Beauty and the Feast Read Online Free PDF Page A

let you down. I promise sweetie. Just remind me not to serve Gabriel Abbott any green peppers.”
    * * * *
    Eva fastened her helmet and took off Up Valley. She tried to bike at least three times a week, riding hard all the way from Napa to Calistoga and back. Biking helped clear her head and burn off any extra calories she’d ingested from all the tasting she had to do when she was cooking for her clients. Another couple hours of daylight remained so she decided to swing by Gabriel Abbott’s cottage. She wanted a quick look at where she’d be working, plus she wanted to make sure she could find her way there. According to the directions, the house was located in the hills above the Valley.
    Eva passed through Calistoga and rode south, back toward Napa . She stayed on the main highway through the center of St. Helena , then she turned right and wound her way upward. The climb was impressive. The views of the
Napa
Valley
even more so. Abbott’s cottage was so nondescript, the lot so heavily wooded, that Eva rode right past it, twice. She finally caught a number on a mailbox down the hill from the property. She walked her bike back up. She leaned it against a stone wall that shadowed the lane leading to the house. As Eva approached the cottage, a middle-aged Hispanic gentleman came out of a stone building.
    “I’m sorry, Miss,” he said in lightly accented English. “You’ll have to go back to the road. This is private property.”
    Eva was curious to see the house, but she stopped in her tracks and tried to appear contrite.
    “Yes, I know, I’m sorry to intrude. You must be Luis Gonzales. My name is Eva Raines. I work for an agency called All Things to All People. I’ve been hired by Mr. Abbott to cater a dinner he’s planning here on Saturday night. I just wanted to make certain I knew how to find the house.”
    The man looked at her, one eyebrow raised.
    “Really. You can call Mr. Abbott if you want to confirm my story.”
    “You rode a bike up here?”
    “Yeah.” Eva pointed down the lane. “I left it back there.”
    “You’re either a very tough young lady or usted esta muy loca. ”
    Eva burst into laughter. “Sí, Señor Gonzales, yo soy muy loca!”
    Luis smiled warmly at her. “Mr. Abbott called me several hours ago. He told me to expect you… eventually.” Luis motioned her forward. “Let me show you the around.”
    * * * *
    Late that night, Eva sat on her bed, legs crossed, a yellow legal pad in front of her, concentrating on a menu for Gabriel Abbott. She could have used her laptop, but for some reason, a yellow pad of paper just worked better. Holding a pencil in her hand, the act of writing and erasing, the physical sound of the pencil lead on paper, seemed to help her visualize her dishes. Eva liked to draw a ladder. The first course sat on the bottom rung, dessert on the top. Each rung, each course, led upward in a logical progression to the next. Eva was determined to get this menu right.
    Gabriel Abbott’s
Napa
Valley
home had been stunning. Eva kept reviewing what she’d seen over and over again, hoping to come up with a menu that could complement the austerity, enhance the stark simplicity of the cottage and measure up to the exquisite craftsmanship that had gone into the building of it. The home was compact yet because of the tall ceilings and large windows it managed to feel spacious and open. It contained a sitting room, a small, intimate dining room, a large kitchen, a luxurious loft that doubled as a bedroom and two elegant baths. Aside from the entrances to the two bathrooms, there were no doorways between rooms, merely framed arches.
    To Eva’s surprise, she noted that the floors were laid with rare and precious Cocobolo and Rosewood. She’d spent nearly a year in Costa Rico as an exchange student when she was in high school and she knew just how endangered the two trees were. When she asked Luis about it, he told her that Senior Abbott had overseen the collection of the