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Chapter 29
When Amelia-Rose returned, the soup had arrived and Terence was tucking in. There was also a bottle of wine in the middle of their table and two glasses.
Amelia-Rose sniffed the pungent smell of the vegetable soup. "It smells marvelous," she said.
"And it tastes good too," Terence said.
He poured her a glass of the wine and one for himself.
"I thought you were driving."
"So you'd better share the bottle with me, otherwise I might go over the limit."
She swallowed the soup hungrily. The bread tasted newly cooked and soon made her feel much better.
"The simplest meal can be absolutely perfect when you're hungry," Amelia-Rose commented, happily.
"And the simplest meal is always be vastly improved by great company." Terence toasted with his glass and his eyes.
"My goodness," thought Amelia-Rose, "I will need to be careful."
"Was that a compliment," she said out aloud.
"I expect you receive enough compliments to know one when you hear one," he said, his eyes resting lightly on hers.
"Then thank you... young man, you're very kind. I was wondering," she continued, "what brings you to these parts?"
"I organize people who work from their homes, party plans, things like that. It means I have to travel all around the countryside both North and South."
"It must be a very lonely life."
"It is. Perhaps that's why I stopped to give your lift. I always seem to be living on the outside of society and seeing you on the side of the road looking so lonely made me feel an empathy."
Amelia-Rose looked at him cautiously. "I've heard that a lot of these home working schemes are rip offs. But you don't look the sort of person who would be involved in something devious."
"Nothing I do his devious," he assured her. "It's just a matter of putting people together who have different skills and creating new opportunities. It's all about networking and that is my forte."
"Perhaps you should give me some advice. Following my divorce, I now need to work for a living and the world doesn't seem to want me."
He raised his glass to her again. "There is no Holy Grail," he said. "But if you are willing to be flexible, there are always opportunities there if you are willing to look for them."
Amelia-Rose leaned forward. Could it be that the fates were shining on her at last, she wondered. This young man seemed like manna from heaven. But she was well aware of the old maxim ' if it looks too good to be true it probably is' but the soup and the wine had warned her and she reckoned that so far she was ahead of the game.
Also, he was easy to talk to and soon Amelia-Rose was telling him her life story. He added snippets of his own, so she didn't feel she was monopolizing the conversation. But as she talked, he made no suggestions about how she should earn a living so she decided to more openly pick his brains.
"You haven't said what you think I ought to do to earn some money," she challenged him.
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