Page 70 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
‘I suppose I’d better make it clear in the newspaper article that I don’t harbour any anger towards her for what she did – which I don’t,’ I said. ‘I just want to understand why.’
‘I’m still surprised that Nessa’s never been in contact with you, even though she must have known she could have found you through us,’ she said.
‘I’mnot, because after Dad died, suddenly it was as if she’d only been acting the part of my mother and she’d had enough of it – and of me.’
I seemed to make a habit of mislaying mothers.
By now, dusk was stealing over the landscape and the wind was revving up to a howl. ‘Come on,’ I said with a sudden shiver. ‘Get back in the car and we’ll go and introduce you to the Giddingses!’
Lola, with her sweet, serious expression and warm heart, was an instant success with the whole family, as I knew she would be. Even Nile, who’d turned up unannounced for dinner, thawed quickly and stopped glooming about some bijou bit of antiquity on which he’d been out-bid.
I told them all about Dolly and Lola’s Perfectly Pickled and Preserved Company and my sampling session earlier that day.
‘Everything was so delicious that I’m going to use them exclusively in my tearoom –andsell them from the counter, too. I’d have one of Lola’s display stands if I had more room, but I wondered if you might like to have one when you open the waffle house?’
Lola, who’d been showing Geeta and Sheila a random collection of snaps on her phone, ranging from the three little girls, the hens and the goats, to the newly painted wooden building housing the preserve company, scrolled to a picture of the stands.
‘Lovely,’ said Bel, leaning over the table to see. ‘I’m sure we’d have room for one of those.’
‘And perhaps you could supply the black cherry jam for my waffles?’ Sheila suggested.
‘I prefer blackcurrant,’ Nile said, coming out of his dark reverie at the mention of waffles.
‘Or strawberry,’ said Teddy, ‘that’s my favourite.’
‘I’ll bring samples for you next time I come up,’ Lola said. ‘The ones I brought have mostly gone.’
‘You’d better keep the next lot away from Alice, then,’ Nile said.
‘They were very small jars, just for tasting,’ I said indignantly. ‘It’s not like I was pigging out on gallons of the stuff.’
‘I think Alice said you were opening your waffle house next year?’ Lola said to Bel, quickly.
Bel nodded. ‘Easter, if we get planning permission in time.’
‘That’s the time of year when things hot up on the swimming pond front, too,’ Geeta said. ‘People start to think about installing one ready for summer.’
‘Oh, yes, Alice told me about those. I think natural outdoor swimming sounds a lovely idea.’
‘If you come in warmer weather, you can try ours,’ Sheila told her.
‘What with Alice’s teashop, Lola’s preserve company and our soon-to-be waffle house, we’re certainly sisters doing it for ourselves,’ Bel said, then sang a snatch of the Annie Lennox song.
‘Brothers are doing pretty well for themselves, too,’ Teddy pointed out.
‘True, you and Geeta have expanded the Pondlife business wonderfully, darlings,’ agreed Sheila. ‘And Nile’s little shop is a success too.’
‘Damned with faint praise,’ Nile said.
‘Now, Nile, you know I didn’t mean it like that, you big grump,’ Sheila told him affectionately.
‘We looked in the window of Small and Perfect earlier, and there are some lovely things,’ Lola said to him, soft-hearted as always, and then, since she adores babies, she went off with Geeta to help put Casper to bed.
When she returned, she said the smell of baby talc was enough to make her feel broody all over again, but for some reason this perfectly innocent remark seemed to cast Nile right back into his dark mood and he left before the coffee.
I noticed later when we got back to my flat that Nile’s curtains were drawn and the lights were on, but who knew if anyone was home? Was the bear in his cave, or had he wandered off somewhere?
‘Nile’s even more stunning than you said,’ Lola told me. ‘And I think he really likes you, because at dinner I kept catching him looking at you as if he was absolutely fascinated.’
