Strawberries and Suffering Page 3

  The bathroom suite could easily have swallowed up half of the house that Holly shared with Crystal. After closing the door, she wrung her clothing out as best she could in the enormous claw-footed tub that took a place of pride on the gleaming expanse of white tiles.

  A warm shower refreshed her, although it meant that Holly’s hair probably couldn’t be resurrected. Still, it would dry into its usual loose curls soon enough and from what Arnold had said, there wouldn’t be many people to see it, anyhow.

  Her clothes wouldn’t dry for hours. That was a far more pressing issue than the loss of her hairstyle. Holly pulled on the large, loose robe that Arnold had referred to earlier and stuck her head out of the bathroom to see who was in the vicinity.

  “Crystal! Have you been seated there all this time?”

  Holly’s sister was perched on the edge of the king-size bed, resting so lightly that she barely dimpled the covers.

  “Where else would I go? It’s not like we need a thousand cupcakes any longer, is it?”

  “I suppose not.” Holly crossed the room and took a seat beside her sister. “The whole day looks like it’s turning into a bit of a mess.”

  Crystal snorted. “A bit? I’d say that’s ‘a bit’ of an understatement. Poor Wendy must be frantic, and I can’t imagine that Sheila and Derek are happy, either.”

  “If they got to the venue at all,” Holly said. As the words came out of her mouth, her eyes widened. Although she spoke them, the horror of that thought hadn’t hit home before. “Can you imagine if there’s no wedding and no reception. Bad enough for one, but the other?”

  Crystal placed a reassuring hand on Holly’s knee. “I’m sure they’ll make it okay. They only have to travel up from Hanmer Springs the same way we did. It’s not like they were in Christchurch and needed to come via the highway.”

  “They weren’t.” At Crystal’s confused frown, Holly elaborated, “Meggie was saying about it yesterday because she couldn’t manage as many appointments. Sheila and Derek were staying with his uncle who lives about half an hour out of town. It freed up the house for Wendy to have her mother and grandmother stay with her. Otherwise, she would have had to put them up in a hotel, and they definitely weren’t having that!”

  “And it was beyond the blockage?”

  Holly shrugged. “I don’t know. It could easily be, though. We should go and track down that young man who was listening to the radio.”

  Holly stood up and crossed the room, her hand resting on the door handle before she realized that Crystal hadn’t followed her. She turned to see her sister with one eyebrow raised in wry amusement.

  “Planning on heading downstairs in that attire, were you?”

  Crystal nodded at the robe, and Holly burst out with a noise partway between laughter and frustration.

  “This is ridiculous! I need to either find a way to dry my clothes or find something else to wear. I’m not skulking around up here for hours, waiting for them to dry.”

  Crystal moved over and rested her hands on Holly’s shoulders. She guided her back to the bed and pressed down until Holly sat.

  “You stay here. I’ll go and see if there’s anything around the place that would be suitable. I’m sure that with all the waitstaff hanging around, somebody must have a change of clothes or a spare uniform.”

  She left, and Holly moved over to the window, looking out at the storm. The rain showed no sign of abating. Whereas the weather usually blew itself out in a couple of minutes, maybe an hour, the torrential downpour seemed to have settled in for the day.

  “What miserable luck,” Holly muttered. She tried to see if the entrance looked any drier than before, but couldn’t tell without sticking her head out the window. Unless she wanted to get another soaking, that wasn’t going to happen.

  As she paced the length of the room, Holly wished that she’d at least taken her bag with her to access her smartphone. She could have played a few games of Candy Crush to pass the time, or spied on what her soon-to-be-ex-husband was getting up to on Facebook.

  No, she amended. I couldn’t.

  With no mobile phone connection that took the internet off the menu, as well.

  Crossing to the bedside tables, Holly pulled out a drawer to see if there was at least a bible she could read to pass the time. It looked like the Gideon’s hadn’t made it this far out in the boondocks, though. The drawer was empty, except for a brochure advertising the great things to do in Hanmer Springs. When it wasn’t pouring down with rain, that was.

