Rose's Vintage (13 page)

Rose drove through the outskirts of New Bridgeton, following the signs to the town centre. Parking the car, she hopped out and began to investigate. Jean Jeanious was easy to spot, right in the middle. Unsure of the Aussie sizing, she grabbed a few of pairs of each. There wasn't a full-length mirror in the barn, so Rose hadn't seen herself properly for a couple of months.

She got quite a shock when she zipped up the first pair. The jeans gaped at the waist and bagged around her bum. She pulled them off and tried on another, much smaller pair. These ones moulded to every inch of her thighs and backside. She turned around to check how she looked in the mirror.

Holy shrinking arses! Is this really me?

For one of the few times in her life, Rose was thrilled by what she saw in the mirror. On a good day, she could imagine a resemblance to Anne Hathaway. On a bad day – and there had been plenty of those recently – she felt more like Kirstie Alley. Before Jenny Craig. Today, it seemed, was a rare good day. Her rounded belly and muffin top were nowhere to be seen, and her legs were lean and toned.

She wasn't quite so thrilled by her tangled mass of dark hair, which was in dire need of a good cut, but the sparkle in her eyes and her clear, glowing skin were testament to her growing happiness; the smile was the result of seeing herself looking like she'd never dared to even imagine she could look. She couldn't stop staring at herself. If only Giles could see her now – she'd bet a hundred quid he wouldn't even recognise her. Hell, she hardly even recognised herself.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the shop assistant poked her head around the curtain to check if she needed any help. Rose handed back the sizes that were far too big for her and pulled her old, very baggy, pants back on.

She also tried on a couple of t-shirts that she found clung to her in all the right places, and a pair of shorts, and decided she needed those too. The mornings and nights were still chilly, but in the middle of the day it was starting to be deliciously warm outside.

Being stuck out at Kalkari most of the time meant there was very little there for her to spend her money on, so she handed over several fifty-dollar notes without too much concern. Swinging her shopping bags from one hand, she strolled out of the store with a spring in her step, looking up and down the mall for more boutiques to scope out.

Less than an hour later, a scarf, new running tights and a pair of delicate turquoise and silver earrings were also hers. Sitting over a coffee, with her bags corralled at her feet, Rose basked in the glow of a successful shopping trip. Where was the sad, chubby cook now? She felt grateful after all for Henry pushing her onto an airplane. She really ought to repay him by spilling all she'd found out about Kalkari, but that meant betraying Mark and the kids. She was completely torn. Rose knew she couldn't stay at Kalkari forever, but right now she was enjoying existing in a bubble such a long way from her old life.

Don't overthink it
, she told herself firmly.
And enough with the worrying.

When Rose arrived home, she dumped the bags of new clothes on her bed and then raced over to the main house in search of Astrid, the pregnancy tests she'd purchased at the mall in her hand. She ran slap-bang into Mark just as she was coming around the corner, and he had to steady her to stop her falling over him. She dropped the tests on the ground and hurriedly tried to reach them before he saw. But Mark was too quick for her, and bent down to retrieve them.

‘Steady, Rose. Here you go,' he said, handing the package to her.

Thank goodness they'd been wrapped in a paper bag. Rose, relieved at the close call, muttered her thanks and continued on her way to find Astrid.

‘Phew, there you are,' she said, finding her playing on the back verandah with Luisa and Leo. They were attempting to teach Barnsie a new trick. The chooks were keeping a safe distance from the yapping puppy. ‘I wasn't sure which would be best, so I got three different types. I just bumped into Mark, so thank goodness the chemist wrapped them up.' She handed over the bag.

‘Thanks so much, Rose. I'm feeling a bit better now, actually. I think whatever I had has settled down,' Astrid said, glancing at the kids and shooting Rose a warning look not to say more in front of them.

‘Right, who's going to help me fold these dry clothes?' Rose asked, eyeing off the dark clouds on the horizon and looking pointedly at Leo and Luisa as she marched to the overloaded line.

‘Not me,' said Leo, ‘I'm training Barnsie.'

‘And you're doing a great job with him. He only barked the house down for ten minutes this morning,' she said dryly. ‘Luisa?'

‘I hep you, Wosie?' said Luisa

‘Thanks, honey, I'd love that.'

Rose unpegged the stiff, dry clothes from the line, snapping them straight and folding them with an efficient flick of the wrist before depositing them in the laundry basket, where Luisa tried to help by removing them and attempting to fold them again. Rose was still wearing her old jeans, and as she reached up to the furthest rail to unpeg the last sheet she felt them slide down past her bum.

Oh Christ!

She looked down to see her trousers concertinaed around her knees and Leo cracking up with laughter.

‘Rose, your pants!' he said, doubling up with mirth.

‘Wosie got pink undies!' chimed in Luisa, giggling at her.

‘Ha ha, guys, pretty funny, huh?' Rose bent over to haul up the baggy jeans. ‘Okay, show's over. We're all done here. Nothing more to see.'

‘Come on, let's head inside,' said Astrid, who had been laughing along with the kids at Rose's predicament. They both looked up at the darkening sky.

‘Yep, I think it's about to hammer down at any minute,' Rose agreed.

It rained for the rest of that day, and all of the next. The rain sluiced down as if someone had tipped a giant bucket of water over the valley. The chooks huddled miserably in their hen house, Leo's scooter and Luisa's trike lay abandoned on the back verandah, and puddles formed in the yard, turning it into a quagmire.

