Flora's Lot by Katie Fforde (best books under 200 pages TXT) 📗

Somethingin Charles's tone made Flora vehement. 'Yes! It's mybusiness too! Besides, I haven't got anything else on, much.'

‘You wouldn't like a day to relax?'

‘I'll do that on Sunday.'

‘That'sshowing great dedication to duty, Flora.’

‘Did youexpect anything less?' She couldn't help teasing him just a little.

‘If I did before,I certainly wouldn't dare now. Oh, and your car is ready, by theway. I'd collect you in it tomorrow, only there's something I wantto deliver for the cottage that you might find useful.'

‘That sounds exciting. It's not a dining table?’

‘Alas, no.'

‘And it'sgood about my car. I hope it wasn't horribly expensive.'

‘Don'tworry about that. And you can go on using the Land-Rover if you like.'

‘I do like it.’

At lastthey heard someone coming up the front steps and ring the doorbell.

‘I'll say goodbye, then,' said Flora.

‘Goodnight, Flora.’

*

Thefollowing morning, she saw Charles's car come slowly down thelane and went out to meet him. She was feeling oddly jittery,although she didn't know why. He got out of the car and stood there whileFlora came upto him.

‘Hi, Charles, how are you?'

‘Fine.'

‘DidAnnabelle give you a fashion show? She got some lovely things.'

‘I think you'vefinally proved to me that it's not a good idea to try and judge abook by its cover, yes,' he said, with a twinkle oddly reminiscent of Henry's.

Flora smiled and bit her lip. 'Good!'

‘Comeand see what I've brought you. Not a dining table, but something a bitsimilar.’

It was awhite painted metal table and two chairs for the garden.

‘Oh, that's lovely!It will be perfect in the corner by the roses. I can just see myselfsitting there with a glass of wine.' She frowned a little. 'Wasn't this, orsomething very like it, at the last sale? I seem to remember itwent for areasonable sum.'

‘Yes, itdid. I bought it. Geoffrey bid for me. I thought it was just what you needed here.'

‘Is that legal? Buying stuff when you'rethe auctioneer?'

‘As long as your bid is the highest,yes.'

‘That's really kind, Charles, thank you.'

‘I will make surethere's also something to eat off before . . . when is it?' It washis turn to look thoughtful. 'I hope Annabelle hasn't railroaded youinto having a dinner party. She seemed very keen to come for some reason.I was very pleased, though,' he went on, 'I would really likeAnnabelle and you to become friends. She doesn't have many close womenfriends.'

‘No?'

‘Itwould be good for her to get some young company.’

‘She's not that much older than me,Charles.'

‘No,but currently her best friend is her mother, which isall very well, but I think you need friends your own age, don't you?'

‘Absolutely!'

‘So we can come for dinner?’

Flora foundherself nodding. 'Of course! It'll be fun.'

‘I'lljust put these things where you want them and we'll be off. How's Imelda?' He carriedthe table to the corner of the garden where some rambling roses made a natural arbour.

Florapicked up a chair. It was unexpectedly heavy 'I didn't thinkyou cared about Imelda, or her kittens.’

Charleslooked surprised. 'I did, but I didn't want to ask if I couldcome and see them in case she ate them, or something.'

‘Oh. Well,you could come and see them now, if you're interested.' Perhaps she'd misjudged hima little.

He glancedat his watch. 'I'm meeting some people at eleven. I shouldn't really.’

Flora wasdisappointed. 'Perhaps you could come and see them another time.’

`I'd loveto.' He put the second chair down by the table.

‘It lookswonderful,' said Flora. 'Like something out of a magazine.It only needs a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread, some olives and a book.'

‘Abook of verses underneath the bough, A jug of wine, a loaf of bread - andThou,' he quotedsoftly

‘What's that?'

‘Oh,just a bit of poetry. Now, have you got everything? We should be off.’

When theygot to the office, Charles said, 'What are you going to do?'

‘I'd like to get on with sorting outthose old filing cabinets. There's stuff inthere no one's looked at for years.I'm not going to destroy any of it, just put it into document boxes and labelit, so you can throw it away later.'She was quite looking forward to a day of getting on with things together in companionable silence.And perhaps they might even have a proper chat about the businesswithout everyone else around.

He smiled. 'That doesn't seem a verynice way to spend a sunny Saturday'

‘Well, you'reworking, so I should be, too. And once those filingcabinets are empty, we can put them somewhere else andhave much more room in the office.'

‘Urn, I'monly working until eleven. The people I'm meeting, with Annabelle, are friends.'

‘Oh.' Flora feltsuddenly put out. 'Well, I'll only work till twelve then.' Then, worrying shesounded a bit dependent, she hurried on,'I've got a friend I've been trying to meet for lunch for ages.’

`Oh?’

This wasobviously an invitation to tell him who the friend was.Flora decided to refuse it. It was none of his business,after all. 'We'd better get on, then, if we're only working for a couple of hours.’

When Charleswas out of the room, doing whatever he had to do, Flora decided to ringHenry. She didn't usually ring men until the relationship was fairlywell established, but this was an emergency. Shecouldn't be seen as Flora-No-Mates when Charles and Annabelle were goingto be all couply and have lunch with friends.

‘Henry? It'sFlora Stanza.' For all her confidence, Flora alwaysfelt a little shy telephoning people she didn't really know.

‘Flora! How very nice to hear from you!’

Hisenthusiasm was a great relief. 'I'm working this morning,but as I'm in town, I wondered if we could meet for lunch, or a drink, orsomething.'

‘Thatwould be delightful. Shall I pick you up from the office? I know a very nice little pub we could go to.’

‘That would be lovely. About twelve?'

‘Great. See you soon. Cheers.’

Charleswas standing in the doorway when she put the phonedown. 'So you're going out for lunch too?'

‘Yup. Something to look forward to afterall this sorting out.' She smiled at him,sensing that for some reason he wasdying to know whom she was going out with.

‘Iheard you say the name Henry. Would that be Henry Burnet?’

Flora hadto think for a moment. 'Yes, I think that would be him.’

Charlesfrowned. 'I should tell you, Flora, that