Page 75 of A Recipe for Love
‘What? Now?’
Anna glanced at the clock. ‘I’ve got to get back so Hugh can drive over to meet the dairy man.’
‘Not now then. Tomorrow. At Ladies’ Group.’ Nina nodded. ‘Right. Tomorrow Bella is going to teach us all some cooking. Something simple that we can do at Anna’s. It’ll be a practice and we can tell you if you’re any good or not.’
‘All right.’ Might as well give it a go.
‘And then as for the rest, you just need to get on with it.’
Jill patted Bella’s knee. ‘If you’re nervous why don’t you start small? You could do a sort of test day with people from the village. I’ll come.’
Nina nodded. ‘And I’ll make my Pavel come. He could do with learning his way round a kitchen.’
‘And there’s definitely at least a couple of girls who used to come to parents and tots who’d love to get a bit more confident with their cooking,’ Jill suggested. ‘And I can rustle up some tame people from my congregations if we need. How many would you want?’
‘Maybe eight?’ Bella thought about the layout of the castle kitchens. ‘That might be too crowded, but if it’s a trial run it would be good to see if we can fit that many in.’
Flinty nodded. ‘The more we fit in the more profit we’ll make.’
‘Or the less you need to charge per person,’ Jill added. ‘Would you charge for the trial day?’
She couldn’t charge much, given the very high chance that the whole thing would go horribly tits up on the ground that Bella barely had a clue what she was doing.
‘Maybe just cover the cost of the ingredients?’ Flinty suggested.
And so they were set. Bella would do a practice of her untried teaching skills at the next Ladies’ Group, and on Saturday – actual Saturday, this Saturday, five days away – she would host a trial cookery school day at Lowbridge attended by tame villagers recruited by her slightly worryingly invested Council of War.
Adam stepped out of Waverley Station into the noise of Princes Street and felt his shoulders ease and the weight of responsibility lift from his back. Half an hour on the number 26 and he’d be in his flat, his clean unhaunted newly built flat in Portobello. He’d be home.
Ahead of him were four days of his real life. He’d meet with the anxious people from Carsons, and talk them back around to his vision for their building. He’d pick up his car – his functioning, non-antique car – and drive round some of his favourite nurseries in and around the city to source plants for other upcoming projects. He’d check in with Ravi and Danny about what else was in progress. Hopefully he’d even manage to drag Ravi out to the pub for an evening of normality.
This was where Adam fit. And Bella would fit here too. That was one of the most incredible things, on the ever-growing list of incredible things, that Adam loved about his fiancée. She could fit in anywhere. She was a vigorous, hardy sort of plant that didn’t need a lot of sun, or a particular soil type, or precisely the right amount of rain. You could pop Bella down anywhere and she was built to thrive.
Adam was a more particular sort of flora. He’d grown up at Lowbridge but, looking back, he wondered if he’d ever truly thrived there, at least outside of the safety of his father’s beloved walled garden.
The meeting with Carsons was, as Adam had anticipated, a walk in the park. Ten minutes in they’d entirely forgotten that they had ever had cold feet about the project, and twenty minutes in they were happily commissioning Adam and Ravi to landscape the space to the front of the offices with additional planting. The pair walked out, grinning.
‘You don’t manage without me, do you?’ Adam joked.
‘We were getting by.’ Ravi shrugged. ‘But you know, I’m the numbers guy. You’re the plant guy.’
‘You know plants.’ It was true. Ravi was entirely competent on site when he needed to be, but he was much happier planning and calculating and writing proposals and budgets.
‘I know how to stick the plant you give me into the hole you point at.’
‘We should go for a drink while I’m here.’
Ravi nodded. ‘Yeah. We should.’
Adam raised an eyebrow. ‘Really? I thought you’d be rushing home.’
Aside from being Adam’s business partner and best friend, Ravi was also a relatively new father to twin girls.
‘Sam’ll understand. When are you here ’til?’
‘Saturday.’ Adam saw the tension on Ravi’s face. ‘Sorry. Everything back there’s…’ He couldn’t even begin to explain.
‘I get it. Friday evening then? Foresters?’