  The opposite cabinet was empty, too. Holly dropped to her knees and looked under the bed. She no longer expected to find a bible, but there might be something under there of interest. A pair of shoes whose absence was only noted when the visitors returned home, perhaps. An interesting button that popped off a jacket and disappeared. Maybe even an old fortune in small bills shoved between the mattress and the box-spring.

  No luck.

  Holly sat back on her feet and looked around the room for something, anything of interest. She wasn’t used to having nothing to do, and the possibilities frightened her. What if she started to think about something she didn’t want to and couldn’t distract herself long enough to turn the thoughts off?

  The wastepaper basket caught her eye. There was something in there, possibly more interesting than just a bit of crumpled paper.

  With a groan that betrayed her entry into middle-age, Holly stood and walked over to the small bin. It had been painted the same color as the walls in an attempt to blend it in. Instead, the pale gold paint made it stand out more, the wicker strands eschewing the gaudy decoration.

  Just plant refuse, with a few large, white petals browning as they decayed. The cleaning crew on point duty must have missed this one. If it was anything like the bouquets that Holly used to buy weekly from her favorite florist, give the foliage a couple more hours at room temperature, and no water and the basket would start to smell.

  Holly picked it up by the edge and placed it out in the hallway. Standing there, at the open door, she had second thoughts and took it through to the bathroom instead. The unit in there, currently suctioning away the steam from her shower, would hopefully take away the scent of rotting flowers, as well. Holly closed the door back to the room.

  Well, that had used up all of five minutes. Where had Crystal gotten to and why hadn’t she left behind a deck of cards?

  A few minutes later, there was a tentative knock on the bedroom door. Holly checked that the robe covered everything she needed it to, then opened it up an inch to peer out into the hall.

  “Change of clothes for you,” the goth girl from the cemetery said, holding out a neatly starched pile. The way she averted her gaze told Holly that she’d been schooled in Holly’s attire before she came up here.

  “Thank you,” Holly said, taking the clothes from the teenaged girl. What was her name? Something old. “It’s very kind of you to help out, Elvira.”

  Holly half closed her eyes against a wince, thinking for a second that she’d chosen incorrectly, but then the girl gave her a small smile and a nod.

  “Don’t thank me,” she called over her shoulder, quickly walking away down the corridor. “Thank my cousin Aidan. He’s the one who told me to make myself useful.”

  Chuckling, Holly closed the door and dressed in the maid’s outfit provided. Although the waist of the dress was a little tight and the bodice a little loose, it pretty much fit. Better than wandering around in a robe.

  Unsure of the protocol, Holly decided that she’d better err on the side of caution, and pulled on her underwear even though it was still quite damp. Better that she be physically uncomfortable than a gust of wind flick up her skirt and make her morally so.

  Leaving her own clothing, now joined by a robe, on the side of the tub to dry, Holly quickly walked downstairs hoping to find her sister.

  As she strode across the entrance hall, Arnold gave her a nod. He was still directing the cleanup of nature’s spillage, though it seemed t
o consist more of polishing the floorboards now. There was no water left so soak up that Holly could see.

  “Crystal?”

  As Holly pushed open the door to the cupcake room, she saw her sister pull away from the opposite door with a startled look on her face. “Oh, good. Elvira found you then,” she said, crossing over to give Holly a quick hug.

  They’d just sat down at their chairs before the decorating bench when a woman outside in the main hall began to scream.

  Chapter Four

  “Why didn’t you send someone to fetch them?” Wendy’s shrill cry, quite unlike her usual anxious but polite tone, echoed around the double-height entry hall, as piercing as a bat’s sonar call.

  “Wendy!” Crystal ran over to the visibly distressed woman. “What is it? Can we help?”

  Wendy turned a tear-and-makeup-streaked face toward Crystal and clutched at her shoulders as though she were a lifeline.

  “Nobody has gone to fetch Sheila and Derek. How can there be a wedding when we don’t have a bride and groom?”

