Author/Uploaded by Alexander McCall Smith
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 5...
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 a_prh_6.0_142545507_c1_r0 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