Page 138 of Deep Blue Sea

Dot bustled in and helped herself to the pitcher of lemonade that Rachel had just made.

‘You know, this stuff is getting better and better as the day goes on. You should set up shop when you get back to Thailand.’

‘Cheers. I’m not doing badly for someone who can’t boil an egg successfully.’

‘Speaking of Thailand. Where’s that handsome boyfriend when we need him?’

‘He’s gone into London. He leaves for Bangkok tomorrow. He said he’d be back by now actually.’ She smiled brightly, trying to hide her disappointment.

Rachel understood that Liam’s time in England was limited and that he had had more friends and family to see, but she was still confused and upset at his no-show at the fair. He had known how hard Diana had worked to revamp the café and how much Rachel had wanted the day to be a success for her sister’s benefit if nothing else. Besides which, despite Rachel’s chores in the kitchen, it was the sort of perfect English afternoon that she wanted to share with him. The sort she knew she would miss in Thailand’s relentless sunshine.

Her mobile phone was buzzing in the pouch of the spotty apron that Dot had lent her.

‘My phone. I had better get this.’

She could hear a faint voice at the other end, but the noise in the café was so loud, she could barely make out what it was saying. She went outside, which wasn’t much better, so she stuck a finger in her ear.

‘Is that Rachel?’ The voice was at first unfamiliar. ‘It’s Alicia. Alicia Dyer. I just wanted to let you know that Liam is on his way.’

‘

Liam’s been with you?’ she said, feeling her mouth dry.

‘Didn’t he tell you?’

‘Of course,’ she lied.

‘Sorry we didn’t get to say goodbye at Casper’s last week. But as promised, I asked around. I was going to pass the message on through Liam, but I thought I had better tell you myself. Anyway, word was definitely out that Julian wanted to sell the business. All the big players were after a meeting with him to angle for the instruction; in fact a partner at our place was certain he knew exactly the right buyer. Bit of a lost cause, though, as Julian had a tight circle of investment people he liked using. It’s a shame we didn’t meet before. I mean, I didn’t know Liam had such a connection to the Denver family.’

‘Julian’s dead, Alicia. I don’t think Liam’s connections could help now. Not that they ever would have.’

‘Of course not,’ she said with embarrassment.

Rachel ended the call and sank down to the kerb, reeling. She kept hearing Alicia’s words. Liam is on his way . . . Didn’t he tell you? She had no idea if the woman was being deliberately toxic, and she had certainly gone out of her way to help Rachel. But still she felt duped and betrayed. Liam had said he had to go into London to run some errands, meet friends, and, well, meeting Alicia did, strictly speaking, fall into that category. But she felt sure that Liam would have mentioned who he was going to see if it had been anyone else other than Alicia. And he had no reason to cover his tracks unless there was some romantic element to his visit, an element that he wanted to hide from Rachel because he thought it would upset her.

She looked up and saw Adam Denver walking out of the café, which was strange as she hadn’t seen him go in. There was something about him that made him look like a film star on the set of a Working Title movie. Squinting in the sun she waved at him and he came ambling over, his hands thrust in his jeans pockets.

‘Shouldn’t you be judging cauliflowers?’

‘Your sister’s the local celebrity around here. No one knows me from Adam.’

She gave a short laugh and he came to sit next to her on the kerb.

‘Excellent lemonade, by the way.’

She was only half listening to him. All she could think about was that Liam and Alicia had rekindled their relationship and the very idea of it made her feel sick.

‘Did I taste vanilla?’

‘What?’

‘Vanilla. In the lemonade.’

She started to laugh. ‘I went a bit off-piste.’

‘It was great. Inventive. Are you okay?’ he said after a moment.

‘I’m fine.’