  Holly raised a hand to her throat, plucking at the loose skin there as her eyes teared-up in sympathy. Her worst thought had come true, then. The blessed couple might be safe and dry somewhere, but it wasn’t in the church where they’d planned to be.

  Holly rushed over, putting one arm around Wendy and the other around Crystal. “I’m so sorry, Wendy. What a run of bad luck you’ve had.”

  They stood there for a moment, three women posed like a statue of mourning, then Holly broke away and clapped her hands together.

  “Well, we’re not going to be able to get anything done standing here. At least come through into the kitchen so you can tell us what’s been happening at your end!”

  The three of them filed back into the cupcake room, leaving behind them a motley collection of open-mouthed men. As Holly closed the door, she could hear Arnold snapping back into his position as authoritarian. “Don’t just stand there like a fool, boy. There’s a ton of work to be done!”

  “Have something to eat. That’ll make you feel better,” Crystal said, shoving a cupcake toward Wendy, even as the woman shook her head.

  “Let me go and check for the real kitchen,” Holly suggested. “I’ll see if there’s any chance of getting a nice hot cup of tea or coffee while we sort everything out.”

  “Tea or coffee won’t help,” Wendy cried out, wearing her misery like a badge of honor. “Everyone in the township wanted to see my daughter’s day be wrecked. Well, they got their wish times ten, didn’t they?”

  Holly ran back to Wendy, grabbing her shoulders and giving her a tight squeeze. “Nothing is ruined, not yet. It’s only a bit of water falling from the sky. All of this will just make a great anecdote. That’s what the minister said.”

  As Holly pulled away, Wendy seemed a tad calmer. She managed to give a watery smile, before holding a tissue up to her face as the tears began to fall again.

  “I’ll just be a moment,” Holly said. “Maybe a shot of brandy in our coffee wouldn’t go amiss, either.”

  At Crystal’s startled look, Holly flapped her hand. “Not you. I haven’t gone completely mental.” As she walked out of the room to find the actual kitchen, Holly muttered under her breath, “At least, not yet.”

  The kitchen was stuffed full of wait staff and other helpers from the manor house. When she walked into the room, the murmur of conversation came to a halt. Holly tried not to feel self-conscious as she asked if there was a kettle or coffee maker they could borrow.

  “It looks like we’re going to be in for a long day,” she said, trying to lighten the atmosphere as a man unhooked one from its position near the wall. “Thank you,” she said as he handed it over, then nearly dropped it as Holly discovered it was already full of boiling water.

  At the door, she turned back. “Uh, I don’t suppose you have coffee or tea, as well, do you?”

  As a man buried deep in the wall of staff sniggered, Holly blushed crimson. Then the sharp rap of heels against the polished floorboards came from the opposite end of the room, and a moment later Arnold stood in the doorway.

  “Fetch Mrs. Waterston what she needs, boy,” Arnold said, addressing a man almost in her age range. “It looks like we’ll all need to share. At the rate the council staff are working, we could all be stuck here for a few days yet.”

  “Stuck here?” Holly’s mouth dropped open in horror. “I thought the tree was just blocking the road back to Christchurch. Has something worse happened?”

  A man standing near her happily filled her in, “There’s a whole pile of trees down now. Between here and Christchurch in the one direction, and blocking us from Hanmer Springs in the other. Given the current forecast, it’ll be hours before anybody can even venture out to clear them. The storm’s not blowing itself out. If anything, it’s getting worse.”

  “Goodness. So, we’ll be stuck here for tonight?”

  “Tonight. Tomorrow.” Arnold shrugged. Even though his face remained impassive, Holly noticed a softening of his shoulders. “We’ll all need to muck-in to clear the way back to town once this awful weather finally clears.”

  Holly nodded, even though she had no idea of how she could help to clear a road back to town. “Thanks for this,” she said, holding the kettle aloft while another man put some teabags and a jar of coffee in her hand. Holly had to tuck them up underneath her chin. Otherwise, the whole lot would have fallen.

