30
Optimism
Too tired to cook, Emily headed over to the Inn on the Green to look for something for dinner, where she found Skip hastily blowing the cobwebs out of the long-unused kitchens in preparation for the upcoming carnival. Veronica was also there, along with another local lady called Stephanie Goddard, who Veronica had said owned the small art supplies shop. Together they had been trying—unsuccessfully—to coax an old electric cooker back to life.
‘It used to work,’ Skip said. ‘Always took a while to warm up, though.’
‘You got it plugged in?’ Veronica asked.
‘I think so,’ Skip said, kneeling on the floor to peer into the gloom between the cooker’s feet and the floor.
‘I imagine the mouse chewed through the wire,’ Stephanie said with a smirk, provoking a sharp glare from Veronic
