by Sue Welfare
Liz nodded. ‘Right, in that case I’m just going to go upstairs and grab the bathroom before everyone else arrives. Grant will probably be getting here at around six. I know he’s just dying to meet you all and I’m sure you’ll love him. Anyway, I really need to go and get ready. I don’t want him to think that I’ve let myself go just because we’re out in the sticks,’ she said cheerily.
‘Lizzie, wait—’ Suzie began, but too late, her little sister was already heading for the house. ‘You’ve only just arrived and you’ve been on the bloody phone ever since you got here,’ she mumbled.
‘Where the hell’s she going now?’ said Sam in exasperation as he rounded the corner on his way back from the marquee with a chair trolley.
‘Apparently she’s just going to get ready,’ said Suzie as casually as she could manage. ‘I’m sure she won’t be long.’
Sam stared at her. ‘Well, that’ll be a first. Just bloody great, isn’t it? Why on earth did you let her go? There are loads of things still to do and we could really do with another pair of hands. Oh, and while I’m on the subject of helping hands, I can’t find either of our dear daughters either,’ he said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. ‘The band have rung up to say they can’t find us, the caterers can’t find anywhere to plug in their equipment without blowing all the fuses, Liz’s fancy photographer just texted to say he’s running late and the fireworks have only just shown up. And you know what? I’m getting fed up of being the one who is supposed to have all the answers. We never agreed that we’d do all this on our own, Suzie, and so far it looks to me like we’ve done the lion’s share. I thought madam there said she’d arrive early and give us a hand?’
‘I know, you’re right – and we have, but Lizzie has paid for a lot of it,’ said Suzie, caught in the badlands between agreeing with Sam (which she secretly did) and defending Liz (which she felt some irrational instinctive urge to do), all the while thinking that being caught in the middle was no place to be.
‘I know, but that still doesn’t mean she can just swan off when we need her. We’re not the hired help here, you know – and she was the one who offered, nobody twisted her arm, although I’m sure Lady Bountiful isn’t going to let us forget who signed the cheques in a hurry.’
‘Please don’t be so snappy, Sam, it’s not like you. She said she needed to get ready, what could I say?’ Suzie said lamely.
‘Oh, come off it. Liz always looks like she’s just stepped off the front cover of a magazine,’ said Sam. ‘Never a hair out of place . . .’
He didn’t add, ‘unlike you,’ although Suzie suspected she could hear it in his voice. She glanced down at her outfit – faded, world-weary jeans and an equally faded long sleeve tee-shirt worn with a pair of cowboy boots that had seen far better days. Suzie knew without looking in a mirror that her hair was a bird’s nest and there hadn’t been time to put on so much as a lick of make-up because the whole day had been manic since the moment she’d opened her eyes.
‘To be honest, I don’t know how she does it,’ Sam said, his gaze fixed on the front door through which Lizzie had so recently vanished.
Suzie stared at him and laughed. ‘You are joking, aren’t you? A professional stylist, twice weekly trips to the beautician, the manicurist and the hairdresser, a personal trainer, Botox and a grooming budget that would make your eyes water. Not to mention the fact that she hasn’t got a husband, two children, two dogs, two cats, a rabbit and a business to run, which probably gives her a bit of a head start,’ growled Suzie sarcastically, snatching up the boxes of table decorations that she had been taking to the marquee before life got in the way.
‘Do I detect a modicum of jealousy there?’ Sam said as he headed off back towards the car.
Suzie swung round to say something but he was too quick for her.
Jealous of Liz? As if, although even as she thought it, Suzie knew that the thought came too quickly to ring completely true. There were days when Liz’s life looked like a total breeze in contrast to her own.
Chapter Two
‘My feet are absolutely killing me,’ said Rose with a groan, prising off her shoes and wriggling unhappy toes. She and Jack had managed to find a table outside the café in the shade and Rose had no plans to walk a step further. ‘That is just so much better,’ she sighed, stretching her feet. ‘I don’t think I can walk another step. What do you think Fleur’s up to?’
‘She said that she was going to get a pot of tea and some cake,’ said Jack, glancing towards the dark interior of the tearooms.