On Friday, Leo's school had a pupil-free day, which also coincided with Astrid's day off, so Rose was left to entertain two fractious kids and one over-active puppy, in addition to trying to plan the menu for the following week's VIP lunch. She started off with a game of hide-and-seek, but Luisa's squeals soon gave her away and Leo proved such a good hider that it took them forever to find him. Rose's patience was seriously tested. The rain eased off a little after lunch and she found raincoats and wellies – ‘gumboots', Leo corrected her – and buttoned everyone up for a walk. Barnsie delighted in nosing into the muddy water, drinking from the puddles and trotting along the lanes, before finally rolling around in a puddle so big he could almost swim to the other side of it. By the time they returned to the house, his coat was filthy with mud.

‘I think he needs a bath, don't you?' said Rose.

‘Oh, can we help?' asked Leo.

‘Sure can!'

Rose lifted the dog up under its belly to prevent muddy footprints on the hall floor, and she and the kids trooped upstairs to the bathroom, where she ran a deep, warm bath and deposited Barnsie in it. They giggled as he yelped and snapped at the water, trying to swim. Using an old hairbrush, they scraped away at his coat until the puppy's white patches returned, flicking plenty of mud on themselves in the process. After a rinse-off and a brisk towel-down, he was clean and relatively dry, but the kids were wetter than when they had been outside, and needed a good wash themselves.
Well, it's one way to while away an afternoon
, thought Rose.

She had just got them bathed and into their pyjamas and popped all three of them in front of
Frozen
when Mark came in.

‘Guess what, Daddy! Wosie got pink undies,' announced Luisa.

Leo looked up and giggled, paying no attention to the stern look Rose shot him.

‘Does she now?' replied Mark, raising an eyebrow at a blushing Rose. Not attempting to explain, she escaped to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

She was in the depths of the pantry when she heard Luisa calling for her. Putting down the rice she was holding, she headed back to the sitting room.

Leo and Barnsie were snuggled up on the sofa together, the pup with his snout resting on Leo's leg. Luisa and Mark were on the floor at their feet, Luisa sitting on a cushion, leaning against her daddy. The family made a touching sight, thought Rose.

‘Wosie! Wosieeee!' the little girl called out.

‘What's up, Lulu?'

‘Love you, Wosie,' said Luisa, looking up at her. ‘Don't go.'

Seeing Luisa's dark eyes and sober expression, Rose felt a knot of guilt twisting in her stomach. She swallowed. ‘Oh sweetie, I love you too, and don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, I'm just in the kitchen.'

Satisfied, Luisa turned back to the screen. Elsa had just begun to belt out ‘Let it Go', and Barnsie howled along with gusto.

CHAPTER 12

T
he morning of the VIP lunch dawned bright and cold, with a fresh spring wind rustling through the tall eucalypts, tossing their olive-green leaves like a giant bowl of salad. Rose cleared her head with a quick jog alongside the vineyards. She noticed the pale, shiny vine leaves and curling tendrils were beginning to unfurl along the rows.

She'd scoured the glossy food magazines at Sacred Grounds earlier in the week, and Bevan had lent her a copy of a book by Maggie Beer. The conversation with him had enlightened her about the chooks' names: of course she'd heard of Nigella, but not of Stephanie Alexander or Maggie Beer. Mrs B must have had a hand in the naming, she thought. Bevan assured her that Maggie and Stephanie were a couple of Australia's foremost cooks, and queens of honest, down-to-earth food. Just what Mark had ordered. She'd found some new-season broad beans at the previous weekend's farmers' market, and planned to serve them in a salad with shards of crispy prosciutto and fresh curd cheese; the salty, creamy flavours would contrast well with the albarino and the Kalkari chardonnay. Then she'd serve fresh ravioli stuffed with slow-roasted beef cheeks and wild mushrooms and a demi-glace to go with the Kalkari reds, and she planned to finish with a blood orange and custard tart.

She'd prepared the stuffing for the ravioli the previous day, and the tart was cooling on the counter in the kitchen. She just had to make the ravioli pasta (she sent a mental thanks to Mrs B, who'd come to the rescue with a machine that was now firmly bolted to one end of the kitchen table), and prep the salad. There was a new moon in Venus, Rose had turned around seven times in the kitchen before she started cooking, and she was wearing her lucky knickers. She wasn't taking any chances.

Astrid had taken Luisa out, and Leo was at school, so there were no distractions. In fact, Rose was sure Astrid had been avoiding her ever since she'd given her the pregnancy tests, and Rose hadn't had the chance to ask her, without the children being around, what the result had been. She supposed it could have been a false alarm – Astrid certainly looked a bit brighter than she had done previously. Anyway, she didn't have time to worry about that now: there was work to be done.

A few days earlier, Rose had persuaded Mark to give her the key to the cellar door, and she'd dusted and polished everything until it sparkled. The glassware shone in the shafts of sunlight streaming through the windows. Next to the cellar door tasting room she'd discovered a large dining area, furnished with a heavy-legged table and upholstered dining chairs. She'd raided the linen cupboard, and starched white damask now clothed the table, with small glass pots of spring flowers dotted along the centre. Dan had helpfully shown her how many glasses they would need and instructed her how to line them up next to each place setting.

She was double-checking everything was perfect when Mark came through the door.

‘Oh. Rose, there you are. Hey, it looks great,' he said as he glanced around the room. He was carrying a case of wines that he'd brought over from the winery and began to arrange them on a side table, placing bottles of white into a large pewter trough that Rose had already filled with ice.