Read Online Barefoot in the Dark by Lynne Barrett-Lee - Free Book Online

car, now, is there?’ There was a gleam of salacious excitement in her eyes. ‘I can drop you.’
    Hope grimaced. ‘There’s really no need, Mum. Anyway, you’ll be here, won’t you?’
    ‘Nonsense. I’ll drop you off and there’s an end to it. I’m quite sure Tom and Chloe can cope for twenty minutes. Goodness me, I used to leave you in your cot every day when I went to collect your brother from school. Or Chloe can come with us, can’t she?’ She finished wiping the table and went to wring the cloth out. ‘There,’ she said. ‘So.’ She plucked fluff from Hope’s shoulder. ‘What time do you want to leave for this non-date of yours?’
    There was no point arguing with her, so Hope didn’t bother. But it wasn’t a date, even so. She wouldn’t let it be.
    There was a thin drizzle falling when they pulled up outside the Hilton, and this time Jack Valentine was nowhere to be seen.
    ‘I’ll get out here, Mum,’ Hope said, with some relief. At least she would be spared the embarrassment of her mother leaping from the car and making screechy small talk at him. She pulled over to the side of the road.
    ‘Don’t be daft,’ her mother responded quickly. ‘It’s raining. And what if he’s late?’
    ‘Mother, I am quite capable of being out in the rain on my own.’ Hope slid from the driver’s seat, leaving the engine running. ‘Go on. You get off home.’
    ‘Best I stay a bit. There’s no rush, is there?’
    ‘Yes, there is, Gran,’ reminded Chloe from the back seat. ‘Casualty’s on in ten minutes. Mum, can I stay up and watch Emergency Nine One One tonight?’
    Hope had by now jogged around the car and opened her mother’s door to let her out.
    ‘Certainly not, Chloe. You’ve got school in the morning.’
    ‘Mu-um… ’
    ‘Well now. Here we are again!’
    It wasn’t a date, but, even so, Hope felt herself go a very mild shade of tingle upon hearing Jack’s voice behind her. So much so that when she finally managed to extricate him from her mother’s conversational clutches – Jack had been so sweet with her, Hope didn’t like to seem short – she determined to reign in her febrile imaginings and concentrate wholly on the job in hand.
    Though he, clearly, had other ideas. They set off down the street under the ample cover of his golf umbrella which, being blue, made it feel vaguely subterranean inside. ‘Elbow?’ he said, once the car had puttered off. And there was his, suddenly, stuck out at right angles beside her. ‘Two people,’ he added. ‘One umbrella. It’s easier.’
    Out-manoeuvred, she slipped her arm self-consciously into the crook of it, and he tucked it back in with a grin.
    ‘There,’ he said happily. ‘That’s much better, isn’t it?’
    Was it? Hope swallowed. She wasn’t so sure. She must, at all costs, keep her eye on the ball.
    ‘Right,’ said Jack, whose confidence and merriment and general air of jollity seemingly knew no bounds. ‘I imagine the lady’ll probably be wanting a wallpaper of lightly poached paperclip goujons set on a bed of mixed watering cans and drizzled with an emulsion of lampshades, please.’
    Hope, like the waiter, who was writing it all down, took a moment or two to digest this. She laughed. Jack laughed. The waiter laughed too. Though in his case the laugh was obviously a cover, because he looked for all the world like he was chewing on a cockroach.
    ‘Not really,’ said Jack, who didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe didn’t care. He was in the media, after all. He gestured, and asked Hope what she actually wanted. Once she’d told him, he raised his menu and pointed to an item. Hope was still laughing behind hers.
    ‘And I’ll have that.’ He grinned at her.
    ‘That?’ asked the waiter.
    ‘Yes, that.’ Jack closed the menu and handed it back.
    ‘What’s “that”?’ asked Hope.
    ‘The mushroom thing.’ He leaned across the table and whispered. ‘Only I can’t say it.’
    ‘Say what?’
    ‘ Mille Feuille