Page 58 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

‘I think the fact that it’s bright pink doesn’t help,’ said Katy, looking at her drink.

‘I think it’s supposed to be a flamingo-themed cocktail,’ Flora told her. ‘Just be grateful that it doesn’t have added feathers.’

Katy smiled and took another sip of her drink and looked around at the crowd that had gathered in the private room that Libby had hired for the party. As it was almost Halloween, Libby had insisted that it was to be a fancy-dress party, so seeing everyone dressed up in their outfits, along with the strong alcohol, was making for quite a surreal feel to the evening’s festivities.

Katy had been unsure what to wear until Libby had insisted on lending her one of her favourite black dresses despite Katy’s protestations. So the dress, teemed with a witch’s hat and a pair of her killer high heels, sufficed as fancy dress. The trouble was that Libby was a lot shorter and so the dress only came down to her mid-thigh.

Flora, meanwhile, was dressed as one ofGrease’s pink ladies and Harriet had gone old-school 1980s, complete with her red hair curled into a huge perm.

Libby stole the show, however, as the birthday lady rightly should, dressed as Wonder Woman. She was causing quite a stir, especially with Katy’s gold stiletto heels adding a good five inches to her height.

Katy found she was getting a lot of pleasure from loaning out her shoe collection to Libby. Despite her hard shell, she was very supportive of everyone. She rushed from her long-haul airline trips to caring for her dad and then seeing her friends and so it was great for Libby to enjoy the expensive heels as a treat.

‘Thanks for the loan of the shoes,’ Libby told her as she came over. ‘They’re amazing.’

Katy received a huge hug, which made her feel warm inside. Or was it the strong cocktail? She wasn’t sure.

Ryan was dressed as a pirate, complete with a white shirt, unbuttoned to reveal his bare chest, and an eye patch. The tight leather trousers were quite a revelation as well, thought Katy, looking away.

She felt a bit self-conscious in her short dress, especially as she caught Ryan looking at her legs when she wandered up to the food table to try to blot out the strength of the alcohol. He was chatting with Maggie about the birthday cake.

Maggie was one of Libby’s neighbours and was a softly spoken widower who had the most amazing baking skills. Her cakes had been a huge hit when the lavender fields had been open that summer, Harriet had told her. Ryan had assured her that he couldn’t bake a cake so save his life so Katy had already sat down with Maggie to ask if they could sell her cakes in the coffee shop as well, to Maggie’s delight.

‘Maggie, you’ve outdone yourself with this cake,’ said Katy, nodding with admiration as she looked down at the elaborately decorated icing.

Maggie smiled at her. ‘Pineapple upside down cake is a pretty unusual birthday cake, but Libby insisted that it was her favourite.’

‘Typical Libby,’ said Ryan before removing his eye patch.

‘I’m sure it’s going to be as delicious, as all your other cakes are,’ said Katy, not being able to resist picking up a slice. ‘Although I’m certain I’ve put on at least a couple of pounds since I’ve been here. Honestly, I had no idea the countryside was all about cake. Does nobody around here have an allergy? Gluten? Wheat? Nuts?’

‘Nuts is about right,’ muttered Ryan, grabbing a piece of cake for himself. ‘You look fantastic as always.’

There was a stunned silence before he said something about talking to Joe and quickly went away.

Maggie turned to look at Katy with raised eyebrows. ‘Well, now,’ she murmured. ‘I think that was a compliment.’

‘I’m sure it wasn’t,’ replied Katy quickly.

Maggie gave her a knowing look but smiled at her before changing the subject to the coffee shop. In fact, everyone was talking about the coffee shop that evening and people seemed excited that there would finally be somewhere to gather in Cranfield.

‘See?’ said Libby later on in the evening, swaying somewhat from the effects of the strong cocktails. ‘I said that you were a good person to help out little old Cranfield.’

‘And we’ve rented out two of our spare rooms next weekend,’ added Flora. ‘Which was another great idea.’

‘I’m so glad,’ replied Katy, wondering whether her friends were swaying or was it just her?

* * *

After a taxi had dropped them all off back in Cranfield later on, it was a lively half an hour whilst they manoeuvred a drunk Libby up the garden path before Katy and Ryan finally headed back towards the station.

Somewhere along the journey she seemed to have misplaced her witch’s hat.

Katy’s heel slipped slightly as they walked along the platform, causing Ryan to grab her arm and hold her against him.

‘You nearly fell onto the line,’ he said, sounding shocked.

But Katy just laughed, such was the numbing effect of the cocktails she had drunk earlier and the fresh air hitting her. ‘It’s a danger zone around here! I’ve heard the countryside is full of dangers,’ she replied. ‘All those scary animals and pitch-black nights.’