Page 79 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
I’d put the unwelcome incident out of my head – but then I opened my door to summon a tardy patient and there she was, looking at me with those strangely pale jade-green eyes.
I don’t know why I was so taken aback to see her again so soon – and right there, in my surgery. But the surprise was transient for, since I’d been told she was to open a tearoom in the village, she would of course need to register with a nearby doctor at some point.
And she had registered withme, as I elicited from the receptionist once I had got rid of my patient, a chronic hypochondriac.
29
The Food of Love
I had to give myself a good talking to, while I was getting ready to go out. Despite what Lola thought, I was certain Nile didn’treallyfancy me – why should he when he could have practically any girl he wanted – and even if he did, I wasn’t looking for a casual affair and a broken heart. Up the ladder and down the snake again …
What’s more, I still didn’t know exactly where he stood with his partner, Zelda.
No, it would be so easy to fall for Nile, but I wasn’t going to let myself. This invitation to dinner was a casual thing and I’d treat it that way.
But since Nile was prone to look elegant and expensive even when he was wearing jeans, I decided to give my best dress an outing, although really it was more suited to a summer garden party than an autumn dinner at a remote moorland restaurant.
I got it in a sale, and mostly it lived a quiet life inside its cover on a padded hanger. It was long and swirly and made of silk in shades of green and amber. I wore a short dark green cashmere cardigan over it, but I hoped the restaurant was heated or I’d be an ice maiden inminutes.
When Nile picked me up the ensemble was hidden by a black maxi winter coat in a slightly military style, which I’d worn for so many years it was getting threadbare round the edges of the cuffs and on the collar.
‘Very Russian Front,’ he said, surveying me. ‘It just needs one of those round fur hats.’
‘Fake fur – I’ve got one,’ I said. ‘It was Edie’s, but it never suited her and I’m not sure it’s entirely me, either, so I only wear it if it’s actually snowing.’
He led the way down the path to the car, looking good enough to eat in one of his beautiful silky suits and an open-necked shirt.
‘You’ll freeze like that,’ I told him.
‘My own version of the Russian Front coat is in the car. So’s the flail – come on.’
On the way he reminded me that Henry had asked him to look out for any suitable old bits of agricultural equipment to decorate the barn walls with and he thought the flail, an antique wood and leather contraption, would be perfect.
When we got there the restaurant was buzzing with people, so the food must be brilliant to get them to drive out to such a remote spot. We were shown to a table for two in a secluded corner lit only by a candle lantern, which would have been rather romantic, had we been on those terms.
Again I wondered, had Nile and Zelda really been just friends all these years? And did it matter to me one way or the other? After all, even if I wanted to chance another go at love at some future point, it wouldn’t be with a self-confessed commitment-phobe.
The waiter took my coat away, bearing it off as reverentially as if it had been an ermine mantle and I found, to my relief, that the roomwaswarm.
‘You look very dryad in that dress,’ Nile said, sitting down on the other end of the curved corner seat.
‘Is that good?’ I asked, because they were certainly not good news in my books!
‘Definitely – except you’re getting lots of attention, which might turn your head.’
‘Actually, I think the hen party on the far table are all trying to getyourattention,’ I pointed out.
Startled, he looked across and a pretty blonde – who presumably wasthe future bride, since she had topped her bunny girl outfit with a veil – waved at him, which I thought was cheeky, since they must have assumed we were a couple.
He turned his back quickly.‘I think I’ve got enough troublesome women in my life for the moment,’ he said. ‘Alice?’
The dawn was breaking, lighting up Shaz’s pink hair and sparkling on the sequin vest top that stopped just above her slim waist.
‘Rumours of your beauty didn’t lie – you were truly named,’ said Prince S’Hallow. ‘Kiss me again!’
‘I don’t mind if I do, love,’ she said, with a glance at her boyfriend, now hand in hand with another woman. If Kev preferred fat girls with brassy blond hair, then it was his loss!
On the edge of the wood there was a fluttering of green draperies and a faint, faraway snarling. Unnoticed by the charm-crossed lovers, the dryads were regrouping and ready to take revenge for their poor, fallen sister.
