‘Not quite finished yet.’ Electra laughed prettily. ‘I’d love to ask your advice about flowers in the drawing room …’ Electra drew the older woman out of the room with the skill of a magician.
‘Did you see that?’ Vanessa was puffing with indignation. ‘She let Mummy think she’d done the flowers!’
‘Well, thank goodness I’ve already done them in the drawing room.’ Lizzie was pleased that Vanessa had noticed Electra’s duplicity.
‘If the flowers are anything like this, they’ll be wonderful!’ Vanessa was firm. ‘Now have a break. Eat your sandwiches and drink your tea. I wasn’t quite sure what drink to bring you but Meg and Alexandra thought you’d like tea. They’ve been brilliant at helping me clear up the barn. We’ve made it so we can escape there tonight if Electra’s ball gets too dire.’
Lizzie didn’t want to think about Electra’s ball and changed the subject. ‘I love tea and the sandwiches are amazing. Cheese and tomato. You can’t beat it, can you?’
‘They’re a bit door-steppy I’m afraid. Canny would have had a fit if she’d seen me do them. She was supervising the caterers.’
Lizzie looked at Vanessa, seeing a kind girl who liked to enjoy herself and wanted everyone to be happy. She knew that if Vanessa hadn’t thought of it, no one in the house would have cared if she had starved. ‘Nessa, can you tell me what the plans are for the afternoon?’
‘Well, it’s nearly teatime now,’ said Vanessa.
‘I won’t be finished—’
‘Dinner will be before the ball, obviously. I think that’s at eight – or may be seven – I’ll have to check with Mummy.’
Lizzie felt she could not bear to suffer another dinner like the one the previous night. ‘I think I’ll need to make sure all the flower arrangements are fresh and that nothing’s gone flop and that the chicken wire isn’t showing. Would it be awful if I didn’t come to dinner?’
‘No, no, that would be fine.’ Vanessa said this without needing to think. Lizzie wondered if there’d been a conversation with her mother on this very subject. Lizzie suspected that Lady Lennox-Stanley would be delighted not to have Lizzie at her dinner table.
‘I’d like to have a bath, get the soil out of my fingernails,’ Lizzie went on. ‘If I skip dinner I’ll be ready for the ball.’
‘Well, you’ll have to come to that to hear Electra’s big announcement.’
Something about the way Vanessa said this made Lizzie ask, ‘Are you happy about Electra and Hugo getting engaged – married?’
‘Oh yes. They’re terribly well suited and have been together forever.’ The words came out very pat but without a lot of conviction.
‘But …’ Lizzie really wanted to hear Vanessa’s misgivings. She knew it was childish and probably a bit catty but couldn’t help herself.
Vanessa sighed. ‘She’s not a lot of fun, Electra, is she? I mean, you’ve seen her. She looks like a dream, does everything perfectly—’
‘Except organise florists.’
‘But you wouldn’t find yourself drinking warm white wine with her in the attic, would you? I bet she went all through school without going to a single midnight feast.’ Vanessa obviously felt this said it all.
‘Hugo is quite grown up like that too, though, isn’t he?’ Except when he jived and forgot he was training to be a barrister.
Vanessa sighed. ‘He used to be great fun but Electra’s made him much more serious. But everyone says they are perfect for each other – so I suppose they must be!’
‘Let’s hope they’re very happy then,’ said Lizzie, her jaw rigid with the effort of getting the words out.
‘Oh, I don’t suppose they’ll be happy in the jumping-up-and-down, skipping-round-the-room way,’ said Vanessa, ‘but they will be very successful and both sets of parents will feel they’d done a brilliant job.’
This flash of cynicism was unlike Vanessa and Lizzie was about to ask her about it when Vanessa looked at her watch. ‘Is that the time? I must drag Alexandra and Meg out of the barn and make them change for dinner.’
‘And I’d better get on and finish. Electra is right. I’ve been doing these for hours!’
The clearing up seemed to take as long as the arranging, but at last Lizzie had tipped the final dustpan-load of leaves and petals, stalks and bits of stick into the bucket. The ballroom looked perfect.
She allowed herself a last look before leaving. Sisters, but not twins, the two arrangements, in identical vases, stood on tables at opposite ends of the room. A yard wide at the base, every sprig of green enhanced every bloom. Tall bearded irises were ranged at the back, interspersed with white foxgloves and pale camassias that looked like huge bluebells. Sprays of lilac in white, purple and palest pink added fragrance and white peonies gave the arrangement added abundance. One of the church-flower ladies had told Lizzie that a butterfly should be able to flutter through an arrangement. She had said she was quoting someone else and Lizzie thought it was good advice.
Just as she was leaving Hugo came into the room. ‘Good Lord, those really are stunning,’ he said.
‘Electra told your mother that she’d done them,’ said Lizzie, hating herself for being so petty.
