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I had called round one morning to the Hopkins’ house, as I wanted to ask Annie if she could drop off a small trowel Seth had left behind when she went to collect Edward from school that afternoon. When she answered the door, I was most surprised to see that she had been crying.
“My dear, what is the matter?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” she sniffed. “I’m just being silly.”
“I have never known you be silly,” I replied. “Can I help in any respect?”
“No, it really is nothing.”
“Why don’t you tell me anyway? That is if I can prevail upon you to make me a cup of coffee.”
She smiled. “Of course I will. And I will tell you, but you must promise not to say anything to Stanley, or Mr Holmes.”
“I will say nothing.”
She led the way into the kitchen, and I took a seat while she made the coffee.
“You know Stanley went up to London on Tuesday, and I went with him,” she began.
“Yes, and very kindly brought back a parcel for us.”
“While Stanley was at the Yard, I went to see an old friend of mine. I hadn’t seen her since we moved down here, and I’d been looking forward to catching up on all the news. Only it wasn’t quite what I’d expected. A couple of girls I used to know had died, and I hadn’t heard, so that was a shock. And then, when we started to talk, we didn’t really have anything in common. We’d drifted apart a bit when Stanley and I got married, what with him being a policeman…”
I nodded to show I understood, many of Annie’s old friends had been ladies of dubious reputation.
“But I hadn’t realised how much further apart we were following the move.”
She sniffed again, and I said, “I’m sorry it didn’t go so well with your friend.”
“I’d taken a jar of my tomato pickle to give her as a little present. I was so proud to tell her they were homegrown tomatoes, but all she said was that she wouldn’t want to eat proper pickle that hadn’t been bought from a shop and pushed the jar back to me.”
“She doesn’t know what she’s missing.”
Annie shrugged. “So instead of staying for a good chat and going out for a meal, I went to the cemetery and spent my money on flowers for the graves of the two who had died. So, you see, it’s really nothing to get upset about.”
“But you feel like you’ve lost a friend, and that’s always difficult. What did you do with the jar of pickle? If it would help, I’m sure Holmes and I would be happy to eat it.”
Annie laughed. “I wasn’t going to let it go to waste. I put some of it in the sandwiches I gave Stanley this morning. He was delighted when he saw me making them.”
“Good! And I’m sorry you feel as you do about your friend.”
She sighed. “These things happen. And I have new friends now. Not that I can give them jars of tomato pickle either.” She laughed again when she saw my expression of surprise. “They all make their own!”