Second Thyme Around by Katie Fforde Page A

she asked, after surveying the scene for a few moments.
    ‘In about ten minutes,’ said Perdita, having shot an anguished glance at her watch.
    ‘Have you got those big sherry glasses I gave you?’
    Perdita, correctly interpreting this as indication that her kitchen and its contents were past praying for, dutifully retrieved the glasses from the back of a cupboard, and gave them a cursory dust with a tea towel.
    ‘I’m very lucky to have all these nice things,’ she said, pulling the foil off the bottle of sherry Kitty had brought with her. ‘I love these glasses.’
    ‘Not at all. I was very lucky to have you to off-load a lot of unnecessary possessions on to.’
    ‘But they’re not unnecessary.’ Perdita filled one with sherry and took a large gulp. ‘QED.’
    ‘I meant unnecessary to me,’ said Kitty, pouring a somewhat smaller measure.
    Before Kitty had taken more than a sip, the door knocker rattled loudly. Perdita answered it.
    On the doorstep was a distraught Janey with Lucas on her heels.
    Lucas saved Janey the trouble of explaining. ‘I invited myself. It wasn’t Janey’s fault.’
    ‘I could have worked that out.’ Perdita stood in the doorway, not letting either Lucas or Janey across the threshold.
    ‘I wanted to see how your kitchen functioned when it wasn’t full of garden rubbish.’ Lucas pushed forward slightly.
    ‘You’re welcome to another time,’ said Perdita, untruthfully. ‘But this is a private lunch party. I’m terribly sorry, but you can’t come.’
    ‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous! If you’re cooking a joint you can stretch it. I’ll carve if you can’t.’ Lucas took a couple of steps forward. Janey’s anxious expression made Perdita sigh and step aside to let them both through.
    ‘I suppose I’ll have to let you in,’ she said grudgingly, adding to Janey, ‘How could you?’
    ‘Mrs … Anson …’ said Lucas. ‘We haven’t met for some years.’
    Kitty, who had seated herself in the one armchair, regarded him through narrowed eyes. ‘No. Well, I don’t suppose it’ll be a pleasure seeing you again, but I dare say it’ll be interesting.’
    Perdita was aware of a shudder from Janey and decided, for her sake, to keep lunch as explosion free as possible. ‘Well, do sit down everyone, and I’ll get us a glass of sherry.’
    Lucas removed himself to the window seat and Janey sat on the Windsor chair. As Perdita passed the sherry she realised that poor William would either have to squash next to Lucas, or sit on the floor.
    ‘Right,’ she said, after everyone had taken their first sip and was looking to her for the next step, ‘I’m just going to have a peep at what’s going on in the kitchen and then I’ll see if I can fit another place round the table.’
    ‘I don’t mind eating separately,’ said Lucas, who, she noted, had put on an extremely smart suit for the occasion.
She hoped William wouldn’t feel out of place when he turned up in corduroys, flannel shirt and jumper.
    Perdita went into the kitchen, more for a moment to herself than because she thought she could do anything about the chaos that met her there. Fury with Lucas for turning up uninvited tempted her to throw her carefully grown vegetables into a pot and boil them to destruction. But as that wasn’t fair on the others, she decided to let Kitty deal with the vegetables later.
    She peered into the oven and saw that the lamb was brown on top, and the garlic and rosemary at least smelled nice. The potatoes were the colour of church candles and showed no inclination to change. ‘Sod it,’ she said, slamming the oven door, dislodging the leg of the cooker as she did so. It took her several minutes to put back the wodge of cardboard she used to level it.
    On her way back to join the others she bumped into Lucas. ‘Can I help?’ he asked.
    ‘Only by leaving the country,’ said Perdita, pushing him backwards out of the room. ‘Or you could get the chair down from the