Her face burned.
“What are you two whispering about?” Cook brought over bacon to the table and heaped more on Adam’s plate.
“I cant eat all that.” He pushed the plate away.
“Oh fiddlesticks, you need your strength.”
“Now, now.” Mrs B gave Cook a reprimanding look. The housekeeper never indulged in gossip.
Cook hastened to defend herself. “I only meant because he’s caring for Lord M.”
Which didn’t really make things better, and neither did the general laughter that travelled around the kitchen table.
And suddenly faded to a thick silence.
“Good morning.” Nicole came in.
She never had any of her meals with ‘the staff’ so it was rare to see her in the kitchen.
“What time is Miss Summers due back?” She made the question sound as if she was a Head demanding answers from students on detention.
“We’re not really sure.” Pierre shrugged innocently. “It depends when their flight lands and which ferry they take.”
Pierre apparently liked Nicole as little as Laura did.
“They should be here by eleven,” Mrs B said in her quiet way.
“Good.” Nicole swivelled on her heels and walked out.
“Mrs B, you’re kind to the wrong people. She didn’t even thank you,” Pierre hissed.
“She has a job to do same as all of us.” The housekeeper’s tone was kind but brooked no argument.
Nicole had gone but her brief visit had soured the genial atmosphere. Laura pushed back her chair; it was time to go to work. She’d hoped to see Millie this morning and arrange for a fitting, but by the sound of things she was going to be in high demand today and Laura didn’t want to sit around waiting like a puppy hoping for attention.
“See you later.” Adam brushed a hand down her back as he passed her on his way out of the kitchen. Sunlight from the hall window caught his fair hair briefly as he ran up the stairs.
It was the first of March and the sun had finally come out.
Spring, she’d been told, would come in March; it was why the wedding had been set for the fifteenth. Evidently it was true. Laura noticed on her walk to the Casemate that all the trees were in bud, and birds flitted here and there busily doing whatever it is birds did while singing. There were new flowers too, or perhaps they’d been there before but she noticed them more with the sun shining.
Or perhaps she was happy.
See you later, he’d promised. Which meant this was more than a one night stand.
It wouldn’t last of course; they’d both been very clear about this being a casual thing. But there was no need for it to be too short. She had another two to three weeks on the island and it would be nice to leave with some nice memories.
And leave she would. No matter how many flowers and birds accompanied her morning walk to work, no matter how many friends she made at the house or the Casemate, and certainly no matter how much sex she had with a handsome doctor who himself had made it clear he was only passing through and had no interest in a relationship.
Remember, you’re a spinster. You have a career to build, this was no time to get sentimental.
Start as you mean to go on, don’t spend the day thinking about him. Eyes forward, mind forward, focus on work.
They were good intentions and she certainly would have stuck to them if it hadn’t been for Tirana.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tirana,from her baby’s bedside, seemed to be a very active hash-tagger.
