Page 55 of Tricks & Treats at The Cosy Cornish Bakery

Too much, Josh. Too much. Keep it simple. ‘Would you like some candy floss, kids? Or hot chocolate?’ Ginger asked, trying to change the subject. She wasn’t even sure if Pontypridd counted as the valleys.

Maddy perked up. ‘Hot chocolate.’ She shivered and rubbed her bare arms. ‘I’m freezing.’

‘I’m sure you must be,’ Ginger sympathised. ‘Those fairy wings can’t keep you warm.’

‘Come on then, kids.’ Josh handed the candy floss to Hannah and Ginger. ‘If it’s all right with your mum, let’s go and get some. I’m chilly too, I am. And it’s a well-known fact a fairy’s magic doesn’t work properly if she’s cold and Spiderman loses his spidey senses if frozen. He needs regular top ups of hot chocolate.’ Addressing Hannah he added, ‘We’ll only be over there so in sight.’ He steered Maddy and Isaak towards Spotty Jo’s ape, chatting away, asking them how the evening had gone.

Hannah watched on admiringly, then collapsed onto the straw bale next to Ginger. ‘Thank God for a sit down. I’m knackered.’ She nodded, slightly knowingly, towards where Josh was ordering from Jo. ‘He’s a natural with children, that one.’

‘He comes from a big family,’ Ginger answered without thinking. ‘Got lots of brothers and sisters.’

‘And where do you know him from? I can’t remember you ever mentioning a Jim Jones before.’ Hannah scrunched up her face. ‘Although there is something familiar about him.’

‘Old friend. From college, as I said. Years ago. How’s your mum?’ Ginger diverted desperately. ‘I was so sorry to hear the news.’

‘Oh, she’s okay I think,’ Hannah responded carelessly. ‘Still in hospital but probably coming out tomorrow. Wasn’t a heart attack, just angina. Chloe’s gone to visit tonight so we could trick or treat and then come here. I promised the kids a trip to the fair but the waltzers made Maddy feel sick and Isaak doesn’t like the music, so we were on our way home when we bumped into you.’

‘Isaak looks a bit more cheerful now,’ Chloe commented, as she watched Josh hand over a paper cup filled to the brim with hot chocolate and a mountain of marshmallows. Josh directed them to sit down on the hay bales so none would be spilled. That was thoughtful. Hannah was right, he was a natural with children. She wondered if Josh was the eldest or youngest in his family. From the fatherly way he was dealing with Maddy and Isaak, she guessed he was the eldest.

‘Isaak likes a man around. Got a male teacher at school and he loves him.’ Hannah fidgeted. ‘Hold my candy floss a mo, will you?’ She reached underneath her and fished out her cat’s tail. ‘Bloody uncomfortable thing when you sit on it,’ she complained. Teasing off some candy floss, she ate it absent-mindedly. ‘Misses his dad. Tyler has to work all hours.’

‘Must be hard.’ Ginger wasn’t really listening. Half of her was imagining the things Josh might do to her later. Watching him with the children was making her want him even more. Someone prepared to be that nice to a stranger’s children couldn’t be all bad.

‘You don’t know the half of it, Ginger,’ Hannah droned on. ‘We’re always scrimping. Never enough money coming in, even though we’re both working.’

Ginger wrenched her attention from Josh and tuned in to what Hannah was saying. ‘Have you thought about going full time?’

‘Nothing doing at the office.’

Ginger nodded but privately doubted that. The estate agents Hannah worked for in Truro was busy. There was always someone wanting to buy property in Cornwall. It was a buoyant market.

‘And I have to be back for when the kids finish school,’ Hannah continued. ‘Couldn’t do that if I was full time. And with Mum going sick I won’t even have her as backup now.’

Hannah made it sound as if Dulcie had gone down with angina deliberately.

‘It’s okay for Chloe. She’s got money coming out of her ears. But will she stick around and help out? Will she buggery.’ Hannah sighed. ‘As soon as she gets another one of those fancy-pancy jobs she’ll be outta here.’ She took another pinch of candy floss and chewed morosely. ‘It’s all right for some, innit?’

Ginger stayed silent. She knew there was no love lost between the sisters; that it went far beyond the usual sibling rivalry. But she also knew how hard Chloe had worked to fight her way out of Wheal Kitty Cove. And she was realistic enough to know that Hannah’s famous laid-back charm disguised a fair amount of complacency and laziness. Hannah had made her life choices: married Tyler, had her children. She wasn’t sure it was right to blame others for that, or to overly depend on a seventy-year-old woman, who was now suffering ill-health. ‘Life can be tricky for all of us sometimes,’ she said, neutrally. ‘For everyone, no matter what fate hands us.’

‘Fate,’ Hannah snorted. ‘Tell that to happily child-free Chloe. Bet she doesn’t have to scrabble to pay the rent every month.’

This was too much. Ginger felt anger boiling up inside, on behalf of her friend. ‘I think Chloe may have wanted children at one point,’ she retorted, unsure if this was the actual truth but not able to stand Hannah’s jealous bitching a moment longer. ‘But Jasper, her partner, didn’t want any when he was with her. Now it might be too late. Be grateful for your lovely children, Hannah, not all of us are so lucky. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get a hot chocolate too.’

‘What? I didn’t mean–’

Ginger strode off, too irritated to listen any longer.

‘Hey, Ginger,’ Josh said as she approached. ‘I got you a hot chocolate, too. Shove up, kids, let her sit down. Oh,’ he added, surprised, as the children got up and began to head over to Hannah. ‘You going?’

‘Mum’s calling us,’ Isaak said. ‘See ya, Jim.’

‘See ya, buddy.’

‘Bye, Jim.’

‘Bye, Maddy, cariad.’

Ginger slumped down, took the cup off Josh and watched the children run off to Hannah. ‘Some people don’t deserve lovely children like that.’