A Witchy Bake-off Read online

  I jumped when he cleared his throat.

  “Sorry, I was miles away,” I said with a smile. I chatted away as I took the payment for his coffee, but he remained stony-faced and kept his head down.

  I watched him leave and felt a shiver of unease.

  “It’s time for you to go home, Harper,” Archie said, walking out of the kitchen. “I’m going to keep the diner closed all day tomorrow because everyone will be at the fair.”

  “That’s sensible. Do you know who is judging the competition this year?”

  “Me,” Archie said and beamed.

  “Oh.” The surprise must have shown on my face.

  He folded his arms over his chest. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  I sighed. “You do know Grandma Grant and Adele Silver are both entering the competition this year.”

  Archie’s face fell. “I had heard that, yes. But, I’m sorry, Harper, I can’t show any favoritism to your grandmother. The prize will be awarded on merit.”

  “Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less, Archie. I just wondered if you knew. I don’t envy you being a judge caught between the two of them.”

  Archie looked concerned. “You don’t think they’re taking it that seriously, do you?”

  I grinned. “This is my grandmother and Adele Silver we’re talking about. They take baking competitions very seriously indeed.”

  Archie gave a nervous laugh. “I suppose I should look on the bright side. It can’t possibly turn out as badly as the pumpkin pie competition last Halloween.”

  I thought that might be tempting fate but decided not to say so as I waved goodbye to Archie.

  I’d only taken a few steps when I spotted Adele Silver turn onto the street in front of me. Oh no. She was the last person I wanted to run into. I carried on walking briskly and smiled at her. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Silver,” I said pleasantly and carried on walking, hoping to rush past before she accosted me.

  But Adele grabbed my arm and greeted me like we were old friends. “Harper! How lovely to see you! You’re just the person I hoped to see.”

  “Really?”

  “Absolutely. It’s been such a long time since we caught up over a cup of tea.”

  I tried to remember if I’d ever had a chat with Adele Silver over a cup of tea. I was pretty sure I hadn’t.

  “Why don’t you come back to my house now?” she suggested with a sly grin.

  “Um…”

  She steered me by the elbow, propelling me along the street before I could think up a valid excuse.

  I could tell she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Thanks to the fact I was a member of the Grant family, Adele had disliked me on sight. But for some reason, today she was determined to escort me back to her house. Maybe my suspicions were unfounded, but I had a feeling she was going to try and use me to get information about Grandma Grant’s cake recipe for tomorrow’s bake-off.

  “Actually, Adele, I was just on my way home. I had quite a busy shift and I’m looking forward to putting my feet up.” Okay, so that was a little white lie. It’d been a very quiet shift, but she didn’t know that.

  “Exactly why you should come back to my house and relax over a nice cup of English breakfast tea.” She beamed at me as she practically dragged me into Magnolia Lane.

  Adele lived in a three-story townhouse. It was a big house for a woman living on her own, but Grandma Grant had told me her daughter used to live there too until a few years ago, and I guessed as she was Mrs. Silver, Adele must’ve been married at some point.

  Adele didn’t stop smiling as she unlocked her front door and led me inside. She took me through to the sitting room, and I gazed around in surprise. I’d been expecting something a little homely, maybe some paintings of dogs or countryside scenes, along with an old-fashioned fireplace and flowered furnishings, but the interior decor surprised me.

  Silver and white striped wallpaper lined the walls. A large Gothic silver framed mirror hung between two silvery gray armchairs. The carpet was almost silver in color, too. On closer inspection, I saw it was a very light gray wool with a slight shimmer.

  “What a lovely room,” I said.

  “Thank you, Harper. Do sit down. I’ll get the tea.”

  I walked towards one of the armchairs, resigned to the fact I wasn’t going to escape without having a cup of tea with Adele, when something caught my eye. There was a glass display cabinet on the wall, and as I got closer, I saw it contained a collection of thimbles.

