Page 11 of Daydreams & Doughnut Cake

So shehadcome here thinking she’d see me?

I could hear chairs being scraped back and then Maddy was chatting to them and I heard her mention the travelling cake van and the market at Lockley Meadow.

A wave of nausea gripped me. It sounded dramatic but I almost felt as if my lovely sanctuary was being invaded.

How long could I stay here, though, before Maddy wondered where on earth I was?

Panicking, I glanced around the kitchen. My eye fell on the Victoria sandwich cakes Katja had baked earlier. They would need to be filled with jam and cream.

We were out of double cream at the café, but I knew there’d be some in the fridge at the bakery next door, so I took the opportunity to nip out the back door to fetch it. Then I lingered in the bakery, whipping the cream in the back room, so that I wouldn’t be there if Maddy popped in to the café kitchen to tell me a friend of mine was in the café.

When I got back, I concentrated on filling the cakes with the whipped cream and strawberry jam, and eventually Maddy appeared.

‘Oh, there you are.’She smiled approvingly at the cakes. ‘I came looking for you earlier. I thought you must have gone out for your lunch break. Anyway, that’s brilliant. Perfect timing. I’ve just sold the last slice of Victoria sandwich cake.’ She picked up one of the cakes on its platter. ‘Can you come through and help me clear tables?’

‘Of course.’ My heart was in my mouth as I followed her out. But to my enormous relief, when I emerged into the café, Clare and her mother had gone.

‘Hey, guess what?’ Maddy placed the cake in the display case under the counter. ‘Someone from your Brighton days was just in here asking about you.’

‘Really?’

‘Clare?’

‘Oh, yes. Yes, we were friends at uni.’

‘Are you okay?’ She peered at me. ‘You didn’t mind me telling her you were working here, did you?’

‘No, no. It’s fine.’

‘It’s just you’ve gone a bit pale.’

I dredged up a smile. ‘Yes... I... ordered a takeaway last night and I don’t think it agreed with me.’ I pressed my stomach and made a face.

She looked surprised. ‘I wouldn’t have thought you’d need to buy food in. Not with all those fabulous dishes you cook every week for the market.’

I swallowed. ‘Well, I just fancied a bit of a change.’

She nodded. ‘If I’d known you were in the kitchen, I’d have come to get you when your friend and her mum appeared.’ She paused, studying me curiously. ‘Apparently she was in Sunnybrook a couple of weekends ago on her future sister-in-law’s hen do?’

‘Oh. Clare’s brother’s getting married?’

‘Apparently. So the girls booked the big Bedouin tent at Ellie’s glamping site for their stay, and they came in here for brunch and Clare saw the photos on the noticeboard.’

‘Photos?’

‘Yes. Of the travelling cake van?’

‘Oh, yes.’ Ellie had put up some photos taken at the market to illustrate a piece about the cake van and its route.

‘You’re in a few of them.’

‘Am I?’

I went over to look and sure enough, there I was... smiling at Katja in one of them as she held up a tray of delicious-looking raspberry and white chocolate muffins. I was wearing the apron I always wore behind my stall, so maybe Claire assumed I also worked at the café, doing the cake runs alongside Katja.

‘Her brother’s getting married at a hotel near here soon and she and her mum are here to help with some last-minute arrangements in advance of the big day. Clare brought her mum along here for a coffee hoping she might see you.’

‘Ah, right.’

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