Julie Caplin - The Little Paris Patisserie - A heartwarming and feel good cosy romance - perfect for fans of Bake Off!

When they’d finished eating, Sebastian yawned rather noisily. ‘Right Nina, I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t be late. You’ll have to do the meet and greet in the shop.’

‘Me?’

‘I’m not risking those stairs and you’re more than capable. You’ve got all their names and … you’ve clearly met one of them already,’ he added with a cross expression. ‘All you need to do is wait for everyone to arrive and then bring them to the kitchen.’

‘OK.’ She nodded and gathered up her things. ‘See you then. Night Alex.’

To her surprise Alex jumped up, and quickly rounded up the plates, relieving Sebastian of his tray with a speedy turn. ‘I’ll see you out and put these in the corridor.’

‘Alex,’ Sebastian said quickly. ‘I need a word.’

‘Be right back,’ he replied, ignoring the implicit request that he stayed put. Sebastian’s frown darkened. Nina wondered anew at how it was humanly possible for his expression to be any blacker.

Once at the door, having deposited the tray on the floor outside the room, Alex paused. ‘Sorry about his nibs in there. Never known him quite so contrary. Don’t let him get to you. Ignore him and if you want some light relief I was serious about the offer of a guide around Paris. You’ve got my card. Text me your number … well.’ He blushed. ‘If you want to, that is.’

‘Thanks, Alex. That would be really nice.’ She gave him a cheerful smile, as her heart sank a little. He was lovely… friendly, kind, absolutely the perfect antidote to Sebastian and – she felt ashamed to even think it – too reminiscent of Joe. Getting tangled up in a friendship where one party wanted more was something she wanted to avoid at all costs. And wasn’t that a huge irony? No wonder Sebastian kept her arm’s length.

‘Alex,’ came a bellow from the other room. ‘I haven’t got all day. And Nina has important things to do.’

‘Something is really bugging him,’ whispered Alex. ‘Better go. See you soon.’

‘Hey, Nina.’ Maddie bounced through the door first, shaking her head and dappling the floor with drops of second-hand rain, bringing in with her a tail wind of chilly spring air.

‘Morning. You’re the first one here.’ At the sight of her, Nina immediately felt brighter especially as for the last half hour she’d been subjected to Marcel’s rather apathetic help as she set up a coffee station at one of the tables in readiness for everyone’s arrival. He was definitely on a go slow – in fact, any slower and he’d go backwards. As if that wasn’t enough, there was no sign of Sebastian yet and he hadn’t responded to her last text.

‘I’m always early. Comes of having a big family. Trying to get everyone out of the house is always like herding cats.’

‘I know that feeling. My dad used to threaten to get one of the sheepdogs to round us all up. Help yourself to coffee and take a seat. We’ll wait for everyone to get here and then we’ll go through to the kitchen. I’ll be back in a minute.’ She left Maddie helping herself to coffee and nipped downstairs, ignoring Marcel’s impenetrable stare as she passed him.

The kitchen was all set, but where was Sebastian? She gave her watch an anxious look before returning to join Maddie as Marguerite arrived at that very moment with a middle-aged couple in tow. ‘Bonjour Nina, look who I found on my way here. Monsieur and Madame Ashman.’

They both gave shy smiles. ‘They’re here on a prolonged honeymoon and got married three weeks ago.’ Marguerite glided in ushering them in front of her like a serene swan.

‘Hi, I’m Peter and this is Jane.’ They were still holding hands as if they couldn’t bear to be parted, which Nina thought was rather sweet. Peter took the umbrella from Jane and helped her remove her coat before taking off his own and observing, ‘It’s really not very nice out there.’

‘No, it’s horrid but come and grab some coffee. I’m Nina. We’re waiting for one more and then we’ll go through to the kitchen to meet Sebastian who is your course tutor today and then we introduce everyone properly.’

‘Can I take your coats?’

Nina’s head shot up at the sound of Marcel’s voice. His face looked pained as if he really didn’t want to join in but couldn’t bear to see a customer not being looked after properly. She smiled at him and received a snooty nose-in-the-air look in return as he folded the coats over his arm and bore them to the old-fashioned bentwood hat stand in the corner.

‘Am I in the right place?’ boomed a loud voice with a definite northern twang.

‘You must be Bill,’ said Nina, nodding and quickly consulting yet another of the sheaf of notes from Sebastian as the tall, heavily-built man ambled forwards.

‘That’s right, Bill Sykes.’ He gave an all-encompassing salute to everyone, two fingers to his forehead. ‘And don’t say a word, I’ve heard it all before.’

Marguerite looked blank as Maddie and Nina bit back smiles.

Once everyone had had their coffee, Nina herded them through to the kitchen. Surely Sebastian was here by now. He probably wouldn’t have risked the small flight of stairs leading from the kitchen up to the hallway through to the patisserie.

Her heart slipped to her boots. Darn it, still no sign of him.

Everyone crowded in, grouped together looking uncertain, and Nina felt the weight of responsibility.

‘Right, everyone.’ She mustered a cheerful smile and prayed that her jolly hockey sticks voice sounded authoritative and confident. ‘Thank you all for coming today. As you know, I’m Nina and I’ll er…’ What exactly was her role? She and Sebastian hadn’t discussed it. ‘I’ll be looking after you. Sebastian, the chef, is on his way.’ At least she bloody hoped so. She looked at her watch for what felt the hundredth time, feeling aggrieved, as she recalled his words, ‘don’t be late’. ‘I expect he’s been caught up in traffic, coming here, but he’ll be here very soon. I’m sure.’

She gave another smile as everyone looked at her. ‘Yes, he’ll be here any minute.’

But what if he wasn’t? What else could she say to them to fill this growing silence as all of them looked to her as if she held all the answers. With a quick look at another set of Sebastian’s lists on the bench in front of her, she ran over in her mind what he’d said yesterday and came up completely blank. The prickle of sweat on her back made her wriggle uncomfortably for a second.

‘I tell you what.’ She scrabbled for the words. ‘It might be nice if … you introduce yourselves. And perhaps tell us all a little bit about your cooking experience and why you want to learn about patisserie.’

Everyone looked sheepishly at each other for a second and Nina swallowed, praying someone would break the ice. The deathly silence remained. Even Maddie shuffled and looked at her fingernails.

‘So I’m Nina. And er … I’m assisting Sebastian today. I’m…’ Maddie gave her an encouraging smile. ‘I’m not trained. But I bake a lot and I’m fascinated by patisserie. So I volunteered to help … erm perhaps I should have told you … Sebastian’s broken his leg, so I’m helping and hoping to learn at the same time.’ Her voice started to trail away as she glanced around at everyone. They all looked a bit uncertain. The last thing she wanted was for any of them to be disappointed, especially not when she’d suggested the course to two of them.

‘But,’ she said firmly, ‘weeks of preparation have gone into the course to ensure that you all learn the basic building blocks of patisserie. Sebastian is an excellent teacher and a very fine chef. He’s trained at several Michelin-starred restaurants including Le Manoir in Oxfordshire and has worked in the kitchens of some of the top chefs. He runs his own chain of restaurants and is about to open two new restaurants here in Paris.’ She decided against mentioning his plans to turn the patisserie into a bistro. ‘I can assure you, you’re in an excellent pair of hands.’