  Most of them were made of intricately patterned silver. If they were real silver, then I imagined they could be worth quite a bit of money. There were so many of them.

  I was still standing beside the display cabinet when Adele came back into the room carrying the tea tray.

  “Oh, I see you’re admiring my thimbles. My collection has gotten to be quite a habit.”

  “Are they all silver?” I asked.

  Adele put the tray down on the coffee table. “Most of them. I do have some porcelain ones. Here, let me show you.” She walked across to a white chest of drawers with silver handles. Inside the top drawer was a navy blue case, and when she opened it, I saw it was full to the brim with thimbles nestled against deep blue velvet.

  Each of the porcelain thimbles had a scene from a nursery rhyme printed on the front. There was a cow jumping over the moon, Jack and Jill with a pail of water, and one had little Miss Muffett sitting on a tuffet with a spider just over her shoulder.

  “How cute.”

  “They’re my weakness,” Adele admitted. “I don’t show them to just anyone, you know. I hope you appreciate it.”

  “I do.” I sat down opposite Adele as she poured the tea.

  “Look, I know you’ve invited me here today to pump me for information about Grandma Grant’s entry into the bake-off competition, but I don’t want to get involved.” I decided it was best to be honest.

  “Whatever gave you that idea?” She let out a tinkle of a laugh. “I just wanted to be neighborly.”

  Of course she did. She obviously thought I was born yesterday.

  I supposed I had to play along. “Well, that’s very kind of you. How’s your daughter?”

  Adele huffed under her breath. “Oh, Olivia is about the same as usual. Always asking me for money. She never used to be like that. I blame her husband, Damien.”

  “Oh, don’t you like Damien then?”

  Adele pulled a face and her silver bangles jangled on her arm as she reached for her cup of tea. “He’s a shirker,” she said. “I don’t think he’s done an honest day’s work in his life. He is full of big ideas and investment opportunities, but they always fail, and I am left to bail them out.” She waved a hand at me. “Anyway, let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about the bake-off. I suppose your grandmother must be very excited. She probably expects to win. The poor, deluded old woman.”

  Well, she hadn’t kept up the pretense for very long. I guess she was interested in Grandma’s entry after all. I wasn’t sure how old Adele was exactly, but she had to be quite close in age to Grandma Grant. I could just picture Grandma Grant’s face if she could hear Adele Silver now.

  I decided to be diplomatic. “Yes, I think she’s looking forward to it.” Then I shifted the subject. “I met Stacie Sutton today at the diner. Grandma Grant says she’s a very good baker.”

  “Pah!” Adele said. “I am not worried about her. She’s a newcomer. The judge would never award the prize to a newcomer.”

  I blinked in surprise. “But what if she bakes the best cake?”

  Adele looked at me as though I were crazy. “Don’t be ridiculous, Harper!”

  “What type of cake are you baking for the competition?” I only asked the question to be polite.

  Adele straightened in her chair and looked outraged. “Has your grandmother sent you here? She has, hasn’t she? You’re here as some kind of spy!”

  “No. You invited me. Grandma Grant doesn’t even know I’m here.”


  “So you say,” Adele said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “I think our chat and afternoon tea is over.”

  Even though I’d not finished my tea, Adele whisked the cup away from me and stood up to indicate it was time to leave.

  I got to my feet without argument. “Thank you for the tea, Adele. Good luck in the competition.”

  “I don’t believe in luck, Harper. I don’t need it. I have talent.”

  “Well, Grandma Grant believes in luck. She even has a lucky wooden spoon,” I said with a grin.

  Adele’s eyebrows arched. “A lucky spoon?”

  “Yes, well, I suppose it’s not really lucky. She just feels it is. She says no other spoon stirs the mixture in quite the same way.”

  Adele looked thoughtful as she showed me to the door. On the doorstep, I turned to thank her again for the tea, only to have the door shut in my face.

  So much for being neighborly!

