Page 94 of Secret Paths

“That sounds alarmingly competent. Call him.”

“I will. But, Peter?”

“What?”

“This is not casual behaviour.”

I hang up.

Cowardly, possibly.

Necessary, definitely.

Downstairs, Mark’s phone rings less than thirty seconds later.

I hear him answer. “Hi, Hunter.”

A pause.

“Oh. Right.” Another pause. “What is the temperature now?”

Good man.

“What about the prep fridge?”

Alexandra says something I cannot hear.

Mark replies into the phone, “No, tell them not to move anything. I’ll come back now.”

Mandy coughs.

“Problem?” Alexandra asks.

“Sorry,” Mark says. “Walk-in fridge alarm at Morton Hall. There is prep for tomorrow’s lunch, and Hunter needs me to check what is safe.”

“That sounds urgent,” Mandy says, with the relief of a woman who has seen a helicopter arrive on a desert island.

“It is probably nothing,” Mark says. “But I should go.”

Alexandra sighs. “I will come with you.”

“You do not have to.”

“I know. But if Hunter is standing near a fridge pretending he understands food safety, I would like to witness it.”

Mandy makes polite noises. Mark apologises again. Alexandra says they will rearrange the lesson, but her voice still carries suspicion, hooked and unwilling to let go.

At the front door, she pauses.

“Mandy?”

“Yes?”

“We are going to talk about the cottage pie.”

“I assumed.”

The door opens.