Page 89 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
Then I called them up for a taste test, along with Nile, who appeared to have let himself in again.
‘I’ve been to get a sandwich and bought an extra one in case you were working and had forgotten to eat. But I think it was a bit redundant,’ he added, eyeing the table groaning under the weight of a morning’s baking, ‘so I’ll eat it myself: I need to build my strength up.’
He didn’t say for what.
‘A woman can’t live by cake alone,’ I told him. ‘I’d love the sandwich.’
Jack and Ross took the tasting session seriously and everything passed with flying colours. I divided what was left (not a huge amount, due to Ross’s having popped morsels into his mouth one after the other, in a kind of conveyer-belt action) between them to take home.
When they’d gone back to the floor-laying, Nile and I ate the sandwiches and a few of the savouries I’d kept back.
‘I’ve got the electrician coming to put up the chandelier and the new wall lights this afternoon,’ I told him. ‘But then it’s back to work on the book.’
‘I’m out for the rest of the day, probably home very late, and I bet you’re still working when I get back,’ he said.
He didn’t tell me where he was going and I didn’t like to ask. He did go out a lot, so perhaps he was seeing someone else, and that was why he was so against Zelda’s idea that they should get together? I supposed I was just someone to tease and flirt with when the fancy took him.
I’d fully intended telling him I was going in search of Joe Godet next morning, but he dashed off before I got the chance.
Still, it was something I needed to do alone anyway.
‘What’s happening to us, Shaz?’ asked Kev. ‘I thought I was having a weird dream at first but it doesn’t stop and … it feels sort of real.’
Then he looked admiringly at the golden-haired princess beside him, the scimitar still dripping green gloop on to the grass, and added, ‘Beauty, you’re a real kick-ass kind of girl!’
‘You’re Beauty?’ the prince asked, looking at her narrowly. He’d suspected it when she’d grabbed that strange sword and gone into action – which he was happy to let her do, because there was nothing like dryad blood for staining a velvet tunic – but she was a far cry from the slender sylph he’d hoped for.
‘Yes,’ replied Beauty. ‘And I expect you’re this Prince S’Hallow I was betrothed to in my cradle,’ she went on, eyeing his willowy frame and butter-yellow hair with disapproval. Somehow, she’d hoped for something a little more dark and rugged.
‘I was – but actually, I prefer Princess Shaz!’ he declared defiantly. ‘She’s the fairest of them all.’
‘You’re not too bad-looking yourself, even if you do talk a bit daft,’ Shazza said, letting him hold her hand.
‘Well, I prefer Prince Kev to you,’ Beauty told him.
‘You tell him,’ Kev said smugly, then added, ‘This place yours, Princess?’
‘Of course – it’s my bower.’
‘Right … and is that roof made of metal?’
‘Solid gold – what else?’ she said. ‘We can live here happily ever after.’
‘No, we can flog it and live somewhere else, instead,’ he said, and gave her plump waist a squeeze. ‘Better than winning the Lottery, you are.’
It was the early hours of the morning before I went to bed and I’d had the curtains in the living room open until then, waiting to see the warm, friendly square of light that meant Nile was home.
It never came.
On perusing her records, I saw that Alice Rose seemed to have been physically healthy throughout her life, apart from the usual minor childhood ailments. But I noted her more recent medication and hoped she hadn’t inherited the thread of hysteria and hypochondria that ran through my mother’s side of the family. She hadn’t struck me as the type, but appearances can be deceptive.
It would appear that she has moved about the country a good deal, never settling in one place for more than a few years, so possibly she may before long also tire of Haworth and take herself off elsewhere.
32
Cold Comfort
I wasn’t sure what was the best time to visit a sheep farmer – or even if therewasa good time. Anyway, I picked late morning and drove out of Haworth feeling really nervous, though I’m not sure exactly why.
