‘But Antony only invited me to come with him because I didn’t know anyone locally,’ said Fran. ‘It’s not a date or anything.’ She was aware of Antony listening to the conversation and saw his wry smile. She took another sip of her drink.
‘Well,’ said Megan, ‘how do you like country life so far? You haven’t had the best weather. I must say I would never have moved away from the city if I’d had the choice.’
‘Butyou did have the choice,’ said Erica, ‘you just didn’t want to leave the house and the lifestyle behind.’
Megan shrugged. ‘Did you leave a gorgeous flat in the best part of town?’ she asked Fran, having a good look at her.
‘No,’ said Fran. ‘I was living above the pub where I worked. Although it was in a good part of town. Quite near Covent Garden.’
‘Oh, OK,’ said Megan. ‘So bit of a step change, coming down here?’
‘Well, yes, obviously, but I like a challenge,’ said Fran, feeling she was being interviewed and that any moment someone would say, ‘Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?’ She really hoped they wouldn’t ask that, because she had no idea.
‘And inheriting a rather gorgeous farmhouse would be an incentive,’ said Megan.
‘I really can’t believe you all know about that,’ said Fran.
Megan raised her eyebrows. ‘But of course! This is the country; everyone knows everything. You stick it out for a year, you get to inherit. Well worth a year of mud, I’d have thought.’
‘Actually it’s not quite like that—’ Fran began as Antony came over.
‘I think the Geneva Convention requires that the interrogation stops now,’ he said with a worryingly charming smile. ‘Why don’t you tell Fran all thebestplaces to go around here? Like the best pubs, restaurants, or maybe even places to get a haircut.’
‘Actually I’m more into knowing about the restaurants and foodie pubs,’ said Fran.
‘There are some lovely pubs,’ said Erica, ‘but no restaurants.’
‘So where do you go if you want a romantic night out?’ Fran asked.
‘To someone else’s house where there’s an attractive man to flirt with,’ said Megan.
Fran laughed, not because she was amused particularly, but she wanted to divert attention away from herself. ‘Like here, you mean?’
Megan nodded. ‘If you like retro food.’
Caroline came back into the sitting room. ‘OK, come and eat everyone. Julian? I’m relying on you for the “placement”.’
Fran made sure she finished her drink before she followed the others into the dining room. She was not enjoying herself. Although the evening had been informative in some ways – she knew to avoid Megan if she possibly could – she wasn’t feeling at ease, in spite of the enormous gin.
Fran found herself at her host’s right hand, which was nice, because Julian was easy to talk to. She noted that Megan was sitting next to Antony and that Megan had her arm on the table so no one else could get to him.
Franalso noted that none of Caroline’s friends had offered to help her. There were a lot of people for one person to deal with and although the menu was simple (seventies inspired, possibly – kipper pâté with Melba toast, fish pie) it was only Caroline and Julian who ferried plates.
Thus, when the fish pie had been cleared away, Fran excused herself and followed her hostess. The conversation had drifted towards local schools and how to deal with head lice anyway, so Fran was happy to hunt out Caroline in the kitchen.
‘Hi! I really don’t want to get in your way,’ she said to Caroline, taking in the evidence of an over-faced cook with insufficient worktop space for such a big dinner party. ‘But I wanted to explain the cheese. You don’t have to feel obliged to serve it if you weren’t going to have cheese. Or even then.’ She smiled. ‘It’s various soft cheeses that I made myself.’
‘Oh God, who knew you could even do that?’ Although Caroline was polite, Fran could see she was very distracted.
‘Do let me help!’ Fran couldn’t help feeling dreadfully sorry for her. ‘It was so kind of you to invite me and I gather you wouldn’t have had so many people if they didn’t all want a look at me!’
‘To be honest, I’m past praying for. I’ve kept it all really simple to make life easier for myself and I’ve still rotted it up!’
Fransensed that if Caroline had known her better, she would have used a stronger expression than ‘rotted up’. ‘Really? How?’
‘We’re having plum sponge – nursery food, plums out of the freezer – it should be easy-peasy. Only I’d forgotten I’d frozen them with their stones in so it took ages to take them all out – and now I’ve gone and over-whipped the cream. I’ve only got children’s ice cream to serve with it now.’
‘No you haven’t!’ Fran said. ‘I mean – I put some cream in the cool box along with the cheese. If it’s not enough, there’s mascarpone and ricotta too.’
