Page 89 of The Village Inn of Secret Dream

Who could blame him? thought Pete. With the restaurant failing, Brad was also out of work.

‘Has it been busy?’ she carried on, trying to lure the young man into conversation.

‘Yeah.’

‘So how about two burgers?’ Belle looked at Pete in question, who nodded his reply.

‘You’ll find none better,’ said Dodgy Del, appearing in front of them. ‘Surprised to see you two over here. The inn looked packed.’

‘We needed some food,’ said Pete.

‘Well, you’ll get none better than our Brad’s burgers,’ said Del, throwing his nephew a smile.

But Brad was too busy to spot his uncle’s proud look as he was loading up two burgers with sliced onions, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. Finally, he handed them over to Belle whilst Pete gave him the money.

Belle gave Pete his burger before taking a bite out of hers.

‘Oh my God,’ she mumbled, her mouth full. ‘This tastes amazing.’

‘It’s good, ain’t it?’ said Del, grinning at her. ‘Told you so.’

They all looked at Pete, who had been deciding how to best fake how much he was going to enjoy the burger. Brad had already lost his job, thanks to Andre. Pete didn’t want to dent his tender confidence any more.

But it turned out that he didn’t have to lie or act at all. With the first bite, the flavours exploded in his mouth. The burger was well cooked but tender, almost crumbling in his mouth. There was a kind of seasoning which he didn’t recognise but it brought the burger up to a whole new level.

‘What’s the bun?’ asked Belle, before taking another bite.

‘Brioche,’ Brad told her.

‘And what have you done to the onions?’ she asked.

‘Just caramelised them.’

Pete took another bite out of his burger just to make sure that he hadn’t been hallucinating.

He wasn’t. The burger was incredible.

‘Where did you get the burgers?’ he said, when he was finally able to speak.

Brad looked at him with a scowl. ‘Sam’s farm,’ he said shortly.

‘Sam makes burgers now?’ asked Pete, surprised. The local farmer’s meat products were of superb quality, but he didn’t know that they produced anything other than steaks and other raw items.

Brad looked at Pete as if he were mad before shaking his head. ‘Sam gave me the mince,’ he said. ‘I make the burgers myself.’

‘And the seasoning?’ asked Pete.

‘My own recipe,’ said Brad, sounding the tiniest proud. ‘And the burger sauce too.’

Pete looked at him aghast. ‘Why didn’t you tell us you could cook like this?’ he said, still shocked.

‘You never asked,’ came the sullen reply.

Pete felt instantly guilty for underestimating him.

‘You’re absolutely right. Well, I’m asking now,’ said Pete, leaning forward. ‘What else can you cook?’

Brad shrugged his shoulders. ‘Shepherd’s pie. My risotto is pretty good. I do a mean chicken pie. Make my own puff pastry too.’