A Winter Warmer at the Little Cornish Kitchen by Jane Linfoot

Author:Jane Linfoot [Linfoot, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008537036
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

21

At Stargazey Cottage

Sweet dreams and sticky fingers

Tuesday

‘Ollie, have you got a second to come up for a chat?’

I have to say, those are not words I ever saw myself calling down the rock face outside our kitchen door, to the man himself on the terrace below, on a cold and blustery Tuesday afternoon. But since Saturday night when Ollie wrung my heart out, I’ve been racking my brain to find the best way to help him. And this morning I came up with the answer. In fact, it’s so effing ground-breaking I’ve barely stopped grinning about it since.

‘Two minutes.’ There’s a scraping sound, then a clunk, and moments later he’s stepping gracefully off the top of a ladder and onto the broken concrete next to me. He pats the top rung. ‘If we’re going to be seeing more of each other, this is easier than climbing the north face of the Eiger every time.’

I ignore how much ahead of himself he is and push down my alarm that the near-impossible ascent from his to ours has been slashed to a cosy short-cut.

I look for something positive to say. ‘Ella loves a ladder.’

‘She’s very welcome to wash up at mine any time.’ He rolls his eyes. ‘I hope she’s keeping her word on that at home?’

It wasn’t what I’d planned for my opening remarks, but I’m wading in to defend her. ‘To put that in context, her mum did put the hours in with kitchen tuition, but I was the one who got the benefit.’ Merry, being the best kind of stand-in mum-next-door, started with toast making and egg scrambling so I could help Dad out, and went on from there. ‘Once we’d got into the habit of cooking together, we never stopped.’

Ollie shakes his head. ‘How come get-ahead Ella missed out then?’

I’m feeling wistful as I remember. ‘Merry was brilliant, she ran me through every dish when I was learning my chalet host list, but Ned and Ella were more interested in other stuff.’

Ollie pulls a face. ‘We all have to eat. There’s not always a Maccy D’s close by.’

In spite of myself, I grin. ‘Especially not halfway up the Matterhorn.’ My sigh is as despairing as it always is when Ned and a pan crop up together in a single thought bubble. ‘Ned burned everything; his signature flavour was pure carbon.’ I hesitate for a moment because this is something else I’m easing back into. ‘Can I offer you a microwave mini-pudding? They’re very quick and easy to whip up.’ If Ollie needs persuading to accept my upcoming offer, sponge may help.

From the way he tenses he’s interested. ‘I heard you’d worked the ski resorts. Do your puddings come in flavours other than charcoal?’

I’ll toss him a few that weren’t Ned’s go-to favourites. ‘Steamed syrup sponge, could be with custard, but delish and more instant with ice cream…’

Ollie jumps in before I get any further. ‘Perfect. I’ll have the fast version.’

It’s out before I think. ‘I didn’t know you went for sugar highs.

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