Page 44 of Eden's Comfort Kitchen
‘Looks can be deceiving,’ Mavis said drily, making Eden laugh again. ‘He’s a rogue, this one. Terror of the tea dance. Scourge of the scone table. When we were youngsters, all the girls around here were sweet on him – and he knew it.’
‘Including you?’ Bilbo put his arm around her and grinned.
‘I kept my distance. Too big for your boots by far, you were.’
‘And am I too big for my boots now?’
She pushed him off but with a grin of her own. ‘I’m still trying to decide about that.’
‘What if I sing you a song?’
Bilbo launched into something that Eden vaguely recognised, some old swing classic she’d probably heard on an advert. He was surprisingly good. In fact, he was very good. Everyone in the kitchen turned to see who was singing and smiled, and when he finished, there was a spontaneous round of applause.
‘It’s a long time since I heard you sing, but you’ve still got it,’ Julia called over. ‘I remember you doing turns at the Dolphin all the time when I was young. You ought to see Ralph about doing some more.’
‘Oh no,’ Bilbo said, trying to sound modest but clearly loving the attention. ‘Those days are over.’
‘Thank God,’ Eden heard a small voice say and turned to see Bilbo’s great-grandson, Liam, shaking his head with some humour.
Everyone who heard him started to laugh, and the usually shy Liam grinned.
‘Cheeky pup!’ Bilbo replied, though with some humour. ‘You didn’t used to say that. It was all, “Great-Grandpa, sing a song” or do a magic trick or some other thing.’
‘You do magic too?’ Eden asked.
‘I like to call it sleight of hand,’ Bilbo said. He went over to her, lifted a hand to her ear and then appeared to produce a coin from it.
Eden had seen it done on TV over the years a million times, but there was something about it being done right here with her that sent her into a giddy, childish spiral of glee. The reaction caught her by surprise. She’d spent the last few years of her adult life being cynical and grown-up and surrounded by people as jaded as her. She giggled again.
‘That’s so cool! How do you do it? Can you show me?’
‘Absolutely not. I’d be kicked out of the Magic Circle if I started to show every Tom, Dick and Harriet.’ He reached behind her other ear and produced another coin, and she grinned again as he gave it to her.
‘Better take it steady, Bilbo,’ Julia called over. ‘You’ll be bankrupt if you keep giving all that money away.’
Eden smiled as she handed it back to him.
‘Keep it towards the kitty,’ Bilbo said.
‘Thanks.’ Eden went to drop it into the slot of a money box Livia had brought in for donations.
‘So.’ Bilbo rubbed his hands together. ‘Where would you like me to start?’
Eden glanced at Julia. Livia’s mum had already become an unofficial foreman. She knew how to run a kitchen well, and two of the recipes they were going with tonight – honey and mustard chicken with potatoes, and a lentil ragu – were hers, so it seemed sensible to Eden to let her take control over the way they were prepared and cooked. The other dish they were putting out was fish and chips. Ralph had managed to send some prepared catering bags of chips and breaded fish that he’d got cheap from a supplier, so all it needed was to be put in the oven close to service. Eden was perfectly capable of that much, at least. She had to reflect with some humour that it was about all she was capable of, but that was OK. It was early days, and she’d learn on the job, so when the time came for her to cook withoutJulia’s guidance, she was sure she’d be able to manage, though she doubted it would be as good as Julia’s.
‘I need some chicken boning,’ Julia said. ‘Do you think you and your magician fingers can do that for me?’
‘I’ll do that with him, shall I?’ Mavis said, going to the fridge without further prompting.
‘That would be great, thanks,’ Julia said. She then set about directing everyone else while Eden went out into the main hall with Liam to start setting the tables and dressing the room to make it as welcoming as it had been on their first night. Because the hut was used by other groups and clubs, they had to take everything down once they’d finished with it, but that wasn’t a huge problem, and it meant Eden could keep an eye on all their stuff to make sure none of it went missing.
With the extra hands, everything was ready far earlier than it needed to be. Julia gave instructions for things to be kept warm, apart from the food they wouldn’t need to put in the oven until the last minute, and they all stopped for tea and biscuits. The scout hut was equipped with an enormous teapot and plenty of mugs, and Eden helped Livia to make sure everyone got a drink.
The kitchen was warm and fragrant from the food they’d cooked and full of good-natured chatter. Eden looked around and couldn’t help a swell of pride. All this was down to her. She’d gathered these amazing people together. It was only the second evening, but already she felt certain she’d never want to give this up. It was a million miles away from anything she’d have been a part of in her old life back in London, let alone founded, and yet she was beginning to feel as if this was what she’d been put on the earth to do – it had simply taken a bit of time for her to figure it out. Perhaps recent mistakes and tragedies had playedtheir part too, but she didn’t want to dwell on any of that now, not when she was so happy.
After tea and biscuits, they started to make the final preparations, and not long after that, the first guests arrived. Eden was pleased to see some faces from the previous dinner, happy they’d enjoyed it enough to come again. There were plenty of new ones too, and for a scary moment, Eden was concerned her predictions that she might not find everyone a space would come true. But they shuffled around and found extra chairs, and with a few of the volunteers – including Eden, Livia and Bilbo – eating in the kitchen, they managed. Eden would have liked to have been in the main dining hall, but she didn’t mind being in the kitchen with such good company, especially when Bilbo started to show her some more of his tricks with knots and napkins and playing cards. She needed to eat on the go anyway if she wanted to keep tabs on how everything was running, so she soon realised sitting in the dining room with everyone else would have been pointless.
At the end of the meal, as everyone started to shuffle out, the compliments on the food and expressions of gratitude were even more heartfelt than they’d been on the first evening. Eden could see how people were already starting to accept her and how they felt more able to be open with her. More people than she could remember told her how she’d saved them from some miserable night on their own with nothing but a slice of toast or a bowl of cornflakes. She’d never have looked at somewhere like Sea Glass Bay and thought there might be want, but it went to show that looks could be deceiving. Perhaps there was want everywhere if you looked hard enough, even in a place as picture-postcard perfect as this.