Rose looked at him and laughed. ‘That isn’t what I meant and you know it,’ she said. ‘All this—’ she waved a hand to encompass the day – ‘out by ten, slap-up breakfast on the way here, God knows how many hours spent trudging around a stately home and gardens. This from a woman who usually wants to stay put and be waited on hand and foot while she’s staying with us. Can you remember the fuss she made last time she was over and we suggested a day out at the seaside?’
‘Maybe she’s had a change of heart.’
Rose sniffed. ‘Fleur’s never had a heart, Jack, she’s got a calculator.’
Jack raised his eyebrows. ‘Play nicely. You have to admit she’s been all right while she’s been over here this time. Maybe she’s mellowing in her old age. Maybe she’s beginning to realise what she’s missing. And like she said, she’s only over here for a couple of weeks this time around and the gardens are only open to the public for a month every year.’
‘Fleur hates gardening.’
‘Yes, but she knows that you like it,’ said Jack.
Rose looked sceptical. ‘That’s exactly what I mean. When was the last time Fleur thought about anyone but herself? When she gets back I’m going to ask her what she’s done with my sister.’
Jack laughed and then, changing the subject, said, ‘Actually it’s been a really nice day all round, hasn’t it? I’m really looking forward to a pot of tea and some cake.’
‘And that’s another thing – buying us tea and cakes,’ said Rose. ‘Fleur’s purse is usually welded shut. So far she’s insisted on paying for us to get in and fought like a tiger when we offered to buy her lunch.’ As she spoke Rose counted the things off on her fingers. ‘And now she’s gone trotting off to go and get the teas. I don’t understand it at all. There’s something up. You don’t think she’s ill, do you?’
‘What?’
‘There’s bound to be something more to this. I’ve been trying to work it out all day. Maybe she’s softening us up so she can break the bad news.’
‘What bad news?’ asked Jack anxiously.
‘Well, I don’t know, do I? Maybe she’s coming home for good. Maybe she’s finally outgrown Australia. Oh my Lord, you don’t think she wants to come and live with us, do you?’
Jack shook his head. ‘No, of course not. Maybe she’s just . . .’ he began, obviously struggling to come up with some explanation, while fiddling with a sugar packet, tipping it end over end so it made a sound like waves breaking on the beach. After the tide had rolled in and out half a dozen times, he shook his head. ‘No, actually, Rose, you’re right. I have no idea what Fleur’s up to, but to be honest it makes a nice change. In all the years I’ve known her she’s never so much as offered to buy a cup of tea, let alone treat us to a day out. And you have to admit she’s been really cheerful and good company today. I’m really rather enjoying myself.’
As if to underline the point, Fleur reappeared from inside the teashop carrying a huge tray. Jack leapt to his feet to rescue her. Rose smiled. Jack was always the perfect gentleman even when it came to her grumpy sister.
‘Here, let me have that,’ he said, taking it out of her hands. ‘Bloody hell, that looks amazing, you must have bought half the shop. Are you trying to feed us up?’
‘Thanks, Jack,’ said Fleur with relief. ‘I didn’t know what you liked, so I got a selection of little sandwiches and cakes. There’s salmon and cucumber, egg and cress, Victoria sponge, and a lemon drizzle ca
ke. Oh, and Danish pastries.’
Rose looked at them in astonishment. ‘We haven’t long had lunch, we’ll never eat this lot.’
‘I know, I got the boy behind the counter to give me a box so we could take home what we don’t eat. Waste not want not.’ Fleur settled herself down at the table. ‘So have you enjoyed your day so far?’ she said, in a tone that suggested it was a leading question.
‘Yes, we were just saying that it’s been lovely,’ said Rose, watching her sister’s face for clues. ‘I was going to talk to you about that.’
‘The thing is,’ said Fleur, leaning forward to unpack the cups and pour the tea. ‘Coming here today. To the gardens. It wasn’t really my idea.’
‘Now there’s a surprise,’ said Rose, shooting Jack a knowing look.
‘Actually it was Suzie’s. She said that you’d always wanted to come here and as it’s your fortieth wedding anniversary she thought it would be a nice gesture—’
‘If you brought us?’ asked Rose sceptically. ‘Why didn’t she bring us herself?’
