Page 93 of Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

Lily turned to stare at the man. ‘I can’t believe they’d come here.’

‘I can,’ said Rose, glaring at him as he came towards her.

‘Rose Harris,’ he said, with a nod. ‘You haven’t aged one bit.’

‘You, on the other hand, Eric Thatcher, appear to be losing your hair,’ said Rose, in an imperious tone.

Eric glared at her and turned away.

‘Right,’ muttered Rose, spinning around to the nearby WI cake stall. ‘I’ll give you what for, Eric Thatcher.’

She picked up a rock cake from one of the plates and lobbed it into the air. The cake flew as if in slow motion over the people in front of them to land, instead, on the shoulder of the councillor, where it disintegrated.

He gave a start and turned around, staring up in the air to wonder where the cake had come from.

For a minute, Lily thought they had got away with Rose’s moment of madness. But no.

‘Mine are too soft,’ cried one of the other women. ‘You’ll do no harm with those. Here,’ she handed Rose a rock cake from a different plate, ‘use Mavis’ cakes. They’re always as hard as steel. They’ll be perfect as a weapon.’

Rose nodded in agreement, picked up another cake and threw it at Eric Thatcher. This time it bounced off his head.

‘Hey!’ he said, becoming cross.

‘Excuse me!’ boomed one of the other women from nearby. ‘I’ll have you know, Daphne McGuinness, that my rock cakes are quite soft, actually!’

‘Don’t take it personally, Mavis darling,’ cried Rose, grabbing another cake. ‘Just let him have it.’

‘It’s all in the whipping, dear,’ cried another woman, throwing another cake.

‘I know about whipping,’ snapped Mavis. ‘Don’t tell me how to make rock cakes.’

‘Ladies!’ cried Rose. ‘Can we concentrate on the enemy at hand?’

‘What is this?’ snapped Eric, now very angry.

‘This is a sign that you’re not welcome here!’ boomed Rose, bringing the whole place to a shuddering halt. ‘How dare you come to our lovely market when you’re threatening to mow the whole place down with your ghastly bypass!Thisis the man!’ she announced to the crowd, which was now silent and watching. ‘This person wants to take away our village! Our life! Our history! With his horrid bypass. These two men are responsible for it all!’

The silence stretched out as everyone stared at them.

From a nearby vegetable stall, Lily saw a couple of tomatoes fly across the courtyard to splat against the man’s white shirt and stain it red.

‘What the hell!’ muttered the councillor. ‘What is this?’

And then the food really began to fly.

Cabbage, tomatoes and eggs flew across the courtyard, pelting the men as they tried to leave. Cakes were thrown. Cream smeared across the floor.

‘Not my shortbread!’ shouted one of the WI ladies, grabbing her plate and clutching it to her chest.

A beetroot flew from somewhere behind Lily to hit the councillor smack in the pelvis region. She looked around to find Arthur with a smile on his face. ‘It’s all in the spin action,’ the Earl of Cranley murmured, waggling his hand movement at her before he wandered off in all innocence.

Jack had rushed out of the dairy house to see what the commotion was. To Lily’s amazement, he burst into laughter. His face softened in amusement as he took in Eric’s humiliation.

‘You’ll regret this!’ announced Eric, glaring at everyone before quickly leaving. Despite his threat, everyone cheered heartily and gave themselves a huge round of applause.

37

After the food fight, Lily was pleased to find the family were still in good spirits later that afternoon when they gathered in the drawing room. A fire had been lit in the hearth and the room was full, especially as Alex and the band had returned for the evening.