The Chocolate Lovers' Diet by Carole Matthews Read Free Book Online

inside. ‘Merry Christmas, Miss Autumn.’
    ‘Thanks, Jenkinson. Merry Christmas to you.’ The butler-cum-housekeeper who’d run her parents’ London home for many years, took their coats.
    ‘Your parents have a
butler
?’ Addison said when the elderly gentleman was out of earshot.
    Autumn didn’t dare tell her boyfriend that they had a cook and cleaner too. ‘Jenkinson isn’t really a butler, he’s a . . .’
    ‘Faithful retainer?’
    ‘Now you’re teasing me.’
    ‘Not really,’ Addison said. ‘But you might have warned me that this wasn’t going to be lunch with your average parents.’
    ‘They’re the only ones I’ve got, Addison.’
    ‘Well, as we’ve already agreed, it’s too late to run away, so you’d better introduce me.’
    If her parents were at all shocked by Autumn’s choice of boyfriend, then they managed to hide it very well. They sat sipping Kir Royale in the drawing room, making polite conversation, while the final preparations for lunch were made. Addison didn’t make any comment about the absence of her mother slaving over a hot stove. Autumn didn’t think that her mother ventured into her kitchen very often. Most of their Christmas lunch had probably come directly from Fortnum & Mason.
    ‘You have remembered that I’m vegetarian, Mummy?’
    Her mother looked blankly at her. ‘I’m sure that Jenkinson has. Besides, we’re having goose, darling. That hardly counts as meat.’
    Autumn sighed to herself. They should have stayed at her apartment by themselves. Then she could have cooked a nut roast and Addison wouldn’t have been subjected to this.
    ‘Do you live near here, Alan?’ Her father had decided to hold court.
    ‘Addison,’ he corrected patiently. ‘No. This is a bit above my price bracket. I have a council flat in Streatham.’
    ‘How lovely,’ Autumn’s mother piped up, her voice just too shrill to be perceived as sincere.
    Her father looked less than impressed. ‘What’s your line of work?’
    ‘I’m an Enterprise Development Officer,’ he said. ‘I find jobs for reformed drug addicts.’ He shrugged. ‘Not all of them reformed. It’s very hard for some of these kids to kick the habit.’
    Her parents exchanged an anxious glance. ‘Perhaps lunch is ready,’ her mother said.
    Addison looked at Autumn as if to say, ‘What have I said wrong?’
    Before she could intervene with an explanation, Jenkinson opened the door. ‘Master Richard has arrived.’
    ‘
Richard?
’ He was the last person Autumn had expected to see.
    ‘He wasn’t sure if he’d get back in time to join us,’ her mother explained. ‘He’s come straight from the airport. We wanted it to be a surprise.’
    ‘It’s certainly that,’ Autumn agreed.
    At that moment, Richard swung through the door. ‘Sis!’ he said, and grabbed Autumn in a rough embrace.
    It was the first time in her life that she hadn’t felt relieved simply to see Rich in one piece. She had imagined, after his months in rehab in the States, that he’d have looked healthier than he did. She’d envisaged him a few pounds heavier, the shadows gone from beneath his eyes, maybe even the glimmer of a tan, but her brother still looked gaunt, his cheeks sunken. When he pulled away from her she could see that his eyes were unnaturally bright, notquite focused, and she knew instinctively that Rich was still using. All the months that he’d supposedly been in rehab had been completely pointless. Their parents might as well have dug a hole in the ground and buried all their money in it.
    ‘Darling,’ their mother said to him as she kissed the air either side of her son’s cheek. ‘It’s so good that you could make it back.’
    Richard embraced his mother stiffly. ‘Mumsy.’ He shook his father’s hand, who then attempted to pat him rather uncomfortably on the arm.
    ‘This is Addison,’ Autumn said, when it seemed that no one else was going to introduce her boyfriend. Richard looked taken aback. He gave