Page 37 of A Winter Kiss on Rochester Mews
‘How could you do this to me?’ she’d asked, and he’d winced as if the sound of her voice, the sight of her standing there with a stricken look on her face, her eyes glassy with tears that she was trying to hold back, offended him.
‘Loving is sharing, isn’t it? That’s what you always say.’
As if somehow this were all her fault, in the same way that everything always ended up being her fault.
‘Matilda …’
‘Mattie! Mattie! MATTIE!’
Mattie was pulled abruptly from the painful past into a present where Steven was replaced by Cuthbert, who was standing in the kitchen doorway with an aggrieved expression on his usually cheerful face and a trayful of empty cups and plates.
‘What?’ Mattie asked defensively, her eyes dropping to her half-assembled mince pies, which should have been in the oven by now.
‘Queue’s almost out the door. It’s fast approaching a code red. Your assistance is urgently required.’ Cuthbert didn’t even wait for a yay or nay but hurried back to the tearooms.
With a sigh and a shake of her head to clear the unwelcome thoughts away, Mattie rinsed her hands and stepped through the curtain to find that the tearooms were heaving with customers. The windows were steamed up but people were shaking off umbrellas and hanging damp coats and jackets on the backs of chairs so it was obviously still raining.
Mattie took a deep breath, pulled out a smile from somewhere and raised her head so she could look the person at the head of the queue in the eye.
‘Just my usual coffee,’ said Tom, with a pointed look at his stupid old-fashioned wristwatch. ‘I’ve been waiting ages. Posy must be about to send out a search party.’
Mattie had sworn that she would never let another man take advantage of her, and yet she’d been letting Tom do exactly that for months, without even a please or thank you! Longer than months!
The grey storm cloud above her head changed to pink, deepening and darkening until it was a scarlet mist so that Mattie could hardly see as she gave Tom a tight, teeth-baring smile and snatched the mug that he was proffering.
She shoved the mug under one of Jezebel’s spouts and yanked at a lever in a way that had Cuthbert clucking anxiously.
‘Be gentle with my favourite lady,’ he admonished, giving the hissing machine an affectionate pat.
By way of reply, Mattie yanked the lever the other way and slammed Tom’s mug down in front of him, slopping coffee over the rim.
‘That’ll be one pound, twenty-five pence, please,’ Mattie gritted, the ‘please’ almost killing her.
Tom blinked owlishly from behind his glasses. ‘I beg your pardon.’
‘Black coffee is one pound and twenty-five pence,’ Mattie repeated. She gave Tom another teeth-baring smile, which made him take a step back. ‘You get fifty pence off for bringing in your own cup. We’re all about caring for the environment.’
‘You want me topayfor my coffee?’ Tom asked incredulously. ‘Is this a joke?’
‘Do I look like I’m joking?’ Mattie’s smile, by now, was all teeth. In fact, it was pretty close to a snarl and the long queue of people behind Tom were suddenly silent, ears straining not to miss one word of what sounded like it was about to become the mother of all rows. ‘And do I look like I’m running some kind of charitable organisation where I give out free coffee to someone who I know for a fact is in regular employment and doesn’t even have to pay any rent?’
Mattie did give out free coffee (and food, for that matter) to anyone who came in and looked as if they really needed it, but Tom didn’t come under that category.
He pulled out a handful of change from his trouser pocket, his lips so thin that they’d all but disappeared, as he sorted through the coins. ‘I was under the impression that Happy Ever After staff got free tea and coffee,’ he bit out.
‘Generally they do, but then ALL the Happy Ever After staff apart from you actually buy food from me …’
‘You’re always sending over cakes and buns to the shop free of charge,’ Tom protested, which was true, but that was neither here nor there.
‘That’s atmydiscretion. None of the other shop staff bring food intomytearooms that they’ve purchased from another establishment.’ Mattie gestured at the paper bag that Tom was holding. ‘Every morning you come in with your bloody breakfast panini and expect me to provide free coffee to wash it down. Well, no longer. You have to pay for your coffee now.’
‘Fine.’ Tom’s thin face was pink with emotion, though whether it was anger or shame, Mattie couldn’t tell. ‘You only had to say. And as my presence and my breakfast panini is such a burden to you, then I’ll make my own coffee from now on.’
‘Fine,’ Mattie snapped. This was exactly what she wanted. Except … she didn’t feel fine about it. She felt distinctly unfine. Like she was the one being unreasonable. She knew that she was right tofinallytake a stance on his free coffees, but her delivery left a lot to be desired. She’d let her anger take over and so her harsh tone had completely negated all the very good points she’d raised.
Tom left, taking a couple of customers with him who’d obviously decided that their need for coffee and a bite to eat wasn’t that great after all. Especially if they were going to be harangued when they tried to order.
‘You know what? I can handle these fine people on my own,’ Cuthbert said, taking Mattie’s arm and pulling her away from the counter. ‘Why don’t you go back to the kitchen?’
