‘Actually, I’ve got a trunk full of fabric with me. If you could give me a hand with it?’
Meg rushed over. ‘Don’t you dare lift it! We’ll bring it in a moment.’
David came forward calmly. ‘You’re here – how wonderful. Come in,’ he said, echoing Alexandra. ‘Don’t lurk on the doorstep. How are you? Lovelier than ever! Come and sit down. What can we get you? Are you very tired?’ He drew her to the best armchair. Clover promptly jumped on her lap.
‘Oh,’ said Meg, ‘it’s lovely to see you! Do you have a case?’
Laughing and discouraging Clover from licking her face, Lizzie said, ‘No! I have a trunk full of material but not a toothbrush, nightdress or pair of knickers otherwise.’
‘I suppose you were thinking of running up those necessary items, using the fabric?’ suggested David.
‘I would have struggled with the toothbrush, I have to say. And I couldn’t make the other things, either, because my sewing machine is in the country. Although hand-sewing a pair of knickerswould be possible. It’s so lovely to be back here with you.’
Alexandra came and perched on the arm of the chair. ‘You’re not implying that “love in a cottage” isn’t all it seemed to be when we visited? You do want to be married to Hugo?’
‘Oh yes! “Be married” is absolutely the thing I want. But apparently that can’t happen before you’ve been through this monstrous ordeal called a wedding.’ Just for a moment Lizzie looked stricken, as she remembered both her mother’s oppressive lists and her own niggling fear that for Hugo it was a marriage of convenience.
There was a silence.
‘Is it really as bad as all that?’ said David eventually. ‘Have you run away?’
Lizzie looked at her friends. ‘No, it’s not so bad I want to run away, it’s just my mother is staying.’
‘In that tiny – quite small house?’ said Alexandra, more accustomed to larger spaces.
‘No, she’s staying with Patsy, but so am I! Hugo’s staying in the cottage and I hardly ever see him, although he comes to Patsy’s for meals. My mother is always there too, talking about the wedding. Hugo brought me up here for a little break from it all. My mother thinks I’m buying dress material and choosing a wedding list from Peter Jones.’
‘Hugo is going to be a kind and thoughtful husband,’ stated David.
‘And what are you really going to do while you’re with us?’ asked Alexandra. ‘If you’re not doing those things?’
‘Well, I did mean to buy fabric for my dress and get it cut out, on the big table …’
‘Are you not going to have a wedding dress, then?’ asked Meg.
‘What?’ said Lizzie. ‘Of course I’m having a wedding dress! I was also hoping you might be bridesmaids. And Vanessa. Although I won’t have time to make your dresses.’
‘Oh, that’s all right,’ said Meg. ‘We’d have been most disappointed if you hadn’t asked us to be bridesmaids. We’ve been getting so excited about your wedding. I’m really pleased you asked me to make your wedding cake.’
‘And I’m going to ice it, apparently,’ said David. ‘Because of my skill in making putti, cherubs, swags and flowers. I usually make them in plaster of Paris, when I’m restoring mirrors and picture frames, but Alexandra says the skills are probably the same.’
‘I love the idea of a cake with putti on it,’ said Lizzie. ‘I hadn’t really thought much about the cake apart from wanting Meg to make it.’ Then she frowned. ‘What are putti again?’
David laughed. ‘Same as cherubs only without wings. And you don’t have to have all those things on your cake.’
‘As long as I can make it,’ Meg said again. ‘I’ve been researching recipes.’
‘And I want to do something useful towards the event,’ David said.
‘Oh, David!’ said Lizzie, getting up and putting her arms round him. ‘You’re such a prop to us girls! You’re like a father only a lot more fun. I don’t know how we’d manage without you. You don’t need to be useful.’
‘She’s right,’ said Alexandra. ‘I couldn’t have managed living here on my own, not for more than five minutes.’ She joined in the hug.
‘Girls!’ said David, obviously moved. ‘Stop being foolish and put the kettle on.’
When they were all drinking tea, Alexandra said, ‘So, if you don’t want to spend your time in London buying fabric’ – she was obviously still thinking about it – ‘what are you going to make your dress from? I do have some parachute silk left over from the war you could have.’
‘No need! Hugo took me to see the workshop and the master craftsman, a really sweet man with snow-white hair, gave me all the fabric his mother had. She’d been a dressmaker and he never knew what to do with it.’ Lizzie got up. ‘I brought it with me.’
