With Darcy Fielding once again suggesting I consider writing something romantic for Valentine's Day (you may recall he suggested Couples as a topic last year) I again wondered why. This time I had a theory.
I'm feeling less unsettled with the concept of a human world, and it helps that I can now share my thoughts with Cecile. I know I've said I don't keep secrets from her, but I realised that wasn't wholly true. The story writing for Darcy wasn't fully explained to her. I decided that it was time I remedied that omission.
"Let me get this right," she said, a wide smile upon her face, "You're writing a gossip column for human men things?"
"I wouldn't put it quite like that," I muttered.
"Telling tales about our friends and families? How would you put it?"
"I'm not being nasty about it."
She reached out to me. "Oh, I didn't think that for a second, my love. There's not a nasty bone in your body. I'm sure you're being nice about it."
"Well, I try to be fair and..."
"Have you written about me?"
This was the question that I had dwelled upon. Although a potentially uncomfortable conversation, I had prepared for it.
"Of course, sweet wrinkle. How could I omit the most important person in my life?"
"Oh, you sweet talker," she laughed. "But seriously, how much have you revealed?"
"How you protect our friends and children, and the tale of a certain coral sofa."
Both her eyes and her mouth formed perfect circles. "Oh, you didn't..."
"But in a nice way."
"And you're certain that nobody we know will have read it?"
"Nowhere in Sylvania, Darcy promised."
She regarded me in silence for a number of seconds, before a smile returned to her face.
"Ideally, Darcy wants something romantic."
"How about the story of our first date?"
"Done that."
"Really? Oh, then let me think..."
"You want to help?"
"Why should you have all the fun?"
And that's how I gained a (part-time) writing partner. And, true to her word, Cecile did think about it.
 |
It was the bi-weekly meeting of the Cake Club. There wasn't any baking or cake decorating that evening though. It was the Annual General Meeting and most of the core members were present, plus one extra - Eliza Butterglove.
"First order of business," said Flo Van Dyke, the nominal chair of the meeting.
"Er, Flo," said Emma Furbanks. "Sorry to interrupt, but shouldn't we first welcome our guest?"
Flo looked up from her notebook. "Ah yes. Thank you, Emma. I am remiss. That should be our real first order of business. Do you want to do the honours?"
"Happily. I'd like to thank Eliza Butterglove for agreeing to attend the AGM of the Mellowdene Cake Club, and also to thank Mona Hazelnut who - in addition to taking the minutes of this meeting - arranged with her work colleague Merlin Butterglove to make this possible."
"Hear hear," said Willow Thistlethorn, smiling at Mona.
"We're not usually so formal," said Katharine Periwinkle, leaning towards Eliza who was, it must be said, wondering why she'd been persuaded to attend under such secrecy. After all, it was Cecile who was the baker in the family.
"Hear hear," said Willow, smiling at Eliza.
"Good, good," said Flo, "and, Eliza, I'm sure you've realised this is about Cecile. We'll want your advice." She waited for Eliza's uncertain nod before continuing. "Well, there's some business we need to get through first, so if we can prevail upon your patience, we'll be as quick as possible."
The meeting continued and as the minutes dragged by, Eliza thought Beatrix Spotter was beginning to fall asleep. Her head kept jerking as she endeavoured to remain awake. Apparently her triplets were going through an active phase.
"So," said Emma, "I think we've bored Eliza enough. Let's talk about Cecile."
"Hear hear," said Willow.
Flo smiled at the grey mouse and her jolly demeanour. "Hear hear indeed. The rest of the agenda was mainly trivial anyway. I think we can talk more informally about that later. If that's okay, Mona?"
Mona nodded. "I can summarise the other bits for the minutes."
"That's what I hoped, dear. So. To the subject of Cecile..."
"We want her back," said Katherine.
"Hear hear," said Willow, then - clearly realising she was repeating herself - said, "sorry. But it's true. We miss her."
Eliza blinked, realising that she was the centre of attention.
"The thing is," said Emma, "something happened at the Sylvanian Bake Off event that caused her to leave."
"What?" said Eliza, leaving her seat.
The other ladies in the room murmured agreement.
"We thought of all going as a group to ask her..." said Beatrix, now awake and paying attention.
"...but we didn't want to make it awkward for her with Jackson asking questions," added Emma.
Katherine nodded vigorously. "That's when Mona had the idea that you could persuade her if you saw how much we miss her."
"She does like baking," said Eliza. "I could never understand why she left the Cake Club. Are you sure you can't tell me why..."
