I waved to him as he drove off, then trudged through the snow towards the cafe. The loch was now hardly visible, though the snow was melting on the beach so there were patches of orangey sand showing through the white here and there. There was a small digger, driving back and forth, digging out sand to fill the bins that stood on every street so people could grit their own paths and driveways. The water was completely frozen now, though, and covered in a layer of snow. To my left a tiny, abandoned rowing boat was stuck solid at the shore and some geese huddled miserably by a rock. I wondered if Suky could crochet them some blankets. She’d probably already started, knowing her.
As always, the cafe was a welcome oasis in the gloom. The fairy lights round the windows twinkled and inside it was warm and smelled amazing. They’d obviously been baking.
There were a few customers dotted about, but it was quiet. Mum and Suky were sitting at the counter deep in conversation. Suky was jotting down notes. They both smiled when I entered.
‘You look busy,’ I said.
‘Coming up with some ideas about how to give the town a boost when all this snow is over,’ Suky said. ‘We’re thinking of some kind of arts festival.’
‘That’s a great idea,’ I said, pulling off my coat and hanging it on the rack. ‘You should get Millicent to help you.’
I kissed them both hello, then looked at Mum.
‘Are you ready to get started upstairs?’ I asked. ‘Is Allan up there?’
‘He is,’ Mum said. ‘Are you okay holding the fort here Suke?’
Suky nodded.
‘If it doesn’t get any busier, I’ll close up when this lot have gone and come up and help you,’ she said.
Together, Mum and I went outside and round to the back of the café, where the entrance to the gallery was. There were stone stairs leading up the outside of the building to the door – luckily Allan had kept them gritted and there was no snow on them.
The gallery itself was breathtakingly simply. The door opened on to what was basically a blank space. The same size – obviously – as the café downstairs, yet it seemed bigger because there was nothing in it. The door was on the back wall at one end and to our left and right, on the short ends of the rectangular building, were huge windows – the whole walls were made of glass meaning the light flooded in. Each end offered an incredible view across the shore of the loch in both directions. The long walls were painted white and used as hanging space when the gallery hosted exhibitions. Allan had cleverly installed folding doors two thirds of the way along the space, so it could be divided in two. We were going to have the ceremony in the smaller room, with the meal in the larger bit. Then we’d planned to go downstairs to the café for drinks, while Allan’s helpful hired muscles moved all the tables to one side for the evening party. It was all going to look lovely, I was sure. But for now, it was just a big empty room.
‘There’s a lot to do,’ Mum said, looking round. ‘But we’ll get there. Allan must be upstairs. I’ll go and find him and we can bring in the stuff.’
We tracked Allan down in his tiny office on the third floor, tucked away in the eaves. He was sketching the snowy view in a large pad.
‘Hello ladies,’ he said when we knocked on the door. ‘Let’s get cracking.’
He led us back down the stairs to the back of the café where there was a small square outhouse. He unlocked the door with a key from a large bunch and stood back so we could see inside.
‘There are five round tables and lots of chairs in here,’ he said. ‘And I’ve stacked all the boxes of decorations that arrived, near the door.’
I stepped inside the little building.
‘It doesn’t look like all these tables should fit in here,’ I said.
Allan smiled. ‘Eva did her thing,’ he said.
‘Ah,’ I said. Witches had a way of adapting storage space, that was for sure.
‘So we’ve got to get all these upstairs,’ I said, looking round at the tables that were stacked neatly at the back of the room. ‘That’s not going to be easy.’
The café had a small service lift that Allan used to bring refreshments up from the café when he was holding an event in the gallery. I wondered if the chairs at least would fit in that, though I didn’t think we would be able to squeeze the tables in.
Mum giggled like a little girl.
‘Tansy’s at the house right now, isn’t she?’ she said.
‘She’s got Parker this afternoon,’ I said.
Mum nodded briskly.
‘In that case,’ she said, waggling her fingers. There was a shower of her beautiful cloudy grey sparks, lighting up the dim interior of the outhouse and the tables, chairs and boxes of decorations all disappeared.
‘Easy,’ Mum said with a smile.
Allan locked the door again and we all trooped back upstairs. Mum shut the main door to the gallery.
‘Just in case,’ she said.
And then we got to work. Without breaking a sweat we pointed and sparkled the chairs into rows in the smaller section of the room, facing the huge window which was where the registrar – Kirsty – and Jamie and I would stand while we said our vows.
We arranged the tables in the larger section of the room with more chairs around each one, and Allan – who obviously wanted to feel useful – assembled a long trestle table that he moved into position along the back wall. That would be for the buffet – whatever it was.
Once the chairs and tables were in place, it started to look more like a wedding venue. But we still had quite a lot to do.
Mum popped downstairs to the café and came back with Suky and Eva, along with mugs of tea and a plate of cakes for everyone.
Allan kissed Eva and handed her his bunch of keys.
‘I’m going to leave you lot to it,’ he said, as he headed off downstairs. ‘See you later.’
Munching on the cakes, we all unpacked the boxes.
‘This is the fun part,’ Suky said, rubbing her hands. ‘I loved doing the table decorations for Harry’s wedding.’
I’d chosen my white, silver and pale blue colour scheme to reflect the frostiness of a beautiful Claddach winter. Of course, the sheer amount of snow outside the huge windows meant there was no getting away from the ice and snow – but it was too late to change it now and I thought it would look pretty all the same.
We all sat round one of the tables and I arranged all my goodies.
‘I’ve got silver and blue ribbons for the backs of the chairs,’ I explained. ‘White table cloths with sparkly silver snowflakes to sprinkle on top. There are silver candles to go in the middle of each table and some other bits.’
Suky was right. It was fun. We pointed and sparkled, moved chairs into position, threw cloths on top of tables and tied the ribbons round the backs of chairs. The whole room zinged and glowed in the gloomy twilight.