Things I Want My Daughters to Know_ A Novel - Elizabeth Noble [32]
“Now they were delicious!”
“Forgot the cranberry sauce, but other than that, pretty good.”
“I just wish it took as long to eat it as it took to wash up from.”
Lisa was washing, Amanda was drying.
Jennifer was clearing, and Hannah was sitting on one of the bar stools, eating brandy butter straight from the bowl with her finger.
Jennifer pulled a face. “That’s disgusting. You’ll be sick.”
Hannah smirked. “It isn’t Christmas Day until someone’s been sick.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you at least ate Christmas pudding with it.”
“But Christmas pudding is disgusting.”
“Philistine. Spoiled Philistine. When we were little, we weren’t allowed brandy butter without it.”
“Fortunately for me, they’d chilled out by the time I came along.”
“They weren’t chilled out—they were just knackered.”
“There have to be some perks to being the baby.”
“Some perks! The whole gig is one long perk. Try being the oldest,” Lisa shrieked.
“Forget that. Middlie—that’s the tough position. Ask any shrink.” Jennifer was half serious.
Amanda snorted. “But there are two of us in the middle—what does that mean?”
“It means in this family you don’t even get the worst position in the family to yourself, that’s what it means….”
“Shut up moaning—who wants another liqueur? If we’re stuck in here while the hunter gatherers roam free, we may as well have a drink.” Mark was outside with Andy and Stephen. Apparently they were chopping more logs for the fire. Actually they were smoking cigars and avoiding the dishes—a perfectly open secret, and the way it had always been. No one really wanted it to be any different.
Lisa peeled off her Marigolds and grabbed the Baileys and the amaretto, plus a few of the small glasses Amanda had just dried.
“Then Amanda can tell us what she’s so…smiley about.”
“What do you mean?!” Amanda’s question was playful. “Aren’t I always?”
“Not with so much twinkle…”
“Is it a guy?” Hannah asked, eyes wide.
“Of course it’s a guy,” said Lisa, winking at her little sister.
“Fantastic.” Jennifer sipped her drink. “Dish, Mandy-Pandy—let’s have a little bit of vicarious romance.”
Lisa caught the faint note of bitterness in her sister’s voice, but Jennifer avoided her gaze, and she turned back to Amanda, who was still wearing her paper hat, rakishly pushed back on her head. On her it looked good. “So…”
“Blimey—it’s like the Spanish Inquisition.” Amanda laughed, looking from one expectant face to the others. “Okay, okay. There might be a guy.”
Expectant silence.
“There is a guy. I met him on the underground. Well, actually, I’d seen him before, but…I…long story…I really talked to him properly first on the underground.”
“That’s not fair. The only people who ever talk to me on public transport are drunks and beggars.”
“He’s neither. He’s a student.”
“They’re usually both, most of the time.”
“He’s not. He’s studying to be an architect, like Mark, actually, so as you know, that takes longer than…I don’t know…being a doctor or a vet or something.”
“Oooh. Clever boy.”
“And handsome boy?”
“Well…not in the conventional sense, I don’t think. He’s a redhead.”
“Ginger pubes.” Lisa nodded sympathetically.
“Gross!” Hannah groaned.
Amanda gave Lisa a playful shove. “I wouldn’t know—we’re not all slappers.”
“Ah—those were the days.” Lisa shook her head in mock wistfulness.
“So are you two seeing each other?” Jennifer asked.
Amanda smiled shyly. “I think so, yes, a bit. We only met a couple of weeks ago, so it’s early days. And, what with Christmas and stuff…”
“Is he at home, doing the family thing?”
“Yes. In Cornwall. He’s from this huge family, apparently—you know, a million cousins.”
“Was he the call this morning?”
She nodded. “He was. He gave me a present, the other day, before he left. He wanted to see if I’d opened it.”
“We didn’t see it.”
“I opened it on my own, early.”
“And…what was it…?”
“Mind your own business!”
“You’re leaving us with no choice but to assume it was, I don’t know—Agent Provocateur knickers or something….”
“Assume what you want.”
“Leave her be,” Jennifer chided Lisa. “A girl is allowed a secret.