Page 99 of A Good Heart is Hard to Find
‘Well, that’s a blessing anyway!’
‘Yes, but he asked if it was possible for them to have a light meal served in their room! Soup or something. I couldn’t very well refuse, could I?’
‘I supposenot: but you don’t have to cook for the other three as well!’
‘I wouldn’t, only that weird woman in the sari – she’s the sister of the small fat man and married to the tall, thin one – overheard and said she felt quite faint from the long journey and she’d like to do the same. Then the other two said in that case they only needed a snack too, because they wanted to walk down and visit the graveyardand the Haunted Well later in the evening when the atmosphere would be right. Right for what?’
‘Goodness knows. Where’s Eddie?’
‘He’s gone down to Emlyn’s in his van for cans of soup and garlic bread, and more fruit to make a big fresh fruit salad.’
‘If I’d known he was going I’d have asked him to get me a pizza – I’m starving! Anyway, tell me what I can do.’
‘Could you lay the table for thetwo men in the breakfast room? They’re quite nice actually – Mr Bream and Mr Shakespeare.’
‘Shakespeare?’
‘Yes, but Frank, not William. Then I need to lay those two big trays ready for taking upstairs.’
‘I can do that, too. I only hope you’re going to charge them through the nose for this kind of service.’
‘I certainly am!’ she said, a martial light appearing in hereyes. Then we heard Eddie’sfootsteps outside and she leaped to open the kitchen door. He staggered in laden with cardboard boxes of supplies.
There was a banana in the top pocket of his bib and brace overalls which became somewhat bruised if not flambéed by the enthusiasm of their reunion.
I removed the cartons and began to set about heating bread and soup.
‘What would I do without you, Eddie?’ Rosetta said. ‘Let mejust get through this weekend and never again! But Dante’s going to be so disappointed with me when we leave next week!’
I stopped slicing bread and stared at her, baffled: ‘What do you mean, leave?’
‘I’m going off with Eddie.’
‘How can you go off when you’ve got a B&B to run? And do you mean in his van?’
‘Of course! Though actually I wondered if Dante would let us use the lodge as our base,especially in winter, so we could come back from time to time? He’ll be angry at first, but I know he just wants me to be happy. And I will be, with Eddie.’
I thought she might be being a bit sanguine about that. Another thing came to me, too: ‘Eddie, Ma and Pa are staying in the village at Orla’s. Francis brought them because they want to see Jane. That’s why I’m here already, I’m hiding.’
Eddie smiled cheerfully: but then, like all the boys, he has grown out of being afraid of Pa. And Jane, of course, never had cause to be.
‘You won’t tell them I’m here if you see them, will you, Eddie? They’re looking for Jane – they think I’ve concealed her somewhere. I’m going down to the King’s Arms shortly to see Francis and find out what’s happening.’
‘I’d come too, Cass, but I can’t leaveRosetta. She needsme … bad vibes.’ He shook his dreadlocks sadly so all the little beads clicked. ‘I’ll be glad to get her out of here after this weekend. But it’s good news about you and Dante, because Rosie won’t be so worried about him if you’re here.’
‘What about me and Dante?’ I demanded. ‘Thereisno me and Dante! What do you mean?’
Eddie gazed placidly at me. ‘Isn’t that what the auctionwas about? The best man won?’
‘No, you pot-smoking addle-brained hippie, the richest, most pig-headed man won! And whatever he thought he was winning, he wasted his money.’
Eddie just grinned, impervious to my insults, which anyway he has heard before.
‘I think he just wanted to buy time with you so he could get to know you,’ Rosetta suggested timidly. ‘I knew he was interested in you, onlyhe’s been through hell, what with being a hostage and seeing his friend killed, and then finding he’d lost Emma and the baby too. It’s made him—’
‘Bitter, twisted and suspicious?’ I finished for her. ‘And I think you’re wrong – he now knows me as well as he’ll ever want to.’
‘He was a bit narked that you gave him a vampire ancestor in the book,’ Eddie said.