  “It looks like we’ll be here for quite some while,” Holly told Crystal and Wendy when she reached the cupcake room again. “Thank goodness, we brought all these cakes!”

  The joke fell flat against the backdrop of Wendy’s deepening worry. “I just wish that someone had thought to fetch Sheila and Derek the moment it started to rain.”

  “To be fair,” Crystal said, “I don’t think anyone was expecting this to happen. Isn’t it better knowing that they’re safe with their cousin while you’re okay here?”

  But Wendy couldn’t be mollified that easily. She buried her face in her hands, and her shaking shoulders told Holly the woman was crying again.

  Instead of trying to cheer her up, Holly laid an arm across Wendy’s shoulders and rested them there as a comfort. “Let it all out,” she said in a whisper. “Once you’re feeling better, we can think about what we’re going to do next.”

  Leaning back, Holly snagged one of the strawberry cupcakes and used her front teeth to tear the paper away from the cake. Crystal started to giggle, presumably at the dollop of frosting that Holly’s action deposited on the end of her nose.

  “You think that’s funny?” Holly challenged. “You should try this one-handed!”

  Crystal accepted the challenge and went one better, positioning the cupcake on the edge of the bench and attempting the feat of eating it without using either hand.

  “What are you two doing?” Wendy said, raising her head when the two sisters were giggling hysterically. “Are you having a slow-motion food fight or something?”

  “Cupcake,” Holly said, depositing one on the table in front of Wendy. She then looked intently at her watch. “Two minutes. No hands.”

  For a moment, Wendy stared at her and Crystal with a blank expression, the stains of mascara and eyeliner down her face lending her the appearance of a sad raccoon. Then the corner of Wendy’s mouth twitched, and she buried her face straight into the cupcake. With a snuffle of frosting and a spatter of crumbs, she ate through the whole thing, then sat back, trying to lick frosting off her nose with the tip of her tongue.

  “Mighty impressive skills you’ve got on display there, Wendy.” Crystal rubbed her forefinger and thumb together. “How about we wager a little money on the next one?”

  “No.” Wendy shook her head, not without a measure of regret flitting across her face. “My stomach is in such knots that I’m not sure I could handle another one. At least wait till this one’s settled.”

  “Besides which,” Holly said, plugging the kettle in and looking through the cupboards un
til she scored one full of mugs, “if we’re stuck here for a night or even longer, then we’ll be fed up with eating cupcakes by the end!”

  “Two nights?” Wendy shuddered. “Right now, I don’t think I’ll last through one.”

  She stood up and paced the length of the room, looking upward as a bang from the ceiling sounded like someone upstairs had fallen over. “I wish we had cell phone reception out here, at least. Sheila must be worrying herself sick!”

  “We’re all worried,” Crystal said. “But there’s nothing we can do about it, so we may as well start making the best of it.”

  Wendy ran a hand through her hair, the style that Meggie had worked hard to achieve that morning, gone into a tangle. “I’m sure that one of the staff here must have a four-wheel drive. We could try to make it over to Sheila and Derek. I’d much rather risk a couple of hours discomfort for the chance to sit with them, knowing they’re happy, than stay here and not have a second of peace.”

  “It’s not a bad idea,” Crystal said, tipping her head to one side. “Unless the trees have come down on the narrower stretches of the highway, you’d be able to drive off-road for a few minutes to get past them.”

  “Are you sure?” Holly looked from Wendy to Crystal and back again. “If even the council won’t go out in this weather to clear the blockages, I don’t know if anybody should.”

  “But we’re not driving over the bridge from Hanmer, or trying to get all the way out from Christchurch,” Wendy pointed out. “It’s barely a ten-minute drive from here to Geoffrey’s place. Even if we take it really slow to be safe, we could be there and back in less than an hour.”

  She clapped her hands together, apparently becoming more entranced with the idea by the second. “Let’s go, Crystal. You can be my passenger seat navigator since we’ll need to keep our eyes peeled in all directions.”

  “But you don’t even—” Holly began, but they were both gone. The two women hurried out of the room, chatting a mile a minute about their dangerous plans.