To Ben, with love
Chapter 1
Katie removed the carefully wrapped package from her beach bag and tucked it into the battered leather satchel that hung on Maya’s peg alongside her pristine apron. Her time in Bali was at an end, and whilst her stay on the Indonesian ‘Island of the Gods’ had been a million miles away from the romantic Parisian honeymoon she’d been dreaming of for the last twelve months, it had been the perfect escape from her misery-strewn life in London after Dominic had dropped his bombshell.
She would have preferred to melt away into the sunset, but she couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to the person who had done so much to ease her heartache and help her get back on track. With a final glance around the empty kitchen-cum-classroom housed in a wooden shed at the back of Agatha’s Beachside Café, Katie spun on her sparkly flip-flops and made her way to the veranda overlooking the Indian Ocean, smiling as she thought of Maya’s joy when she discovered her gift the next day.
‘All packed I see?’ Agatha smiled, stepping from her place behind the bar to give Katie a farewell hug, her silver bangles jangling as she reached up to push her bushy salt-and-pepper curls from her eyes so she could peer more closely at her expression. ‘Ready to go home?’
Katie nodded. ‘Thanks, Aggie, for everything.’
‘It’s me who should be thanking you, darling. You’ve made a real impact in our cookery classes over the last few weeks. Your fabulous cake-decorating skills have definitely inspired a couple of our young students, particularly Maya, to take up sugar craft as a career, maybe in one of the big tourist hotels around the resort. That cake you created for Ed and Claire’s engagement yesterday was an absolute masterpiece!’
‘Oh, I loved making it just as much as your wonderful students did.’
Katie didn’t add that her involvement in the project hadn’t been purely altruistic; being busy had helped to keep her demons at bay. She wished she could stay longer, to continue to support Agatha’s venture, but sadly her money had run out.
‘Any news on the job applications?’
Katie grimaced, slumping down onto one of the tall bar stools with a view that would cause even a seasoned travel photographer to salivate – golden sandy beaches framed with whispering palm trees set against a backdrop of infinite azure skies. Add to that the bougainvillea and sweet jasmine twisted around the café’s eaves, the brightly coloured surfboards ducking and diving on the waves, and the scattered offerings the locals left to appease the gods, and Katie completely understood why tourists thought the Balinese lived in paradise.
‘Nothing yet,’ she mumbled, tucking a stray tendril of her ruffled blonde bob behind her ear and taking a sip of the iced mint tea Agatha had set in front of her, relishing the tang of the fresh peppermint crashing over her taste buds.
Katie had shared her story with Agatha: every pain-filled detail of the wedding that had never happened, as well as the mortifying mistake she had made at work, which had culminated in her being fired from her dream job with François Dubois – supplier of bespoke celebration cakes to the rich and famous.
Even now, her cheeks flushed at the memory of the expression on the hot-tempered chef’s face when he’d received a call from a TV soap actress to inform him of her disgust when, surrounded by family and friends, she had sliced into her birthday cake to find it was filled not with soft, lemony sponge, but soft, meaty dog food. It seemed that, in her trauma-filled state after Dominic’s betrayal, Katie had inadvertently delivered a cake destined for a celebrity couple’s beloved chihuahua’s birthday instead. She had been fired on the spot and it was only now – four weeks later and thousands of miles away – that she was able to see the funny side of what had happened. However, gossip travelled like wildfire in the higher echelons of the cake-making business and the story was bouncing all over London. Perhaps she should be thinking of a change in career direction?
‘Good.’
‘Good? Why is it good?’
Jobless, skint and heartbroken was not the preferred state of affairs for a twenty-eight-year-old former wedding cake maker to the stars, despite the bombshell that had shattered her world.
‘Because I have a proposition for you.’
‘You do?’
Katie stared at Agatha, taking in the vibrant orange kaftan, the statement necklace made from wooden beads the size of golf balls, and the calm, worry-free expression on her kind face. Her friend’s lithe frame and peaceful disposition were testament to her often-stated view that yoga was not just exercise, it was a way of life, but Katie hoped that Agatha wasn’t going to suggest she join her for a session before she left for the airport. It would take more than a few hours of yogic harmony to change her internal dialogue of doubt from high-speed chuntering to calm, blissful acceptance, and if there was one thing she had avoided since arriving in Bali it was anything that would require her to confront her innermost emotions.
‘Here.’
To Katie’s surprise, Agatha reached into her handbag and, with a theatrical flourish, produced a brown paper envelope, causing a waft of her signature jasmine perfume to invade the air between them.
‘What’s this?’
‘Open it.’
Katie held Agatha’s gaze for a moment, confusion and curiosity chasing each other’s tails through the avenues of her brain. What was going on? She ran her finger under the flap and peered inside to see a large, old-fashioned iron key.
‘It’s a key?’
‘It is.’ Agatha smiled, clearly enjoying Katie’s bafflement.
‘What’s … what’s it for?’
‘Something that’s in my past but could be in your future.’
‘My future? What do you mean?’
Katie met her friend’s eyes and her heart softened. She had only known Agatha for a few weeks, but, as a fellow lover of all things culinary – particularly cake-related – they had formed an instant connection the moment she had sauntered into her Balinese café in search of a decent coffee. Their bond had deepened when they discovered they were both escapees from relationship trauma, and they were able to offer each other emotional support.
Katie had thought her story was painful until she heard what Agatha had been through. A former food tech teacher, her new friend had had the shock of her life when she had stumbled upon her Deputy Head husband in the broom cupboard with the gym mistress. So, after receiving the all-clear from her breast cancer diagnosis, she’d mothballed her café in a picturesque village in Cornwall to pursue her lifelong dream of attending a yoga retreat in the Balinese countryside. She’d loved the island so much she’d ended up staying, spending her divorce settlement on a dilapidated restaurant overlooking one of the most spectacular beaches in Bali. The thatched roof might let in rain and a myriad of exotic insects, but the place thrummed with positivity, cheerfulness and calm, just like its owner.
Never one to rest on her laurels, Agatha not only provided her customers with fresh, fragrant food, a listening ear and sage advice, but she also ran a cookery school in a small wooden annex at the back of the café. There she taught disadvantaged teenage girls to read, write and improve their spoken English – hence the Kindle Katie had slipped into Maya’s bag – alongside the culinary skills needed to secure employment in the luxury hotels along Sanur Beach and Nusa Dua.