‘Did she?’ Eve was surprised. Serena had behaved as though coming up to Edward Priest’s house was a foreign mission about which she knew nothing.
‘Yes, after Mrs Priest – Amber – left, she was hanging around quite a bit.’ A censorious tone was evident in Hilditch’s voice, but Eve wasn’t sure if it was directed at Serena, the boss from hell, or Amber Priest, Edward’s wife.
‘Is Mrs Priest returning for Christmas?’ Eve asked, wanting to check whether Serena’s gossip about the Priest marriage was true.
Hilditch snorted, as the Mini Cooper picked up speed, and they passed through a large village that was being decorated for Christmas with pretty red wreaths and green and silver ribbons along the main street.
‘Mrs Priest is in America, unsure when she will return. Let’s just say no one is holding their breath.’ She cleared her throat and changed her tone. ‘This is Crossbourne, a lovely community. Everything you need is here. It’s more of a town but we still like to think of it as a village.’
Eve noticed the people walking about, and the shops and decorations, and thought how much she would like to have a good wander about. It did indeed look like the basics were covered, plus there were some nice little independent stores that looked to be selling arts and crafts.
‘There’s a lovely market the week before Christmas and some fun activities,’ said Hilditch. ‘If you like that sort of thing.’
If only Hilditch knew how much Eve loved that sort of thing – but she was here to work, not mess about at markets and buy presents.
‘I think Mr Priest will keep me busy working on his book,’ she said.
Hilditch snorted again and gave a laugh of no faith at all.
‘He is writing isn’t he?’ asked Eve. She had promised Serena she would do a first edit of the book, but she hoped she didn’t have to parent a grown man into delivering on time.
Hilditch pretended to lock her mouth and throw the invisible key out the closed window.
Eve sighed and looked outside. She had little to nothing to do with the authors on Serena’s list unless Serena told her to do the work that she didn’t want to do herself – the slog of the edit, word by word. But this sounded like she was being forced to babysit Henshaw and Carlson’s biggest author.
‘He has a commitment, a deadline,’ she said to Hilditch.
‘Nothing to do with me. I’m not his mother.’
‘Neither am I,’ mumbled Eve.
God how she wished she was at home, talking rubbish with Zara.
As they reached the countryside, Eve wished she could enjoy the views of the fields of green and then a large forest and some hills in the distance.
‘That’s where we’re off to.’ Hilditch nodded to the forest ahead.
‘Wow, it looks very JRR Tolkien,’ said Eve.
‘Well, it is called the Tower Forest,’ said Hilditch proudly. ‘Cranberry Cross is at the top of the hill. You can see the whole region from the tower.’
‘The tower?’
‘You haven’t seen Cranberry Cross before?’ asked Hilditch, clearly surprised.
‘No.’ Eve shook her head.
‘It was onGardeners’ Worldlast year,’ Hilditch prompted.
‘I don’t watchGardeners’ World. Sorry.’ Eve felt she needed to apologise because it was evident from the sound of Hilditch’s tutting under her breath that she was disappointed.
‘We’ve won the coldest winter in England three years in a row,’ Hilditch said. ‘I hope you brought your thermals.’
Eve shivered. She hadn’t brought any thermals. Instead she had brought a new camel coat at Mango that in hindsight looked smart but wasn’t world-record-winter ready. Why were people always so proud of living in the freezer section of the country? First off they didn’t control the weather and secondly, they chose to live there. It didn’t make them better than anyone else, just sillier.
She checked her phone and saw emails from Serena and then put it away. They could wait; she needed to keep Hilditch talking because the woman revealed more in what she didn’t say than she realised. Hilditch was one of those people who thought they were being discreet but their body language gave away volumes about what they thought.
So far she had learned Serena had been to Northumberland more times than zero, which was more than what Serena had claimed, and that Edward Priest’s wife had left him. Gosh, this was turning into a mystery and Eve loved a mystery story.