  As I walked home, I wondered whether Joe might call later. I really should stop dwelling on it. I was going to be very disappointed if he wanted to ask me something mundane. Perhaps he just wanted me to share Archie’s blueberry muffin recipe.

  My cell phone buzzed in my pocket. It was the text from Joe. A daft grin spread across my face as I opened up the message.

  Sorry I had to rush off earlier.

  I’ll see you tomorrow at the fair.

  Joe.

  I quickly typed a reply.

  No problem.

  See you tomorrow.

  Not exactly an exciting message.

  I almost ended the message with an X and then decided that was much too forward. Instead, I settled for a smiley face emoji.

  It was just a text message, which didn’t really mean anything, but it put a smile on my face all the way home.

  Chapter Four

  The following morning, I was awoken by a phone call from Grandma Grant. My cell phone was on my nightstand, and I fumbled for it, still half asleep.

  “Hello, what’s wrong?” I asked, my voice thick with sleep.

  “You need to come to my house right away. It’s an emergency!”

  I sat bolt upright in bed and rubbed my eyes. “What is it? Are you hurt? Do you need an ambulance?”

  “No, nothing like that. I just need you to come here now!” Then she hung up.

  I padded out of bed, checked the time on my phone, and saw it wasn’t even 7:00 a.m. yet. Jess had left me a message last night, saying she would be staying at Pete’s, so it looked like she was going to miss out on Grandma Grant’s latest drama.

  Lucky thing.

  After splashing some water on my face and pulling on some clothes, I said a quick good morning to my cat, Smudge, and then hurried out the front door, rushing up the hill to Grandma Grant’s house.

  I arrived, red-faced and breathless. The front door was open so I walked straight in. The sound of clattering utensils and baking pans told me I’d find my grandmother in the kitchen.

  “So what’s the emergency?” I asked, leaning down to stroke Athena, who was winding her way around my legs.

  Grandma Grant turned around. She had a face like thunder.

  “My lucky spoon is missing!” She began to rifle through the drawer next to the sink.

  The tension I had been holding between my shoulder blades faded away. All this fuss over a spoon. Really?

  “You should have told me on the phone. We have a wooden spoon. I could have brought it over.”

  “It’s not the same. It wouldn’t be lucky.”

  “Are you sure this spoon is just lucky and not under some kind of magic spell?” I asked, regarding her suspiciously.

  Grandma Grant gave an exasperated sigh. “Yes, and it’s been stolen!”

  “Well, let’s not leap to conclusions. I’ll help you look for it. I’m sure it will turn up.”

  “No,” Grandma Grant said firmly. “It’s been taken, and I know exactly who’s responsible.”

  “Who?”

  “Adele Silver.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You can hardly blame her for your lucky spoon going missing. You’ve probably just misplaced it.”

  Grandma Grant shook her head stubbornly. “I had a visit from Adele just before supper yesterday. She was spouting some nonsense about good sportsmanship. I should have kept a closer eye on her.”

  Maybe Grandma Grant wasn’t overreacting… Was it simply a coincidence that Adele had paid a visit to Grandma Grant after I’d mentioned her lucky spoon? Adele must realize the spoon wasn’t really lucky. Perhaps by taking it, she hoped to throw Grandma Grant off her game.

  I cleared my throat nervously. “So, about that spoon…”

  Grandma Grant’s eyes narrowed. “What are you hiding from me, Harper?”

  “Are you using a mind-reading spell on me?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then how do you know I am hiding something?”

  “Because the tips of your ears turn red when you’ve been caught doing something you shouldn’t.”

  My jaw dropped. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that. Spill the details.”

  “Fine. But don’t get angry. When I was leaving the diner yesterday, I bumped into Adele and she invited me to her house for a cup of tea.”

  “You had tea with the enemy?” Grandma Grant looked aghast.

  “She’s hardly an enemy. She’s just a rival.”

  Grandma Grant shook her head. “I am very disappointed in you, Harper.”

