‘I don’t think so. There certainly isn’t much room in her cottage.’ Helena pictured yoga classes in the space at the back of the village hall and added that to her mental to-do list.
At that moment Margery came bustling through the front door with a tangle of leads and yapping dogs. ‘I caught the postman, Helena,’ she called as she shut the door behind her. ‘There’s a letter here for you!’
Helena’s heart leapt into her throat. She had been waiting to hear from the Lottery for days. She took the letter from Margery as she came into the kitchen.
‘Oh god. This is it!’ she exclaimed as she looked at the return address. With trembling hands she tore the envelope open. Her eyes skimmed the page, looking for the familiar apologies and eventual refusal she had read so many times over the past weeks. ‘You’re joking!’ she squealed. ‘They’ve said yes!’
‘No!’ cried Margery.
‘That’s fantastic.’ Johnny beamed, coming over to give her a hug. ‘Well done.’
‘I can’t believe it,’ Margery said, giving Helena a kiss. ‘You clever thing!’
Helena read the words aloud, hardly able to believe it herself. ‘We are delighted to inform you that the grants panel has approved your application for funding for the Hambleton Community Café. The amount of £45,000 has been allocated to your community project.’ The letter went on to explain the rest of the process. The funds should be cleared by the end of the week, which meant that works should be able to commence on the village hall as soon as the builders could begin.
‘I can’t believe this is actually happening,’ Helena said. ‘It doesn’t feel real.’
‘Well if anyone deserves a bit of good luck, it’s you dear.’ Margery squeezed her hand. ‘I couldn’t be happier for you.’
‘I quite agree. And I’m not surprised. After all the work you’ve put in, and to think how wonderful it will be for the community, it’s definitely a worthy cause,’ Johnny said. ‘You’d better call Nathalie, she’ll be over the moon!’
‘I’m seeing her tonight for dinner. I can’t wait to tell her.’
‘All these girls’ nights, I’m beginning to feel quite left out.’ Johnny laughed.
‘I’m sure you’d be welcome to join?’ Helena offered. She still had her suspicions about Johnny and Nathalie. Johnny hadn’t mentioned anything, but Nathalie had told Helena she had just started seeing someone properly after a few months of casual flirting, and she was being coy about his identity, referring to him only as ‘lover boy’. She couldn’t count the number of times she had been tempted to ask either Johnny or Nathalie outright, but every time she decided against it. She didn’t know why. It was almost as though she was scared that knowing the truth would change things between them all. She realised that if there was something going on between them they were probably keeping it quiet for the sake of Nathalie’s kids. Besides, Nathalie was a very strong character, and once she had made her mind up about something that wasthat. She had vowed not to bring a man into her children’s lives unless it was forever. Helena sometimes wondered whether they would suddenly come out into the open and announce a secret engagement. The thought of her two best friends settling down together made her feel panicked, and nauseous. She knew she would be jealous of Nathalie, and she couldn’t allow her brain to go there. She usually shoved that thought out of her mind as soon as it arose, uncomfortable to even contemplate how that would feel. She would be the ultimate third wheel.
‘No, don’t worry,’ Johnny said. ‘I’ve already got plans. Besides, girl talk is sacred. Though I hate to think what you end up discussing…’
‘Why? Do you think we might be talking about you?’ Helena raised an eyebrow.
‘Me! I bloody hope not!’ Johnny laughed.
‘Well that would be telling,’ Helena teased. ‘But tonight, we will definitely be in the mood to celebrate. I think I’ll have to crack open some bubbles.’
‘So what happens now?’ Margery asked.
‘I guess I’ll have to start phoning around all the building companies, checking if their quotes still stand and when they can start.’
‘Shall we take another look at all the different options?’ Johnny suggested. They hadn’t touched her enormous file for a few weeks. Helena hadn’t wanted to tempt fate while the funding applications were being considered.
‘That would be really helpful actually,’ Helena said.
They took their coffees out into the garden and sat at the table. The flower beds were full of blue forget-me-nots and the purple star-burst spheres of alliums shooting upwards, heralding the arrival of spring. A chorus of birdsong thronged the air. The sun forced its way through a gap in the clouds, as if reaching an arm of light down to lovingly tend the earth below. The promise of new beginnings mingled with the honeyed scent of the frothing wisteriathat tumbled over the fence. Together, they looked through her file of possible layouts and designs for the café. It felt so exciting, so tangible knowing that the funding had been approved. Suddenly, she couldn’t wait to get started. She felt bursting with anticipation for the new chapter that lay ahead.
