Page 72 of The Midnight Bakery
‘Hello, Beth,’ said Vivienne, dipping her head. ‘And Tam, William…Please, sit down again. I’ll join you, if I may.’
Frankie stared at her. ‘How do you know…?’ She looked at William, and then at Beth, but they looked as astonished as she did. Only Tam was still smiling.
‘I won’t stay long,’ said Vivienne. ‘Because it’swaypast my bedtime, and I’m sorry I’m late. I couldn’t find my damn car keys.’ She shook her head. ‘Never mind.’
Frankie waited until Vivienne had taken a seat before joining her at the table, throwing William a horrified glance. She had no idea what was going on.
‘These look lovely,’ said Vivienne, peering into the cake tin. ‘May I?’
‘Yes, please do,’ said Beth, blinking hard. She looked stunned.
‘I’ll probably get horrific indigestion eating this late, but you know what they say? Life’s too short…’ She smiled. ‘Anyway, I won’t keep you, Frankie. I expect you’re wondering how I know the names of your friends, but before I let Tam explain, I should tell you that I’m here tonight because he asked me to come, and I readily agreed. The circumstances are very special indeed.’ She took a brownie from the tin and laid it on a plate which Beth quickly pushed towards her. ‘What Beth and William don’t know is that before they both came to see me today, I’d had a call from you, Frankie. Do you know, I never did get to deliver those magazines. No matter.’ She shook her head. ‘Frankie, do you want to tell them what you asked me?’
Frankie could feel her cheeks beginning to blush furiously. ‘Um…I asked if you might consider me running the bakery for you, instead of you selling it. Because I’d like to buy it one day.’ She swallowed, aware that both William and Beth were staring at her.
‘Yes,’ replied Vivienne. ‘But sadly, I need the money from the sale of the business in order to move, so I had to turn Frankie down. You were very eloquent, though – I wish I hadn’t had to.’
Under the table, Frankie felt William’s hand slip into her own. ‘You were very kind,’ she replied. ‘And I knew it was a long shot. Worth asking though.’ She gave a tight smile to hide her disappointment.
‘It was,’ replied Vivienne. ‘And I was still thinking about it when my doorbell rang, and I opened it to find Beth on my doorstep. She asked me pretty much the same thing – whether there was any way to ensure that Frankie could carry on working here. She was very eloquent, too.’ She smiled at Beth, who went bright pink. ‘And then there was William, who arrived about forty minutes later. He was the most eloquent ofall.’ She smiled at Tam. ‘Not that you weren’t, dear, you were, but William…Let’s just say I could see he had a special reason for asking. So that’s partly why I came here tonight, Frankie – because I thought it was important for you to know what wonderful friends you have. None of them knew you had already been in touch with me, nor did they know that the others had either, or that they planned to. Yet they had each tracked me down, and came, separately, to plead your case. I was incredibly touched by that.’
Frankie’s nose was beginning to smart. She had a horrible feeling she would burst into tears, and she gripped onto William’s hand as if her life depended on it. She nodded, and that was all she could manage. Words were quite beyond her.
‘Perhaps Tam might like to explain the rest,’ added Vivienne. ‘While I eat this delicious-looking cake.’
Tam cleared his throat again, his eyes shining. ‘So, I already mentioned that Frankie phoned me earlier today to ask for my help, but she also asked me for some advice, and although she didn’t say why, it was easy to guess what her motives were. She asked me whether at some point in the future I could help her write a business plan and apply for a bank loan. She also wanted to check that if I was given a set of accounts for a business, that I’d be able to tell her how well that business was doing. My answer to all those questions was yes, of course. It was something William had said to her, she explained, about her wanting to be the driver in her life instead of just the passenger. I think that’s something we’ve all felt keenly over recent weeks. And so of course, as soon as I ended the call, I knew exactly whatIneeded to do.’
