In this extract from Rosanna Ley’s novel, Holly wonders what secrets Mum may be keeping from her as she gets ready to reveal her own surprise

West Dorset, February 2018 Holly flipped through the crumpled and stained pages of her mother’s old recipe book and there it was, peeking from inside a yellowing envelope. As if somebody (her mother?) had half wanted the recipe to be a secret one, half wanted it to be seen. Carefully, she extracted the fragile sheet of paper from the envelope and smoothed out the folds with her fingertips.

The original recipe was written in Spanish; she known her mother was recognised a few of the words. Under this, the ingredients and What was it then about instructions had been written much more this old recipe? clearly and in English, all of it in handwriting she did not recognise. Seville orange and almond cake, she read.

Even at 14, Holly had known her mother was protesting too much. What was it then about this old recipe?

For an occasion.

Well, she thought, if this wasn’t an occasion – the day she made her big announcement, the day she told her parents what she’d been planning, what she’d been working towards these past 18 months without them having the slightest idea what was going on – then she didn’t know what was.

Holly consulted the English version of the recipe. First, scrub and roughly chop the Seville oranges. She glanced over at them. They were sitting in a bowl on the kitchen counter, glowing like orange lanterns in the dim February afternoon light. The oranges weren’t the prettiest; they were misshapen, rough and knobbly. But the colour… it was so vibrant, so bright. The first time she’d seen a box of Seville bitter oranges in the farm shop just outside Bridport, she’d been smitten.