‘Well, the thing is, Liz is taking us all out to dinner tonight and Suzie got you those lovely olive trees and to be perfectly honest I couldn’t think of anything else to buy you. So I thought this would be the perfect present – a nice day out. Just the three of us.’
‘I don’t know why you bothered. You never bought us anything before,’ Rose said, the words out before she could stop herself.
‘That’s hardly fair,’ said Fleur. ‘I gave you that lovely cut-glass decanter, remember?’
‘Which someone gave you,’ Rose fired straight back.
‘Only because I thought it was more your sort of thing than mine and how was I to know that you knew the man at the garage?’
‘They were giving them away with petrol tokens,’ said Rose to a bemused-looking Jack by way of explanation.
‘Yes, but the promotion was over,’ protested Fleur.
‘I know,’ said Rose. ‘The man in the garage told me they were throwing the rest of them out and asked if I wanted one to match the one I’d already got.’
‘You said you liked it.’
‘I was being polite,’ growled Rose, ignoring the sandwiches and helping herself to the chocolate éclair from the selection of cakes on the plate.
‘I was going to have that one,’ Fleur said, sounding hurt.
‘I know,’ said Rose, biting off the end.
Jack, who had been watching the exchange, looked from one sister to the other. ‘When did we ever have a cut-glass decanter?’ he asked.
‘Fleur gave it to us as a wedding present,’ said Rose, through a mouthful of éclair. ‘I gave it to your mum for Christmas.’
Jack sighed and made a start on the sandwiches.
Chapter Three
Across the garden of Jack and Rose’s cottage, in a secluded spot behind the summerhouse, and as far away from the marquee as it was possible to get without actually being in the neighbour’s vegetable patch, Hannah – Suzie and Sam’s older daughter – threw herself down on the grass alongside her little sister, Megan. She put her hands behind her head and closed her eyes.
‘That’s it. If anyone asks me to carry just one more thing round to that bloody marquee I’m seriously going to flip out. Really. And Mum is just so stressy about everything at the moment. I mean, I was just getting myself a drink from Grandma Rose’s kitchen and she comes in and reckoned I was skiving off. As if. I mean, just how unfair is that? I said to her, I don’t have to be here you know. We’re volunteering, it’s not like we’re getting paid to help out or anything.’
‘It’s Grandma and Granddad’s party,’ said Megan.
‘I know that,’ said Hannah. ‘I’m not totally thick, you know.’
‘Well, you don’t get paid to go to a party.’
‘You do if you help. Those waiters and the people in the kitchen aren’t doing it for nothing, are they?’
Megan considered her answer and then after a second or two said, ‘That girl was round here looking for you a little while ago.’
Hannah opened her eyes and pushed herself up onto her elbows. ‘What girl?’
‘You know, the one that came round to tea. The one Mum says is trouble.’
‘Sadie Martin.’ Hannah rolled her eyes. ‘It’s only because she dyes her hair. And she’s fine. It’s Mum and Dad – they are just so narrow-minded about anybody not like them.’
‘She took the mickey out of everything, doing that funny voice, all that “Thank you, Hannah’s mum”.’
‘She was just being polite,’ Hannah grumbled. ‘She was not,’ said Megan. ‘And then she did that thing when Mum asked her if having her nose pierced hurt.’ Megan mimed an eye-rolling, sarky face. ‘And when Mum said about her having her hair streaked and how she’d done hers when she was a teenager and Sadie said, “I didn’t know they had hair dye then.”’
‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what did she want?’
‘She’s the one who swears a lot?’
Hannah nodded. ‘I do know who you mean, Megan. She’s okay.’
‘Mum says she probably takes drugs—’
‘Well she probably does but that doesn’t make her a bad person. Okay? Or me a bad person for knowing her, come to that. All right?’ Hannah snapped.
‘Don’t have a go at me,’ growled Megan. ‘I’m just saying.’
‘Well, don’t,’ growled Hannah, closing her eyes again.
There was a moment or two of silence and then Megan said, ‘She came round with some boys.’
‘Yeah,’ sniffed Hannah, not stirring. ‘What boys?’