He reached inside his jacket pocket, took out an envelope and laid it on the table. It was a little battered and looked as if it had been opened several times. ‘Chris gave this to me, and I’d almost forgotten I had it. It wasn’t until I stayed over at Beth’sthat first night that it fell out of a library book. But…’ He smiled at Frankie. ‘I think you should be the one to read it first.’
Frankie eyed the envelope as if it were a ticking bomb, brow furrowed into puzzled creases.
‘Go on,’ urged Tam. ‘It’s okay.’
Conscious that all eyes were on her, Frankie opened it, drawing out the sheet of thick cream paper. ‘It’s from a firm of solicitors,’ she said, peering at the letterhead. ‘In Cambridge.’ Her eyes tracked further down the page, widening in shock as she read on.
‘What does it say?’ asked Beth, all but grabbing her arm.
‘Oh my God, that’s incredible news, Tam. I’m so happy for you! It’s Eleanor, his friend from the nursing home, the lady who died. She’s left him some money in her will.’ She did burst into tears then, clapping her hand over her mouth to stifle the noise she was making. ‘Sorry…’
‘I didn’t do anything special,’ said Tam. ‘And I didn’t believe it at first, but I went to see Eleanor’s family, or what’s left of it – just a daughter – but it’s real. That’s where I was yesterday. Beth thought I’d gone to work, but instead I drove down to Cambridge to meet her. I’m sorry I couldn’t be here for you when you met Robert, Frankie, but I made the judgement that this might be something I needed to do.’
Frankie waved aside his apology. ‘You were a friend to Eleanor, Tam, at a time in her life when she needed it the most. There’s no one more deserving.’ She could see his eyes beginning to fill with tears and she gave him an embarrassed smile.
He stretched his face, blinking and sniffing. ‘It was important to me that I had Margaret’s blessing – that’s Eleanor’s daughter – and she gave it to me. Said her mum had always been a good judge of character.’ His voice was beginning to break a little and he took a deep breath. ‘Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. Some people might say it’s not a huge amount ofmoney, but to me,it’s everything. It’s exactly enough. Because there’s enough to pay for a few things on the farm, Beth – an all-terrain wheelchair for one, and a trailer, ’cause Jack’s going to need one of those. And it’s also enough to pay for this…’ He opened his arms a little. ‘I’ve bought the bakery for you, Frankie. It’s yours. You get to stay. You get to do whatever you want with it.’
Frankie’s chair made a hideous scraping noise against the floor, but she didn’t care. She scrambled to her feet, pulling Tam from his chair and into the fiercest of hugs.
It took a few moments for her to realise that someone else had got to their feet. ‘Frankie, I couldn’t be happier,’ said Vivienne. ‘I know without a shadow of a doubt that you’ll make a go of things here. So perhaps in a few moments, when I’m gone and you’ve all caught your breath, you can open this.’ She took out a bottle from her bag and placed it on the table. ‘I wouldn’t normally encourage drinking at work, but on this occasion…Perhaps you’d better put a sign on the door for the morning, saying you might be a little late opening. I’m sure folks won’t mind…just this once.’ She smiled and turned to go. ‘I should tell you, too, that you’ve made me a very happy woman. My husband and I viewed the most perfect house at the weekend, and now, if we’re quick, we might just be in time to buy it.’ She waved a hand in farewell. ‘Now get that champagne open. I’ll see myself out…’
It was quite some time before any of them could speak properly. But there were lots of tears, and hugs, and so much excitement, that anyone walking past would have wondered what was going on.
As yet, there’d been no baking at all, but that would come, in time…
Frankie was the first to sink back down at the table. She still couldn’t believe any of what had happened, but she only had tolook at the faces around her to know that it had. True friends. The best of friends.
‘You know, this all started because of you, Frankie,’ said Beth. ‘A little nightingale, the symbol of love and renewal. You started a chain of kindness that just kept on growing. It’s right that we should be here tonight. All of us.’ She looked at each of them in turn, smiling.
‘What will you do, now that Duggan’s is yours?’ asked Tam as he busied himself finding glasses and opening the bottle of champagne. ‘Apart from think of a better name, that is.’
