Mina shook her head. ‘No. I want sharp fruitiness. But I might try it the next time.’
‘Next time?’
‘I’ll try lots of different variations of the purée once I’m happy with the ratio of purée to meringue.’ She explained that she’d decided to make up one large batch of basic meringue mix and then divide it into four and add different amounts of purée so that she could work out which was going to work best. ‘I’m going to need a couple of guinea pigs to do some taste-testing for me. Then I’m thinking about trying to make a chocolate mousse meringue.’
Amelie laughed. ‘Well, you’re not going to have to look very far. You can try them out on the guests at coffee and cake.’
‘Are you sure? They might get sick of cherry meringue quite soon.’
‘How many times will you make it?’
‘It depends. I’m hopeful four batches will crack it. The main thing is to make sure I write down the exact quantities, so that I can remember what did work.’
Amelie studied her for a moment before saying with a gentle shake of her head, ‘I’m surprised you have that much patience.’
‘Surprises everyone,’ replied Mina with a grin. ‘When it comes to getting it right, I don’t mind doing it over and over again. Ask me to do that with anything else and I know I’d get bored. Food is different. I love the science of it. And knowing that things respond in certain ways under certain conditions. Baking is very scientific and recipes have to be very precise.’
‘You should write a recipe book.’
‘I’ve thought about it but…’ She shrugged. ‘There are hundreds. What would be different about mine?’
‘I don’t know, but a resourceful girl like you could come up with something, I’m sure.’
Mina wasn’t so sure. It was a crowded market, with celebrity chefs taking the lead. She’d often thought about starting a food blog, but then she needed something unique, a hook that would make it different. And did she have the discipline? Was it something shereallywanted to do? It seemed she was really good at working out what shedidn’twant to do. Just not so good at identifying what shedidwant to do.
The afternoon passed quickly, and before she knew it, four o’clock was almost upon them.
‘My new arrivals will be here any minute,’ said Amelie. ‘The ones I was telling you about.’
‘The ones you want my opinion on,’ said Mina, stretching and rolling her shoulders, which were complaining about her being hunched over the kitchen table for too long.
‘Yes,’ replied Amelie with a naughty twinkle in her bright eyes, tilting her head as if listening. ‘And I think that might be them.’
She hurried out of the kitchen door into the reception area and Mina followed.
‘David, watch where you’re going.’ A slight, dark-haired woman rolling her eyes stepped forward as her husband managed to bash one of his cases into the leather sofa, narrowly missing the German teenager sitting head-bent over her phone. ‘So sorry,’ she said to the girl who didn’t so much as look up, before glowering back at the unfortunate David. ‘You are useless.’
Mina caught Amelie’s eye but Amelie had perfected her poker face and simply smiled.
‘Sarah and David, welcome back. How lovely to see you.’
‘Huh, are you sure? With David wrecking your furniture. I hope there isn’t a tear in the leather. He’s so clumsy.’
‘I’m sure it will be fine. How was your journey?’
Sarah’s mouth pursed. ‘Fine. Except David had booked the early flight instead of the mid-morning one, so we had to get up at silly o’clock and now I feel exhausted.’
‘Yes,’ said Amelie, with a smile at poor old David, who was really getting in the neck, ‘but if you’d got a later flight, you’d have missed coffee and cake, and you wouldn’t have had time to relax before dinner. Come on, let’s get you some cake and coffee.’
Before anyone could move, Luke came in through the door, shaking off his scarf and peeling a matching red beany hat from his head.
‘Ah, Mina! I’ve been thinking—’
‘Luke, isn’t it?’ The woman’s sharp voice rang out, and before he could finish, she marched a few steps to meet him. ‘We met last time we were here. Sarah McDonald.’ She stabbed her hand out in a formal gesture that a robot might have been proud of.
‘Oh, yes. Hi,’ said Luke with one of his easy smiles, taking her hand and shaking it. ‘And it’s Dave, isn’t it?’
Before the other man could respond, Sarah had chipped in again, ‘Yes. We were here in November. Lovely weekend. And it’s so lovely to be back, although I would have liked to come in January, but David’s work was ridiculously busy, and for some reason—’ she sighed heavily ‘—he couldn’t get the time off work.’
