Housekeeper at His Beck and Call. Susan Stephens
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Liv like a particularly ripe fruit, and then sucking on her until he was replete—which could take quite some time.
‘I hope you like red meat,’ she said, walking over to the fridge.
His heart sang. Folding the newspaper he’d been reading, he put it to one side. ‘I love red meat.’ He was prepared to cut her as much slack as necessary in the happy anticipation of the first proper meal he’d had in days.
‘If you’d care to relax in the library,’ she went on, ‘I’ll bring you a glass of wine—or beer, if you’d prefer?’ she offered, turning her pearl-white smile on him.
‘A beer would be fine, thank you,’ he said, exhaling with contentment as he left the room.
Having donned her apron, Liv flexed her fingers. She was ready to begin. She was determined to impress Cade, and this was the way to do it. She had been top of the cordon bleu cookery class at Miss Smythson’s finishing school for young ladies.
It would do it, Liv thought, determined, breathing steadily, in through her nose and out through her mouth to a count of three. Remembering Miss Smythson’s advice that a good cook was a calm cook and an organised cook, she had planned this meal like an army exercise, and now she was certain Cade couldn’t fail to be impressed.
She peeled and scraped and washed and mashed and pricked and patted and seasoned, and then cooked the perfect meat and the perfect vegetables for the perfect length of time. When she had finished she wiped her brow, and then wiped the edges of the plate with a fresh, clean cloth she’d had standing by for just this very moment. She stood back and let out her breath in one ragged stream. The dish was a triumph. For once she was right to feel confident.
She had brought him his beer in a wineglass, which he had decided to overlook on the basis that the scent that assailed his nostrils when Liv opened the door spoke to him of gravy and roast potatoes, mashed carrots and honeyed parsnips…
He didn’t have long to wait before disillusionment set in.
‘What’s this?’ he demanded, staring down at his plate. There was a minuscule offering piled in the centre that looked to him like a particularly small pea on top of an overlarge bun.
Liv’s face lit up. No wonder Cade was taken aback. She had decided to surprise him on this first night with her signature dish…a silky concoction consisting of slivers of beef spiked with horseradish cream, served with crisp threads of green pepper and onion. The whole dish took up no more room on the plate than a teacup; just arranging it was an art form in itself. There was a dot of mashed carrot to add colour and texture, and, of course, she hadn’t forgotten the single round of roasted parsnip no bigger than a five-pence piece to lend crunch. It was a triumph! She took in the astonishment on Cade’s face and realised she had never thought of herself as a proud person before, but she felt proud now as Cade continued to stare down at his plate in wonder. He was clearly overawed by her skill and expertise, not to mention the time and trouble she’d taken to find just the right ingredients, and then prepare them for him so well. It felt really good to be appreciated—
‘It’s not enough!’ Stabbing his fork into her glorious creation, Cade stuffed the whole of it into his mouth and swallowed it down in one gulp. Then he turned on her. ‘It may have escaped your notice, lady, but I’m no leprechaun. I’m a fully grown man who expects a proper meal—not this light bite for a fairy.’
Tears sprang to her eyes, which she held back. She wasn’t going to fail. Her mother always said she was a failure. It wasn’t going to happen again—not this time—not here with Cade. ‘I’m sorry.’ She wished her voice hadn’t come out in a whisper. She wished she didn’t want to bolt from the room. Somehow she kept her feet firmly pinned to the ground and told a lie: ‘Don’t worry, that was just a first course.’
Cade grunted acknowledgement and was still frowning as he pushed his plate away. ‘I don’t need this fancy food. You didn’t need to go to so much trouble.’
‘No trouble.’
He could see she was on the verge of tears and swiftly reined in. ‘What about all those lovely fresh ingredients you bought in town?’ he said, as if he’d just remembered them. ‘Make something simple you can prepare quickly.’
He wasn’t used to dealing with emotional women, but suspected if he said anything else half nice she would bawl her eyes out.
‘Will you have your main course now, or later?’ she asked him stiffly, pausing by the door. ‘Or I could give you a break, if you prefer?’
‘Liv.’ He was halfway out of his seat ‘—I’ll come with you—’
She held her hand up, stopping him. ‘No. I’d rather you didn’t.’
He subsided down again as she hurried from the room. He felt appalling, like the worst type of ungrateful layabout—like a man who didn’t know how to get off his backside and help when a woman was so close to tears. He shifted unhappily in his seat. Was he completely unaware of other people’s feelings—of Liv’s feelings? Had he really sat here like some arrogant, fault-finding plutocrat, allowing her to wait on him? He’d never felt this way about a woman—maybe because no woman had made him face what he’d become. So why Liv? What was it about her that stripped him naked and made him feel? Seeing the tears in her eyes and knowing he’d been the cause of them had really shocked him. He hadn’t always been like this. The battlefield had made him brusque and detached, because that was how you stayed alive, but this was civilian life, and he had better get used to it. He didn’t want to turn into a block of stone. He wanted to remember how it felt to laugh and soften, and share a smile. Liv had tried her best tonight, and he’d thrown it all back in her face. It was up to him to make an effort now, and he would.
Leaning back against the kitchen side, she bit her lip, trying not to cry, though all she wanted to do was howl in despair at how useless she was. Cade had laid her bare, exposing her weaknesses and forcing her to take account of how naïve she was—how shallow and inexperienced, and how very much she had to learn…about everything. And so she would make a start right here, right now. She wasn’t going to fail on this, her first night of employment. She would just have to try harder.
Liv searched through the store cupboards for the ingredients for a main course. The cupboards needed a good clean out and yielded little more than a few half empty packets of cereal and some assorted tins. The refrigerator was better stocked with fresh eggs, vegetables, salad and beer…
As she straightened up Liv’s face brightened when she noticed a side of bacon on the kitchen counter. She walked over to examine it. It was just lying on a platter beneath a giant-sized net. The meat was a luscious tawny red colour, and the perfectly distributed fat was the buttery shade of clotted cream. Her mouth watered as she imagined it thinly sliced and crisped up in the oven. For pudding she had prepared Vanilla Snow, one of her lighter desserts—she had better come up with something more substantial before she served that…
‘Absolutely delicious,’ Cade pronounced, much to Liv’s relief. She had prepared a soufflé omelette for him with crispy bacon on the side, and it was done to a turn, if she did say so herself.
‘Where did you find such delicious bacon?’ Cade demanded. ‘I thought my farm produced the best—I only need the trophy from the Great South Western Show now to prove it to the world—but that was wonderful!’ Sighing with contentment, he patted his iron flat stomach.
A whisper of dread intruded on Liv’s pleasurable feelings. She shrugged it off. This was the friendliest conversation Cade had attempted since she had arrived, and more than made up for his earlier unkindness. And if he was prepared to make an effort, then so was she. ‘I’m really glad you enjoyed it,’ she said, taking his plate.
‘You haven’t told me yet where you found such excellent bacon,’ Cade reminded her. ‘Perhaps I should be worried about my chances at the show tomorrow. It seems I have some stiff competition in the area…Olivia?’ he prompted when Liv remained silent.
She wanted to be a thousand miles away.