‘Then let me pay you for the dinner.’
Amanda frowned. ‘Why would you do that?’ she asked.
‘Because you keep feeing me, and you don’t have a job and I do – unless you have a fortune I don’t know about.’
Amanda sighed. ‘No fortune sadly. But you don’t have to pay. You can make me dinner tomorrow night. How’s that?’
Simon made a face at her.
‘What? Don’t you want to make me dinner?’ She seemed insulted.
‘No, I do but I don’t think you would want to eat my dinners. They consist of beans and toast and maybe an egg if I’m feeling fancy.’
‘No salad or vegetables?’ she asked.
‘No, I probably have scurvy.’ He looked at the skin on his arms. ‘No marks yet but soon to come, I expect.’
‘I can’t tell if you’re joking or not,’ Amanda said.
‘I’m not sure I am,’ admitted Simon. He hadn’t been eating well since he had left London and food wasn’t anything he had been interested in much before the disastrous wedding day. He knew he had lost weight and muscle tone, as the few clothes he had with him were looser than ever.
‘I will see you at six, after I shower,’ he said with a smile and he walked down to the gatehouse to see if Diana was back from Janet’s.
As he came to the house, Janet’s car arrived with Diana in the passenger seat.
He came around and opened the door and Trotsky jumped out first and then Diana’s stick emerged and he assisted her from the car as she moved slowly and carefully.
‘You must go to Janet’s and see the pond, Simon. It’s simply lovely and Janet has been potting up all sorts of lovely bits and bobs for the garden from her house.’
Janet came around the front of the car with a basket of things in her arm.
‘Will I pop these inside, Di?’
‘Thanks, Jan,’ Diana replied holding out a house key.
Di and Jan? He couldn’t wait to tell Amanda about this growing friendship between the women.
Diana held on to his arm as Janet went ahead and opened the door with the key that Diana had given her.
‘Jan and Carole have given me a lovely basket of goodies from Shelley’s Deli. So many lovely things for dinner or to have with a cup of tea. I’m quite spoiled,’ she said as they walked through the small gate and into her front garden.
‘Amanda was wondering if you were coming for dinner actually. She said she had invited you.’
‘Can you please tell her not tonight? I want to sit with Trotsky and watch some BBC and have a nibble on something nice and then head off to bed. A very busy day for me. I’m not used to it now.’ Diana laughed to herself.
‘I will tell her, no problem,’ Simon said as they came to the front door.
Janet came bustling forward and took over from him to ensure Diana’s stability.
‘I’m off to get ready for dinner then,’ he said.
‘He’s having dinner with Amanda,’ Diana said to Janet with a tone in her voice he couldn’t understand.
‘Oh how lovely,’ said Janet very enthusiastically, as though Diana had just announced he was heading to dinner with a movie star.
‘Okay,’ said Simon, confused, and he left them and went to his place to get ready.
Soon he was ready and on his way to Moongate Manor. He didn’t have many clothes with him but his jeans and a clean T-shirt would have to do. He was grateful that Amanda had let him use the old top-loader washing machine at the manor and had now organised internet at the house. Simon was thinking of buying a small laptop, and maybe he could start trading again with the little savings he had. Starting to rebuild everything he had lost wouldn’t be easy, but at least he didn’t have to worry about having an underhanded business partner this time; he only had to rely on himself.
