Page 34 of A Recipe for Love
She was balancing awkwardly on one foot. ‘Do you want me to come with you?’
‘And fall down another hole?’ He shook his head. ‘No. I’ll be all right. I just need a few minutes to clear my head.’
She pressed a kiss to his lips and hoped he understood that it was more than a kiss. It was a promise that they’d be away from all this living their own lives very soon. He rested his forehead against hers a second before he moved away. ‘I’ll be back soon.’
Bella turned back towards the castle, expecting Dipper to stay out in the excitement of the outdoors with her new master. Instead the dog followed Bella inside.
Chapter Five
Bella limped back to the castle kitchen. Flinty was chopping carrots. The repetitive slice and tap of her knife against the board instantly soothed Bella’s frayed nerves. ‘Can I help with anything?’
Cooking always centred Bella. Even the most mundane prep tasks brought her a peace she seldom felt outside the kitchen.
Flinty shook her head. ‘I’m fine here, love.’
‘Right.’ The feeling that Bella was surplus to Lowbridge’s requirements edged up on her again. The thought of actually living here as lady of the manor, in the way Darcy seemed to, sent a physical shudder through her. What would she do all day?
‘Why don’t you take a proper look around inside?’ Flinty suggested, in a tone that instantly cast Bella in the role of troublesome child who needed to be entertained and kept out of the way. ‘You only got as far as the second ballroom corridor last time.’
‘Sure.’ She wandered through to the main hallway before Flinty’s comment hit her. Thesecondballroom corridor. Did that mean the second corridor near the ballroom, or did it imply the existence of a whole other primary ballroom somewhere else in the labyrinth this crazy family insisted as referring to as ‘the house’?
Opposite the entrance way was the staircase. Thefrontstaircase, as she’d now learned. Based on an instinct that Veronica was most likely to be in the office or one of the innumerable living rooms on the ground floor, Bella headed up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs was a grand landing, with doors and further corridors in every direction. Bella froze. Presumably these were bedrooms. You couldn’t wander into a random bedroom. Years working in the hotel trade had definitely taught her that.
She turned back towards the staircase, before a sound from further down the hallway stopped her. It was a sob. She was sure it was a sob. She stopped and listened. It wasn’t coming from the first door, the room nearest to her. She crept down the hallway. At the second door, she paused. Another sob, louder this time. Bella tapped gently on the door and pushed it open.
Darcy was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, the raggedy-looking man’s dressing gown wrapped around her shoulders, clutching a shiny-covered paperback. She didn’t look up as Bella came in.
She moved alongside her. ‘Darcy? Are you OK?’
Darcy looked up, as if noticing her companion for the first time. ‘I gave him this for his birthday.’ She opened the book to the bookmarked page. ‘He said he’d been wanting to read it for ages. He didn’t get to finish it.’ She turned the book over in her hands. ‘What should I do with it now?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Veronica says we should clear this room out for Adam.’
Bella shook her head. ‘Oh no. We’re fine in the coach house.’
‘Veronica said…’
‘It’s not a problem. It’s a really big house.’
‘It’s a castle, sweetie.’
Bella all but punched the air. ‘I know! Adam keeps calling it a house.’
Darcy managed a watery smile at the long-running dispute between her and the rest of the family. ‘His dad always said the same. I’d say castle and he’d say, “Well, barely.”’
‘It’s definitely a castle. We should have a ticket booth and charge admission.’
‘We used to.’ Darcy took a deep breath. ‘But then Covid, you know.’
‘You didn’t reopen?’
Darcy shook her head. ‘Alexander didn’t really have the heart for it. He was never that keen on having people around the whole time. This was supposed to be his room.’
Bella looked around. The dark wood furniture did have a distinctly masculine air, but there were clear signs of Darcy’s presence. Tubs of moisturiser on the night stand. Women’s clothes discarded on the chair in the corner.
