I pickedthe girls up early from the Svensson Investment office to get ready for our tea party with Beck.
We made scones, tea sandwiches, and mini cakes. I even polished the silver on my teapot that I had bought on a whim instead of paying off a credit card bill. I had kicked myself when I had found out that it was a nonrefundable purchase. But you know what? Now I was glad that I had a high-end English tea set.
“It’s so pretty!” Annie said. We had arranged the table for tea with a white lace tablecloth, gleaming silver spoons, and teacups and saucers with little blue hand-painted flowers.
“Now all we need is our gentleman.” We heard the front door open.
“He’s right on time!”
I met Beck in the hall and looked him over. He leaned in to give me a steamy kiss.
“I need you out of those clothes.”
“I thought we had tea,” he whispered, “but if you’d like a different prize, that can be arranged.”
“No,” I said. “This is a formal afternoon tea. You need to wear a three-piece suit.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“We do things properly here,” I told him.
I was taking pictures of our tea arrangement when Beck came back in, wearing a gray three-piece suit.
“I’m here for the tea party,” he said. “Am I supposed to bow?”
“I’m not going to say no!” I joked.
He made a dramatic bow, making the girls giggle. Then he looked around.
“I’m impressed. This is a legit tea party with food and everything.”
I snorted. “You act like you don’t even know me. Of course there’s food. What did you think we were going to do? Roll up with a plastic tea set and fake doughnuts? No, dude, we’re legit.”
“Good thing I wore a pocket watch,” he said, tapping his breast pocket.
Beck pulled out the chairs for me and his sisters then sat down and reached for one of the scones on the three-tiered tray.
“Nope,” I said, batting his hand away. “There is an afternoon tea etiquette. We’ve been studying. Tea comes first.”
Enola poured the tea into the strainers resting on each cup.
“Now you have to stir it with your teaspoon but only between six and twelve o’clock.” I demonstrated.
“This seems overdone for an afternoon snack,” Beck remarked as he stirred his tea.
“This is how they do things in England,” Annie informed him. “First,” she instructed, “you have to start at the bottom of the three-tiered platter, which holds tea sandwiches like egg salad and cucumber sandwiches. Then the next tier is scones with preserves and clotted cream along with cheese sticks and seasonal breads. The third tier is desserts. We have mini cakes, tarts, macaroons, and chocolate-covered strawberries.”
I selected one of the sandwiches. We had cut them into long, thin strips. The egg salad was divine.
“So now what?” Beck asked.
“Now we make polite conversation about the weather,” Enola said.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Because I think there was a lot of gossip going on in the Victorian era.”
“Of course, but you pretend like you’re talking about the weather,” Enola replied, taking a sip of her steaming tea.
I picked up my own teacup then addressed Beck in a fake posh British accent. “How is the estate? Lady Witherspoon relayed that she called on you the other day. She mentioned you had the loveliest irises growing.”
