‘I won’t, thank you very much, but the sandwich will be very welcome.’
‘Are you sure?’ said Sheila. ‘Now we’ve opened the bottle, we’ll have to finish it or my husband will find out and be grumpy.’
‘I’m sure you’ll manage to drink it all without me.’ Hattie smiled again. Rose wouldn’t be happy about Sheila’s last statement either, and nor was she. If two grown women wanted to drink champagne and could afford it, it was nothing to do with anyone else.
In between questions about bread, toasted or untoasted, mayonnaise, mustard and other vital queries, Fiona started to explain what Sheila’s problem was until – after a tall sandwich had materialised on a plate in front of Hattie – Sheila felt able to explain herself.
‘The thing is, we haven’t lived here long, only a couple of years, and I haven’t been accepted into thelocal community properly. I mean, everyone’s been really friendly, but they don’t ask me to things.’ Sheila took a sip of her champagne. ‘I thought things were going better but then we made the blunder about the flowers for Fi’s wedding.’
‘Oh?’ Hattie dabbed at the corner of her mouth with her napkin.
‘Yes,’ said Fiona. ‘Lance wanted us to use this London florist – it’s where all the smart couples are going for their flowers. Their website is stunning.’
Obviously less impressed by the stunning website than her daughter had been, Sheila went on: ‘And when the flower guild, from the church, found out, they were all dreadfully offended that we weren’t going to ask them to do the flowers. The woman in charge told me off. Apparently, almost all the flowers are provided by the members of the guild so it earns the church some money which it badly needs. The Lady chapel needs restoring.’
‘Do you need the name of a good builder? I can certainly provide that. My friend Luke—’
‘If only it were that simple,’ said Sheila. ‘Of course I offered to make a donation but they refused. Newcomers can’t buy their way in. They have to make a real contribution, not just throw their money around. Rachel – I don’t really feel happy calling her that but she did say I should – was very frank.’
‘So… how can I help?’
Sheila took a breath. ‘I need you to provide people for a quiz.’
‘How do you mean?’ Hattie was mystified.
Sheila exhaled sharply. ‘I promised Rachel – she’s the leader of the flower guild and every other organisationin the village – that I’d come up with at least two teams for her quiz night, which is a really good money spinner, apparently. It seems that might be enough to absolve me.’
‘Two teams?’ asked Hattie. ‘How many in a team?’
‘Six,’ said Fiona. ‘Daddy’s not very keen but he’s said he’ll come. Lance likes quizzes, but otherwise it’s only Mummy and me. We don’t really know anyone else around here. And besides, I’m not much good at general knowledge. Lance thinks some of my answers are hilarious!’ She laughed as if she agreed with him. Hattie wasn’t convinced.
She took a breath. ‘OK, let me think. You need twelve people in total?’
‘Yes, and we’ve only got four,’ said Fiona.
‘I’m sure we could find a couple more people though,’ said Sheila. ‘I wonder if Mrs Witcombe likes quizzes?’
‘Mummy, you know Daddy would go mad if you asked our cleaning lady to be on our quiz team. He’d say it was overstepping boundaries.’
‘Well,’ said Hattie, ‘I can almost definitely promise you five people. Xander, my nephew, may only be a teenager, but he’ll be good on popular culture and technology. Not sure if he likes quizzes but he’s obliging, on the whole.’
‘Lance is brilliant on technology but he thinks all modern music is rubbish, so help with that would be handy,’ said Fiona.
‘Haven’t you any old friends who’d come over?’ asked Hattie. ‘It would be fun.’
‘There’re my old chums the Craigs. Camille and I were at school together and he’s American. They’ve come over from Vermont for the wedding and they’re making a trip of it,’ said Sheila. ‘I didn’t think a villagequiz would be their thing, but I can ask. If they don’t fancy it I could ask another couple. We’ve got plenty of room to put people up. One of the reasons we bought this big house was so we could have friends to stay.’
‘What about you, Fiona?’ asked Hattie. ‘Is there anyone you could invite? Someone who might be good at celebrities?’
‘Lance doesn’t like my friends.’ Fiona sounded bleak.
‘He can’t hate all of them!’ said Sheila. ‘But he can’t object to anyone I want to invite. What about the Jenkinses? They could bring Sophie? She’s very sensible, and the three of them would fill up the two teams.’
‘I suppose. Lance hasn’t met Sophie, so maybe that would be fine.’
Sheila pursed her lips. ‘Much as I love him, I don’t think I can allow Lance to have a say in who I invite to my house.’
Fiona blushed and then took another sip of champagne. Hattie had the feeling this was a discussion that had been had before. It must be so hard for Fiona, she thought, trying to keep both her difficult fiancé and her mother happy. She got to her feet. ‘I must go and rescue Xander and Luke from each other. I promise I’ll try to fill a team for the quiz. When is it, exactly?’
