Page 85 of One More Christmas at the Castle
I wasn’t quite sure what to say to this, but she’d spotted the giant cake sitting on its substantial cooling rack.
‘What a beauty!’ she exclaimed. ‘You know, when I arrived, I thought I could smell something spicy and seasonal!’
‘I baked it this afternoon,’ I said. ‘The pudding is already made and in the larder.’
‘Sabine told me you were a wonderful cook and that although she couldn’t eat as much as she used to, she still enjoyed her food.’
‘I’m so glad, Mrs Kane,’ I said, feeling that at least I could please Mrs Powys in one thing!
‘Oh, do call me Nancy! No one ever calls me Mrs Kane and I’m sure we’re going to be good friends! And I’m afraid I’ll tend to be trotting in and out of the kitchen a lot, making tea – I’m a great tea lover – but I’ll try not to get under your feet.’ She caught sight of the kitchen clock. ‘Must go and change. I’m sure Sabine still does for dinner, even if no one else bothers these days.’
She smiled warmly at me and then walked rapidly out, the upper part of her torso slightly inclined forward, as if eager to get to where she was going.
I suspected this was characteristic of her, and I’d liked her very much.
She must have gone up the Garden Hall stairs and missed Henry by moments.
‘I thought I heard you going past the dining room with the tea trolley – but you didn’t have to. I was about to fetch it.’
‘I didn’t. It was brought back by a small whirlwind calledMrs Kane – though we’re to call her Nancy and we’re all going to be good friends! I don’t think she understands the difference between paid staff and guests!’
‘Tell that to Mrs Powys,’ he said. ‘If even I, with my posh pedigree and slight family connection, am somewhat below the salt,youhave entirely dropped off the end of the table, darling.’
Sabine
Of course, once we’d gone upstairs that evening and bade goodnight to Lucy, as she headed up the next flight to escape into the arms of whatever fictional lover awaited her, Nancy and I settled down in my boudoir for a good catch-up.
I got out my bottle of whisky and two glasses from the wall cupboard and she contributed a box of slightly crumbled home-made pecan biscuits, fetched from her room.
We sat with our drinks and the years seemed to roll back to our student days at Oxford … There had still been a lot of petty restrictions on female students at that time – Oxford was very behind in those things – but Nancy and I had found ingenious ways to circumvent them.
We reminisced about that for a bit, then Nancy, offering me the box of biscuits, said, as if it had reminded her: ‘I popped into the kitchen earlier, while you were resting after tea, to say hello to your cook. What a beautiful young woman she is! Very striking, especially with her hair up in that old-fashioned way – though it suits her very much.’
‘I don’t know aboutbeautiful, with that nose … and hermanner is rather cold and reserved,’ I said. ‘But she’s certainly an excellent cook, and she and Henry make a very efficient team. They should do, for what I’m paying them!’
‘I think Dido’s perfect Grecian profileisbeautiful – and with that golden hair and creamy pale skin, not to mention the almost turquoise blue of her eyes, she’s certainly striking. As to her seeming reserved, I only had to talk to her for a few minutes in order to realize it’s just a front to hide her shyness.’
I smiled affectionately at her. ‘You always think the best of everyone, Nancy.’
‘I do, until they prove themselves otherwise,’ Nancy said. ‘But you know, I had the strangest feeling I’d seen Dido before somewhere, though of course I can’t have done, because I wouldn’t have forgotten her.’
‘Really?’ I said, staring at her curiously. ‘But then, they do say everyone has a double, don’t they?’
‘I think Dido’s might be holding up the portico of a Greek temple,’ Nancy said, grinning. ‘Statuesque describes her perfectly.’
‘I suppose so. I haven’t really seen much of her since they got here,’ I said offhandedly. ‘She’s been bringing my breakfast up, but otherwise has tended to keep to the staff wing, though I expect she’ll have to help serve meals and do the bedrooms with Henry, once the rest of my guests arrive.’
‘Henry’s a delightful young man,’ Nancy said, ‘and so nice for Xan to be able to catch up with his old friend.’
‘He is very pleasant and one oftheRudges, of course –andwe have discovered our families are slightly related by marriage.’
‘You’re such a snob, Sabine! If you go back far enough, we’reallrelated,’ she said unanswerably.
‘Xan has been very busy sorting out Asa’s papers and taking notes for his biography.’
‘Yes, you mentioned on the phone that you’ve begun recording your memories for him. How is that going? Is it good to revisit the old days, or difficult?’
Trust Nancy to go straight to the point!
