She stood and went to get her coat. “I still have to go to the dress shop. Lizzie, come here.”
Ben lifted Lizzie off his lap and gave her a gentle push toward her mother. “I like your idea about inviting Fedora to dinner, but I’m thinking we can make a larger gesture if Ridley and I host the dinner. You and Roen and the children will come, of course, my mother and Mr. Butterworth, Fedora and Hitch.”
Lily stared at him. “I don’t know, Ben. Ridley might have objections to hosting a dinner party of that size.”
“She won’t,” he said confidently. “She’s said before that we should entertain, and I was the one who objected. Ridley will be pleased that I’ve changed my mind.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Ridley appeared on Lily’s doorstep two hours later when Lily was working on her shirt. Lizzie answered the door and invited Ridley inside. “It’s the doctor,” she announced importantly, ushering Ridley into the parlor.
“Don’t get up,” said Ridley. “I see you’re working.” She set her medical bag on the end table beside the sofa and took off her coat. “I hear you’re going out to Roen’s work site tomorrow. I didn’t know you rode.”
“I don’t. Not well. And I haven’t for years. He doesn’t seem to think it’s a problem. We’ll see.” Lily invited Ridley to sit. “Since none of us is ill, I imagine you’re here to ask me about Ben’s dinner party plans.”
“Oh, Lord, that man. He keeps things interesting.”
“Did he say it was my idea?”
“He said you had the germ of the idea.”
“Well, that’s true. The scale of what I planned was considerably smaller. I thought I would invite Fedora to dinner. Ben expanded on that theme. If it helps, don’t feel obligated to ask us to attend. I would not be hurt in the least.”
“Not invite you? I’m here to make sure you know you’re wanted. You wrangle four children. I need you.”
“Nonsense. You’ll have Mrs. Rushton. And Ellie. She manages an entire hotel.”
“Ellie respects me as a competent physician, but I’m not certain she respects me as competent wife.”
“Oh, I don’t believe that.” She caught Ridley’s stricken expression. “I’m sorry. It only matters if you believe it. I know that. What do you want from me that Mrs. Rushton can’t provide?”
“Your presence,” said Ridley. “Your calm. You can’t imagine what dinner parties were like in my home in Boston. My mother would invite upwards of thirty people and then not attend the dinner herself. My father made excuses, but the responsibility to play hostess fell to me. It was an agony. I know this isn’t the same, but itfeelsas if it could be the same. I was prepared to host two or three people, but this idea of Ben’s is considerably more daunting than what I had in mind. You handled yourself so beautifully last night that I think you can help me manage this.”
Lily’s smile was wry. “I was drunk.”
“So? I can keep your glass filled as well as Jim Springer. And with better wine.”
Amused, Lily laughed. “I don’t think that will be necessary, or at least I hope it won’t be.”
“You’ll come, though, won’t you? It will ease my mind considerably if I know you’ll be there. Fedora’s, too, I imagine.”
“I don’t know Fedora except to see her. Oh, you mean because I’ll be there with Roen. Ben told me she is wary of him.”
“Say you’ll be there. All of you.”
Lily glanced over at Lizzie, who was sitting quietly on the floor pulling yarn through a sewing card. “What do you think, Lizzie?”
“We should go. I heard Fedora eats with chopsticks. I want to see that.”
Lily groaned. “We’ll be there,” she told Ridley. “And the wine needs to be very fine indeed.”
•••
Roen arrived home before Lily had to make a decision about whether to hold the meal for him. He washed up and came to the table, surprised to find Clay no longer sitting at the end opposite Lily. “You’re in my seat,” he told Clay.
“No, Da. You take that one now. This is my place here beside Ham.”
“It was his idea,” Lily said much later as Roen prepared for bed. “I never would have suggested it.”
