Why was conversation being so difficult, Lizzie wondered. These were her parents: there should be lots of things they wanted to say to each other.
‘Oh!’ Inspiration hit her. ‘We’re giving a dinner party in the house where I’m staying. We’re just working out a menu.’
For the first time since the meal began her mother seemed to relax. ‘Well, if you want my advice …’
‘Yes please, Mummy!’
‘You’ll start with something simple, like grapefruit, with a cherry in the middle. It’s attractive and easy to do.’
Lizzie nodded, picturing the faces of her housemates if she suggested this.
‘And then coronation chicken. It’s served cold which is easier if you haven’t got a hostess trolley.’
‘And for pudding?’ asked Lizzie.
‘Chocolate mousse is always a nice sweet,’ said her mother. ‘All easily prepared in advance.’
Lizzie nodded. Chocolate mousse was indeed always nice so this might be a very good choice. ‘Thank you for those ideas, Mummy. That’s really useful.’
‘I’d have thought your course would have taught you all these things,’ said Lizzie’s mother. ‘Who are you going to invite?’
‘Girls from our course,’ said Lizzie. ‘And their boyfriends, if they’ve got them. We will have to have even numbers of course.’
‘Well, keep it small,’ said Lizzie’s mother. ‘Otherwise it’s just too difficult, even if you have got a simple menu.’
‘Don’t offer too much to drink,’ said her father. ‘One glass of sherry beforehand, sweet for the girls, drier for the men. And then a glass and a half of wine per person.’
Lizzie nodded, thinking of the amount of alcohol served at Vanessa’s dinner party. ‘What about canapés? Or just crisps?’
‘I’m very partial to a cheese straw, myself,’ put in her father.
‘But they are tricky to make, darling,’ said her mother.
‘Elizabeth’s been on a fancy course so making them should be easy for her,’ he said.
‘I think I could manage cheese straws. Mme Wilson made us practise making pastry a lot and mine is very good now, if I say so myself.’
Lizzie regarded her parents who were still looking at her strangely. She was puzzled for a moment but then realised that she was talking very much more than usual, which had surprised them. It surprised her, too, but they were barely contributing to the conversation. She realised her announcement that she wasn’t coming home immediately after the course was over had been a shock. Although they hadn’t forbidden it – which was what she’d been expecting.
‘We did like Alexandra,’ said her mother when her father had been pressed into eating the last roast potato. ‘And I like to think of you having friends like her. But what sort of work would you do?’
‘I would like to practise all I’ve learnt with Mme Wilson,’ said Lizzie. ‘One of my other new friends, a very nice girl called Meg, has just got a little job with a catering company. She’ll be working for them in the evenings as a waitress, but soon she hopes to be helping with the canapés too – they’re very fiddly to do.’
‘She’s on the same course as you are?’ asked her father.
‘Yes! Her mother is widowed. She brought her sweet little dog with her to the house. We all love her.’
‘I don’t like the idea of you being a waitress,’ said her mother slowly.
‘It’s not quite like being a waitress in a café,’ said Lizzie, knowing her mother pictured her only child in a black dress with a white pinny and a little cap falling over her eyes. ‘It’s quite smart. The other girls are from really good families. They do it because they want to earn a little bit of extra money, for clothes and things.’ She saw that her parents still didn’t understand. ‘You’d like Meg, if you ever met her.’
Her mother smiled. ‘I’ll get the sweet. It’s your favourite, darling. Pineapple upside-down cake.’
Lizzie had never liked pineapple upside-down cake but having said she did for good manners, when her mother had first produced it, she couldn’t now tell her. However, for tea, two hours later, her mother produced her real favourite, Victoria jam sponge.
‘Oh, Mum! This is lovely! So light!’
‘Call me Mummy, darling. Just as you always have. But I’m so glad you liked it. You’re the expert now!’ Her mother waved her finger archly.
