‘Yeah.’
Martyn turned for the metal steps. ‘Want to come up, then? I’ve got some stuff to do but you can watch Sky.’
Ru breathed, ‘OK.’ But it took him a moment to start up the steps behind Martyn, as if he couldn’t quite believe he’d been invited.
Chapter Fourteen
On Sunday morning at the Eastingdean Teapot, Honor found Sophie sulking in the kitchen and sporting shocking pink hair. It looked like hell with her ever-pink face. Honor felt laughter ballooning.
‘Robina was going to do hers, too!’ Sophie wailed. ‘She chickened out.’
Robina tossed back her dark curls, then winced. Sullen grey shadows lurked beneath her eyes in an otherwise stark white face. ‘There wasn’t much dye left. I was worried it wouldn’t take properly.’
Sophie pouted. ‘You chickened out.’
‘You certainly were brave, Sophie,’ Honor consoled. ‘And how is your friend, Kirsty?’
Sophie’s gaze accused Robina once more. ‘Exhausted. She could have done with a good night’s sleep. But Robina wasn’t very well during the night.Wereyou, Robbie? And every time she thundered to the bathroom she banged the door. Poor Kirsty.’
‘Poor me.’ Robina swelled with outrage. ‘I was the one who spent half the night on the bathroom floor.’
Honor washed her hands and tied on her apron. ‘Was it something you ate?’
Sophie slammed the oven door shut and set the timer. ‘No — something she drank. Because she was greedy, as usual, and drank more than her share — also as usual!’ Her pink face quivered as she slammed utensils on the steel surfaces.
Robina screwed up her face in pain and reached for the ties of her apron. ‘I’m too ill to work. I’m taking a sickie.’
Instantly, Sophie’s anger flipped to dismay. ‘Robbie! That’s not fair. OK, I won’t bang—’
Calmly, Honor cut across her panicked apologies, reaching around Robina and retying the apron strings. ‘No, you’re not taking a sickie because if you do, me and Sophie are downing tools so the Teapot will have to be shut and Sunday must be a lucrative day. You’re not too sick to work. You and Sophie are going to stop taking swipes at each other and we’re all going to be friends and just get the work done, OK?’
Robina and Sophie gaped.
Honor held their gazes. She’d spent too long dealing with Stef’s stunts to be intimidated by people throwing tantrums. ‘Jeez, what is it with you guys? Grow up. Does Kirsty usually get between you when you fight?’
Robina’s glare dissolved. ‘Yes,’ she admitted, with a grin. ‘Kirst is the sensible one, Sophie’s the emotional one and I’m the diva. Right, Sophie?’
Sophie giggled. ‘Right, Robbie.’ But then a stick of a woman shuffled through the door, clutching the doorframe as if her knees might buckle. The laughter died.
‘Hiya, Kirsty!’ Robina’s jollity was horribly forced after the instant of silence.
Sophie shot around the counter and helped Kirsty pull out a chair. ‘Kirstee! Are you sure you ought to be up?’
Kirsty propped herself in the chair, looking like an old waxwork, yellowed and shrunken. ‘No,’ she admitted. ‘How about peppermint tea?’
‘I’ll do it. You guys sit down together.’ Honor made peppermint tea for all three of the women after shaking hands with Kirsty, ‘Hi, how are you?’, pretending not to notice that Kirsty’s hand had a permanent tremor.
Kirsty looked so drawn that Honor had to thrust away the wordssick unto deaththat rushed into her mind. Customers began to cast Kirsty furtive glances, making Robina joke, loudly, ‘I hope nobody thinks she got like this from eating here!’ But noamount of wisecracking disguised the shock in Robina’s eyes or the anxiety in Sophie’s round pink face.
When Kirsty had staggered back up to her room, Robina snapped at everyone for the rest of the morning. Sophie whispered that it was because Robina could see there was no way Kirsty would be well enough to look after the Teapot while Robina and Sophie went to the Global Gathering, but Honor thought Kirsty was so damned sick that even Robina couldn’t be quite that self-centred.
She hoped not, anyway.
* * *
Thursday and Friday were Honor’s free days this week and, by the time they came around, she was glad to have a couple of days off from refereeing spats between Robina and Sophie, facilitating ecstatic encounters between hungry customers and Robina’s cakes and breathing in so much sugar that her own sweet tooth took a hike and she began to fantasise about salted nuts or crispy bacon.
She hadn’t intended working half the hours Robina rostered her on for but the Teapot was frantic with the tourist season in flood, as most English kids finished school during the third week of July for the long summer break, and the sun shining as consistently as the English sun seemed able to manage. She had to harden her heart about Ru standing in for her because Robina said that the last couple of days at school were a waste of time.
