Home Free - Fern Michaels [27]
“I do know that. She raised you, and you are a fine specimen, Joseph Espinosa. I was just jerking your chain. Maggie always leaves the kitchen a mess.”
“So, we’re back to Maggie, are we?”
“No, we are not back to Maggie. I have accepted that Maggie and I are over and done with, but I’ll go to the wall if I think someone is out to hurt her in any way. I know you feel the same way, don’t you, Joe?”
Espinosa knew Ted was beyond serious, because the only time he ever called him Joe was when he was deeply troubled and needed his help in some way.
“I do, Ted. I really do.”
Chapter 7
Countess Anna de Silva, also known as Annie to loved ones and friends, looked around her spanking new state-of-the-art kitchen. It wasn’t exactly an alien world to her, but she definitely was not at home there, or in any other kitchen, for that matter.
Isabelle had outdone herself in the kitchen area. Annie had asked for cozy and warm, and that she did appreciate. The monster fireplace with old Virginia brick, in which one could roast an ox, for some reason was not at odds with the streamlined appliances, which gave off Annie’s reflection when she stood next to them. Healthy green plants dangled from ancient beams complete with the original wooden pegs that were used instead of nails back in the day. Isabelle had saved the beams when the original building was demolished. Bright apple red crockery was everywhere and matched the fancy red knobs on her new Wolf stove.
Annie had specifically asked for a Wolf because of the red knobs and Maggie’s telling her how much she loved the Wolf stove she had in her own kitchen. As Annie looked around, she realized that Isabelle had given her exactly what she’d asked for, a combination of the old world she’d grown up with and the new world she was living in.
So much for a beautiful kitchen. Now, if she only knew the first thing about how to cook, it would be perfect.
Annie hooked her feet over the rungs of the stool she was sitting on at her center island and took in the mind-boggling array of cookbooks staring up at her. It was almost midnight, and she should be asleep in her old flannel nightgown in her new bed with her brand-new silky soft Frette sheets.
Tomorrow . . . well, maybe not tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow, she was going to hightail it over to Myra’s and bring home some of the barn cats and begin trying to domesticate them.
A half hour later, with two cups of tea heavily laced with brandy, Annie had reached the conclusion that country living sucked. So did cooking—not that she had tried to do any yet.
More important, her personal life sucked, too. She definitely needed a cat. Or a bird. One that talked, preferably a foulmouthed parrot that had once belonged to a pirate. She would have to ask Charles if he knew someplace she could get one. Then she wondered what her guests would think if she served them scrambled eggs.
She was pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace when her cell phone chirped to life on the kitchen counter. Annie looked at the clock on the Wolf stove. A call after midnight had to mean trouble of some kind. Well, trouble is better than looking at these damn cookbooks, she thought as she walked over to the phone, flipped up the cover, and barked, “This better be good, because it’s after midnight, and I’m trying to make a Thanksgiving dinner here.”
Annie listened to the voice identify himself and sat down, the phone clutched to her ear as she reached for the last of her tea, which was more brandy than tea, and swallowed. “Fergus Duffy! Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“I do, dear lady. But if I recall correctly, you told me you never sleep. That’s why I have been driving around for the past two hours trying to find your house. I am hopelessly lost. I was coming for a visit.”
This was deep. Wayyyy too deep for Annie. “You were? You are? Don’t you have a map? People from other countries should buy maps. They used to be free at gas stations. Now you have to buy them. So, where are you exactly?”
Annie listened, then rattled off directions.