Page 11 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
Would Gemma ask? What was intrusive and what was polite interest? Jodie knew there was a difference and she also knew she quite often got it wrong. ‘So what brought you to Scotland?’
‘Love. What else?’
She’d smiled as she answered so maybe this was acceptable polite interest. ‘So will I get to meet the lucky person?’
‘Ah no. Sorry. I think Bella said when she interviewed you? I’m Adam’s stepmom. His dad was the baron before him. He passed away.’
In the interview? Gemma had been told all that in the interview, so of course she knew. Of course she wouldn’t be a weirdo who asked questions about a dead guy. ‘I’m so sorry. I did know. Sorry. I…’ What? I forgot about your dead husband. Gemma would never say that. She thought. Pavel had said ‘the old laird’. The previous laird. If lairds were barons, and not pixies, they were, presumably, a one-at-a-time sort of gig. Even Jodie should have been able to work that out. She had to focus more. Listen more. If she was going to pass as Gemma she needed every clue she could get. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘It’s OK. She did kinda throw information at you. I’m sure you were concentrating on the work stuff.’
‘Yeah. But still.’
‘Seriously, do not worry about it.’
Jodie would try not to. She would absolutely worry about all the work stuff Darcy was so confident she would have taken in.
‘Hi!’ A woman’s voice called through to them from the front porch. ‘Darcy? Gemma? Are you out here?’
‘In the bedroom,’ Darcy replied.
Bella appeared in the doorway. ‘You found someone to show you around then?’ Bella asked.
‘Yes. Thank you. Darcy’s been lovely.’ Super lovely. Barely took offence at all when quizzed about her dead husband.
‘Great. Well, I wanted to check you had everything you needed. I put some bread – home-made – and milk and teabags in the kitchen, but you’ll have dinner with us tonight, yeah?’
All Jodie wanted was to hide away and have time to think about her cover story and how she was going to get through being Gemma for the next few weeks, but the next few weeks had already started and were rapidly running away from her.
‘Oh, you should,’ Darcy chipped in. ‘Bella’s cooking is amazing.’
‘It’s just spag bol tonight. I had to make a literal tonne of ragu for today’s cookery school so we’re going to be eating it for weeks, I’m afraid.’ She frowned. ‘I’ve got Quorn ragu for you though.’
‘What?’
Bella grinned. ‘I remembered you saying you were vegetarian.’
Jodie shook her head. ‘I’m not…’ Oh. Gemma, the real Gemma, was veggie – failing to commit to do the same was just one of the ways Jodie had let her ex down. How on earth had that come up in an interview though?
Bella frowned. ‘I was sure you said…’
‘Yeah. Sorry. I was, but then, well…’ Well what? ‘To be honest, it was always more my ex’s thing. Once we split I kinda slipped back into eating bacon sandwiches.’ That was sort of true, apart from the part where she was pretending to be the ex in question, and the fact that real Jodie had quite often eaten surreptitious bacon sandwiches, wafting the smell out of the kitchen window while the real Gemma was out at work.
Bella’s frown eased. ‘Oh, I get that. I was once teetotal because the guy I was dating was dead anti-alcohol.’ She grinned. ‘It wasn’t really dating. It was one weekend. But it felt like a really long weekend.’
‘Anyone out here?’ The man leaning through the door was tall, with broad shoulders and sandy light-brown hair. ‘I’m Adam. Sorry I wasn’t here to meet you. Completely lost track of time.’
‘That means he was in the garden,’ Bella added.
Adam held out a hand for her to shake and then pulled it back with a grimace. ‘Bit muddy still actually. Sorry.’
‘It’s OK.’
‘Had to get the last of the onions up.’
Jodie nodded like she had any idea at all about onions or vegetables in general.
‘But I bet you’re looking forward to getting stuck in with that?’
