Page 75 of A Winter Kiss on Rochester Mews
‘Yes, I’m all caught up with the weather,’ Mattie said, crouching down to open the oven. Then she transferred her croissants to the bottom shelf so she could put the pains aux raisins on the middle shelf. ‘Again, what are you doing out of bed before nine?’
‘The silence woke me up,’ Tom said, scratching his head. Obviously he hadn’t had time to brush his hair, which was standing up in all directions. Much like it had been the other night when Mattie had been running her fingers through it. She gulped and looked away. ‘It was too quiet to sleep. I’m used to a certain amount of ambient traffic noise.’
‘Not much chance of that,’ Mattie said, straightening up and getting her first proper look at Tom. She thought she’d seen all of his interesting and outdated sartorial choices but somehow the ancient navy-blue duffel coat he was currently wearing had escaped her attention. ‘Nice coat.’
‘Sarcasm doesn’t become you,’ Tom said with a sniff, which turned into a little shiver, probably because they were still being frosty with each other. ‘I have no idea why I’m being so public spirited but I seem to remember that there’s a shovel in the coal hole outside and so I should probably clear a path through the mews.’
‘That is very public spirited of you,’ Mattie agreed. She was fed up with the awkward atmosphere between them. So, they’d kissed? It was no big deal unless they made it into one. ‘Do you want coffee first?’
He did and Mattie yanked a croissant out of the oven for him, then they walked through the shop, stopping to retrieve the coal hole key en route, peering out at the winter wonderland. The snow was still coming down, but maybe not as hard as it had been, so Tom unlocked the door and stepped outside. Mattie quickly shut the door, before he could let too much cold air in, and waved encouragingly at him through the glass.
He was already covered in a fine coating of snow as he lumbered, like an astronaut walking on the moon for the first time, to the coal hole, which was directly in front of the shop and accessed through a hatch. It was used to store all manner of old junk, rather than coal, though Posy had had the bad fortune to be locked in it twice. Once by Sebastian when they were both kids, and more recently by an evil property developer, though that time she’d been rescued by Sebastian.
Now Tom unlocked the hatch door and disappeared from view. He was gone quite a while, long enough for Mattie to go back to the kitchen to take out her trays and put in two new ones and then return to her vantage point, with still no sighting of him.
With a sigh, she stuck her head out of the door and over the swirl of snowflakes and the roar of the wind, called out: ‘Tom! Are you all right?’
‘Can’t get out,’ came the muffled reply. ‘Normally I’d hoist myself out, but my coat and boots are getting in the way and if I take them off to jump out, then I’ll have to leave them down here.’
Mattie looked up to the heavens and was almost blinded by snow. ‘Not sure I’d be any help,’ she shouted doubtfully. ‘I have no upper-body strength.’
‘Liar! I’ve seen you beating sticks of cold butter and whisking stuff so fast it’s a blur,’ Tom called back. ‘Can you go and get the kick-steps from the shop?’
‘I can do that.’ Mattie retrieved the little stool they used to fetch books down from the shelves not served by the rolling ladder. With an unhappy sigh, she stepped out into the mews and instantly regretted the fact that she was wearing her Converse, which were instantly soaked through, and no coat. She peered down into the coal hole where Tom stood, his head almost level with the hatch. ‘You could easily jump out of there.’
‘Not helping,’ Tom gritted, as he held up a shovel. ‘Swap you.’
With some difficulty – it was quite hard to get purchase on the ground in slippery trainers and while all her extremities were in danger of freezing – Mattie handed down the kick-steps in return for a spade.
‘There’s also two sacks of gritting salt down here,’ Tom reported. ‘Shall we heft them out?’
‘If we must,’ Mattie agreed, though she was glad that Tom did most of the heavy lifting and she only needed to drag them the final few inches.
Then, despite his bulky coat and cumbersome boots, Tom managed to heft himself out with the aid of the kick-steps, which he stared at thoughtfully, then back at Mattie.
‘If I dangled you down, you could just about grab hold of the steps and get them out,’ he ventured.
‘You are not dangling me, no way. It’s absolutely against Health and Safety.’ Mattie plucked at her black jumper, which was thoroughly damp. ‘I’m going inside to put on non-soggy clothes but I’m super grateful that you’re going to clear and grit the mews.’
‘So much for gender equality,’ Tom muttered, but Mattie ignored him and hurried back inside.
She’d barely had time to change and put in the next lot of breakfast pastries, when the tearoom door opened and Cuthbert announced himself.
‘All this snow,’ he said, taking off his trilby hat.
‘I noticed,’ Mattie said with a grin. She had to resist the urge to hug her barista. ‘I’m so pleased to see you.’
‘My five-minute commute was a ten-minute commute this morning,’ Cuthbert said, pointing at his feet where old-fashioned black rubber galoshes were covering the natty brown lace-ups he preferred to wear. ‘Now, young Tom looks like he’s in need of sustenance.’
Mattie went over to the window to see that Tom had cut a path through the snow and was now sprinkling gritting salt in his wake. She rapped on the glass, to get his attention. He turned and raised a gloved hand in greeting.
It was quite hard to mime, ‘Do you want a croque missus for when you’re done? Yes, the one with the fried egg on top,’ but Tom seemed to get the general idea because he gave her a thumbs up and went back to work.
When he came to claim his prize, he was accompanied by Little Sophie.
‘Mum said that I could easily walk to work and she didn’t raise me to give up at the first sign of trouble,’ she said rather mournfully. ‘Apparently no one likes a quitter.’
‘Well, I’d like you no matter what, but I am glad you’re here,’ Mattie said, but it was past nine now, with not a customer in sight, and even as she pulled two tables together so they could all eat a communal breakfast, she wondered whether she should give it another hour then send everyone home.