‘I dunno, just boys. One was sort of blond with cut-offs and a hoodie – like a skater, you know – and the other one was tall and thin with spiky hair.’
Hannah pulled a face, feigning nonchalance; it sounded like Simon Faber and Stu Tucker. Tucker had been seeing Sadie on and off for months and Simon . . . well, he was really cute and Sadie had told Hannah that he fancied her, but Hannah was playing it cool because Sadie could be cruel sometimes, and it might just be a joke and then how stupid would Hannah look?
‘How long ago were they here?’
Megan considered; time wasn’t really her thing. ‘I dunno, maybe twenty minutes. Dad sent me over to the summerhouse to find the extension lead for the lights. You were in the house getting a drink – so not that long really.’
‘So what did you tell them?’
‘I didn’t tell them anything. I just said that you were around somewhere and wouldn’t be long, but she said they didn’t want to hang about.’
‘Right, and did you say what I was doing?’
Megan looked at Hannah warily, sensing a trap. ‘No, not really, did you want me to say something?’
‘You didn’t say we were helping out or anything, did you?’
Megan shook her head. ‘No. Why would I?’
‘Good, only I told her there was a party here tonight.’
‘Oh my God. You haven’t invited Sadie Martin to Grandma and Granddad’s anniversary party, have you?’ asked Megan, incredulously.
‘No,’ Hannah spat contemptuously. ‘Don’t be such a moron, of course I haven’t, Mum and Dad would go ape if Sadie turned up with all the wrinklies and crinklies about. No, I just said there was going to be a party here and that there was going to be booze and food and stuff.’
Megan nodded. ‘And what, they came round to see if you were telling the truth?’
It was a possibility that hadn’t occurred to Hannah. ‘No, course they didn’t,’ she said angrily. ‘They probably just came round to see if the booze was here yet, and see if I wanted to hang out with them this afternoon, that’s all. Did they say where they were going?’
‘Down the Rec—’
Hannah got to her feet and brushed her clothes down. ‘Okay, well, if they come back tell them that’s where I’m heading.’
‘You’re not going down there now, are you?’ asked Megan anxiously. ‘Only Mum said—’
‘I kn
ow what Mum said,’ Hannah snapped. ‘And anyway I won’t be very long. They’ve got loads of people to help. They won’t miss me if you don’t say anything.’
‘But what about all the stuff we’ve got to do?’ Megan protested. ‘You told Mum you’d help her with the tables and the buffet. You said.’
Hannah dismissed Megan with a wave of her hand. ‘Give it a rest, will you? I’ve just said I’m not going to be that long; besides, we weren’t at Grandma’s wedding first time round, and the whole point of a buffet is that you help yourself, all right? It’ll be fine, just don’t let on to Mum that I’ve gone with Sadie, all right?’
And with that Hannah was off across the grass, heading towards the back gate and the lane beyond.
‘Hannah, Megan? Are you there?’
Right on cue, Megan heard her mum calling from the other side of the garden. She turned towards Suzie’s voice and then turned back again to see if Hannah had heard her, but her sister had already gone.
‘Oh, there you are,’ said Suzie smiling, as she watched Megan skipping over towards the marquee. Both of her daughters were growing up so fast. She looked around to see if she could spot Hannah among the girls working around the marquee. Probably off sulking somewhere, knowing Hannah. Over the last few months it had felt as if someone had stolen her lovely, happy, helpful, funny daughter and left a grumpy, sulky, argumentative troll in her place. Suzie was almost relieved not to see her and have to badger her into pulling her weight.
‘I had to go and get Dad an extension lead,’ said Megan in reply to Suzie’s unspoken question as they headed into the tent. ‘I put it round the back with all the rest of the lights and stuff.’
‘I wondered where you’d got to. Do you mind giving me a hand with the tablecloths? It’s really simple. Big white one on first and then a red one over the top at an angle – I’ll show you. And then I’ve got a box of table centres,’ Suzie pointed to the bar that had been set up in one corner of the marquee, alongside which was a stack of cartons. ‘They’re in those. If you could just put one on each table, then the girls can come and set up. Have you seen Hannah anywhere?’ she said, looking past Megan into the little knot of people who were unfolding the long buffet tables.