‘Poppy, come on now eat your sandwich, or there will be no cake.’ Madeleine looked at her daughter with her best face of authority, but within moments her eyes had softened and her lips turned up at the corners into a gentle, loving smile. She looked out of the window in the hope that Jess would hurry up and arrive at the café soon.
She was late, but for Jess that was normal.
The café was quaint and cottage-like and reminded Madeleine of her grandma’s farmhouse kitchen when she’d been a small child.
‘What’s under there?’ Poppy asked as she pointed to a small dish that had been placed on the table. A circle of material covered it and had small beads attached to its edge.
‘It’s the sugar cubes.’ Madeleine laughed as she picked up the material to reveal small cubes of brown and white sugar beneath. ‘The cloth is to keep the flies away.’
Poppy had immediately lost interest and her eyes now stared impatiently at the huge oak sideboard which stood next to them, with cake domes littering its surface.
Madeleine watched Poppy eyeing them up over the top of her food, knowing full well that she was carefully choosing which one she would ask for once the chore of eating the sandwich was complete.
‘Hey, are you waiting for me?’ Jess asked as she bounced in through the door twenty minutes late and sat down at the table. She picked up the teapot and poured herself a drink into the spare cup that Madeleine had put ready for her. ‘Oh, I need this. That journey over the moors gets worse and worse. I got stuck behind the slowest tractor in the world and those roads, they’re so bendy.’
‘I know, they drive you mad, don’t they?’ Madeleine said as she kissed her sister on the cheek. ‘Good to see that you got here safely though.’
Jess tickled Poppy under the table. ‘Now then, young lady, is that sandwich lovely?’
Poppy shook her head and held up the sandwich, showing her how much of it she’d already eaten, whilst dipping her head behind the teapot and pointing to the cakes.
‘Poppy, I can see you, you know. The teapot isn’t big enough to hide you.’
Madeleine looked over to where the waitress stood.
‘Do you think we might have three pieces of that lovely carrot cake, please?’ she asked, knowing that carrot cake was the favourite of both Poppy and Jess, both of whose eyes lit up at the request and Poppy immediately dropped her sandwich on the plate making it obvious that the task of eating it was over, especially now that the battle to get cake had been won.
Pulling off her coat, Jess hung it on the back of the chair and then reached into her handbag and pulled out an envelope.
‘Maddie, I have a confession to make,’ she announced. ‘When my flat got broken into I said that I thought your locket had gone. Well, that’s only partly true.’
Madeleine watched as Jess emptied the envelope onto the table. One oval piece of locket fell out and Madeleine picked it up. ‘Where’s the rest, the other side of the locket, the chain?’ Closing her eyes, she knew the answer before she’d finished her question. ‘It’s gone, isn’t it?’
Jess nodded. ‘I’ve searched and I can’t find it anywhere. I’m so sorry, Maddie.’
Holding back the tears, she turned the piece of locket over and over in her hand. A single, dated picture of her father remained.
‘Why, Jess? Why would anyone steal half a locket? I don’t get it.’
Jess shrugged her shoulders and watched as the waitress placed the three plates of carrot cake on the table before them. ‘Thank you,’ she said, waiting till the waitress had gone before she continued. ‘Maddie, it’s really strange. There were lots of things broken, but such odd things taken. Nothing that you’d have expected. They didn’t take the laptop or the television, they just smashed it. In fact, they took nothing of any value whatsoever.’
‘So, what did they take?’
‘The whole flat looked like a nuclear war zone. They took random stuff, really weird bits of jewellery, an old photograph album, a few DVDs and that picture frame that you gave me last Christmas.’
‘What use would any of that be to anyone?’
‘I have no idea. Especially the DVDs. I only realised that some had gone when I looked for the one where I swam with the dolphins last year.’
‘The ones in the Dominican? You probably loaned it to someone to watch.’
‘Not a chance. It cost me a hundred dollars, so I protect it with my life. I’d been telling Poppy about it and told her I’d let her watch it.’
Madeleine thought for a moment before she spoke. ‘Do you want to hear some good news for a change?’
‘Go on then, spill the beans.’ Jess sat upright in her chair.
‘Well, without going into too much detail because little ears are listening, but in the tunnel there was a… well… what you might call an incident.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Jess raised her eyebrows. ‘You might have to give me just a little bit more of a clue, Maddie.’
‘Okay, this morning I had a delivery of flowers.’ Madeleine blushed as she thought of the flowers that had arrived and the note that had simply said, ‘You deserve romance.’
‘What flowers? Who are they from?’
Madeleine looked at Poppy who continued to eat her cake. ‘Well, you know.’
‘Oh no, please don’t tell me Liam sent you flowers.’
Poppy burst out laughing. ‘No, silly Aunty Jessie. It was Mr Bang’it man. He sent my mummy some pretty flowers, the chocolates were yummy too.’
Jess fell silent and Madeleine giggled. ‘Through the mouths of babes,’ she whispered as she watched Poppy, who had now eaten all of her cake and was eagerly watching Jess in the hope that she might get to share hers.