Cook For Me

Contents Cover About the Author Other Titles Title Page Copyright Contents Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Table of Contents Start Copyright Print Page List 1 2 3 4 5 6 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 
 
 
 
 
 Alexander McCall Smith
 Cook for Me
 Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels and a number of other series and stand-alone books. His works have been translated into more than forty languages and have been bestsellers throughout the world. He lives in Scotland.
 alexandermccallsmith.com
 
 
 
 Books by Alexander McCall Smith
 In the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series
 The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
 Tears of the Giraffe
 Morality for Beautiful Girls
 The Kalahari Typing School for Men
 The Full Cupboard of Life
 In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
 Blue Shoes and Happiness
 The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
 The Miracle at Speedy Motors
 Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
 The Double Comfort Safari Club
 The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party
 The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection
 The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon
 The Handsome Man’s De Luxe Café
 The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine
 Precious and Grace
 The House of Unexpected Sisters
 The Colors of All the Cattle
 To the Land of Long Lost Friends
 How to Raise an Elephant
 The Joy and Light Bus Company
 A Song of Comfortable Chairs
 In the 44 Scotland Street Series
 44 Scotland Street
 Espresso Tales
 Love Over Scotland
 The World According to Bertie
 The Unbearable Lightness of Scones
 The Importance of Being Seven
 Bertie Plays the Blues
 Sunshine on Scotland Street
 Bertie’s Guide to Life and Mothers
 The Revolving Door of Life
 The Bertie Project
 A Time of Love and Tartan
 The Peppermint Tea Chronicles
 A Promise of Ankles
 Love in the Time of Bertie
 For Young Readers
 The Great Cake Mystery
 The Mystery of Meerkat Hill
 The Mystery of the Missing Lion
 In the Isabel Dalhousie Series
 The Sunday Philosophy Club
 Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
 The Right Attitude to Rain
 The Careful Use of Compliments
 The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday
 The Lost Art of Gratitude
 The Charming Quirks of Others
 The Forgotten Affairs of Youth
 The Perils of Morning Coffee (eBook only)
 The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds
 At the Reunion Buffet (eBook only)
 Sweet, Thoughtful Valentine (eBook only)
 The Novel Habits of Happiness
 A Distant View of Everything
 The Quiet Side of Passion
 The Geometry of Holding Hands
 The Sweet Remnants of Summer
 In the Detective Varg Series
 The Department of Sensitive Crimes
 The Talented Mr. Varg
 The Man with the Silver Saab
 In the Paul Stuart Series
 My Italian Bulldozer
 The Second-Worst Restaurant in France
 
 A VINTAGE BOOKS ORIGINAL 2023
 Copyright © 2023 by Alexander McCall Smith
 All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintag Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
 Vintage Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 The Cataloging-in-Publication Data for Cook for Me is available at the Library of Congress.
 Vintage eShort ISBN: 9780593686058
 Cover design and illustration by Iain McIntosh
 vintagebooks.com
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 Chapter One
 No. 24 Mouse Lane
 They were two young women, lingering over a cup of coffee in a slightly shabby Edinburgh bistro. Both were thirty, or thereabouts; both were dressed, unintentionally, in matching outfits: well-cut jeans and white linen blouses.
 There were differences, though: Katie had dark hair, with that combination of green eyes and almost translucent skin that sometimes goes with Celtic ancestry; Ell was a blonde, or almost; Katie had a red scarf thrown casually around her shoulders; Ell wore pearl earrings—each a large, single pearl at the end of a delicate gold chain. Both had that particular confidence that suggests that somebody has a right to be there.
 “You said, three husbands? Three?” That was Ell, who was busy wiping a thin line of latte foam from her lips.
 A woman at a nearby table overheard this. A delicious snippet, she thought. Three husbands? She would tell her friends.
 Katie nodded. “She’s my cousin—or second cousin, shall I say—and she’s had three husbands.” She raised three fingers. “Three. Seriatim, of course.”
 Ell smiled. “Seriatim.” She rolled the word around her tongue.
 “My father always called her his colourful cousin—mostly because of the men, you know. She’s fond of them.”
 “Oh well,” said Ell. “It can happen to anyone, I suppose. Mind you, to have had three husbands sounds a bit greedy. Especially to those of us who’ve had none…”
 Katie smiled. “You’ll find him. You’ve got