The Country Escape - Jane Lovering Page 0,41

was gradually falling from his hair and coat, where it had formed exotic shimmering beads. It melted into water, which made his hair darker. His eyes were very big behind his glasses. I wondered what he was going to do that would be difficult if someone else were there, and was torn between readying myself for a kiss and clutching for the handle of the kitchen knife.

‘Why are you leaning? Are you all right?’

His tone of concern pulled me back to the reality of a full kettle and Gabriel’s hand on my shoulder, pushing me slightly. My face went hot again as I realised I’d unconsciously moved forward for a kiss that, most evidently, was not on the cards.

‘Floor is a bit uneven.’ I went back to plug in the kettle. ‘Tea?’

‘They’re bringing Granny Mary home today.’

The words fell like a concrete lump into the damp atmosphere. ‘Oh.’ I fetched the teabags, feeling the strange stirring of an almost-resentment in my chest. Was I resenting Granny Mary coming back to her van? Disturbing my de facto ruling of Harvest Cottage? Or the fact that Gabriel hadn’t even considered kissing me?

‘She honestly won’t disturb you at all.’ Gabriel perched himself on the edge of the table. I put down the fact that I noticed how long his legs were to a nasty attack of hormones, and dropped an extra teabag into my mug. ‘She’s only staying until the doctors have given her the okay to move on. Won’t be more than a couple of weeks. Or so,’ he added. ‘She’ll just be in the van, maybe ask for some water now and again to refill the tank.’

I tried again to prevent myself from wondering about the toilet arrangements. ‘Patrick will be pleased to see her.’

‘Patrick is pleased to see anyone who brings food.’ Gabriel was watching me and it was disconcerting.

‘So, when is she arriving?’ The kettle began to hum a boil and I busied myself with it and fetching the milk from the fridge.

‘In about an hour.’

‘What, today?’ I rounded on him in alarm. ‘But… I need to go and air the van! And maybe give Patrick a bit of a brush down, or at least disentangle the worst of the landscape from his tail.’

‘Well, we could open up the van now,’ he suggested. ‘After you’ve… I mean, it’s quite chilly out there and you…’ A hand waved, taking in my dressing gown. ‘It is your pyjamas, isn’t it? It’s not some kind of new fashion?’

I glared. ‘Okay, I know your eyesight is failing, but surely you can tell the difference between nightwear and current fashion?’

He got up off the table edge and came over. ‘It’s hard to tell. You’ve not met my sister, have you? She wears stuff that could be fashion, could be tablecloth and I daren’t ask. She gave me lychees once, told me they were eyeballs when I was halfway through eating them and I don’t think Mum ever quite forgave either of us. Siblings, it’s a double-edged sword.’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ I said, a bit stiffly. ‘I’m an only child.’

‘And your daughter is an only child too?’ He took the mug of tea from me. The steam instantly condensed on his glasses.

‘Why do you make it a question? Do you suspect me of having half a dozen children tucked away somewhere?’ I didn’t know why his questions were making me so uneasy. Well, yes, I did, any questions about my background made me uneasy, even if they were innocently asked.

Gabriel took off the steamy glasses and laid them on the worktop. ‘You could have older children,’ he said, reasonably. ‘Away at university or something.’

‘I’m thirty-four! I had Poppy when I was twenty! Any older children I would have to have had while I was at school,’ I said, with an unmistakable note of indignation rising with the steam from my mug.

‘I didn’t know you were thirty-four.’ That reasonable tone was beginning to get annoying now.

‘Well, I am.’

The silence was only broken by the sound of two people trying to drink very hot tea as quickly as possible. I began to wonder how the hell people ever managed to make conversation, seeing as Gabriel and I seemed to plunge ourselves so deeply into the pool of embarrassment and misunderstanding that we practically drowned in discomfiture.

‘Well,’ I said, putting down my half-empty cup. ‘I’ll just dash out and open up the van, get some air into it.’

‘And I’ll… well, I’ll just generally mill around, shall I?’ He picked