‘I don’t know. I’m not exactly sure what would be involved. And I accept that the supper club will have to be postponed while we do this but I thought if we got things going it would be done quicker.’
‘If you don’t want to sell the cheese per se just at the moment …’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, if you just want to make cheese to serve at the supper club without giving people salmonella poisoning, you could make it here – and keep it here too, if your fridges are a bit full. I don’t supposethiskitchen would pass regulations for making cheese on any kind of scale, but this kitchen has been passed relatively recently as fit to provide food at some big dinners.’
‘Really?’
He made a gesture. ‘If you look over in that corner you’ll see a wash-hand basin, which, as you know, is essential in a commercial kitchen. I know the environmental health officer. I could get this kitchen passed again fairly quickly. Would that help?’
Fran almost couldn’t speak. ‘That would be amazing! I could bring the milk over here and make all the cheese I needed to for the supper club. Then no one could get funny about it having been made …’ She thought of the kitchen back home. ‘Well, you know …’
‘You could do any other cooking here that you wanted, too. I’m not here most of the time and the kitchen is rarely used for much, except to make coffee.’ He smiled, somewhat wistfully, Fran thought.
‘That would be really helpful,’ said Fran. ‘I’m planning to make puff pastry for the game pies and I could do it over here in peace with plenty of space.’
‘Sounds good.’
‘You will come to the supper club, though, won’t you, Antony? As our guest? We wouldn’t want you to pay.’
‘If I come I’ll pay. What do you do about wine?’ he added.
‘BYO– bring your own. Not a problem for you, of course. Not sure what to do about people who forget. Even if we have wine just in case, we can’t sell it without a licence.’
‘There is a licence you can get. It lets you have about five events a year. I could supply you good wine and you could make a bit of profit on it.’
‘That sounds a good offer but I don’t want people to feel they can’t bring their own.’ She took another sip of her latte. ‘But I’ll look into it.’
Neither of them spoke for a few moments, and then Antony said, ‘I know you don’t really like accepting help – it goes against your desire to be independent, but you shouldn’t, you know. I like being philanthropic. Seb would say it massages my ego, being nice.’
‘I’ve accepted a lot of help from you already—’ Fran began.
‘But you haven’t wanted to. It’s nearly killed you, coming here, asking about the cheese room, hasn’t it?’
‘Yes.’ Her voice was very small.
‘Well, you’ve done it and I think you should feel proud of yourself.’ Antony smiled in a way that suddenly made him a thousand times more attractive. And he’d been quite attractive before.
‘One day I’d really like to do something for you. Something you’d really appreciate,’ she said on a flood of gratitude. Then she remembered – his generosity might not be entirely unselfish. ‘Except sell you the farm, if I inherit it,’ she finished quickly.
Helaughed properly now and she couldn’t help noticing how his throat rippled and how good his teeth were. Gratitude is making me susceptible, she decided. ‘I’d better go. I’m visiting Amy now.’
‘I’d say “give her my love”,’ Antony said, ‘but I don’t think she’d appreciate it.’
‘I’m sure she’ll feel differently when I tell her how helpful you’re being.’
‘Don’t tell her.’ He was very definite. ‘It will worry her, make her suspicious about my motives.’
‘I could explain—’
‘No. She’s disliked my family for three generations or so. Nothing you could tell her about me is going to make her feel differently.’
Fran regarded him, good-looking, powerful and, to her, extremely kind, and felt a sudden stab of discomfort. Was it wrong of her to take advantage of his kindness when Amy felt like that about him? It probably was. But what alternative did she have?
He sensed her conflict and put his hand on her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry about it, Fran. Just don’t tell Amy. I’m not as wicked as she thinks. Really.’
‘But are you wicked at all?’ said Fran, aware of his hand which he hadn’t taken away.
