Page 31 of Clara's Secret Garden
Bertie takes a bow, brings his two cupcake ‘balls’ out ofhis pocket and starts to juggle with them, a frown of concentration on hisface. There’s a ripple of surprised laughter but then the audience falls silentwatching Bertie perform. The instant he drops the balls, everyone starts tocheer and applaud.
I smile down at him, joining in the applause and mouthing‘well done’, a very proud big sister. We hadn’t even talked about bowing to theaudience. Or doing some casual cupcake juggling as a warm-up.
Well done, Bertie, for breaking the ice!
We start off the demo by making the morello cherry and limecourgette cake, and we soon have a jolly dialogue going with the audience, whoseem intrigued at the idea of baking with vegetables.
‘The food processor is a little noisy, so bear with us. Nowyou need to add the flour Bertie. The sieve?’
Bertie holds it up triumphantly.
‘Excellent. Now hit play!’
As the sound of Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ fills the room,Bertie shakes the sieve over the bowl while I stir. Appreciating the joke, aripple of laughter goes round the room, and Bertie – enjoying himself – becomesa little too enthusiastic with his wrist action, threatening to cover us bothin flour.
I’m quite enjoying myself now, especially when everyonestarts joining in with the next song on our playlist: ‘If I Knew You Were Comin’I’d’ve Baked A Cake’.
But my relaxed state flies completely out of the window whenthe door opens and Rory walks in.
CHAPTERTWELVE
My heart patters nervously as he slides into a seat atthe back.
Rory said he’d be here but I thought it was just athrowaway comment, to be nice. I didn’t think he would actually show up...
He grins at my surprise and I smile back, and some of theaudience turn to see what’s happening behind them. But then I catch the crestfallenlook on Bertie’s face and my heart lurches. When the door opened, he must havethought it was his mum arriving.
Bloody hell, Irene! Where are you? Couldn’t you have madean effort for your son just this once?
Feeling less than calm, what with Rory’s sudden appearanceand anger at my stepmum, I lose concentration and manage to spill sugar allover the table. ‘Oops. Sorry, folks.’ I can feel an annoying flush staining mycheeks as I start to flap, reaching for a cloth but knocking the sieve onto thefloor in the process.
Calm down. It’s not the end of the world. People don’tmind mistakes – it makes you seem more human!
I smile brightly at Bertie. ‘Could we have some morejuggling while I mop up this mess, please?’
He nods eagerly, lifted outof his gloom, and as everyone applauds and cheers – especially when Bertieliterally drops the ball (or rather, the cupcake) – I feel myself relax. I evenmanage to smile over at Rory without feeling like a complete and utterincompetent.
People are fascinated by the chocolate beetroot cake and thesweet potato brownies, and while Ellie and Fen watch over the cakes in the oven,I demonstrate how to glaze and decorate them, using the cakes I made earlier inthe day. And afterwards, we all troop through to the café, where Ellie quicklyslices the iced cakes, arranging samples of each flavour on large plates, andFen takes orders for tea or coffee.
Irene calls me and says she’s sorry she didn’t make it but couldI take a video of Bertie doing his juggling? So I explain what we’re doing, andeveryone is really helpful, moving tables to clear a space for Bertie to do histhing, while I capture it on my phone.
‘Yay! Go, Bertie!’ calls Lois, clapping her hands, and I smilefondly as he concentrates hard, wanting to do his best performance for his mum.
Afterwards, Lois rushes over and gives him the biggest hug,and for once he doesn’t squirm away but hugs her back, which brings a tear tomy eye. Lois almost makes up for Irene’s non-appearance tonight.Almost.She’s looking so much brighter these days. Almost back to her old self...
When I’m finished, Rory goes over and joins the Bertie-Loishuddle, putting his arms around them and congratulating Bertie on being a greatassistant and a first-class juggler. And Lois smiles and says she’s so proud ofhim, which is quite something coming from her.
Then Rory joins me and says he has to go, but when would Ilike him to bring the cream for our raspberry feast?
‘Oh, any time.’ I laugh, feeling flustered. ‘Tomorrowevening?’
He nods. ‘Tomorrow evening it is. I noticed your gran hassome barbecue equipment. I could bring some burgers and sausages if you likeand we could do it properly.’
I nod, loving the idea. ‘We could have fresh salad as well,picked straight from the garden.’
‘Great.’ He smiles over at Bertie. ‘Why not invite the manof the moment? And Lois?’
The shiny feeling inside dulls just a little – I’d imaginedit would be the two of us, just Rory and me – but of course it would still bebrilliant with the others. So I nod and smile. ‘What about Elsie? Why not bringher as well?’
