Page 76 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
As she turned to follow, Dr Collins’ basilisk gaze fell on me and for the briefest moment she looked quite startled. Perhaps she thought I was stalking her?
I hadn’t seen Nile to speak to since Sunday lunch, but that afternoon I had another of his terse texts saying he’d collect me at seven on the way to the pub.
Honestly! No ‘would you like to go’ or anything of that kind: it appeared that with the Giddingses, you only had to do something with them once, like go to the pub or stay for a weekend, and it was assumed to be a regular fixture.
A reply didn’t seem called for, so I didn’t send one. And when he called for me and we walked round to the pub, I didn’t know why he’d bothered, because he wasn’t the liveliest of company. In fact, he seemed to be pondering a knotty problem. Maybe he’d lost an amazing Stanhope or an outstanding bit of netsuke to a higher bidder and didn’t know how to break it to one of his cherished list of clients?
Whatever it was, he didn’t share it with me and I was just starting to wish I’d brought a book with me, when the handsome blond barman gave me a cheery grin and a wink. I smiled back and Nile happened to look up just at that moment and caught this exchange.
He glowered at the poor man. ‘Is he flirting with you?’ he demanded, though what business it was of his, I don’t know.
‘In my dreams!’ I told him. ‘He’s got to be at least ten years younger than me. Andyoucan’t talk, because I only left you alone for two minutes to go to the loo and when I got back you were chatting up a strange woman.’
‘She was only a tourist, asking me to point Top Withens out on her map.’
‘Yeah, right! But at least she got more conversation out of you than I have. I think the barman noticed you’d gone into a coma and was just trying to cheer me up.’
He frowned at me, his black brows knitted, as if he wasn’t sure whether I was joking or not.
‘I was just wondering how to explain to you about Zelda and why she told Sheila we were getting married,’ he said. ‘It’s complicated.’
‘Thendon’texplain it. It’s really nothing to do with me whether you get married or not, or who to,’ I told him, even though secretly I was dying to know. ‘And anyway, didn’t you tell the family it was just her idea of a joke?’
‘Well, that’s what I thought a couple of weeks ago, when she reminded me we’d made that pact about marrying each other. But I mean, we were students at the time and it was just a flip, throwaway remark.’
‘But she wasn’t joking? She thought you meant it?’
He ran a distracted hand through his black curls. ‘That’s what she told me when I got back to the flat on Sunday and rang her to ask what on earth she was playing at.’
‘And you definitelydidn’tagree with her when she reminded you about the pact?’
‘No, of course not!’ he said, sounding totally exasperated. ‘I think she’s gone slightly mad ever since she realized she was about to hit forty. One minute she’s a complete party animal with a string of unsuitable boyfriends and the next she’s telling me she’s desperate to settle down and have a baby before it’s too late.’
‘Well, I suppose itwouldmake you think,’ I said. ‘I mean, it’s a bit late for a first baby, but people do have them well into their forties these days, don’t they?’
‘They might do, but not with me!’ he said firmly. ‘We only went out with each other for a couple of weeks right at the start of my first university term, but it didn’t work out. The difference in our ages seemed greater then and she found someone older. Since then, I’ve felt exactly the same towards her as I do towards Bel: brotherly.’
I suddenly wondered if he sawmein the same light, a sort of irritating new sister, and that’s why he kept dishing out the bossy orders and advice. I mean, just becauseIfound him irritating and devastatingly attractive in equal measures didn’t mean he had to see me the same way. And probably just as well …
‘So, did you tell her exactly how you feel?’
‘After all these years, I shouldn’t have needed to, but I did. She said she doesn’t really want to bring a baby up on her own, but if she hasn’t found Mr Right by now and I won’t oblige, then she’ll have to. She’s had some kind of test done to see if she’s still fertile and I think they told her to get a move on.’
He gloomed into his Guinness again.
‘I expect that was what threw her into a panic, so she grabbed at the nearest man – you,’ I said.
‘Thanks: I feel so wanted.’
‘I’m sorry for her, though,’ I said. ‘I thought I’d found my Mr Right,though actually he was never as keen on the idea of having children as I was. I’d have liked them, because then at least I’d have had real family that I was related to.’
‘I know what you mean,’ he agreed. ‘I’d like a family too, only not with someone I’ve spent half my life thinking of as a friend … and I keep forgetting how recently you lost your fiancé,’ he added thoughtfully.
‘It’s only about six months ago, but actually, the breakdown I had after he was killed seems somehow to have compressed the grieving process into a couple of months,’ I said. ‘I mean, I still miss him and think about him a lot, but I came out on this side of the depression feeling empty and looking for something to fill the space.’
‘Hence the rash decision to buy the Branwell Café, sight unseen,’ he said. ‘It makes more sense now.’
‘And to try to trace my birth mother. I know you thinkthat’srash, too, but Dan was impulsive and happy-go-lucky and he’d have thought both were a great idea.’
