Page 54 of Eden's Comfort Kitchen
‘I’m sure I can manage.’
Eden looked at Julia.
‘I’ll show him where everything is,’ Julia said.
Liam and Bilbo, who’d messaged ahead to say they were running late, arrived at that moment. As they did, the room was suddenly alive with far warmer greetings than they’d had for Cam. Nancy and Levi, who’d been colouring on a table at the far end of the kitchen to keep them out of the way until there were tasks they could do, looked up at the old man’s arrival and broke into broad grins.
‘Bilbo!’ Nancy cried, running to throw her arms around his legs.
‘Steady!’ Bilbo chuckled. ‘You’ll have me over – it doesn’t take much these days!’
‘Can you do a trick?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘Yes!’ Levi agreed. ‘Do a trick, Bilbo! Do the coin one!’
‘You mean this one?’
Bilbo produced a shiny fifty-pence piece from behind Levi’s ear and held it out to him. Levi’s mouth opened into a delighted circle of surprise.
‘That’s yours,’ Bilbo said. ‘After all, I found it behind your ear. Don’t spend it all at once.’
‘Me now!’ Nancy almost yelled with the force of her impatient enthusiasm.
Bilbo did the same and handed her the coin.
‘You two will have poor Bilbo in the workhouse,’ Livia said with a fond smile at all three of them.
‘Mustn’t leave you out,’ Bilbo said, going over to Livia and taking another coin from behind her ear too. She burst out laughing.
‘You keep it,’ she said, handing it back.
‘No,’ Bilbo said firmly. ‘This is yours – I found it behind your ear, not mine.’
‘I’ll have it!’ Levi said, and Livia frowned at him.
‘I’ll have it if nobody else wants it,’ Cam cut in with such wry amusement that the entire kitchen went as silent as the bar room of a western film as the gunslinger walks in.
‘Bilbo,’ Eden said, sensing the tension. ‘This is Cam, our new volunteer.’
‘Only for two weeks,’ Cam said, extending his hand for Bilbo to shake. ‘Pleased to meet you. Unusual name. My great-uncle knew a man called Bilbo. Served with him in the navy, I believe.’
‘I was in the navy,’ Bilbo said, puffing out his chest. ‘What ship was he on?’
‘I know he was on more than one…hang on a minute…’ He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text. ‘Just asking my dad,’ he said.
Less than thirty seconds later, it bleeped a reply.
‘Wow, he’s quicker than usual,’ Cam said, opening up the message. ‘He says there was HMSVictoriousand HMSVanguard.’
‘That was mine!’ Bilbo said. ‘TheVanguard! What’s your uncle’s name?’
‘It was William Faulkner, though everyone called him Razor because he was so sharp – apparently. That’s the way he always told it anyway. He died when I was quite young, so I might have that wrong.’
Bilbo’s eyes were like the dinner plates Liam was fetching from the cupboards. ‘Never! Old Razor! I knew him! Good lad he was. Older than me; looked out for me when I first joined the ship. What a small world!’
‘It would seem so,’ Cam said, and Eden could tell that the smile on his face this time was genuine.
As far as she was concerned, this was brilliant. Of all the goals she could have scored, she never imagined it would be such a blinder. And so early in the game too. She thought quickly and perhaps a little ruthlessly. She needed to make sure Bilbo had lots of contact with Cam. Some might have said she was exploiting the connection, but it was only what Cam would have been doing, and if it got her closer to keeping the scout hut, then she’d do whatever it took. There was no way she could look such a handsome gift horse in the mouth.
