time in their lives.’

‘It was their business, wasn’t it?’ asked Dot.

Evie nodded. ‘Yes, the Allen Printworks, the Allens used to own one of the largest printing companies in the country. It had been in the family for many years, only their son John had a bit of a gambling problem, and had got himself into some trouble. They were in danger of losing everything to his debts when they sought out Hope Cottage, looking for a recipe that would help change their situation.’

‘What happened?’ asked Emma.

‘Well, it’s hard to say really. Sometimes, even though we try our best, things go wrong, and well, that one did. The Allens lost their business, they reopened it some years later, but it was a good, hard slog to do that and they never forgave us for what they went through – the price Grace Halloway charged was most of their savings.’

‘No,’ breathed Emma.

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘But why money – it’s not what you usually take,’ said Emma, horrified.

Evie shook her head and corrected her. ‘We take what is valued most. It’s not about what is important out in the world, but what matters most to the person looking for change, you see? For Geoff Allen nothing was as precious as money.’

‘But I mean – it was all they had! Couldn’t Grace Halloway have just given it back to them, if it hadn’t worked anyway?’

Evie shook her head. ‘She couldn’t, even if she wanted to – you know that’s not the way it works.’

Dot made a strange sound.

They all turned to look at her.

She shrugged. ‘Well, the rumour went that there was another reason she wouldn’t have been able to…’

‘Why’s that?’ asked Emma.

‘Because somebody had already dug it up.’

Emma gasped.

‘We don’t know if that’s really true,’ said Evie, dusting the flour off her hands and putting the cake in to bake in the old range. Afterwards it would rest in the tins for a week before they began the next stage of the recipe.

‘Margaret said she looked and couldn’t find any—’ started Aggie.

Emma looked up at the mention of her mother’s name, saw Evie shoot her sister a warning look, and before she could ask any more they’d sent her on an errand to the Brimbles’ store.



* * *



The weeks leading up to Christmas were the busiest time at Hope Cottage. Every morning there were new faces at the door, and new recipes to be made.

‘Why is it so much busier lately?’ asked Emma, as their fourth caller for the day left the kitchen. Mrs Watson, with tears in her eyes, wishing to repair her bond with her estranged sister of some thirty years.

‘I think it’s because when things slow down during this time of the year, you get a chance to look at your life and what’s important,’ said Dot. ‘And what’s not.’

‘Like?’

‘A silly grudge.’

Emma nodded. That made sense.

‘Personally, I blame all those Christmas films,’ said Aggie, who had her feet up on the kitchen table, her face tired, flour in her short dark hair.

‘There’s so much pressure this time of the year on families – and, well, if yours isn’t getting along too well, or you haven’t got one, it can be hard.’

Emma looked away. It was a year since she’d lost her parents, and it had been hard. Evie, and her aunts, had come to mean so much to her in the space of a year, but it didn’t change the fact that this would be the first Christmas she had had without her mother and father, and lately she was missing them even more than ever.

Evie saw her face, and played with her hair. ‘It’s okay to miss them.’

Emma nodded; she could taste the tears in her throat. ‘Oh lass,’ said Aggie getting of the chair and coming over to give her a hug. ‘I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to make you sad,’ she said as Dot shot her sister an angry look.