Page 77 of A Recipe for Love
‘I’ll not overstay my welcome.’
‘You’re always welcome.’
‘You’re going to be newlyweds. You’ll want some time to yourselves.’
Bella heard herself laugh. ‘Well you’re not welcome to join in with those times.’
Flinty shot her a look. It was a look Veronica herself would have been proud of.
‘But you’re very welcome here. I mean if we’re going to open the castle up more we’ll need all the help we can get.’ That was true. ‘And I was hoping you’d help on Saturday.’ The thought of Flinty’s reassuringly solid presence for the cookery school trial day was instantly calming.
‘Well of course I’ll be here for that.’
Of course she would. ‘And, from what I can see, you’re basically family anyway.’
‘Oh.’ The noise Flinty made wasn’t a word and it wasn’t a sob. It was barely a syllable from deep in her throat. Then she shook her head. ‘You’re very sweet, but no. I’m definitely not part of the family. Mind your biscuits don’t get burnt.’
Bella flung open the oven. Her shortbread was a touch on the dark side of golden but should still be delicious. Onto stage two of the plan.
Twenty minutes later the three ladies of Lowbridge were sitting in the Yellow Room – still definitely green – and Bella was pouring tea. ‘I thought that if we could sit down and talk through a few things then I’m sure we can all get on, can’t we?’
Darcy didn’t reply. Veronica nodded. ‘Of course. I get along with everyone.’
So insolence and denial were her current challenges. Bella slid the plate of shortbread across the coffee table to the other women. ‘Biscuit?’
‘No thank you.’ Veronica shook her head.
‘I don’t eat carbs before noon,’ Darcy told her.
Bella’s natural sympathy had been with Darcy as her fellow incomer and the grieving widow, but she was absolutely prepared to switch sides based on attitude to carbs. The shortbread had been her main tool for getting the two women on side. Without food as an offering Bella’s social weapons were significantly more limited.
She thought back over Flinty’s suggestions from the day before. What was the common ground here? ‘Adam asked me to have a chat with you about the whole bedroom thing.’
Darcy bristled instantly. ‘So you are throwing me out?’
‘Not at all, but he hates two of you fighting all the time.’
‘We are not fighting,’ Veronica insisted.
‘Well we have been a bit,’ Darcy conceded. ‘Because you won’t let it go.’
‘Well those rooms are for the current laird and lady.’
‘The current laird said he didn’t mind.’
The conversation was already getting away from Bella. ‘But he does mind that you two aren’t getting along.’ What would Adam say? No. That was the wrong question. Adam had already tried. He’d tried to keep the peace and be conciliatory and it hadn’t helped at all. Bella needed to find whatever it was that Adam wouldn’t say. ‘And,’ she took a deep breath and hoped that her fiancé wouldn’t be too furious if – when – he heard about this. ‘Only this is Adam’s home now and he wouldn’t want to have to ask you both to leave.’
Both women stared at her.
‘He would never…’ Veronica started.
‘But Adam said…’ added Darcy.
The horror on both their faces made Bella pause. She’d threatened the one thing she knew her fiancé would never condone. ‘I’m sorry.’
Darcy was blinking back tears. Veronica looked devastated. So much for her clever strategy. ‘Of course he would never… It’s just that he really hates you fighting and I promised I’d try to get you to stop.’
‘Is it really upsetting him?’ Darcy asked.