Flo shook her head. "No, dear. That's the first rule of Cake Club."
o 0 O 0 o
Interval
"So that's why you went back," I stared at Cecile. "You never said."
"Eliza told me how the Cake Club felt about me. I had a good cry. And I did miss my friends."
"That's great. Not that you cried, of course. I'm happy for you that you went back. It's a nice story."
"But I guess you're wondering about the romantic element."
I wasn't, but realised she was right. That said, we were under no obligation to comply with Darcy's preferences. Cecile hadn't finished, though.
"Because if you were - wondering, that is - the Cake Club meeting continued..."
o 0 O 0 o
The Cake Club became a much more informal affair, with baking business mingled with general chatting and laughter. Eliza noted that Mona Hazelnut was buzzing about, periodically scribbled on her small notepad - presumably the trivial items to which Flo Van Dyke had referred.
Katherine Periwinkle settled down next to Eliza.
"Do you think you might like to join the Cake Club, Eliza? It can be fun; not like all the business and money stuff we've trudged through today."
"Oh, I don't know, Kathy. I'm not up to Cecile's standard."
"True - Cecile is very good, but we encourage a range of abilities. Besides, I've tasted your sponge cake and it was lovely. It's better than some of our effects. You do know Pearl Babblebrook is a member?"
Eliza tried not to look overly surprised but didn't wholly succeed. Katherine giggled.
"I know. She isn't good at cooking, is she? We have convinced her to concentrate on her strengths, though. She's a competent cake decorator, and she works primarily on dummy models rather than actual cakes."
"Right."
"And she has plenty of tales to tell that she's learned at the telephone exchange... Ooh, I probably shouldn't have said..."
Eliza had to smile. It was common knowledge that at least two of the switchboard ladies thought it their duty to oversee all that transpired across the long-distance phone lines. Callers would usually bear that in mind when talking - but of course there would be unintentional lapses that either Pearl or Mabel Periwinkle would catch. Katherine hadn't revealed anything too surprising and yet it was clear that she was having some sort of internal argument.
"Oh, what does it matter?" she said, decision made. "The fact is, the Club knows a lot about the village, and Pearl is not our only source. We use that knowledge to help people. If you agree to try and persuade Cecile to rejoin us, you could also say that we need her help to complete her pet project."
Katherine went on to explain that there was Cake Club tradition to help villagers reach their potential. One aspect related to the romantic relationships of shy individuals. Whenever they encountered a pair of villagers who were attracted to one another but were too scared to progress as they'd wish, the Cake Club would endeavour to manipulate the situation to bring them together.
"Love and romance are our aims. We've been responsible for five marriages," Katherine smiled.
"Would Cecile's project have anything to do with Nigel Snow-Warren and Tara Lapine-Frost?"
"No. I think that's something she's doing with Charity. Independent of us. But you see how good she is? We've been working on Cecile's project ever since she left us, but it's been a slow job. We think we're almost there, but it's only fair Cecile's there at the end."
Eliza looked around the room at the core members of the Mellowdene Cake Club. Bakers and Matchmakers.
Turning back to Katherine, she nodded.
Epilogue
Cecile didn't reveal the subjects of her pet project, saying that it might be better if that was a story for another time. I didn't press her. I settled for putting Eliza's experiences on paper.
When we had finished writing the story and I was pushing the table away, I noticed Cecile watching me. I could that tell something was on her mind.
"What is it, Cess?"
"You won't tell anyone in Mellowdene what I've said - for this story, I mean?"
I feigned exaggerated surprise, then beamed a wide smile at her. She relaxed and rolled her eyes.
"Idiot," she said. "Alright, I know you won't. You've been writing who-knows-what for around two years and kept that secret. And before you ask, I'll keep quiet about our stories too."
"It's for the best. And Darcy prefers it that way too, as it gives us greater freedom of expression. You enjoyed telling your tale, didn't you?"
"Oh, I truly did. And I'd like to do it again, sometimes. But I think that, with that freedom of expression in mind, I don't want to restrict you when you're writing solo. Curious as I may be, I won't mind if I don't see it."
"That's generous."
"I trust you Jack. You should write what you feel."
I gazed into her eyes. A feeling washed over me - that I was incredibly lucky to have married this beautiful bunny.
"I love you, Cess."
"I love you too, Jack."
I'm not sure how we would have appeared to a casual observer seeing us basking in our mutual admiration, but in those two or three minutes we didn't care.
It ended when a yell outside informed us that Brendan was home from school.
Cecile sighed happily. Contentment is a wonderful thing.
