Second Thyme Around by Katie Fforde Page B

bathroom.’
    ‘Where is the bathroom?’
    ‘Upstairs. Not hard to find.’ It was only after she had dispatched him thence that she remembered that her bathroom chair was loaded with several weeks worth of unwashed clothes. Oh well. If he would invite himself to lunch, it was his look out if he had to confront her dirty knickers.
    William arrived while Lucas was still upstairs. He looked clean but crumpled, and extremely dubious.
    ‘William, how lovely. Let me give you a drink.’ She thrust a glass of sherry into a hand which would have looked more at home wrapped round a pint. ‘You know my friend Mrs Anson.’ Kitty nodded benignly but although William mumbled something polite-sounding, he visibly shied away.
    ‘And Janey. She works at Grantly House. I don’t think you’ve met.’
    William dipped his head and glanced at Janey from under his eyebrows.
    Lucas and the chair announced their imminent arrival with banging and muted swearing as they came down the stairs. Perdita waited until they had appeared before adding, ‘And this is Lucas, who also works at Grantly House.’ She was about to add that he had invited himself but decided the situation was already awkward enough. ‘Lucas, this is William.’
    ‘We met the other day,’ said Lucas. ‘Hello. Where do you want this chair?’
    It had taken Perdita long enough to fit four chairs round the table, she didn’t intend to struggle with a fifth. ‘If you wouldn’t mind just fitting it in somewhere … And try to make it that no one’s sitting in front of a leg,’ she said, knowing this was impossible, but feeling it a just punishment for him.
    The room was silent apart from the shifting of chairs and more muted swearing from Lucas. Perdita perched on the arm of Kitty’s chair, trying frantically to think of something to say. Judging by the expressions on the faces of her guests, they were engaged in the same task.
    ‘Nuts, anyone?’ Perdita said at last. ‘I’m sure I’ve got some somewhere.’
    Janey followed her into the kitchen. ‘Knives and forks. We’ll need some for Lucas. Oh God!’ she went on, when they were out of earshot. ‘I’m just so sorry! But he heard you invite me—’
    Perdita held up a hand to stem Janey’s stream of apologies. ‘I know, I know, there was nothing you could do, and you’ve got to work for him, which is hard enough already.’
    ‘And you must admit,’ Janey went on, ‘he does look lovely in a suit. I do like smartly dressed men.’
    This didn’t bode well for Perdita’s matchmaking plans. William had many admirable qualities, but sartorial elegance was not among them.
    ‘Did you suggest he wore a suit?’ Perdita pulled out a pile of stained willow-pattern plates from a cupboard.
    ‘Oh no, I wouldn’t dare. I just found him outside my door when I set off to walk here. It was kind of him to give me a lift.’
    Perdita discarded a severely chipped plate and substituted it with one less so. ‘I could have arranged for William to pick you up.’ Though he would have taken some persuading. ‘You haven’t met him before, have you?’
    ‘Not to speak to, but I have seen him playing skittles down the pub. He’s a bit older than me, you know.’
    ‘But decades younger than Lucas!’
    ‘So?’
    ‘Oh, never mind.’ Her matchmaking doomed to failure, Perdita took another look at her potatoes. ‘Do you think they’re just a little bit brown?’
    Janey shook her head. ‘Well, I dare say they were whiter than that before, but no one could call them brown.’
    ‘Oh bloody hell! What am I to do with the wretched things? I haven’t got a grill to put them under.’
    ‘You could put them in their tin on the hot plate and sort of fry them,’ suggested Janey. ‘Or sprinkle them with chopped herbs and pretend they’re not roast potatoes at all.’
    ‘Well, that would be true, at least. But I’ll try the frying thing first. God! I hope the lamb is cooked.’
    When tested, the lamb oozed pink fluid.