‘They were practically giving them away,’ he said. ‘A big society wedding was cancelled.’
‘Flowers! Lovely! I’ll do them,’ said Lizzie. ‘Or some of them,’ she went on, seeing quite how many there were.
‘There’s a whole cupboard full of vases,’ said Alexandra. ‘It’s upstairs.’
‘Your house is like a huge antiques emporium,’ said Lizzie, panting slightly as she followed Alexandra.
‘It is,’ Alexandra agreed. ‘But it’s much more fun living in one since you and Meg came.’
When they reached the first-floor landing, Alexandra opened what appeared to be a wooden pillar, revealing a mass of things that, clearly, no one had used for years.
‘Oh my goodness!’ said Lizzie, peering in. ‘Not only vases but candelabra! They’re massive!’
Alexandra put in her hand and extracted one. ‘And filthy,’ she said, looking at it with horror.
‘Never mind!’ said Lizzie. ‘We can leave them tarnished, pretend it’s on purpose.’
‘David’s got a trick with tin foil and soda crystals,’ said Alexandra, extracting candelabra one at a time until there were six of them on the floor beside Lizzie. ‘If you wanted them clean. We ought to clean the knives and forks anyway.’
‘Have you got any low vases that we could put on the table?’
Alexandra was leaning so far into the cupboard she was practically inside it. ‘What about this for the table! I think it’s called an epergne.’
Lizzie couldn’t speak for a few moments. Her friend was holding a huge, highly decorated silver object which, at first glance, seemed to be a candelabra only with dishes instead of places to hold candles. ‘What’s it for?’
‘Apart from hiding the person sitting across the table? I think it would have fruit or flowers or little sweets in the dishes. What do you think? Do you want to use it?’ Alexandra looked very dubious at the prospect and Lizzie agreed with her.
‘I don’t think so. I mean it’s gorgeous but there wouldn’t be room for any food on the table if it had that on it,’ she said.
‘You weren’t supposed to talk across the table in Victorian times anyway,’ said Alexandra, replacing the epergne and dislodging a couple of the little dishes from their holders as she did so. The dishes bounced on the floor. ‘Oh, don’t worry,’ said Alexandra, picking them up. ‘It’s not very special.’
‘And they seem OK anyway,’ said Lizzie, having inspected both dishes.
‘So, what vases do you want? Don’t forget we’ll need flowers for the drawing room.’
Lizzie chose three of them. ‘I’ll start with these. They should be enough.’
‘Well, you know where they are if you need more. Let’s get back to cleaning the dining room. The drawing room only needs the flowers and a quick dust.’
‘Shall we have a quick look, to check?’ suggested Lizzie. ‘We don’t want to be caught out.’ She had a vision of Electra running her finger over the mantelpiece and then dusting off her fingers afterwards.
The three young women inspected the room. ‘It does look a bit Miss Havisham-ish,’ said Alexandra.
‘A lick and a promise should do it,’ said Meg.
‘Maybe I’ll vacuum the rug,’ said Lizzie. ‘And run the oil mop round the edges. That’s the trouble with cleaning, once you start you don’t seem able to stop.’ She put her hands on her hips, trying to see what her mother would see if she was inspecting a room before guests were expected. ‘Flowers will make all the difference,’ she said.
‘OK. Now let’s check the dining room,’ said Alexandra. ‘That hasn’t been used for years. There’ll be cobwebs and spiders everywhere.’
‘We could bring Clover up,’ said Meg. ‘She catches spiders. It’s the only useful thing she does, really.’
‘Darling Clover!’ said Alexandra. ‘She’s so decorative, she doesn’t need to be useful as well.’
‘Well,’ said Meg. ‘We’re being neither just now. Let’s get going.’
Meg had decided to polish the table, which came up beautifully and, she declared, would add a wonderful background fragrance to the scent of flowers. But it was time-consuming and when she was about halfway through, she decided she needed to get into the kitchen to start on the canapés. The beef was already marinating. She handed her cloths and polish to Lizzie. ‘I suppose if you get fed up we could put sheets on the table as tablecloths.’
‘No! I’ll carry on,’ Lizzie insisted. ‘It looks so beautiful and smells divine. But I will start on the flowers when I’ve finished.’
