Free Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy Page B

in one of the big Dublin hotels, none of them could afford to hire dress suits; but Tom had a friend who worked in a dry-cleaners. It had been dangerous and dramatic and at least four jobs were on the line, but as Tom said cheerfully, nobody lost and everybody won.
    They had been talking about Scarlet Feather from the earliest days. No other form of catering had interested either of them; while their friends wanted to do hotel work, work on cruise liners, be celebrity restaurant chefs, write books and be on television, Tom and Cathy had this dream of serving top-grade food in people’s homes. As Ireland became progressively more affluent, they felt sure this was the right way to go.
    They worked together in restaurants to get the feel for the kind of food people liked. Cathy was amused at how casually Tom took the compliments and the come-on glances directed his way. Even the stern Brenda Brennan in Quentin’s was sometimes heard to say she wished she were twenty years younger.
    Had Cathy fancied him herself in those days? Well, yes, of course, in a sort of way. It would have been impossible not to. And it might well have come to something. She smiled at the recollection.
    They had planned to go to Paris on a very cheap flight. They had listed the restaurants they would visit: some to admire from the window, one to tour the kitchens because a fellow student had got a job there; and two where they might actually eat dinner.
    They had never been to Paris before. They discussed it, heads close together over maps, night after night. Once they got there, they would walk here, take the Metro there; this museum would be open, that one closed – but it was mainly the food they were going to investigate.
    They hadn’t exactly said that this was the trip when they might become lovers. But it was in the air. Cathy had her legs waxed and bought a very expensive lacy slip. They had been all set to leave on a Friday afternoon and then that morning three things happened.
    Lizzie Scarlet fell off a ladder in Oaklands while hanging Hannah Mitchell’s curtains and was taken to hospital by ambulance.
    Tom was offered a weekend’s work at Quentin’s because Patrick’s sous chef had let them down.
    Cathy was called to interview for a job cooking in a Greek villa for the summer.
    They told themselves and each other that Paris would always be there.
    Cathy went to the Greek island to cook and met Neil Mitchell, a guest in the villa who kept putting off his return home to be with her.
    And Tom met Marcella Malone.
    And even though Paris was always there, it remained unvisited by Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather.

    She sometimes wondered about that weekend and what would have happened. But if they had been lovers, even for a short time, it would have been hard to forget once they were serious business partners in a thriving enterprise. And this way they brought no history with them. Nothing that could make either Neil or Marcella in any way uneasy.

    Cathy heard a key turn in the door.
    ‘Where are the twins?^^she called.
    ‘They’re in the car,’ Neil answered sheepishly. ‘You knew they were coming? Mother said you did, but I didn’t really believe her, to be honest.’ His face was alight now, as if he had expected a protest. ‘And you don’t mind?’
    ‘I didn’t say that. But you had to bring them. How was Jonathan?’
    ‘It looks as though it’s going to be okay.’
    ‘Well done.’
    ‘It was a group effort, teamwork,’ he said, as he always did. ‘I’ll get the twins – you’re a hero.’
    ‘For a few days I’ll be one – they’re not too easy to handle, are they? Did it get sorted out at Oaklands?’
    ‘No way, a big shouting match with Mother before they left, right down to the “someone has to look after us” line, which is only too bloody true, poor things.’
    ‘Wheel them in.’
    She watched them coming up the steps, muttering to each other that it was a much smaller house, asking each other if Neil and