Heller by J.D. Nixon Page A

weeds.”
    I slapped my
forehead with my palm. “You two have a lot to learn. Come on,” and
we all trooped up to the roof-top.
    I spent the
next thirty minutes giving them a lecture about herbs, their
different tastes and uses. By the end I was confident that they
could identify the major herbs by sight and smell.
    Niq regarded
me seriously, something approaching respect in his big pale blue
eyes. “How do you know all this stuff? I don’t learn anything like
this at school, but it seems really useful to know.” Daniel nodded
his agreement, equally serious.
    I shrugged,
trying to appear offhand, but secretly thrilled that they thought I
knew anything worthwhile. “Well Niq, my mum and my two grandmas
taught me how to cook and they all taught me all about herbs and
spices when I was a kid. Also, Mum’s a mad keen gardener and has a
lovely herb garden that I used to help her maintain when I was
younger.”
    “Cool,” he
said and pondered for a moment. “Can I meet your mum one day?”
    I ruffled his
hair, causing a flurry of urgent rearrangement of those carefully
poised locks. “Of course you can! She’d love to meet you. Word of
warning though, because you’re so skinny she’ll try to feed you
until you explode. And she’ll give you a lecture about your
piercings. She’s convinced you get diseases from body piercings. I
was never allowed to get any done except for my ears.”
    “That would be
okay, I guess,” he said with his shy smile, still fixing his hair.
I watched him, a surprising rush of fondness flooding me. Maybe
he would enjoy the attention , I thought. I determined then to
give him loads of my time while I worked at Heller’s .
    “You’ve done
me proud today, boys. I’ll make Jamie Olivers out of you both yet,”
I praised as Daniel correctly chose both the dill and the flat-leaf
parsley.
    “Who’s that?”
asked Daniel, eyes wide.
    “Jamie who?”
Niq asked simultaneously.
    I stared at
them and palm-smacked my forehead again. “Oh brother! This is going
to be harder than I thought. Okay, let’s get dinner started and
I’ll walk you both through the steps.”
    I turned
around to go back down the stairs with the herbs and ran smack-bang
into Heller who had been quietly standing behind me. It was like
hitting a brick wall. The impact crushed the parsley and sent me
reeling, but didn’t seem to have any effect on him. He grasped my
upper arms to steady me. I glanced down at the parsley, pulled a
face and looked up at him.
    “You broke my
parsley,” I reproached and held out the ruined stalks for his
inspection.
    The corners of
his mouth twitched. “I believe that you ran into me,” he pointed
out reasonably.
    “Yes, but I
wasn’t expecting you to be standing behind me, otherwise I wouldn’t
have run into you,” I observed, equally reasonable.
    “I was
enjoying listening to your demonstration. I hadn’t realised the
garden had such a variety of herbs. I’ll let Victor know that his
hard work is finally being appreciated. He will be pleased. Niq,
pick out some more parsley for Ms Chalmers, please,” he instructed.
“We don’t want her dinner to be delayed.”
    “Victor? He’s
your valet, right? I haven’t met him yet,” I said, smiling my
thanks as Niq passed me a fresh bunch of parsley.
    “And you never
will. Victor is an imaginary mythical creature that Heller invented
to scare the kiddies,” said Daniel mischievously. “No one ever sees
or hears him. And yet the pantry stays stocked, the place is kept
clean and the herbs are nurtured. Spooky!”
    Heller’s lips
twitched again. “Daniel is teasing,” he explained to me seriously.
“He knows perfectly well that Victor is not imaginary. He’s just a
very private person. He doesn’t enjoy socialising. I accept
that.”
    “He’s the Loch
Ness Monster of the business,” insisted Daniel, grinning. “Often
spoken about, even allegedly sighted on occasion, but no reliable
proof of his existence has yet been