Tough crowd, but Lucy had handled far worse than this.

She straightened to her full one hundred and fifty-two centimetres and pulled her shoulders back, adopting the power stance that always gave her a little boost of confidence when she needed it. She donned a bright smile. “Good morning.” It wasn’t. “I am very pleased to be here.” She wasn’t. “I am sure that you hardly need me at all, but I am happy to be of any assistance I can to make sure your Christmas Fair goes off without a hitch.” Another lie—she wasn’t happy about any of this.

Five stony faces didn’t flinch, and she glanced at Susan, who was watching her with an encouraging smile. “Right, so how about we go around the circle again, and you can tell me what each of you is responsible for.”

“We usually start with tea and biscuits,” said the man—Simon, Chloe remembered.

“Oh, right.” She looked around the group, wondering who was in charge of making tea.

“Cecily, aren’t you going to put the kettle on, dear?” Susan prompted. Cecily seemed to remember herself, tearing her scrutinising eyes from Chloe and standing.

“Yes, of course. My apologies everyone.” She disappeared through a doorway, presumably to the kitchen. Right, so they were in Cecily’s home.

Chloe knew she had to crack the toughest nut and get Cecily onside, so she followed her into the kitchen, hearing a cacophony of loud whispers erupt behind her. Cecily was fussing about with a tea tray and the kettle was already on to boil.

“Cecily, I meant to say before what a beautiful home you have. I was admiring your thatched roof as we crossed the road.” Flattery, flattery, flattery—in her experience, the three best ways to earn someone’s trust quickly.

Cecily started and looked at Chloe, her lips parted in surprise. “Oh. Why, thank you.” Chloe could tell that it was difficult for Cecily to take a compliment.

“What year was it built?” Chloe took in the low ceiling with its exposed beams of dark wood, which contrasted with the whitewashed, uneven plaster. It really was a beautiful building; she hadn’t been lying about that.

Cecily started placing biscuits from a tin onto a large floral plate. “Well, the original structure dates back to the sixteenth century.” Chloe’s eyes widened. She was standing in a building that pre-dated European settlement in Australia. It was one of the things she adored about visiting England.

“Actually, and you can see this better from the outside, this was once four separate structures—stables for the estate—and at some point, in the 1800s, it was converted into houses—four of them. It was only last century, before the war, that it became one house. That’s when my grandparents bought it.”

Wow, once you got Cecily onto something she wanted to talk about, she opened right up. Still, she’d yet to crack a smile. “Well, it certainly is impressive, and it has a fascinating history.” Cecily nodded, her mouth remaining in a taut line. “Can I help?” Chloe asked as the kettle boiled and switched itself off.