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‘Look, Amy, I can’t sit here and eat steak while you watch me and eat a packet of crisps. Please let me buy you dinner.’
‘No!’ she hissed. ‘I’d rather not!’
‘That’s ridiculous!’ he hissed back. ‘It’s a friendly gesture!’
‘It’s one I can’t afford to repay. I’m sorry, I can’t accept it.’
Matt reached to the empty table behind them for some beer mats to put under the drinks.
‘I’ll tell you what,’ he said as he turned back. ‘I can’t cook to save my life. Oliver and I have brought all our food in boil-in-the-bag packets, and he hates it. So, how about I buy you dinner tonight, and in return you cook for us all one night? Would that make it easier to say yes?’ He looked at her hopefully.
She was hungry and the smell of the food wafting through from the kitchen was very tempting. It wouldn’t be hard to cook a camping supper for four of them so perhaps she could accept his offer without being beholden to him in any way, or having to feel guilty, or patronised, or like he was throwing charity at her. ‘If you’re sure.’
‘I’m sure.’ He grinned. ‘It was me who wanted to come, after all. It’s nice for me and Oliver to have other people to talk to and this is a lovely little pub. The beer’s great too.’
‘You’re right, I like it here. It’s warm and it feels safe. It feels like these walls could keep anything out. The end of the world could come, and we’d survive in here.’
It was only as she said it she realised how stupid that must sound to a man who’d recently lost his wife. What was she thinking? The end of Stella’s world — their world — had come, and she had not survived.
‘I’m sorry … I didn’t mean … that was a stupid thing to say, I’m so sorry,’ she stuttered. He was being so kind and she was repaying him by reminding himself of the one thing he needed to forget. He must think her a total idiot.
‘I know what you mean,’ he said, carrying on as if she hadn’t embarrassed herself. ‘Can’t help feeling not much has changed in here for generations. A shepherd from one hundred years ago could walk in here off the fells and he’d not be out of place. But more importantly than any of that, what are you going to have to eat?’
‘Oh! I’ll have … the trout, please.’
‘Excellent choice. I’m going to have the steak,’ Matt said.
‘Can I have the steak too, if we don’t have to worry about what it costs?’ Was it so obvious even Harry knew she couldn’t afford it?
‘If you want the steak you can have it, Harry. I’m sure we can ask for one without the peppercorn sauce.’ Matt said, saving her the embarrassment of answering.
‘Awesome. Steak! Yeah, I love steak! Steak, steak, and more steak …’ Silence fell as he stared contemplatively at the menu. ‘I do love steak, but … perhaps I’ll have the shepherd’s pie after all, if you promise it’ll be like Granny Jen’s. Then are we going to play cards?’
‘Yes, we’re going to play cards.’
‘Mam?’
‘Yes?’
‘When we get home, can Oliver come and read the Titty book with us tonight? I told him he could.’
‘One thing at a time, Harry!’ she laughed. ‘One thing at a time.’
