‘None of them was the right woman, though,’ Erica added, her tone upbeat again. ‘You’re different.’
‘Hmm, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,’ Cathy said with a light laugh, though she loved the faith Erica was placing in her.
‘So you’re seeing him again at the weekend?’ Erica continued. ‘Where are you going this time?’
‘I think we’re going back to the bar we ended up at last night,’ Cathy said. ‘It was lovely but we didn’t have a lot of time to try much of the food.’
‘That’s Aguilar’s, isn’t it? I love it in there.’
‘I’d never been in before but it was nice. Never had tapas either before last night. So that’s two firsts – Shakespeare and tapas…’
‘It’s three if you count Matthias.’
Cathy laughed. ‘That’s true.’
‘I’m so happy it went well,’ Erica said, and Cathy could hear the warm smile in her voice. ‘I really felt it would, and I hoped so, but you can never tell if my stupid brother is going to manage to put his foot in it somehow and ruin what should have been as easy as falling off a log.’
‘What’s easy?’
‘Getting along with you, silly! If he managed to cock that up I really was going to wash my hands of him.’
‘Well you don’t need to because we got on really well.’
‘I really am glad. Listen, do you want to meet up today for coffee?’
‘So you can grill me about the date properly?’
‘Yes,’ Erica said, laughing. ‘But it would be lovely to see you too.’
Cathy smiled. ‘There isn’t that much more to tell that you don’t already know, honestly. It was lovely, but it was a first date so it was all a bit polite. But if you really want to meet up then I’m free. I could show you the new recipes I’ve got for the book anyway.’
‘Ingrid’s at twelve then?’
‘Sounds good to me!’
Twenty-Four
Cookery club had rolled round again, and while Cathy always loved having her new friends to what had begun to feel like her own kitchen to do her favourite activity, today she had even more to smile about. Even though they’d arranged their second date for the coming weekend, Matthias and Cathy had spoken on the phone every night since their date, sometimes for an hour or more. It was mostly small talk but it came easily and it was fun. A bit of how’s your day been, a bit of flirting and a healthy dollop of cute and harmless innuendo had gone a long way to making those calls almost as enjoyable as seeing him in person.
This morning Erica came in beaming too. She winked at Cathy. ‘Good morning!’
Cathy grinned. Tansy was with Erica again today.
‘Good morning Tansy,’ Cathy said. ‘Good to see you again.’
Tansy gave the vaguest nod and headed straight to her usual spot at the worktop to start getting ready to bake. It was hardly friendly but it was definitely an acknowledgement. Cathy wondered whether anyone had told Tansy that she was dating Matthias yet. Was this a Tansy who knew, or would a Tansy who knew react with even more coldness than she had today? Or was this only marginally less frosty version of Tansy the one who knew and was making an effort to be nice to Cathy, or was it just Cathy’s imagination that she was less cold than usual? If she didn’t already know, she was bound to find out soon. How would that work out? Cathy wondered. Tansy was so closed and unreadable all the time that she couldn’t even begin to guess.
‘I spoke to Matt last night,’ Erica said as Cathy bid her a more private good morning. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard him sound so happy.’
‘Really?’ Cathy replied airily. ‘Why would that be?’
Erica grinned. ‘I think you know exactly why that would be.’
‘We’ve only spoken on the phone a few times.’
‘Well, whatever it is you’ve been saying it’s good…’ She lowered her voice further still as she threw a glance at Tansy, who was unpacking ingredients from a bag. ‘Please keep doing it – it’s nice for me to have only one sibling to worry about for a change instead of two.’
Cathy could only assume she meant Tansy’s mum, Michelle. Neither Erica nor Matthias had said a lot about Michelle but, knowing how close they were to each other, the fact that they hadn’t spoke volumes about how difficult that relationship obviously was for both of them. Cathy had wanted to ask on more than one occasion, but she always got the impression that opening a discussion on that subject might be unwelcome.
Maybe later, when she knew them both better, she might learn more, and it might make her understand Tansy a little better too. She was just as much of an enigma in her own right, and though she seemed to hate everything and everyone, including the cookery club, she kept turning up. When she first arrived she always looked as if she couldn’t have cared less about it, but once settled in, she suddenly began to take every task very seriously. It was such a strange juxtaposition, and Cathy wished she could work it out.
She was prevented from asking more by Beth and her sister, who came over to ask whether she’d baked the barmbrack they’d given her the recipe for and whether she’d liked it. Cathy didn’t need much encouragement to wax lyrical about something she’d enjoyed making and eating, and it didn’t take her long to get so involved in a conversation about it that she hardly noticed Erica wander off to get set up for today’s bake. When she finally did, she realised that she’d been talking about barmbrack for so long that it was time to start the session. Anything else would have to wait for now.
They were making two cakes today: some were making Eve’s pudding, and those who didn’t like apple were doing pineapple upside-down cake. Everyone had been getting along well, as they always did, the room full of good-natured but fairly low-level chatter as Cathy busied herself talking people through problems, offering advice on how to do something more easily, or just congratulating them on a job well done. But that was shattered about an hour into the class with a shrill squeal. Cathy was with Colin trying to figure out why his cake batter was so runny, but she looked up sharply, along with everyone else, to see Iris standing in front of one of the ovens with a look of absolute horror on her face.
‘Someone’s taken my cake out!’ she cried. ‘It’s nowhere near cooked! Look at it – it’s a horrible mess!’
Cathy rushed over, as did Myrtle and Dora. Erica exchanged a look of confusion with Lindsey. Only Tansy didn’t look up, calmly getting on with washing her mixing bowl as if nothing had happened.
‘It was on that shelf,’ Iris said, pointing to a spot where another cake now sat. ‘Someone has taken it out to put theirs in.’
‘Are you sure?’ Cathy asked. ‘You couldn’t be mistaken at all? Maybe you thought you’d put it in and you hadn’t?’
‘Of course I’m sure!’ Iris snapped. ‘I know I put it in!’
Cathy looked through the glass door into the oven again. She wasn’t happy about a situation that might have someone pointing a finger of blame at someone else here, and her question had been aimed at heading an awkward eventuality like that off; she hadn’t meant to offend or insult Iris. But she really had been hoping that it was a mistake that Iris might suddenly recall making.