Me: What’s the matter with Harriet? She looks really worried.
Nell: She has every reason to be.
Me: Don’t tell me she’s lost her voice too?
Nell: Of course not. Harriet is far too sensible to eat a Spekulatius biscuit.
Me: What’s bothering her then?
Nell: It’s the Christmas Market.
Me: The one in December?
Nell: Yes. Sally says it can’t take place this year unless Harriet can stop the spread of Spekulatius.
Me: But I love the Christmas Market. It’s such fun tasting the mulled wine and the Christmas treats.
Nell: It’s too dangerous.
Me: Can’t Harriet get them to ban all biscuits?
Nell: How’s she going to do that?
Me: I don’t know but we can’t have the Beefies ruining our Christmas.
Nell: I wonder if Poppy can help.
Me: Is Poppy on the Christmas Market Committee?
Nell: No. Why are we talking about committees? Harriet needs to target the one at the top.
Me: I don’t think Santa is behind this, Nell.
Nell: Not Santa. Stephen Seagull. Do keep up.
Me: Oh, I see. Do you think Poppy could threaten to throw in the towel if the biscuits aren’t removed?
Nell: What towel?
Me: It’s a boxing reference.
Nell: I don’t think boxing is the answer.
Me: Never mind.
Nell: She needs to say she won’t dance with Stephen anymore.
Me: He might be relieved. Have you seen the state of him lately?
Nell: He does appear to have turned an unfortunate shade of grey but I think it’s just the leftover dye from Halloween.
Me: Possibly.
Nell: That seagull wants to win Strictly Come Prancing and he can’t do it without Poppy.
Me: It’s worth a try, I suppose.
Nell: The trouble is Poppy wants to win too. There must be another way.
Me: Yes. Sorry.
