‘I wouldnae say he was evil, Mina.’ Sheila rolled her eyes, echoing Deb’s thoughts. ‘Hi, Deb. Sheila. Happy tae sort ye oot fer a few cakes.’
‘Ah, that would be brilliant, thank you. I’d need enough for about three hundred guests, though. That’s not too many?’
‘No, it’s fine. I’d likely do a few big cakes and then a lot of cupcakes, if ye dinnae mind. Happy tae suggest options, like a lemon drizzle cupcake wi’ lemon icin’, or chocolate’s always popular. A bit like the one over there.’ Sheila nodded to the trestle table with all of the refreshments on it.
‘Cupcakes sound ideal. I could arrange them on those nice tiered stands. Perhaps lemon and chocolate? Half and half?’ Deb suggested.
‘Aye. Give me yer number an’ I’ll message ye some options. I dinnae mind givin’ ye samples to try.’ Sheila reached into her pocket and passed Deb a pen and a piece of paper.
‘Great.’ Deb wrote her number on the piece of paper and handed it back to Sheila. ‘What was that you were doing over there? Sewing?’
‘We’re making a protest quilt!’ Mina interjected, excitedly. ‘It was my idea. We like to crochet in the group but I also like quilting and embroidery. It keeps me busy in the evenings when I’m watching TV, although of course I don’t have an awful lot of free time, with the business and the children. I have three children,’ she added proudly, and Deb sensed that Mina, whilevery friendly, was also perhaps not the shyest person in the room.
‘Come and see where we are with it.’ Sheila winked as she and Mina led Deb over to the sewing circle. There were three other women working on the American style quilt, and two empty chairs where Sheila and Mina had been sitting. ‘Sue, can you turn over the bit you’re working on? This is Deb. She’s new to the crochet coven.’
Deb wanted to point out that she hadn’t, to her knowledge,joinedthe crochet coven. Still, she didn’t want to be rude, so she just smiled and looked curiously at the square of embroidery that Sue was holding up.
‘What’s the design?’ Deb asked. Sue’s square featured a red squirrel among leaves, which was very pretty: Deb recalled that red squirrels were one of the species that were under threat from Kyle’s development project.
‘It’s going to say WOMEN SEWING AGAINST ECOSYSTEM COLLAPSE.’ Sue, a woman with long brown hair in a plait and a dark green smock dress explained. ‘There’s a proud tradition of quilting and crafts in political resistance. We thought we’d try and display it permanently at the entrance to the building site.’
Oh, no. Deb felt a twist of anxiety in her stomach. This felt like a step up in activity from haranguing Kyle at the entrance to the building site.
‘Wow. OK.’
Kyle probably didn’t know how incensed these women were.
This put her in a difficult position, because now she felt like she had to tell him about the quilt when she saw him. She imagined that the notion of a quilt might not disturb Kyle that much – it wasn’t as if Mina and Sheila were planning to fire-bomb the building site – but there was something about the concentration required to make a quilt that spoke of an intimidating sense of determination on the part of the women.
‘Is that the risk? Ecosystem collapse?’ she asked, looking back at Mina and Sheila. ‘That seems quite an… intense outcome. Obviously, I’m on the side of the animals,’ she added, quickly.
‘It might be.’ Mina sounded slightly peevish, as if she didn’t appreciate Deb questioning the group’s message. ‘But anyway, he shouldn’t be doing what he’s doing. People are angry.’
‘But isn’t he just building houses that people need?’ Deb asked, which she regretted instantly as Mina’s expression went from frowny to thunderous.
‘No! He isn’t!’ she snapped. ‘He’s going to wipe out whole populations of red squirrels and capercaillie, and he’s going to land us with more commuters, clogging up the roads,’ she continued, becoming more cross.
‘Would it really be that many more commuters?’ Deb asked, mildly.
‘It’s the principle,’ Sheila interrupted, crossing her arms across her chest. ‘The point is, we dinnae want the development. It’s no’ something that Loch Cameron needs.’
‘Right. Well, you know best.’ Deb didn’t want to make enemies of the crochet coven. ‘I mean, I’m just visiting. I’m not here to get involved in local disagreements.’
‘Right, well,’ Mina huffed. ‘It’s important, though. Maybe, if we’ve finished the quilt by the time of the party, we could reveal it then. In a kind of ceremonial way.’ She looked hopefully at Deb, who thought that was definitely not a great idea, but had no idea about how to say that and not offend Mina.
‘Hmm. Maybe!’ Deb said, noncommittally. ‘We’ll have to see if we have time. The schedule is already packed, so…’ she trailed off. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be supportive, but the May Day party was a fun event for the community. It wasn’t the place for political demonstrations. Plus, again, it put her in a difficult position with Kyle.
‘Well, you’re in charge,’ Mina sniffed. ‘Hal would have let us. Maybe I’ll just give him a call. I’m sure he’d understand.’
‘Hal’s in New York,’ Deb replied brightly. Mina wasn’t the first stubborn diva she’d had to deal with in her career, and she wouldn’t be the last. ‘You can call him if you like, but hehashanded authority and responsibility for the party over to me. He is super busy, so I’m not sure if he’d really appreciate being asked… but it’s up to you, of course,’ she said, politely, but with an unmistakeable firmness.
‘Hmm. Well, I might.’ Mina flashed her a smile that said she was letting it go for now, but maybe not forever. ‘I’m sure you know best, Deb.’
‘Let’s stick a pin in it for now, shall we?’ Deb suggested, diplomatically. ‘The quilt looks amazing, though.’
‘Ta.’ Sue smiled and returned to her embroidery.
‘So, you guys really aren’t keen on Kyle Abernethy,’ Deb said as she went over to the cake table and got herself a chocolate and beetroot cupcake, and made herself a cup of tea. She was keen to dig a little deeper and find out if there was any reasonable basis for why he was so disliked, apart from the housing development.
