Page 58 of A Merry Little Christmas
‘Um... she told me she was going to drop in at the village hall first?’ I said, wincing as I waited for their reaction. ‘To see how sales of her chutney were doing?’
‘Oh, rats. She’ll know, then,’ said Fen.
‘She was always bound to find out,’ remarked Maddy. ‘I mean, news gets round in a flash here, with the café as the perfect generator of gossip.’
Jaz nodded. ‘True. Unless . . .’
‘Unless what?’ Maddy frowned.
‘Unless no one at the WI even noticed that the chutney was gone.’
I nodded. ‘You’ve got a point. That stock room was packed almost to the ceiling with all kinds of goodies for the sale. Would anyone really miss a couple of boxes of Christmas chutney?’
‘You’re right,’ said Maddy. ‘They probably wouldn’t. I think we might have got away with it, girls.’
‘Got away with what?’ said a cheerful voice, and we all turned to find Ellie trudging through the snow towards us.
I swallowed hard.
‘Erm . . .’
‘Um . . .’
‘Er, well . . .’
Ellie laughed. ‘What is it? What’s the big secret? I thought I was the one with the startling news.’
‘Startling news?’ I asked.
‘Yes. You’ll never guess what’s happened.’
‘Go on,’ I murmured, studying her cheeks which were red with the cold.
‘Well, I’ve just been along to the WI sale and apparently, my Christmas chutney’s been – wait for it –stolen!’ She gave a bewildered shrug.
‘Wow.’
‘Really?’
‘Crikey. It was that good, then?’
Ellie laughed at Maddy’s remark. ‘Well,somebodymust have liked the look of it. Because why steal my jars of chutney when there were so many other gorgeous goodies available to nick? Like Christmas cakes and homemade cranberry sauce and gingerbread Santas? It’s just so weird.’
‘Very weird,’ agreed Maddy solemnly. ‘What a surprise they’ll get when they open a jar and find it actually tastes as good as it looks.’
She did a speedy throw-up mime and Jaz’s mouth twitched into a half-smile, but thankfully Ellie was gazing over at the skaters on the rink and didn’t notice.
‘I hope they’re enjoying it,’ said Ellie.
‘Oh, they will be. It would take pride of place inmykitchen, that’s for sure,’ beamed Maddy, as the opening bars of Slade’sMerry Christmas Everybodystarted blaring out. ‘In the bin,’ she hissed in my ear.
I gave her a sharp nudge. ‘You’re terrible,’ I muttered to her, as we queued to hire skates.
‘Why?’
‘Making fun of Ellie’s chutney!’
‘It was revolting.’
