woman is bloody scary.”
“I noticed that,” he says solemnly. “Luckily, she found out that I’m your ex, so she’s treating me like I’m made of glass and likely to break at any second.”
“Probably expects you to collapse in a heap, sobbing from your recollections of our brief time together,” I say before I can think. To my relief, he just laughs.
“She’s treating me as if we’re comrades in some war I wasn’t aware of fighting.”
I shudder. “God help me if the two of you were ever to combine forces.”
“Maybe you should consider that in the timing of your ablutions,” he advises me, and then with a wave of his hand he’s gone.
I used to be able to exist on very little sleep and could be fully awake as soon as I opened my eyes. It’s a talent that saved my life many times, but I’m a slow riser nowadays. Once I left journalism, my early morning rush became a lot more leisurely, almost like a tortoise pottering along. However, today I’m very aware Felix is downstairs, so I rush through my early morning routine as if I’ve got the scoop of the century.
And even though this morning it feels like he ran over every bit of my body, I take the stairs with a smile on my face, listening to Mrs Finch’s laughter as he says something that’s undoubtedly either scandalous or sharply snarky or a mixture of the two.
When I come into the dining room, I find the two of them laughing together. They turn their faces to me, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that they’ve been laughing at me.
“Oh, great,” I say. “You’ve joined together. How lovely for the fate of the world.”
“It’s not the world you should be concerned about, Mr Travers,” my housekeeper sniffs. “Now, I’m off to get your breakfast. Hopefully, you can manage to eat it without destroying another area of the house and creating work for me.” She looks at Felix. “Gunpowder,” she says and exits the room.
“What is the gunpowder reference? Were you friends with Guy Fawkes in your early years?”
“Haha,” I say sourly, enjoying his laugh when it comes. “I’m not quite that old. No, I experimented with something in my study, and it had rather a startling effect.” I stare at him and shrug. “It only blew a couple of the windows out, but Mrs Finch won’t let me forget about it. The woman has the memory of an elephant.”
“How did she come to work for you?”
I reach over the table, intending to pour myself some tea from the pot, but, witnessing my wince of pain, Felix takes over the task. I smile gratefully at him and take a sip, trying to conceal my pleasure in the fact that he’s remembered how I take it.
“I’m not sure, to be honest,” I confide. “Her sister housekeeps for the couple next door, and Mrs Finch appeared one day and sort of informed me that she considered I’d be fortunate to employ her.”
He bites his lip, and his eyes light up. They’re the colour of old pennies today and look almost translucent in the sunlight. “So, you did as she said?”
“Of course, I did,” I say, slightly offended. “You’ve just met her for Christ’s sake. If she’d announced it to Saddam Hussein, he’d have jumped too.”
Mrs Finch comes into the room at that point, interrupting his laughter and carrying my breakfast which she positions in front of me as if I’m some sort of dangerous animal. Felix’s mouth twitches, but he says nothing, and for a few minutes, the room is silent apart from the clinking of cutlery and the distant sound of the radio in the kitchen.
I relish the silence with him just as much as I do the witty chat. He has a comfortable way about him which is ironic for someone as sharp and snarky as he is. I’ve always been at ease with him, and he interests me like no one else I’ve ever met—even Ivo.
Finally, he pushes his plate away. “I’d better get dressed,” he says, and I know I’m imagining the reluctance in his voice.
“Why?” I ask, slightly panicked.
He shakes his head, looking at me chidingly. “You’re not concussed, and apart from your arm inconveniencing you, you’ll be fine. So, I’m going back. There’s a train in an hour.” He stands.
“Wait,” I say far too loudly.
He hesitates for a moment, but then lowers himself back to the chair. I take a fortifying breath.