33
NATHALIE AND HELENAlooked around the village hall in amazement. It was a hive of activity. The builders had done a fantastic job so far. It had been a stroke of luck that the cheapest quote had been provided by a team of builders whose next project had just fallen through and were able to start immediately. The works may even be completed in time for the start of the summer holidays. With surprising speed, they had stripped the place bare before installing the new electrics and gas supplies. The plumbers had installed the new pipework in both the toilets and the kitchen, and the carpenters were currently constructing the framework. At long last, the café was beginning to take shape. The smart new metal ventilation system above the kitchen was already in place. Apart from the exposed brickwork on the back wall, the rest of the village hall would be painted a warm shade of off-white. A smart new countertop would be installed at the front of the kitchen, which would contain a spread of Helena’s delicious baked goods and sandwiches, as well as housing the coffee machine and the till. Helena had chosen the same coffee machine and till that Ahmed had at Coffee Stop, knowing that she was already an expert at using them and would easily be able to train others.
Ahmed had continued to be wonderfully supportive of her new business. He had proved an invaluable asset, talking her through the minutiae of running a café, everything from finding catering suppliers to sourcing cleaning products. Helena had enlisted the services of an accountant to take care of the financial side of the business. She also still relied heavily on Nathalie and Johnny to help her with the day-to-day problems that inevitably came up.She genuinely didn’t know what she’d do without them. There were some last-minute teething problems which would require a further cash injection. Helena realised she would have to raise a further £5,000 to ensure that she had enough money to finish the works and successfully launch the business.
Luckily for Helena, Nathalie had taken on the role of chief fundraiser with alacrity. After much discussion, she had come up with a plan to throw a traditional summer fete on the village green, selling entry tickets and charging to take part in volunteer run stalls and activities. There would be a raffle, live music and refreshments. The date had been set for the first Saturday in July, and plans were already well underway. Furthermore, Nathalie had set up a crowd fundraising page, which she had posted about online, explaining the plan for the Community Café and all the ways in which it would benefit the local community. She had used her contacts at the children’s school to spread the word throughout the county, roping in parents, friends and clients to help volunteer. Helena, Johnny and Margery had been instructed to drive around the countryside depositing flyers in letter boxes, pinning posters to village noticeboards, and generally spreading the word far and wide. And just when Helena had thought Nathalie could do no more, she had surpassed all expectations by managing to convince a journalist friend of hers to write a small article in a national newspaper, featuring a photograph of Helena and praising her initiative and determination to make a change in her local community in response to the ‘loneliness epidemic.’ Donations to the JustGiving page following the article went through the roof, smashing the £5,000 target amount into oblivion and raising nearly £8,000. The fundraiser would go ahead nonetheless, providing a wonderful way to raise publicity for the café, which was on track to open for business at the end of July. Any extra money raised would help smooth out any last-minute hitches that would no doubt arise.
Helena had received her licence from the council to sell food, and they had done their preliminary checks to ensure she was meeting the requirements for the Health and Hygiene Certificate.She was allowed to start trading as soon as the café was finished, the council would come to do a random inspection at some point within the first six months of opening. She had recruited a mixture of staff. Helena would be there at all times, along with Dawn, the pink-haired nineteen year old who used to work at the pub. There would be an ad hoc rota, organised week by week to enable her to use volunteers who had expressed a wish to be involved. She had five different volunteers so far, including Jennie, who would help out during school holidays. The other volunteers ranged from stay-at-home mums who wanted to get out of the house and integrate with the community, to retirees who wanted a sense of purpose and a chance to keep busy. She would pay herself and Dawn £13 an hour, and the cleaner, a lovely lady named Eileen, £16 an hour, reasoning that she had the hardest job. Eileen would come every morning before the café opened to ensure that it was sparkling clean. They would trade from nine to five on weekdays only to begin with, with scope to expand into weekend hours in the future.
‘Shall we get started on the website this evening?’ Nathalie asked as they left the village hall and walked back through the village.
‘If you don’t mind. It would be great to have it up and running before the fete.’
