‘Tonight?’ said Lizzie. ‘I thought the dance was tomorrow?’
‘I’ll explain,’ said Vanessa. ‘Let’s go through to the nursery. Come to think of it, I brought bread and butter up for breakfast. We could make toast now.’
‘Ooh, can we have cocoa?’ said Alexandra. ‘Like they did in all those school stories I used to love but not at my actual boarding school!’
‘We can. We could have breakfast here. Proper breakfast isn’t until nine and ladies are supposedto have trays in their rooms.’ Vanessa giggled. ‘But Mummy said I couldn’t possibly ask for trays to be brought up here. So I asked Mrs Crannock – she’s the cook – if we can have breakfast in the kitchen. She doesn’t mind.’
Lizzie felt very confused. There seemed to be so many rules which didn’t make sense. ‘So, if we’re in the servants’ quarters,’ she asked, ‘where do all those maids who were serving tea downstairs live?’
‘In the village,’ said Vanessa. ‘Far more comfortable!’
Chapter Fourteen
Vanessa ushered them back into the nursery after Lizzie had extracted a cardigan from her case.
‘It’s lovely up here,’ said Alexandra, looking out of the window. ‘You can see everything.’
‘You can. It’s quite private, which is why I like sleeping here.’ Vanessa opened a cupboard and brought out a bottle of wine. ‘Shall we drink this?’
‘Shouldn’t we be changing for dinner or something?’ asked Lizzie, who was keen to get out of her too-short dress and her paper-pattern matching bag. Apart from anything else, she was cold in spite of the cardigan.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Vanessa, producing tooth mugs for the wine, ‘there’ll be a bell. We’ll hear it.’
‘A bell?’ said Meg.
Vanessa poured out the wine. ‘To tell us when it’s time to dress.’
‘Good Lord,’ said Lizzie. ‘Who’d have thought. A dressing bell!’
When everyone had taken a sip of warm white wine, Alexandra said, ‘So, what’s the plan?’
‘Let me start from the beginning,’ said Vanessa, who obviously felt her story needed everyone’s proper attention. ‘And thank you so much for coming. Electra is driving me round the bend.’
‘How?’ asked Lizzie, delighted to have the chance to share catty remarks about her least favourite person.
‘She’s just taken over! Honestly! Instead of just having friends – people our age for a dance – it’s become a huge formal ball thing.’
‘A ball?’ asked Meg, worried. ‘I have got a long dress but it’s hardly a ball gown.’
‘It’s a lovely dress,’ said Lizzie, who’d had a lot to do with adding a flounce to one of Gina’s cast-offs so that it reached the ground.
‘I’m sure your dresses are fine,’ said Vanessa. ‘At least for tonight.’
‘Two parties?’ asked Alexandra.
Vanessa nodded. ‘Honestly, it was the only way to do it. Otherwise it would have been dire.’
‘Why?’ asked Meg. ‘It’s not that I don’t believe you, I just want details.’
‘Apart from the fact that tomorrow’s bash is going to be the most formal event that doesn’t actually have royalty at it, you mean?’ Vanessa went on. ‘That’s not really the problem. It’s the music.’
‘Oh?’ said Alexandra. ‘They’ve hired a band, have they? I think I know the kind. They’re fine withfoxtrots and waltzes but anything more up to date they play sounds really strange.’
Vanessa nodded. ‘The same one they always have. They wear white DJs, will take requests and there’s only five of them so that’s not too many to feed.’ Now Vanessa was getting indignant. ‘Can you believe it? Electra wondered if they had to be fed and yet they’re expected to play from about eight o’clock till four in the morning.’
‘Golly.’ Lizzie wondered if she’d have the stamina for dancing all night.
‘People will waltz to old dance numbers from the war, and then, worst of all, someone will ask for a Beatles number and they’ll play it – and they are not the Beatles – and the old people will try and do the twist and give themselves slipped discs.’ Vanessa stopped for breath.
