Chapter 9 – A Party out of the Blue

Chapter 9 – A Party out of the Blue

With an embarrassed squeak of her bare feet on the tiles, she opened up the door and a cavalcade of women walked in, all chattering and grinning, their faces alight with joy at just being there.

“W-Welcome!” Danni tried to sound jovial but the whole time, she was so painfully aware of how they must have seen what she had been doing with the cake.

“Oh, it is good to finally get to meet you dear!” Before Danni could react, a woman with her hair arranged in two great rolled buns on either side of her head like ram's horns and a brilliant, beaming smile had swooped in and hugged her. Like a frightened possum, Danni froze until she was let go.

When was the last time she had been held like that? Not by her own mother, that was for sure.

“C-Can I get you ladies something?” She really hadn’t been expecting to get a house call this evening. But if there was one thing, out of a very few things, that her parents had taught her, it was how to roll with the unexpected.

“I’ll take a slice of that sponge dear. It looks to die for, where did you get that little work of art?” Spinning on the spot, Danni followed the line of the woman’s pointing and to her shock, the sponge had been transformed! Not only had it been sliced perfectly through the middle, golden crumbs clinging to the rugged edge of a bread knife she was positive had been in the block tucked into the corner, but there was the telltale sign of strawberry jam peeking out from within.

That… how? She had only looked away for a moment, who or what could have done this?

“Uhm… I made it. I know it’s nothing special, but it was just my first try and I think…” Danni stopped when she realised the room had gone silent. All of the women were goggling at her, some looking at her like she was the most wonderful thing they had ever seen.

“You… You made this?” A skinny women standing near the counter asked, pointing a shaking finger at the sponge, still cooling in the spot where she had left.

Feeling as if she were about to fly into a bug zapper, Danni nodded.

Much to her surprise, the whole room broke out into a storm of applause. Suddenly slumping against the sink, Danni could only stop and stare at them.

“You made a Victoria sponge! On your very first try?” The woman who had hugged her was beaming fit to blind her.

“We-Well, I made some biscuits and tried to make some muffins but they just… they were all failures. This is…”

The women didn’t seem to care. Not when they were all grabbing plates, how they knew where they were she didn’t know, and cutting slices off the cake.

“So…” Somehow Danni found herself holding a plate laden with her own cake, a fork and tea was being brewed. Once again, she had to ask herself how had she gotten herself in this mess?

Without her realising, these women had come in and made themselves at home in the house. Was this how housewarming parties usually went? She didn’t know, having never been to one. She supposed that she could be grateful that they hadn’t decided to start invading the rest of the house. But there was no doubt that, eventually, one of them would ask to know where the bathroom was located.

“Oh goodness, I’m sorry. I just realised that we’ve completely invaded your space. I’m so dreadfully sorry my dear. We’ve just been so excited to get a glimpse inside this place, we couldn’t help ourselves.” The butcher’s wife, Elizabeth as she introduced herself, explained, the reality of the situation only now dawning upon her.

“It’s… It’s alright. To be honest, this was probably long overdue.” Danni didn’t have the heart to tell her about how surprised she had or how much she had been hoping to avoid this.

Parties were not her strong point, even on a good day.

“I suppose… I should probably give you a tour.”

“A tour and the recipe! This is divine!” Mina Stoker, Richard Stoker’s wife, declared, just as boisterous as her husband. She was already on her second slice and her third cup of tea, with no sign of stopping.

“It’s in the book on the counter! It’s pretty easy to use when you get the hang of it.” Danni called back, pointing to the book. Maybe it was the praise or the situation being something entirely out of her wheelhouse, but she was actually having fun.

Opening the door to the living room, she let the women explore as they pleased. One of them took an interest in her laptop, peering at the screen in curiosity.

“What do you have going on here?” She asked, Danni feeling her face going bright red at the question.

“Uhm… it’s just research for… for…” Shit! She couldn’t tell them what she was really doing! Okay, time for the student’s go to tactic when deadlines were bearing down on them with all the mercy of a tidal wave. It was time to bullshit! “A story! It’s a love story!”

“A love story! That’s so wonderful!” The woman declared, clapping her hands together.

