The Tea House on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens Read Free Book Online

name was Sadie. Head cook in the Smith household. Chief bottle-washer, solitary carer of Arnold’s bored parents and all-round general martyr.
    After making sure there was no-one she knew in the place, she removed her headscarf and dark glasses, and made her way to the counter. Sadie Smith was on a diet, but Muldoon’s Tea Rooms served the best home-made cheesecake in the city.
    Today, they were serving cherry cheesecake, Sadie’s favourite. There it was, behind the glass. Huge, black cherries on the top, dripping glistening sauce down the sides of a pale, yellow base. Sadie willed Penny or Daniel to hurry up and serve her. They were dithering in the kitchen, and didn’t return to the counter for at least thirty seconds. Sadie was weak with desire by the time she caught their attention. She asked for two slices of cheesecake, fresh cream, two scoops of vanilla ice cream – and a cappuccino, chocolate powder on the top. She whispered her order to Daniel, like a spy revealing national secrets. As Penny heated up the milk at the coffee-machine, Sadie sat with her back towards the other tables and she waited, with her stomach in a knot of anticipation. When the food came she set upon it like a starving woman. Daniel gave her a wink, the old charmer. He knew what she was up to. Starving women on crash diets were very good for business.
    Sadie tried not to think of her husband, Arnold. She was breaking her diet, breaking it spectacularly, and Arnold would be very disappointed with her. But Arnold would never find her here. He would not be seen dead in a place like this. Tucked away in a shadowy corner of this forlorn cafe on Mulberry Street, she could eat these sinful foods in secret and get away with it.
    Sadie had been living on low-calorie soup and undressed salads for two weeks. She was permanently hungry and very irritable. And she had only managed to lose two miserable pounds. The sheer disappointment she felt, when she stepped on the scales, had driven her here today, in fact. Now, every cell in her body relaxed as the hot creamy coffee caressed her lips. As Arnold used to, she thought sadly. A long, long time ago. Before he became obsessed with conservatories and patio doors and burglar-proof locks. Sadie’s dainty lips opened and closed quickly. The cherry cheesecake melted on her tongue and filled her hollow self with culinary joy. She closed her eyes with pleasure when she swallowed the last spoonful, and then heaved a sigh of relief. Her sense of physical satisfaction was absolute.
    Sadie had been on diets for years, and every one of them had been a dismal failure. Her bedside locker was filled with books on nutrition. Her attempts at losing weight followed a familiar pattern. First she bought a diet book. She began the new eating plan on a Monday and followed it religiously for about six days. Then, while doing the shopping on a Saturday afternoon she gave in to her cravings for bacon sandwiches with tomato sauce, and chocolate éclairs filled with fresh cream. She ate all evening and went to bed on Saturday night feeling disgusted with herself. She threw the scales in the bottom of the bathroom cabinet on Sunday morning and tried not to think about her figure for approximately two months. Then she bought another diet book.
    She weighed twelve stone when she was twenty-one. And she weighed twelve stone now that she was forty-one. But she was a tiny woman and Arnold called her his Little Toby Jug. Or his Fat Little Turnip. She did not like to think of that. Or of all the years spent counting calories and stirring fresh fruit into plain yoghurt. She walked everywhere, rushing around the stores with her shopping-bag, but it didn’t help at all. Her legs were rounded and white, the bones well-cushioned with soft flesh. She fretted over what to wear on special occasions. She was always looking for something that would hide her short neck, her large ankles, her square back, her wide hips and her dimpled knees.
    She