‘Of course I did. I’m not a complete idiot.’
‘I’m going to put something on it anyway,’ Amanda said, opening the cupboard above the fridge and taking out a small first aid box.
‘Is that from Diana’s day? I doubt it’s usable now.’
Amanda rolled her eyes. ‘No, Frank gave it to me in case I needed it for a reason exactly like this.’
She took out a tube of antibiotic cream and some cotton wool and came back to sit at the table.
‘Put your arm out,’ she said as she dabbed the cream onto the cotton wool ball.
She gently applied the cream to the top of the wound as Simon took a sharp breath.
‘Relax, breathe slowly,’ she said. ‘You will get used to it faster if you breathe slowly.’
Making sure she covered the wound from the elbow to the wrist, Amanda worked slowly and methodically.
Simon watched her every move. ‘I’m almost certain you’re using a painting technique to apply that cream.’
‘Maybe I am, maybe I’m not,’ she said, looking up at him.
His face was brown from all the time spent under the summer sun and his skin clear. He’d put on weight – maybe muscle? – and his curly hair was longer than when he’d arrived.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘What, what?’ she asked, putting the lid back on the tube of cream.
‘What were you thinking when you looked at me just now? Your face changed.’
Amanda blushed. ‘I was just thinking you looked well, compared to when I first met you.’
Simon laughed. ‘Wouldn’t be hard. I was a walking ghost when Diana found me at the front of the house.’
‘Nothing like a bit of outdoor work, wine and pasta with me to solve your worries,’ she said as she put the first aid box away.
‘You’re not wrong,’ he said. ‘I love coming for dinner here.’ He paused. ‘I’ll miss it.’
Amanda stood still at the stove, watching the water in the pot boil.
‘Why will you miss it?’ she finally asked. ‘You going somewhere?’
This was it, the conversation that she had been avoiding having with him.
‘At the end of summer. Diana only hired me for the summer,’ he reminded her.
Amanda leaned against the cupboards for support. ‘That’s a while away yet,’ she said. ‘We have lots to do before then.’ She tried to keep her voice casual as she spoke but it came out a little squeaky.
‘We do,’ said Simon, twisting the wine glass in his hand. ‘So tell me about this man Diana was seeing. Dougal?’
‘Douglas,’ corrected Amanda, putting the pasta into the water. ‘He went riding away on his motorbike and though he said he would come back for Diana, he was never heard from again.’
‘Have you done a search for him online?’ asked Simon.
‘Not yet,’ she said. ‘Use my laptop and you start looking while I do this.’
Simon took her laptop from the bench and opened it.
‘And what’s his surname?’
