said Lucy, brightening. ‘I’ll come with you then, Anna.’ She took Jack’s arm, smiling up at him coquettishly as they left the room.
‘You mustn’t mind my wife, Kate,’ said George kindly. ‘She’s got this boundless curiosity. She’s probably nagging Jack to show her round the entire house right now.’
Kate gave him a friendly smile, and got up to take the coffee pot. ‘I think I’ll ask Molly for a refill. I do know where the kitchen is,’ she told Ben as he opened the door for her.
Kate met Jack in the hall. ‘I’m on my way to ask Molly for more coffee.’
‘Good idea.’ He grinned conspiratorially. ‘How are you, Katie?’
‘Bearing up,’ she returned, rolling her eyes, and he laughed, smoothing a hand down her hair as she went on her way.
The kitchen was already tidy and the redoubtable Molly had a thermos of fresh coffee waiting to refill the silver pot.
‘Mum can take it in.’
‘Thank you,’ said Kate gratefully. ‘It was a fabulous meal, Molly,’ she said as Hazel went off with the coffee. ‘I hear you want to open a place of your own one day. When you do I’ll be your first customer.’
‘First dinner on the house then,’ Molly assured her, beaming. ‘You think the meal went down well tonight? I hope it wasn’t too boring.’
‘It was perfect. You must have seen the empty plates coming back! Mr Maitland had two helpings of everything. He said the apple pie was even better than his mother’s.’ Kate smiled at the sound of an imperious bark from the boot room.
‘I think someone wants to say hello,’ said Molly, and handed over a small dish of titbits. ‘You can give Bran his treat, if you like—only mind that velvet.’
Kate received an enthusiastic greeting from Bran, who fussed over her in delight for a while, then wolfed down his goodies and went to stand pointedly at the outer door.
‘You go back, Miss Durant. I’ll let him out,’ said Molly. ‘The downstairs cloakroom is second on the right across the hall, by the way.’
Kate spent a few minutes there to marshal her forces, then went back to join the others.
‘You’ve been a very long time,’ commented Jack.
‘I had a chat with Bran.’
‘You were so long I poured the coffee,’ said Lucy sweetly. ‘Who’s Bran?’
‘My dog,’ said Jack, and smiled as he took hairs from Kate’s sleeve. ‘You’ve been cuddling him.’
‘Guilty as charged,’ she said, and resumed her seat by Anna. ‘How do you feel?’ she said in an undertone, as Lucy fluttered round the men with the coffee pot.
‘Fat,’ said Anna ruefully. ‘I shouldn’t have eaten so much, but the food was so gorgeous I couldn’t resist.’
‘I relayed the praise to Molly.’
‘Is Hazel her daughter?’
‘Hazel is Molly’s mother,’ said Kate. ‘How old is Molly, Jack? She looks like a schoolgirl.’
‘Twenty-two and born old, according to her mother. There’s a mature brain under that mane of blonde hair.’
Kate could practically see Lucy’s brain ticking over. Blonde? Twenty-two?
‘They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,’ warned Lucy sharply. ‘You’d better be careful, Jack. Maybe your Molly has designs on you.’
‘You bet she has,’ he said, unperturbed. ‘She wants my backing when she opens her own restaurant.’
For the rest of the evening Jack did his best as host to keep the conversation general, but Lucy aimed barbs at Kate so often that at last George Beresford turned a look on his wife that plainly said ‘enough’ and she pouted and turned all her attention on Jack. Eventually Ben decided his wife looked tired and asked Lucy if she was ready to drive them home. Jack kept Kate firmly at his side while he received thanks for his hospitality. Anna and Ben kissed her goodnight, and George did the same, winning a sharp look from his wife, who kept her kissing strictly for her host. Jack stood in the open doorway as his guests hurried to the car under umbrellas, then went back inside to Kate with a sigh of relief.
‘Thank you,’ he said simply, running a hand through his hair.
‘What for?’
‘Just for being here.’ He grimaced. ‘I’ll make sure I have a previous engagement when Lucy Beresford invites me to dinner again. I had a meal there once, purely because she wouldn’t take no when I drove George home from a meeting.’
‘She insisted you came to Anna’s party as well,’ Kate reminded him as they went back to the living room.
‘For that alone I’m grateful to her,’ admitted Jack, and put more