Page 51 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
‘Really, you should have a rest, Alice, before tackling the caférenovations next week. Jack told me he was managing the whole thing for you between jobs for his regular clients and I think that’s a really sensible idea.’
‘I’d originally meant to do as much of it as I could myself to save money, but once I’d met Jack I realized that would be a false economy,’ I agreed.
‘We’re having a busman’s holiday today, Mum,’ Bel said. ‘We’re going to measure up the coach house and work out the plans for our café so Teddy can draw them up. And I was just about to tell Alice that we’ve decided to go all Norwegian with the food!’
‘Do you mean Norwegian cakes, like those delicious-sounding Bergen buns you mentioned?’ I asked.
‘No, we’ve scrapped the cake idea for something more unusual: we’re going to serve Norwegian waffles with sour cream and black cherry jam.’
‘Oranygood home-made jam,’ Sheila said. ‘I like them with strawberry.’
‘Are Norwegian waffles different?’ I asked.
‘They’re floppy and you spread the cream and jam on one side, then fold it over to eat.’
‘They sound delicious.’
‘I must make you some,’ Sheila promised. ‘And I’ve come to the conclusion that it will be better to employ someone in the café than try to run it ourselves.’
‘I think that’s very sensible, and the catering facilities will be simple if you’re going to need only a large waffle iron and tea- and coffee- making equipment.’
‘It’s going to cost a bit to turn the coach house into a café, but it’s an investment to draw in the visitors,’ Sheila said. ‘A sprat to catch a mackerel.’
‘I know. I keep going throughmyfigures and trying to find ways of keeping the costs down that won’t affect the quality of the teashop,’ I said. ‘But some things you justcan’tscrimp on.’
‘So, you think a little Norwegian waffle house would be a draw?’ asked Bel.
‘A sign saying “Waffle House” would certainly makemeturn off the road,’ I assured her. ‘It’s your unique selling point, just as offering grown-up afternoon teas is mine.’
‘Now I want waffles,’ Bel sighed, ‘and I’ve only just had a late breakfast.’
‘I’ll make some at lunchtime – I only came back for a cup of coffee really,’ Sheila said, but when she’d made it she sat down again at the table. ‘It will just be us three for dinner today, though I’m sure Nile will be back for his Sunday lunch tomorrow, come hell or high water!’
‘He never misses one if he can help it,’ Bel agreed, ‘and he callsmegreedy!’
‘Nile said he’d told you about how he came to be part of our family,’ Sheila said to me. ‘I’m so glad, because normally he’s very reserved about it.’
‘He’s normally reserved, full stop,’ Bel said. ‘Except with the family, of course.’
‘I hadn’t noticed that,’ I told her. ‘But then, I seem to rub him up the wrong way.’
‘Oh, I think he likes you really,’ Sheila assured me, though I expect that was more the result of her sunny optimistic nature than anything.
‘I was very surprised when he told me he was adopted too. I suppose it gives us some common ground, though his experience was entirely different from mine, of course, because he knew his mother.’
‘Yes, his early years were very traumatic, poor boy, and he saw some terrible things, though I’m sure that in her way his mother must have loved him.’
From what he’d said, it sounded to me as if she’d loved drink much more … which was just as tragic, in its way, as my being left in the middle of nowhere like a bit of discarded rubbish.
‘My adoptive mother was cold towards me, but I had a wonderful, loving father. My best friend Lola’s parents were great, too – really laid-back – and we had the run of their smallholding, with goats and hens and a donkey, so I suppose it was all a bit Enid Blyton.’
‘And now you and Nile are forging your own careers and have turned into fine young people,’ Sheila said.
‘Not so very young,’ I said wryly. ‘I’m thirty-six!’
‘Teddy and I are a couple of years younger than you, but Nile’s thirty-eight, the poor old thing,’ Bel said.
‘Not so much of the old,’ protested Sheila.