  I let out an exasperated sigh and repeated my earlier statement. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  Grandma Grant folded her arms over her chest and gave me a scathing look.

  Reluctantly, I continued. “But I did mention your lucky spoon and—”

  “Aha, I knew it! That explains everything.”

  “It doesn’t mean Adele has taken the spoon.”

  “Of course it does. That’s just the sort of thing she’d do. She’s desperate to win.”

  “Where are you going?” I asked, as Grandma Grant barreled past me out of the kitchen.

  “To confront the two-faced twerp. She won’t get away with this.”

  “Wait!” I shouted, chasing her out of the front door. “Don’t do anything reckless. You don’t need the spoon. You can still win the competition without it.”

  “That’s not the point. I’m not letting that conniving woman think she’s got one over on me.” Grandma Grant jumped in her dilapidated old red truck and leaned over to open the passenger door. “Well, are you going to stand there all day?”

  It didn’t look like I had much choice. As much as I would have liked to turn around, walk home, and get back into bed, there was no telling what trouble Grandma Grant would get into if she confronted Adele on her own.

  With a sigh, I climbed into the passenger seat.

  My grandmother was an erratic driver at the best of times, and when she was mad, her driving was quite terrifying. I squeezed my eyes shut as we hurtled down the hill towards the center of town.

  It was seven-fifteen when we arrived in Evergreen Cul-de-sac. Grandma Grant parked outside Adele’s townhouse.

  I clambered out of the truck and was about to chase after Grandma Grant, who’d made a beeline for Adele’s front door, when I spotted something very unusual.

  On the other side of the road was a black Chrysler, and sitting behind the wheel was a man in a blue baseball cap.

  I blinked. Was that the man I’d seen in the diner yesterday, or was my mind playing tricks on me? I moved closer to get a better look, when suddenly the engine roared to life and the car pulled away from the curb. Before I’d gotten a good look at the driver, they’d driven off.

  I frowned. Maybe it was a coincidence. Perhaps the person driving the car had been a local resident heading off for work… but something didn’t seem right to me.

  I forgot all about the mysterious man in the black car when I heard Grandma Grant let out a string of imaginative curs
e words.

  Turning, I saw Adele standing in the doorway. She folded her arms over her chest. Her face was greasy with some kind of facial cream and her hair was in curlers.

  Further along the cul-de-sac, I spotted a familiar couple strolling towards me. I groaned. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend were out for an early morning walk with their little Pomeranian.

  Great.

  That was just what we needed. Not.

  “Where’s my lucky spoon?” Grandma Grant demanded.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” Adele replied with a smirk.

  “Don’t play the innocent with me, Adele Silver. You can’t pull the wool over my eyes!”

  “I think you should take your grandmother home, Harper,” Adele said, speaking to me over my grandmother’s shoulder.

  I wished I could. But short of dragging Grandma Grant away forcefully and bundling her back into the truck, I couldn’t see how to get her to leave.

  “Don’t you involve my granddaughter in this. She’s easily led. You tricked her into telling you about my lucky spoon.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. All this nonsense about a wooden spoon.

  “What’s going on here?” Mrs. Townsend asked, as the elderly couple stopped in front of Adele’s house. When I didn’t respond immediately, she prodded my shoulder with her wizened old finger.

  I turned to face the elderly couple, my clenched teeth hidden by a smile. “Nothing. My grandmother and Mrs. Silver are just having a discussion about baking techniques.”

  “Are you sure that’s all it is?” Mr. Townsend asked, his eyes wide.

  “Yes, everything is absolutely fine.”

  “It doesn’t sound fine to me,” Mrs. Townsend said as her little dog yapped in agreement.

  “It looks like they’re about to pull each other’s hair out,” Mr. Townsend said, watching Adele as she began to jump up and down in a temper.

  “They’re just passionate,” I said and hurried to pull Grandma Grant away from Adele before World War III broke out.

  I didn’t agree with Mr. Townsend about much, but I had to concur it looked like things were about to get physical.