Page 60 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
‘But you look lovely,’ Teddy said, coming in in search of tea and cake. ‘Doesn’t she, Nile?’ he asked, and it was only then that I saw Nile had followed him in.
I think my jaw probably dropped a mile: imagine Johnny Depp in pirate mode, channelling Heathcliff, add a bit of dark and brooding edge, and you’d get a fair idea of how he looked.
‘She certainly looks exactly like a Pre-Raphaelite muse,’ he said, one eyebrow going up even more piratically.
‘You’re very swashbuckling, darling,’ said Sheila admiringly.
‘Actually, I think these tight breeches have buckled my swash permanently,’ he said gloomily.
‘There’s lots of give in the fabric and they’re supposed to be snug,’ she assured him. ‘Now, don’t forget to put your cloak on, because the wind’s cold out there and that shirt is very thin.’
‘Where did she get the cloak from?’ I asked, as we went out to Nile’s car and the billowing folds of it threatened to envelop me like a heavy cloud.
‘A friend who runs an amateur theatrical group.’
He was silent after that until we arrived at the venue. There were already two or three cars there, but they must have belonged to the family or staff, for there were no guests in the restaurant, which was a former barn in a courtyard, set at right angles to the closed Hikers’ Café.
Inside, the dining area was a long space with a modern décor that still subtly fitted in with its rustic heritage. A middle-aged woman in an overall came through a swinging door with a stack of teaplates, put them down on the nearest table, and went out without a word or even glance at us. There was certainly no sign of Eleri or her Mr Rochester, though there was some interesting crashing and swearing coming from what I presumed to be the kitchen.
‘Are you sure you got the right time?’ asked Nile, just as I was starting to ask myself the same question. But then I spotted Senga, half- hidden by an antique wooden butter churn.
‘There’s my agent over there,’ I whispered, as she waved what looked suspiciously like a gin and tonic at me, though at that time of day it was probably just lemonade. I’d have recognized her instantly anywhere, even though the afternoon tea had been years ago.
The recognition wasn’t entirely mutual, for she got up and looked me over with piercing, light blue eyes. ‘Alice?’ she queried doubtfully, then answered herself: ‘Yes – it has to be, because I remember your hair – we must get some publicity shots of you like that, you lookmaaarvellous!’ She kissed me on both cheeks.
‘But I don’t usually wear my hair in ringlets …’ I began, then noticed that I’d lost her attention: her eyes were on Nile and had widened appreciatively. She smiled, revealing a lot of teeth like a crocodile about to snap him up.
‘And who is this hunk?’ she said. ‘Heathcliff, I presume?’
‘Nile Giddings, afriend,’ I said, with some emphasis. ‘We both had to find costumes at short notice, so I’m not sure who we’re meant to be.’
‘Whoever it is, you look wonderful,’ she said, and then you could see her business mind flip over. ‘Do sit down, Alice. We need to talk before everyone else arrives.’
‘I’ll go for a walk and leave you to it,’ suggested Nile.
‘No – stay if you want to, because I don’t mind you being here,’ I said. ‘It’s too cold to go walking in that thin shirt.’
He’d discarded the cloak the moment we got in, presumably because it kept getting wrapped around things, like flypaper.
‘There we are then, sit down,’ said Senga, and then, shifting her focus, grilled me at length about the next novel, so it was just as well I’d finally got my ideas together.
‘That sounds fine,’ she said eventually. ‘It needs to beexactlylike the first backlist book they’re republishing, onlytotallydifferent. Crack on and get it finished.’
‘I’ve been a bit distracted, because I’m opening a teashop soon and it’s being renovated.’
‘You haven’t got time to be distracted. Delegate, dear, delegate!’
‘I am, as much as I can,’ I assured her.
‘Yes, I’ve done more painting than she has,’ Nile broke his silence to remark, and I shot him a quelling look.
‘Can I ask you about those edits?’ I said to her. ‘I’ve done my best with them, but there are just a couple of things …’
I’d jotted down the two awkward ones, including the chaos theory one, which she told me to tweak slightly and then leave.
‘And ignore the other one entirely, because you can’t possibly change the sex of one of the main characters. It would totally throw out the motivation in the whole book,’ she said, demonstrating that she’d actually read it. I was writing such different material from Eleri and her other authors that I’d been surprised when she took me on.
‘Won’t my editor mind?’ I asked.
