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pissed off now because they like it.’
    She turned on Lucas. ‘Are you really telling me that you would be willing to do a cookery programme in a kitchen where there’s barely space to boil a kettle? And that’s when it isn’t full of cameramen, and sound people and God knows who else rushing about?’
    ‘If it wasn’t full of junk there’d be plenty of room,’ said Lucas.
    Perdita stopped wanting to cry and started wanting to kill Lucas, slowly and painfully and, preferably, with several thousand viewers looking on.
    ‘And you’ll be in it too. You can tell us all about the wonderful things you grow,’ said David Winter, as if offering her a treat.
    ‘I don’t want to be on television. I have a job,’ said Perdita crossly.
    ‘We will pay to use your cottage as a location,’ David went on.
    ‘And you do need a new van,’ said Lucas.
    David frowned, not wanting to give anyone the impression they’d pay huge amounts. ‘Possibly not quite enough for that, but it’d be marvellous publicity for your business,’ he added.
    Perdita took a deep breath. ‘I don’t need any more business, and I don’t suppose you’d start filming for ages. I will have bought a new van without your contribution by then.’
    ‘Actually, we want to start pretty much right away. The programme’s due to go out in the spring.’
     
    Eventually, everyone except Lucas found their way out of the cottage and drove off. Lucas stayed on.
    ‘Haven’t you got unspeakably expensive gourmet meals to prepare?’ Perdita demanded when she realised he hadn’t left with the others.
    He shook his head. ‘We’re not open for lunch this week.’
    ‘What about prepping up?’
    ‘I’ve left that to Greg and Janey. We’ll see what sort of a cock-up they make of it.’
    ‘What makes you think they’ll cock it up?’
    Lucas sighed. ‘Experience.’
    ‘You are such a bastard. I don’t know why anyone would want to work for someone like you.’
    ‘Because they need money and experience.’
    ‘The money’s crap, for a start.’
    ‘Actually, it’s slightly better than most people on their level get paid. They do have to earn it, of course. But there’s nothing unfair about that.’
    Perdita didn’t reply, silently renewing her vow to find Janey something better than working for Lucas.
    ‘I suppose you want me to drive you back,’ she said, wanting, quite badly, to make him walk in his black and white checked trousers, chef’s jacket and working boots.
    ‘Actually I want to see what you’re doing here.’ He sensed her resistance. ‘Unless you’re ashamed of it, of course.’
    Perdita was intensely proud of her market garden, and part of her wanted the opportunity to show Lucas how well she had done after he had left her, but she couldn’t possibly give in to such an arrogant demand. ‘Of course I’m not ashamed of it, but just because we were once married, that doesn’t give you the right to demand to see it.’
    ‘I’m sure it doesn’t. But what about the fact that I’m one of your major customers and I happen to like seeing where what I buy comes from?’
    That was unanswerable. She often showed interested buyers round.
    ‘You’d better borrow a coat, then. Or you’ll get cold.’
    ‘You won’t have anything to fit me.’
    She smiled accommodatingly and went into the hall. ‘Yes I will. Here.’ She burrowed into a row of hooks and produced a very ancient man’s jacket which had once belonged to Kitty’s husband. Kitty had left it behind once and it had stayed there ever since. Now she was pleased to see the curiosity in Lucas’s eyes.
    ‘It belongs to a friend,’ she said cheerfully. ‘But you can borrow it.’

Chapter Three
     
     
    There was nothing she could do about Wellingtons for Lucas, but he managed perfectly well in his steel-capped boots, although he did get them covered in mud. Perdita had often wondered if she should have the path from her house to the poly-tunnels gravelled, but like many