Second Thyme Around Read Online Free PDF

unreconstructed!’
    ‘How did you come to live here?’ asked David, eager for details.
    Perdita sighed. She didn’t really want Lucas knowing her life story since he left her, but she had nothing to be ashamed of. ‘It was adjoining the land I had for my salads. When it came on the market, I bought it.’ She saw Lucas’s eyebrow shoot up, desperate to ask, ‘What with?’ ‘I have a mortgage,’ she added for his benefit, ‘like everybody else.’
    ‘I see. And it was unrestored?’ David Winter went on.
    ‘It was pretty much as it is now. I had the stove put in, and it does the hot water and a couple of radiators. But as I said, I don’t have much time for decorating.’
    She knew most women would have been waxing the floors, sponging and stencilling the walls and covering the chairs with petit point, but all her creative energy went into her garden. Home for her was where she flopped for a couple of hours before falling into the bath and into bed.
    ‘So let’s see the kitchen,’ said Lucas glumly.
    The kitchen was a later addition. It was a lean-to at the back of the house and was small and badly arranged. It seemed to make no concession to cooking at all, though the sharp-eyed would have spotted a cooker under a washing-up bowl of sprouting pea seeds, and a fridge behind a bag of compost and a fork. The room was full of trays of soil, sprouting seeds and tottering heaps of flowerpots waiting to be washed. The sink was stacked with unwashed saucepans and grubby plant labels. The only thing obviously used for its purpose was the microwave, which took up most of the work surface.
    ‘I did warn you,’ she said as her guests stood openmouthed in the doorway. There wasn’t room for more than Perdita and Lucas in the kitchen at the same time. ‘Now, I could probably manage to make you all a cup of instant coffee before you go home. So your journey wasn’t completely wasted.’ No one seemed to notice the irony in her voice.
    ‘But it’s ideal! Just needs tidying up a bit!’ said David. ‘Look at that lovely deep windowsill! And the beam!’
    ‘That’s not a beam, it’s a railway sleeper,’ said Perdita, perturbed that David was not put off. ‘It was just stuck in to stop the house falling down.’
    ‘Presumably all beams were just “stuck in to stop the house falling down”, unless you’re in a pub, of course,’ Lucas retorted acidly.
    Perdita turned on him. ‘Do you really want to cook in this kitchen?’ she demanded.
    ‘Do you two know each other?’ asked David.
    ‘Of course,’ said Perdita quickly. ‘I deliver veg to Grantly House.’
    ‘I know, but there seems to be some sort of – chemistry – between you.’
    ‘If you mean a hearty dislike, you’ve got it about right,’ said Lucas.
    ‘Hmm.’ David stroked his chin thoughtfully. ‘You know, people are beginning to get tired of perfect-everytime cookery programmes. A little frisson …’ He stopped talking and narrowed his eyes as some creative and ground-breaking idea occurred to him.
    It made Perdita nervous. ‘Honestly, this kitchen is not at all suitable. You must see that.’
    ‘That’s a Belfast sink under all those pans,’ said someone.
    ‘That’s not a Belfast sink!’ protested Perdita. ‘It was in here when I came!’
    David Winter sighed in ecstasy. ‘Original – perfect!’
    Perdita began to panic. ‘Listen, this kitchen is too small for one person. It would be quite impossible to do a television programme in here. Lucas would hate it, wouldn’t you, Lucas? And he’s your star!’
    ‘Actually,’ said the annoying individual who had spotted the sink, ‘we could all be out in the passage and still get good shots. If it was cleared up, it would be perfect.’
    ‘Well, it’s not going to be cleared up! This is my home and where I work, and I’m not going to tart it all up for you lot!’ Perdita wanted to cry.
    ‘Temper, temper,’ said Lucas. ‘You did offer to show us the place. You can’t be