When Nell walked in with another chair, Mrs Meggett’s large round bottom jiggled as she pulled another tray of mince pies from the oven then danced around to the Christmas songs playing on the radio. ‘They smell delicious, Mrs Meggett. Are there many more to cook?’
She rested one hand on her hip and wiped her rosy cheeks. ‘Only a few more trays of mince pies and a few more of gingerbread. Lord, my feet are killing me.’
‘Oh, Mrs Meggett, you’ve worked so hard today. I’m so grateful for your help. Let me make you a cup of tea. Have a sit-down for a minute.’ Nell put the chair down and patted it.
Mrs Meggett checked her watch and the timer on the oven and decided she had five minutes to spare. ‘Go on then.’ Her body flopped down with a sigh. ‘Oomph. And I’ve still got to decorate all those bloody gingerbread men. Honestly, men are the bane of my life at the moment.’
‘Is Mr Meggett not behaving himself?’ Nell asked as she popped the kettle on.
‘Not on your nelly, Nelly, and he never does.’
Nell gathered the cups and turned to rest against the counter. Only Mrs Meggett called her Nelly and she didn’t mind it one little bit. Platters of already cooked gingerbread men and women lay on the counter from the work she had done that morning. They were expecting twenty-seven children in the choir and their parents, plus the teachers and any other families from the school who wanted to attend. It was likely they were going to be jam-packed, but Nell had studied the geometry of the place and mapped out how it was all going to work. She’d installed some tables at the sides of the dining room and conservatory piled high with treats. She’d also borrowed some old-fashioned gym benches that brought back more bad memories than good, so there was enough seating and, if necessary, people could even stand on them to ensure they could see.
Spying the gingerbread and the bags of sweets Mrs Meggett had to decorate them with, Nell had an idea. ‘Mrs Meggett, why don’t we save you a job and not decorate the gingerbread men at all?’
‘What do you mean, dear?’
‘Well, we’re not putting out the food until after the carol concert, so why don’t we lay out the gingerbread men and all the things to decorate them with, and the kids can do it themselves? If we put the mince pies and the tea urns on the other table, they’ll be safe enough.’ The kettle began to boil, and Nell stood up to make them both a cup of tea.
‘What about the hot chocolate? We still haven’t decided what we’re putting that in.’
‘Instead of putting out two tea urns we can use one and keep the other for hot chocolate. I don’t mind topping them up more regularly. What do you think? Then people can help themselves to toppings. I’ve got peppermint candy canes, squirty cream and marshmallows. We can shove it all alongside and I bought paper takeaway cups for the wedding fair, so there won’t even be washing up.’
‘Sounds like a plan to me, my dear, but are you sure you haven’t spent more than you’re likely to earn. You know how you get – and I mean that nicely – but you do go a bit overboard on the extra touches.’ She held her hands up, palms facing outwards. ‘It’s your caring nature coming out and it’s very admirable, but you can’t go spending more than you make or you won’t make any profit.’ The oven beeped and Mrs Meggett leaped to her feet to check the mince pies. The kitchen was filled with the aroma of Christmas spice and sweet, sugary pastry.
Move over, Mr Kipling! thought Nell as she brought over the tea. ‘I only need to charge about fifty pence for each drink and mince pies and though I wanted to do the gingerbread for free, the school’s offered me some money to cover the cost of the ingredients. They would have been providing refreshments too, so they just paid me to do it instead.’
‘Well, it sounds like you’ve got it all sorted. Right, I’ll slurp this and get back on.’
‘Me too. I’ve got my first guests for my Christmas romance package arriving today and I want to make the room really special for them. And there’s more to do down here first.’
Mrs Meggett cleared her throat.
‘And I know not to go silly on the details. Tom’s already told me.’
‘Good. At least one of you has got some sense,’ she said affectionately.
After the refreshing tea, Nell’s next job was to add some more decorations to the lounge so when it was viewed from the dining room, it would be the perfect back drop for the children. She left Mrs Meggett and the chair and went back to the dining room. Standing and looking into the lounge with the door folded back, Nell imagined all the children there. The Christmas tree was to the left, the fireplace to the right, though she wouldn’t light it until after just in case of accidents. The garland Tom had made for the mantelpiece framed that side of the room but there was something missing. She needed something to fill the large elegant sash windowsills and thinking of what she could use, decided to recycle a couple of the empty boxes from the kitchen. She had some wrapping
