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Agnes hummed softly to herself as she weighed, chopped and mixed various ingredients for the recipes she was preparing for the Thursday celebratory lunch she was cooking. It was not yet nine o’clock, and she had been busy for a couple of hours and already the results of her labours were showing.

Looking around her new kitchen, Agnes sighed with satisfaction. The yeasty bread rolls were rising nicely in the small oven of her new top-of-the-range cooker, the duck was marinading in a red wine sauce on the work top and the rouleau, filled with chocolate cream and covered with white chocolate, was rolled up and in the fridge.

Her wonderful modern kitchen was living up to all her expectations and she knew she was going to be so happy preparing meals in here. She’d forgotten how much she enjoyed feeding friends and family. When her daughter Isabelle had left home, guests at the auberge had filled the cooking gap in her life, but now there was only Bruno to feed regularly. She’d have to invite friends around often, she decided.

The sun was shining in through the kitchen window and she could see the willow tree with its newly green leafy fronds quivering in the gentle breeze as she set the coffee to brew. Bruno came in just as the coffee finished percolating.

“Good timing,” she said, reaching for two cups. “Biscuit?”

“Thanks. The furniture is back out under the loggia ready for lunch,” Bruno said. “We could sit out there now.”

“Everything’s beginning to come together here,” Agnes said, as they sat companionably drinking their coffee. “I’m really looking forward to today’s lunch – although I hope I’ve done the right thing inviting Evie.”

Bruno glanced at her, surprised.

“Why?”

“I told Pascal it would be just Libby. You know how shy he can be with strangers and I don’t think he’d have agreed to come if he thought it would be more than just the three of us. I didn’t think about him when I invited her.”

Bruno shrugged.

“It’s not as if it’s a huge crowd. Pascal will be fine. It’s only when his mother is around that he tends to clam up. You haven’t invited her, have you?”

Agnes laughed.

“Non.” She hesitated before adding, “I hope Libby and Pascal get on.”

Bruno wagged a finger at her.

“You’re not matchmaking, are you?”

Agnes shook her head.

“No. But they are both single, so . . .”

“So you plan to help them along,” Bruno said, smiling. “Lunch should be interesting.”

Margaret Scott

Margaret is a sub-editor within the Production Team on the "Friend". Her main job is to work on the stories and make sure the magazine leaves us in its best possible guise. When not doing that, however, she either has her head buried in the old “Friend” volumes or is out and about giving talks or going on Warner trips (fab!). She hates cheese.

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