One Day in May - Catherine Alliott [44]
‘What have you got in here?’ I hauled Biba’s case into the boot as she got in the back with Seffy. It was even heavier than her sister’s.
‘I wasn’t sure how smart tonight was ’cos Mum said there was a dinner, so I brought a few things.’
‘A dinner?’ Seffy and Daisy looked horrified.
The whole point of an exeat weekend was to come home – which Seffy regarded as either our house in London or here with his cousins – adopt a horizontal position in front of the television for thirty-six hours, eat and drink solidly, preferably while still horizontal, argue about who took command of the remote control, but otherwise do nothing. The last thing anyone wanted was a smart dinner.
‘No, no,’ I reassured them hastily, ‘it’s only us, plus Kit and Granny and Grandpa. Oh, and Maggie.’
‘I like Maggie.’ Daisy brightened. ‘She’s the really cool one you work with, isn’t she?’
‘She is. She’s also Seffy’s godmother.’
‘Who’s going out with a married man,’ put in my son helpfully.
‘Really?’ Biba was all attention. ‘Does his wife know?’
‘Thank you, darling.’ I eyed Seffy sternly in the mirror as I turned the key in the ignition. ‘Yes, well, Maggie is minus the married man tonight. And then tomorrow a chap called Ralph de Granville’s coming. He’s an interior designer.’
‘Like you?’ asked Daisy, putting her belt on in the front seat beside me.
‘Yes, like me.’
‘But why? I mean, I thought you and Maggie were doing the decorating?’
‘Yes, but Mum’s got some fixation about this Ralph person,’ Biba informed her from the back. ‘He’s much more, like, fashionable? More flamboyant, apparently. No offence, Hattie.’
I grinned at her in the mirror. ‘No offence taken.’
‘But won’t that be a bit awkward? I mean, if you’re, you know, all there together? As competitors?’ asked Daisy.
I was inclined to agree, and had been horrified when Laura had rather nervously told me that Mr de Granville, although originally coming the following week, now found himself otherwise engaged in Italy looking at some marble, and the only day he’d be able to get to the Abbey, was this Sunday morning. Obviously he realized weekends were precious, so alternatively, he could possibly squeeze something into his diary three months hence, pending other commitments…
‘It’ll be all right, won’t it, Hattie?’ Laura had asked me anxiously, fingers twisting at her waist. ‘Having you all there this weekend? I mean, you’re all professionals – you’re not going to scratch each other’s eyes out, are you?’
‘Well, it’s a little unusual, Laura, to have competing decorators in the same house. But I suppose Maggie and I could go to the pub. Make ourselves scarce.’
‘I’ll cancel him,’ she said quickly.
‘No, don’t be silly, it’ll be fine. You’re right. We’re all grown-ups. And I’m your sister, for God’s sake. I might just be there for the weekend, not in any professional capacity.’
‘Exactly. With your friend—’
‘The interior designer?’ I’d finished drily.
Maggie, though, was far from put out when I’d told her privately.
‘Oh, goody. I’ve always wanted to meet this jerk. Let’s see if he’s as risible as his publicity suggests.’
‘You don’t mind?’
‘Of course not. Hope he stays for lunch. And while he’s getting stuck into the Bloody Marys I’ll snitch his bag and snap his pencils and hide his tape measure.’
‘No, no, we’re all mature adults,’ I told Daisy now as we sped off down the lanes. ‘There won’t be any silly jealousies.’
‘I prefer your sort of design anyway,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘I don’t like flamboyant and fashionable.’
I shot her a grateful look, beside me in jeans and a sweatshirt, unlike her sister in the back, swathed in Camden Market’s finest: three or four layered tops, a tiny skirt over leggings, masses of messy blonde hair and bling. There were only eighteen months between them, but Biba had embraced her teens with gusto – boys, parties, action,