Just Desserts Read Online Free

‘They really ought to update the medal classes for the show. There’s never anything quick involved. Who on earth makes jam these days? Why don’t they have a cup for the healthiest sandwich or the most nutritious packed lunch?’
    â€˜Frances entered a peanut butter and bacon roll once, for the unusual ingredients prize, don’t you remember? Yours is a good idea. You’ll have to suggest it to the committee. The show schedule isn’t set in stone.’
    â€˜I might, at that. What’s Leo doing here?’
    â€˜He was at a loose end. He gets bored all by himself on his boat. Besides, he took me out for a meal this week, remember? I thought I should return the favour.’
    â€˜Don’t be ridiculous, Mother, the paper was paying. You do realise he’s too young for you, don’t you?’
    There were times when Penny had to remind herself quite strongly that she loved her daughter. ‘That’s just his irresponsible air. But apart from the fact that a four-year difference means very little once you reach our advanced age, Leo and I are simply friends. Everyone is allowed to have friends.’
    She carried drinks into the sitting room and was brought up short by the expression of concentrated pain in Leo’s eyes as he played trains on the carpet with Lucinda’s son, Bobby. The child was two, and endlessly endearing despite his parents providing him with purely educational toys and insisting he got the most out of every play experience. Penny remembered that Leo’s estranged son was six or seven. He must miss him.
    â€˜We were over your way during the week,’ she said chattily to her son-in-law. ‘Leo is on the track of a test-plane that crashed somewhere near Lowdale in the 1950s.’
    â€˜Really?’ Tom’s expression glazed, indicating that he was flicking through his internal database. He shook his head. ‘Sorry, don’t know of it.’
    â€˜I’ll do some more asking around. Interesting countryside as soon as you get clear of Salthaven,’ said Leo. ‘Do you ever get out into it?’
    â€˜I don’t have the time. I’m working.’
    â€˜That’s a shame. Not even during your lunch breaks?’
    A very slight look of evasion slid across Tom’s face. That in itself was enough to shake Penny. Tom didn’t do evasion. ‘No, I generally eat a sandwich at my desk and work through.’
    â€˜Tom’s work is very important. Mother, did I tell you what Bobby said at nursery this week? Mrs Field said it was really intelligent for a two-year-old.’
    It was all very much as normal – but it wasn’t quite. As Penny listened and watched in between putting the last touches to lunch, she wondered if the others had noticed anything wrong. But why would they? Frances, her younger daughter, habitually went round in a world of her own. Leo didn’t know Lucinda and Tom well enough to judge.
    Penny knew though. You can’t fool a mother. As it was, it wasn’t until she got out ice cream for dessert that she saw Lucinda’s eyes light up with unforced enthusiasm. At least that hadn’t changed. Ever since Lucinda was tiny it had always restored Penny’s belief in basic human nature that her poised, self-possessed eldest child lost all sense of her own importance when faced with ice cream. With any luck, this would mellow Lucinda into a more approachable mood, so she could actually talk to her and find out what might be wrong.
    â€˜We had some lovely ice cream the other day,’ she said. ‘At the Dun Cow of all places. It was the most sublime –’
    â€˜A plane crash?’ said Tom, interrupting suddenly. ‘Did you say earlier that you were looking into an old plane crash?’
    Leo nodded, eyes alert.
    â€˜I’ve just remembered that the workmen resurfacing the road outside my window at work a while back were talking about when rescue