Vanessa gestured to the grand piano pushed as far as possible into the corner of the drawing room, beyond the opened-up double doors. ‘Go on then!’
Ben laughed. ‘I couldn’t get near the keyboard unless I climbed over the top; besides, I don’tsuppose it’s been played or tuned for years. But I do know where there’s another one!’ he said, and, before Lizzie or Meg could react, took Vanessa’s hand and led her from the room.
‘Is that all right?’ Lizzie asked Alexandra when she joined them a few seconds later. ‘Will David mind?’
‘He’s not precious about the piano. He’ll be glad to have a sing song. Not so happy if Ben wants to dive into something deep and meaningful from the classical canon,’ said Alexandra. She laughed gently. ‘The piano would die of shock if Ben tried to play a Tchaikovsky concerto on it.’
‘Let’s see what’s going on down there,’ said someone and people began to drift downstairs until it was just Alexandra, Lizzie and Meg left.
‘We cleaned and tidied every inch of this house,’ said Alexandra. ‘And everyone ends up in the kitchen.’
‘It happens at all the best parties,’ said Meg. ‘Not easy for staff, but we haven’t got staff so we don’t care!’
‘Let’s go and join them,’ said Lizzie, who’d been dying to. She was in the mood to sing something sad and sentimental and found herself humming ‘Can’t help loving that man of mine’ as she went down the stairs.
An hour later, Vanessa was at the piano, singing while Ben played. People were draped over the furniture sipping wine or drinking tea while others sang along to Ben’s music. Even Clover was happy, being stroked by whoever was available for adoration duty. Lizzie was helping Luigi polish the glasses. He had lost his voice singing ‘O Sole Mio’ at full volume. As Lizzie’s throat was also a bit sore she decided to help him rather than feel guilty about a guest working so hard.
She heard a tap on the area door. Wondering who on earth it could be, seeing as everyone who used that door was at home, she opened the door.
It was Hugo. ‘Oh, hello!’ she said. ‘Have you come to pick up Vanessa?’
Ben stopped playing and everyone looked at Hugo.
‘Hughie!’ said Vanessa. ‘I said Ben is going to take me home.’
‘I haven’t come to take you home, Ness,’ he said. ‘I just came back to make sure you weren’t all having too much fun.’
Only Lizzie laughed. Being near to him she could see the twinkle disturbing his usually serious expression.
‘We’re having absolutely no fun at all,’ said Lizzie. ‘Come in and see for yourself.’
He made his way to the piano and put his hand on his sister’s shoulder. ‘This takes me back to thatholiday when we were kids. The parents were lent a house in Scotland. It had no electricity so Uncle James played the piano and we sang. We just had oil lamps. We used to get through the entire Scottish Students Song Book every night.’
‘That was a great holiday, wasn’t it?’ said Vanessa.
Looking at them Lizzie could see that Hugo and Vanessa were really very fond of each other. She sighed. Having Hugo for a brother would be the next best thing to having him as a boyfriend.
Chapter Twelve
‘I can’t believe it’s our last day,’ said Lizzie, as she, Meg and Alexandra walked to the cookery school in Pimlico. ‘So much has happened.’
‘I’m so glad you two aren’t going back to the comfortable lives you had before we met,’ said Alexandra. ‘Now you’re living in a house which crumbles a bit more each day.’
‘I think we all do that,’ said Meg. ‘And I promise you, my life wasn’t that comfortable after William died and we had to kidnap Clover!’
‘Did I know you’d kidnapped her?’ asked Lizzie. ‘Did you demand a ransom?’
Meg gave Lizzie a shove. ‘We just told William’s relations that Clover was ours, or they’d have had her put down.’
‘I remember now,’ said Lizzie. ‘Will we have a test, do you think? At Mme Wilson’s?’
‘No,’ said Meg. ‘We can all make meringues, a good béchamel, pastry and crème patissière. As wellas all sorts of other things. I think that’s all Mme Wilson could hope to teach us on such a short course.’
‘Not to mention dressmaking and flower arranging and French conversation,’ said Lizzie.
‘It has been fun!’ said Alexandra. ‘I only went on this course because my guardians insisted but I’m really glad I did. I’ve learnt it’s really good to have girlfriends. David is wonderful, of course, but you do need women friends too, I think.’
‘Definitely,’ agreed Lizzie. ‘I was just thinking I’d have liked a brother – or a sister. Having you two is probably better!’
