Page 58 of A Recipe for Love
‘What?’
‘It doesn’t feel real does it?’
Adam tapped the table in front of them. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘No. I mean. It’s all window dressing isn’t it? Like all the top-class eatery bollocks she was spouting.’
‘She’s just doing her job. It’s hard.’ He stopped and corrected himself. ‘It must be hard to be born into all this and then have it all shift around you.’
Bella wrinkled her nose. ‘Fine, well, like the trees, then. You said that was a stage set, not a forest. And this…’ She picked up her offending brownie. ‘It looks great but there’s nothing to it. It’s all pretending to be something that they think tourists want, but it’s not real. You know what I mean?’
‘Yeah. I do.’
Chapter Ten
The day after their trip to spy on what Bella was increasingly thinking of as ‘the opposition’ it was Ladies’ Group time again. The system for deciding where and when the group was meeting remained a mystery, but Flinty always seemed to somehow know. Bella assumed it was something you came to feel ‘in your waters’ after sufficient years – or perhaps decades – of life in Lowbridge.
Before they went, Bella was set on getting the aberration of a brownie she’d been served the previous day out of her mind. And the only way to get over a bad brownie was to get yourself a really good one. She creamed together her butter and sugar – caster sugar because that was what Flinty had in, but ideally she’d have used half muscovado – while half her chocolate melted over a pan of hot water. Then it was a simple job to combine the chocolate with the butter and sugar, add the flour, eggs and a dash of cocoa and mix together. Finally she chopped the remaining chocolate into generous chunks – no feeble little shop-bought chocolate chips for Bella – and stirred them through the mixture. She popped the whole thing to bake in a low oven for at least half an hour while she sat at the kitchen island with a big mug of tea.
‘Oh wow! Something smells amazing.’ Darcy sniffed the air in the kitchen appreciatively as she came in.
‘Brownies. For Ladies’ Group.’
‘Oh, I used to love Ladies’ Group. I mean, they all thought I was a mad American because I put honey in my tea, but once we’d got past that it was great fun.’
‘Why don’t you come?’
‘Come where?’ Veronica appeared in the doorway. The longer she was at Lowbridge the more sure Bella was becoming that Veronica’s footsteps made no noise. She never approached. She simply materialised in place.
‘To the village Ladies’ Group,’ Darcy replied. ‘Bella’s going.’ Darcy’s tone had hints of a petulant teenager about it.
‘Yes. Well.’ That ‘well’ was doing a lot of conversational heavy lifting.Wellthere’s no accounting for Bella.Wellwhat do you expect from her?WellBella doesn’t really count as the lady of the house does she, so does it matter? Any and all of the above could have been the intended implication.
‘Well what?’
‘Well, you’ve not been here long enough to really understand these things yet, dear.’ Veronica folded her arms. ‘If you stick around and marry my grandson…’
As ever Bella bristled at the ‘if’.
‘…then you’ll learn that Lady Lowbridge can’t have a foot in both camps. When one joins this family there are certain sacrifices.’
‘It’s tea and a chat. It’s not exactly supporting the forces of revolution.’ Although Bella would definitely volunteer as chief cake-maker for the Lowbridge People’s Front if the opportunity ever arose. ‘And if more groups from the village are going to be coming here it makes sense for me to get to know people, doesn’t it?’
Darcy nodded in agreement. ‘Quite right. And I shall come with you, Bella. Thank you very much for inviting me.’
With Darcy in tow and a late arrival in the form of Reverend Jill – bustling in with apologies for not making it more often and explanations of the ridiculous demands made of her by needy parishioners, hastily glossed over with a ‘Not any of you of course’ – Anna’s lounge was full to bursting by the time Bella popped open her borrowed Tupperware.
Jill leaned in towards the chocolatey wondrousness. ‘I shouldn’t. Really I shouldn’t.’
The other women nodded. ‘A moment on the lips,’ Darcy added.
Bella could practically hear the salivating. ‘Well I’ll pop them here if anyone wants any.’
The conversation kicked off with a fundraising update from Nina. ‘So Netty’s sponsored silence is underway.’
How could they tell, wondered Bella.
Next to her Netty nodded.
