Page 105 of A Recipe for Love
‘What’s wrong?’ Adam was looking at his mother with concern.
‘Oh. I just felt like something prodded me.’ She rubbed the side of her leg. ‘Hard. Here.’
‘Poppy,’ said Bella.
Penny frowned. ‘Oh for goodness’ sake. They’re not still pedalling that nonsense.’
It was one thing for Bella to think that but quite another for this person to come in here and cast aspersions. ‘Poppy isn’t nonsense.’
‘Whatever. She never liked me.’
‘No.’ Veronica’s tone was cool.
Penny turned back to Bella. ‘I’m sure moving on won’t be a problem for you anyway,’ Penny replied.
‘I don’t have any plans to…’ Bella looked past Penny and caught the look on Adam’s face. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Maybe we should go and sit down,’ Adam suggested.
‘We’re fine here,’ Veronica insisted.
Adam was staring at Bella. ‘Can’t we go through to the Yellow Room?’
She shook her head. It felt as though a line was being drawn, and somehow Bella was scared that she and the man she loved were going to be on different sides.
Adam took a sharp breath in. Bella could see that he was steeling himself for something. ‘I’m going to accept the McKenzie offer.’
He couldn’t. ‘What?’
‘No.’ Darcy and Veronica both spoke at once.
‘It’s his decision,’ his mother pointed out. If she was trying to help, it had the opposite effect.
Veronica shook her head. ‘It’s a family decision.’
‘And I’m as much part of his family as you are.’
When Veronica did lose her temper, even with Darcy when the two of them were at one another’s throats, she rarely shouted and she rarely screamed. Bella had only been here a few weeks but she already knew that the more furious Adam’s grandmother was, the quieter and more definite she became. She almost whispered her reply to Penny, pure rage dancing across every word. ‘No. You are not.’
‘I’m his—’
‘Do not say mother.’
‘I am—’
‘Where were you when he broke his wrist walking on Hartfield Hill? Where were you when him and Pavel Stone stole Hugh’s boat and went for a jolly in Portree? Were you here ringing the coastguard and scouring the loch for sight of them?’
‘I—’
‘Where were you when he was worrying himself into a frenzy about retaking maths again so he could get into college? Where were you when he graduated?’ Finally Veronica raised her voice. ‘I asked you a question, Penelope. Where were you?’
‘I was going crazy here.’ She looked from Veronica to Flinty and back again. ‘You were there. You saw.’
‘I was.’ Veronica’s tone softened ever so slightly. ‘I understood that you needed some time. But nearly twenty years? You missed everything.’
Penny didn’t reply.
Bella kept her gaze fixed on Adam. He hadn’t spoken since he’d announced that Lowbridge wasn’t going to be all the things Bella had hoped for. The place that she’d begun to think of as home seemed to be shifting under her feet. ‘Why?’ she asked.
