Page 91 of A Recipe for Love
Veronica frowned. ‘I assumed you would know the answer to that.’
That was odd. Bella checked that Flinty was on top of things in the kitchen and headed over to the coach house. Adam was standing by the bed packing a water bottle into a rucksack. He had what looked like work boots on the floor alongside him.
‘Where are you off to?’
He grinned. ‘Sorry. Was going to come over and let you know. Pavel asked me to help with a landscaping thing he’s doing in Portree.’
Bella’s local geography was starting to come together. ‘That’s on Skye?’
Adam grinned. ‘You’re learning.’
‘How are you getting there?’
Adam checked the time. ‘On Pav’s boat. In about twenty minutes, so I need to get moving.’
‘Right.’ There was an unease in Bella’s gut that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
‘What?’
‘Nothing.’ It wasn’t nothing though, was it? ‘There’s so much to do here.’ That was the unease. The castle was suddenly full and busy and they were working all hands to the pumps.
‘I thought you had it all in hand.’
Did she?
‘And Pav’s an old mate. You know he asked if I wanted to do some labouring.’
That had been a joke though, hadn’t it?
He frowned. ‘You’re the one who keeps going on about getting involved with the community.’
She was. ‘Yeah. Of course. It’s fine. Sorry. I just didn’t know you were going out.’
He closed the gap between them. ‘Sorry. I meant to say but you were up so early, and I forgot.’
‘It’s fine.’ Because of course it was fine. With Flinty and Darcy and Veronica they pretty much did have things in hand, and it was good that Adam was reconnecting with his friends. Apart from his trip to Edinburgh, he’d been holed up in the castle since they arrived. ‘I was thinking about the footbridge. What would it take to rebuild it?’
Adam shook his head. ‘I’m not sure. I’ll have a think about it later.’
Bella accepted the kiss he planted on her lips as he headed out, and made her way back to the kitchen.
A day of proper hardcore manual labour was better than therapy. Not that Adam had ever tried therapy, but he couldn’t imagine it would do anywhere near as much good as having dirt under his fingernails, sweat running a trail down his spine and muscles that were minutes away from giving up the ghost entirely.
Pavel’s crew had accepted him from the outset, with the rapidly bestowed nickname of Posh Lad. That uncomplicated normality, paired with the simple rhythms of working until you were too parched to carry on and then making a cuppa and starting all over again had made for a good day. He pulled his car onto the cobbles outside the coach house, looking forward to a hot bath and then bed as soon as he could manage it.
He stopped in the doorway to the coach house at the sound of voices on the stairs.
‘We don’t need to move the furniture, for goodness’ sake.’ That was his grandmother. Adam dreaded to think who she was barking instructions at now.
‘But I’m taking the bedside table with me.’ Darcy. Of course it was Darcy.
‘Well why on earth are you doing that? There’s a perfectly good side table in the Gardenia Room already.’
‘Which is not big enough. So I need the one from Alexander’s…’ Her voice broke slightly. ‘From Adam’s room, and he can have the one from in here.’
‘We can discuss that with Adam once we’ve moved the things he actually needs.’
Adam’s bone-tired body did not have the energy to go and find out what on earth this was all about, but he knew that, if he didn’t, they would still be bickering at the top of the stairs at midnight. He hauled himself up the steps. ‘What are you two doing?’
