Sophie’s holding up a finger. ‘I promised Nell that we’d think about hen races. And George suggested a St Aidan Wrong Trousers Day, where you get sponsored to go to work wearing something different from usual on your legs.’
Plum’s writing. ‘Poor George, he’s always in his suit at the solicitors’ office. They’re both good ideas.’
Sophie’s nodding. ‘Nate thinks a mud run would be good for all ages. And I’d like to offer a wellbeing day at Siren House.’
Plum’s mouth twists into a smile as she turns to me. ‘She’s been desperate to run wellbeing weekends ever since she moved in.’
Sophie looks smug. ‘It’s the perfect opportunity to try one outandshowcase our Sophie May products. I’ll put you down for art tuition, Plum, and we definitely need feel-good bake sessions, Cressy. I’ll let you know more when I’ve put the programme together, but we could do two weeks from Saturday?’
I don’t know why I’m blinking, I should know by now that everything happens immediately round here.
‘How about you, Cressy, any more ideas?’ Plum’s tilting her head towards me, pushing cake crumbs and icing into her mouth.
I take a deep breath, dip to the bottom of my bag and cross my fingers they’re going to like this. I open Jen’s file and push it towards them. ‘Jen’s been collecting favourite recipes from everyone up at the care home for me to bake on Tuesday afternoons. I was hoping to make them up into a booklet before I left.’
Plum’s leafing through. ‘Australian caramel cake, melting moments, dumpsie dearie jam – these are wonderful!’ Her eyes are shining with excitement. ‘Look at the comments too: “tasty and quick to make for unexpected visitors”, “very moreish”, “easy to make and never any left over”.’
I’m so relieved they like them as much as I do. ‘If we organised them into a collection, and had them printed nicely, I wondered if we could sell them?’
Plum slams her hand down on the table. ‘What a brilliant idea! We could broaden it out to the whole village, and get more recipes and even more sales.’
Sophie’s breathy with excitement. ‘If everyone pays five pounds to get their recipe in the book, that would go towards the cost of a print run. And if we sell a thousand at a fiver each, that’s an immediate chunk of pure profit.’ She claps her hands. ‘Great. So what about the title?’
They’re looking at me again. ‘How aboutA Slice of St Aidan – Recipes from a Cornish Village?’
Plum’s nodding. ‘With a foreword by Cressy Cupcake! I’ll spread the word on Facebook and pop some notices in the shop windows.’ She’s turning to me again. ‘So can you make the selections and sort out the order, Cressy?’
With my magazine skills I can do more than that. ‘I’ll sort a first layout too.’
Sophie’s beaming. ‘Our art department at the office will take it from there and they can whizz up a cover design too. It might be nice to have one of your photos on there, Cressy?’
Talk about fast work, but I already know the right one. I flick through my phone all the way back to one from the day we made butterfly cakes. ‘How about this? Cake, buttercream and a dusting of icing sugar, in close up.’
Sophie’s holding up a half-eaten slice of old-school sponge. ‘My mouth’s already full, and that’s still making it water.’
Plum’s looking too. ‘It’s a dynamite combo – these books are going to fly! Do we have a timescale?’
Sophie turns to me. ‘Once we have the file sorted, I’ll get our printers straight onto it. We’re talking a matter of days.’
Plum bites her lip as she thinks. ‘I’ll collect the recipes and the cash, then it’s over to Cressy.’
Sophie’s obviously used to powering forward with her company, and she’s looking straight at me. ‘So could we be looking at a book launch for a month’s time?’
I’m doing my guppy impression again because that means a couple of weeks for me to get it all together. Realistically, if it takes much longer than that, I might not be around to see it. ‘I don’t see why not.’
Sophie’s rubbing her hands. ‘Wonderful work!’ Her face drops. ‘Nell’s going to be beside herself for missing this!’
‘Does she work every morning?’ We’re at Kittiwake Court very soon, so I can only think she’s on her way back from an out-of-town audit as we speak.
Plum crosses her paint-splashed legs and pulls a face. ‘She’s actually been for a check-up.’
Sophie must have read my mind. ‘Nell’s never ill, but a couple of months ago she had a cyst and lost an ovary.’
‘Shit. We women need all the ovaries we can get.’ It’s out before I think, but with Clemmie and Charlie where they are, I’m very aware of the issues.
Plum’s nodding. ‘Luckily she’s still got one left. But they won’t be putting off their family plans for a moment longer after this.’
I’m speaking without really thinking. ‘At least she’s already settled with George.’ I know the first day I met the mermaids I was adamant about being on my own, but I get a new kind of panic lately as I hear of real people I’m close to having fertility problems. ‘I don’t ever meet anyone I fancy.’ The one very uncomfortable exception counted himself out of the running years ago.
