I glanced at Winky. “It just sort of came to me.”
“We can’t thank you enough, Jill. I’m in the dining room with my sister. She says that when you submit your invoice, she’s going to pay you a big bonus. A very big bonus.”
“There’s really no need.”
“There absolutely is. You’ve just saved Tweaking Manor. Thank you so much. Just a second, my sister is saying something. She says that when the house has been renovated, we’d love for you and your family to come and stay for a few days, to see it in its full glory.”
“That would be lovely. I’ll look forward to it.”
When I’d finished on the call, Winky was looking very smug indeed. “It’s not often I’m wrong, but I was right again, wasn’t I?”
“You were.”
“Sorry? I didn’t catch that.”
“I said you were right.”
“Again?”
“Again.”
“Did I hear that you’re going to get a very big bonus?”
“That’s what she said.”
“Which of course, you’ll be sharing with me.”
***
I’d finished work early because I wanted to be home in time to accompany Jack and Florence to the open day at the revamped hotel. First, though, I had another call to make.
“Yes?” snapped the woman who answered the door. “I don’t buy at the door, and I’m watching my favourite soap.”
“Don’t you remember me, Mrs Mizus?”
“Err, no. Should I?”
“We met when you paid Annabel Versailles a visit a few days ago.”
“Oh yes. Sorry. Julie, wasn’t it?”
“Jill, actually.”
“How did you know where I live? Did Annabel ask you to pay me a visit? Is she okay?”
“Healthwise, she’s fine, but she’d be a lot better if you stopped hacking her YarnAgram account.”
Her cheeks flushed. “I—err—have no idea what you mean.”
“The game is up, Maud. The IP address that hacked the account was traced back to this address.”
Do you like the way I said IP address as though I knew what I was talking about? Good, eh? Winky had asked Nobby the Nerd to talk me through it.
“I—err—”
“Don’t waste your breath trying to make excuses. I can already guess what happened. You knew how popular Mrs V is in the yarn community. That’s why you did your best to dissuade her from going online. When you discovered she’d opened a YarnAgram account, and saw how quickly she was amassing followers, you could see your crown slipping away, so you decided to sabotage her. How am I doing so far?”
“Does Annabel know?”
“Not yet.”
“Please don’t tell her. I’m really sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it. If you don’t want me to tell her, you’d better remove all your posts from her account before the end of the day.”
“Okay. I’ll take them down.”
“Then, you’re going to follow Mrs V’s account.”
“Alright.”
“And from now on, you’re going to share all Mrs V’s posts with all your followers.”
“But, I—”
“Or I tell Mrs V it was you.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll do it.”
***
As it was pouring with rain, we drove the short distance from the old watermill to the hotel.
“Look what I’ve found, Mummy,” Florence said from the back seat.
“Mummy’s driving, darling.” Jack turned around. “What is it?”
“I think it’s about freaky.” She passed Jack the crumpled flyer.
“Where did that come from?”
“Beats me.” I shrugged, and quickly changed the subject. “Winky cracked the combination of the Tweaking Manor vault.”
“Winky did?”
“Yeah, he’s going to be unbearable for the next few days. Still, it’s worth it because Caroline said she’s going to pay me a big bonus.”
“That’s brilliant.”
“I know and very timely too. Profits are down.”
“You made a profit?”
“Almost, but let’s not spoil the day by talking about that. There had better be a good spread at the hotel. I’m really hungry.”
“Do you think there’ll be many people there?” Jack said.
“I doubt it.”
As it turned out, I was wrong. The function room where the event was being held was full. There were lots of familiar faces in the crowd, including Donna, her husband and Wendy. Olga, her husband and kids were there too. As were the Stock sisters (who was manning the shop?), scary Miss Drinkwater, and the vicar. As soon as Florence spotted Wendy, she asked if she could go over and talk to her.
“Yes, but you mustn’t leave this room.”
“I won’t, Mummy.”
“The food is magnificent,” Jack said. “We’ll definitely have to visit the restaurant when it’s open.”
He was right. It was top notch and there was plenty of it. “I bet it’ll be expensive.”
Florence came running over to us.
“Mummy, look at this!” She was holding a snow globe.
“You mustn’t pick up the ornaments, darling.”
“But look! There’s a little man inside it.”
“I’m sure there is, but you still shouldn’t—” That’s when I spotted him. Florence was right, there was a little man inside; he was thumping on the glass, and obviously shouting something, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“Jill?” Jack looked at the globe. “What is that?”
“I know him.”
“Who?”
“The man in the snow globe.”
“What do you mean, you know him?”
“It’s Aunt Lucy’s next-door neighbour, Charlie Roundtree.” I turned to Florence. “Why don’t you go and talk to Wendy?”
“What about the snow globe, Mummy?”
“I’ll see to this.”
“Okay.” She ran back across the room to Wendy.
“Hello, you two.” The familiar voice caught me by surprise.
“Grandma, what are you doing here? I thought the open day was for Middle Tweaking residents only?”
“It is. Oh, I see you found my snow globe.”
“Did you do this?”
“Do what?”
“Put Charlie Roundtree inside the snow globe.”
“Of course I did.”
“Why?”
“I would have thought that
