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‘Well, we’re all glad you do,’ Sheila said fondly.

‘Nile said you’d got some plans for the café, but he didn’t say what they were,’ Bel told me.

‘Airy-fairy ideas, rather than plans,’ Nile put in.

‘They’re not at all airy-fairy, though perhaps it’ll be a bit of a gamble,’ I said evenly, giving him a cold look. ‘I’m going to totally refurbish it and reopen as The Fat Rascal Afternoon Tea Emporium.’

‘I rest my case,’ Nile said.

‘Ican’t see any problem with that, Nile,’ Teddy said. ‘Sounds fine to me.’

‘Ah, but it won’t be just any old tea emporium, but anupmarketone,’ Nile revealed, as if it proved his point.

‘Itwillbe pretty swish, because I’m using Framling’s Famous Tearoom in London as my inspiration,’ I said. ‘I’ll only serve classic afternoon teas, with sandwiches, scones, cakes and savouries – with a Yorkshire twist, where I can find suitable recipes.’

‘Like the fat rascals,’ agreed Teddy. ‘I’ve had those in Betty’s café in Harrogate, split and buttered, and they’re wonderful.’

I smiled at him. ‘Yes, they’re lovely and I can make a miniature version of them for the cake stands.’

‘Ican’t see anything airy-fairy about your plans either,’ Bel said with a teasing look at her elder brother. ‘I mean, Haworth is awash with cafés and restaurants of all kinds, so something a little different is bound to catch on.’

‘Not if she’s so fancy she prices herself out of the market,’ Nile objected.

‘I only said “inspired by Framling’s”,’ I told him. ‘I’m not going to attempt to recreate it in Yorkshire, with the same prices! Of course I’ll be charging more for afternoon tea than anywhere else locally – I’ll have to sneakily check up on what’s on offer – but then, they’ll get a special experienceandwonderful food for the money.’

‘Do you know anything about running cafés?’ asked Sheila with interest.

‘Yes, I’ve worked in them all my life, though mostly in the kitchens, but my late fiancé had a café in Scotland, so even though there was a manageress, I still had a lot to do with the running of it …’

I stopped for a moment, thinking how long ago that seemed now, even though it was only five months, really – but my long journey down the rabbit warren of depression and grief had distanced it, so it seemed another world, another time, an entirely different Alice.

And Dan, so impulsive and living each moment to the full, would have been the first to urge me to embrace the future, not look back sadly at the past … I blinked back a sudden tear.

‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ Sheila said gently, and I didn’t tell her that loss and abandonment punctuated my life at such regular intervals that I was becoming quite accustomed to it.

‘So, you know all about running cafés,’ Bel said, ‘which means there’sno reason why it shouldn’t be a big success. And it’s really lucky that you’re going to stay with us for a while, because we can pick your brains aboutourcafé.’

‘You have a café?’ I said, surprised.

‘Not yet, but Mum and I have got plans to open one in the old stables, between our two workshops and the Pondlife offices.’

I must have looked puzzled, because Sheila explained. ‘Bel and I are both potters. I’ve always sold my work through the Crafts Council, exhibitions and galleries, because I do big sculptural pieces. But Bel works in porcelain and makes more accessible, smaller things that she could sell directly to the public, if we could entice them to turn off the main road.’

‘I was teaching art in London and working at my ceramics in my spare time till my divorce, but now I’ve moved home again I’d like to see if I can earn my living from it,’ Bel said.

‘I suppose there’s quite a lot of passing tourist trade in the summer?’ I asked.

‘Yes, so if we hung a “Pottery Open” sign at the end of the lane, people could come and watch us work, then perhaps buy some of Bel’s pieces,’ Sheila said. ‘Mine aren’t really impulse buys, though I might get one or two commissions that way, and I don’t mind if people watch me,’ she added. ‘Once I’m working, I won’t know they’re there.’

‘I don’t mind either,’ Bel said, ‘but I thought if we could offer refreshments, too, then that might make more of them decide to turn off.’

‘Yes, it’s not going to be apropercafé, just coffee, tea, cold drinks and cakes,’ Sheila said. ‘I’d make the cakes – maybe one or two Norwegian specialities like Bergen buns.’

‘They’re delicious,’ said Geeta. ‘Sort of sponge cakes filled with apple – not really a bun at all.’

‘I think a sign advertising a pottery and refreshments would bring people in in droves,’ I said. ‘But you can’t work and serve food at the same time, can you?’

‘True, though I’m a lark and like to get up early and into my workshop in the mornings and we could open to the public just in the afternoons,’ Sheila said.