“Uhm… if you like staring at a blank white screen. That’s what I usually end up doing. I mean, I haven’t had much luck so that’s why I decided to do some research instead. I mean, uh…” Damn it! She was scrambling! She was no good at improv!

“And it’s going to be a love story?” The woman’s eyes were glittering with interest.

“Ye-Yeah, be-between a…” Okay, these were middle aged women. No older than her own mother. She would be able to figure out what would satisfy them, right? “It’s between a girl and… a vampire! Only she’s a vampire hunter! Part of an organisation of them and so she has to choose between her loyalties.”

The woman looked positively delighted, her eyes shining.

“That sounds amazing! I’d read that in a heartbeat!”

With a nervous noise, Danni shrank back. On the other hand, the women scattered around the room were all laughing!

“Jane, you’re insatiable! Is there a romance you HAVEN’T read?” Elizabeth remarked, laughing uproariously. Danni, by contrast, stared at the woman now known to her as Jane.

“You like reading too?” She asked, suddenly alight and alert.

Jane nodded and Danni almost shrieked with delight!

“Then I must show you this!” Gesturing frantically, Danni headed straight for the stairs, Jane, and some of the other women hot on her heels. Pushing open her door with a flourish, she led them into her room and watched as they stepped inside, all standing agog at her collection.

“Oh… my… goodness…” Jane breathed, reaching out a hand and, with a permissive nod from Danni, she stroked the spine of a volume. “Are… Are all of these yours?”

“Indeed they are. Some are gifts, some are for my studies, some are just random items I picked up in my travels.” If by ‘travels’ she really meant the occasional visit to the nearby charity shops, then it wasn’t technically a lie. For some reason, as much as her parents didn’t like her to stay inside, it had taken a considerable amount of convincing for them to allow her to take walks up and down the road and even more to get permission to go so far down the street that she could go shopping.

Sometimes, she had to wonder, why they couldn’t make up their minds. Did they want her inside or not?

“And you’ve read all of these?” She asked, pointing to the stacks in wonder.

“I try to. The reason I don’t buy a lot anymore is because I’m worried that I won’t have the time to read them all if I buy any collections. I have to pace myself or I’ll find myself suffering from burn out.” Danni explained, pressing her fingers together and twisting them, only to stop a moment later. Just like the pacing and talking to herself, it was a habit that her mother kept trying to make her stop.

“This is an astounding collection to have at your age! You’re a certified bibliophile!”

“Some people would say that I’m a different kind of certifiable.”

“Who are these people because they are painfully wrong!”

Danni didn’t have the heart or the nerve to tell them that those words had come from her parents.

As expected, they did ask for the bathroom, and she was all too happy to show them. After helping them find one of the bathrooms, she found the rest of the group in the kitchen, polishing off the rest of the cake. She had been so sure that it was a failure; to see them all munching on it so contentedly, it dislodged something heavy and cold in her soul that she hadn’t known she had been carrying.

There was something so encouraging about it.

“Oh dear! Did you hear about the latest break in?!” One of the women, whose name she didn’t know but she would need to find out soon, brought up. Danni snapped to attention at this new information. Just what she had been hoping for.

Grabbing the kettle, refilling, and setting it to boil, she invited them to sit down and explain further.

“The vicar told me about them, but he only gave me the preliminary information.” Danni explained, preparing fresh cups, refilling the milk and sugar for them all and bringing them over on a tray. “Tell me what happened.” She asked, waiting for the steam to rise from the kettle.

“Well, it was Widow Samuel’s this time!” There was a collective gasp around the room, though Danni had no idea who that might be.

“Where does she live?” She asked, keeping close to the table, eager to catch every word.

“Higher up the hill than here. Poor old thing lives all by herself in that great house, but don’t tell her I said that.” She added quietly, looking between each of the assembled women. “She would never let me hear the end of it.” Whoever this ‘widow Samuels’ was, I needed to know who and get her side of this story.

“So, what happened?” Danni pressed on, pushing her glasses up from where they had slid down her nose.

“I don’t know, unfortunately. All I know is that I was walking back to my house to see a pair of cars drive by, nearly blinding me with those horrible lights. I’d be shocked if she tells anyone other than the news what happened. We’ll probably end up seeing it on the T.V. At some point, if she doesn’t catch the snake herself.”

