Page 8 of A Recipe for Love
‘Well—’
‘Baby Chippendale. Whatever.’
‘Yeah. Maybe.’ He looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. ‘Sorry it’s a bit sparse. My father never really bought things new. Furniture just gets moved around to rooms that aren’t used as much.’
Right. Bella battled to take that in. The almost-Chippendale was Adam’s equivalent of the mismatched set of pans her nan had liberated from her former neighbour’s house when Mrs Standish had moved into the home. A slightly unloved hand-me-down that nobody really noticed and that nobody would ever miss. ‘Any other heirlooms I should be aware of?’
Adam half-laughed. ‘Seriously, it’s all heirlooms. Everything here was here centuries before I was born.’
‘That’s incredible.’ What on earth would it be like to have roots that deep? To be connected to every single object in a place by generations of history. Bella sat down next to Adam on the bed and wrapped her hand around his. ‘You’re lucky.’
‘So I’m told.’ He turned his head slightly away from her and rubbed a hand across his eyes. ‘We should get to bed.’
He was right. Bella was exhausted and she could only imagine Adam felt the same. She quickly brushed her teeth, went to the loo, stripped down to her T-shirt and knickers, wrapped her body around his, and fell fast asleep almost as soon as the light flicked off.
For an hour or two at least. When she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was Adam, standing by the window, staring out, still wearing yesterday’s clothes. ‘Did you sleep?’
‘I dozed a bit.’
Bella sat up in bed. ‘So what now? Do we need to see your grandma?’ His grandmother had certainly been mentioned a lot last night. That was fine. Bella had her own experience of a grandmother who doubled as a force of nature. She could charm a grandmother. Who else? ‘Your stepmum lives here too?’
Adam nodded. ‘Darcy.’
‘Who else do we need to tell about your dad?’
‘Oh, just the great and good of the Highlands and Islands.’ Adam’s already grey complexion paled further. ‘And my mother.’ He closed his eyes for a second. ‘Grandmother will have dealt with the rest. She’s very good at dealing with things.’
‘She sounds interesting.’
‘She’s…’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know what any of us would do without her.’
He hadn’t moved from the window. Bella swung her legs out of bed. The stone floor, only part covered with a ragtag of thinning unmatched rugs, sent a shiver through her. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘I don’t know. Numb.’
She padded over to the window, blinking against the low morning light. They were looking out towards another building. Not just another building. A castle. There was a surrounding wall, and some sort of grand gate and a big square… what was the word? Keep?… with actual turrets at the corners. ‘Woah.’
‘What?’
What did he mean what? There was an actual castle right outside the window. ‘Who lives there?’
‘What do you mean?’
Understanding dawned all too slowly. Baron Lowbridge. He was a lord, or laird or whatever it was he’d tried to explain last night. ‘Is that your dad’s house?’
Adam nodded. ‘Yeah. Well no. I suppose it’s our house.’
Bella pulled on her linen trousers and a T-shirt from the roll of clothes in her bag, along with her kitchen clogs, and followed Adam through the gate, across the cobbles and into the castle through a heavy wooden door. That took them into a narrow corridor, past an apparently unused room with an unconnected washing machine in one corner and a square of ill-fitting carpet in the middle, and then into the kitchen.
Here the castle felt inhabited. Flinty was frying rashers on the hotplate of a huge old fashioned stove. The smell greeted Bella like a hug.
‘I’m glad you two are up.’ Flinty gestured at the bacon. ‘I did this out of habit, and then I thought nobody was going to come and eat it.’ She pursed her lips. ‘He liked his bacon, your father.’
Adam nodded.
‘Though maybe he liked it a bit too much.’ She shoved the rashers to the edge of the plate with her spatula. ‘Maybe you’d prefer something lighter. There’s that bran stuff the lady has.’ Her shoulders slumped a little. ‘Or melon. I’ll be doing melon for your stepmother in a second.’
Bella shook her head. ‘A bacon sandwich would be amazing. I’m not even sure when we last ate. Bacon sandwich?’ she asked Adam.