There was a round of laughter scattered around the room.

“She is a firecracker, even at her age. I remember when those missionaries were going around the village. As soon as they got up to her house, she chased them off with her umbrella! She was keeping up with them, whilst they were on bicycles of all things!”

“At her age? Poor woman is almost 70!” Elizabeth remarked, sounding shocked.

“70 has come and gone for her; I would love to know what they said to her to set her off.”

“They probably said hello too loudly.”

“She sounds… tempestuous.” Danni remarked, getting up when she heard the kettle click. As one, the women leaned back from where they had huddled together and let her pour out the tea for them.

“She’s got a temper; there is no denying that. But she can be very kind when the mood strikes her.” Jane explained.

“You mentioned that this latest break in was a burglary? Do you know if anything was stolen?” Danni asked, tipping milk and sugar into her mug and blowing the steam off the top. She sipped at it and immediately regretted it when the scalding hot liquid burned her tongue.

“We won’t know unless she chooses to tell us… that’s the shame of it. Widow Samuel’s is so very private, when she isn’t shouting her head off at any stray birds who come too close.” Mina explained, tapping her oddly long nails against the wood of the kitchen table.

“Has anyone thought to ask her?” Danni suggested, looking around.

“Oh, we’ve thought about it, but we think that it might be better to let the police deal with it.”

“Has that been your strategy for dealing with the previous break ins?” Danni asked, looking around at each of them.

“It’s all we can do. Each of us have lives, families, businesses, we can’t afford to go chasing after thugs who are just after a cheap thrill.” Elizabeth insisted.

Danni could understand that. She didn’t like it, but Elizabeth had spoken the truth of it. She was the outlier here. But… what if her house was broken into?

But looking at all of these women, all of whom had welcomed her into their village, not as a curiosity but as a welcome member of the community, she felt a bone sense of warmth. It was the same as when she had found those beautiful flowers woven into her bike basket, when the butcher had given her that beaming smile. She barely knew these women, she wasn’t sure if she could call them acquaintances, much less friends, but hearing of their troubles had her attention snared and her mind racing.

Somehow, without meaning to, she had wandered into something unlike anything she had encountered before. It wasn’t the smiles, nor the kind words. It was the genuine sense that they wanted her here, that she wasn’t burdening their lives by her mere existence.

Before long, the cake had been finished, the tea following soon after and with how close the sun was getting to the horizon, her guests began to file out of the house. Each granted her their well wishes and promised to come back with treats of them own.

“Though,” Elizabeth joked as she helped to clean up the remnants of the party, “They’ll most likely be store bought. I hope you can forgive us that.”

“I would be delighted just to have you come back again. Maybe if I can get the snow to shift.”

Why.

WHY did she keep saying that?! What was wrong with her! There was something, it had to be the town, that was infecting her brain! Making her too friendly!

What was worse, was that she meant every word. She wanted to have them come back. She wanted to enjoy her time here. Was it possible that… she might be able to convince Tawney to let her stay here a little longer? Maybe, just maybe, her friend would give into another flight of fancy and decide to stay away for a little longer?

Dusting her hands off as she looked around the place for more to do, Elizabeth pulled the kitchen window closed. “Make sure you keep this latched; you don’t want to find yourself with a nest of house martins in your rafters.”

“I remember Joey telling me. Are they common around here?” Danni remembered asking the same questions about bats.

“They’re not so common in the winter months like this as they usually migrate elsewhere for warmth, but it’s typically a good rule of thumb.” Elizabeth cautioned, wiggling her own thumb as an example. She was the last of the women to leave, wrapping a coat around her that somehow made her look twice as big than her already well-fed size presented her. Unbidden, Danni’s mind summoned the image of her chasing down one of those black-clad burgling gremlins down the street with a rolling pin. That might make an interesting story.

Brushing the last of the crumbs into the bin, clearing away the teabags and setting the cups in the sink to be washed at another time, perhaps in the morning, Danni was moving on autopilot and held no concerns beyond the location of her pajamas and how wonderful it would feel to slide into bed.

It had gotten to the point that when she ventured upstairs, yawning and stretching and ready for bed, she neglected to notice that she had closed the window but forgotten to latch it. All it would take was a strong breeze and it would swing wide open in invitation.