Page 41 of One More Christmas at the Castle
‘I don’t think the cleaning service get as far as the wine cellar,’ he observed. ‘Do you want a cup of coffee? I’m going to make a pot of mint tea and then we can compare notes.’
When we did, I added cooking sherry and brandy to his list, along with a bottle of dark rum for the Christmas cake and he put a few things on mine, like jars of olives, cocktail sticks and small paper napkins.
Finally we sat back, satisfied we’d listed pretty much everything we’d need till the New Year – apart from fresh stuff, of course.
We do this mammoth shop as soon as we start a new assignment, which makes catering so much easier.
‘I suppose we need to run our lists past Mrs Powys?’ I said.‘She probably isn’t expecting this week’s order to be the size of a small novel. Then you can put the order in, Henry.’
‘The sooner the better, if we’re going to get a delivery this week,’ agreed Henry.
‘You’d better check with Mrs Powys whether she wants champagne ordering. It is nice to serve it at Christmas and Boxing Day dinners, but it’s up to her.’
‘I can’t wait to decorate the house for Christmas, can you?’ he said enthusiastically. ‘It’s the best part … which reminds me, have you written down that we need florist’s wire and ribbon for those evergreen garlands Mrs Powys mentioned?’
I pulled out another, shorter list. ‘Yes, they’re on here, along with the crackers and a couple more odds and ends. I don’t know if there’s a local stockist for Marwood’s crackers.’
He pulled out his phone and checked. ‘There’s a store in Hexham that has them.’
‘That’s handy. You could probably pick up everything else on this list, too, if you had a little trip there, maybe tomorrow? The cleaners will be in all morning and Mrs Powys and Lucy, out.’
‘I can do that. When is Charlotte coming up to stay with her family?’
‘She sent me a text to say she was coming up for the day with the twins when school breaks up for Christmas, to leave them with her parents, but then she has to get back to the shop. I expect by the time she does come up again to stay, I’ll be too busy to meet her.’
‘We could take a wild dogleg through Barnard Castle and call in on our way back,’ he suggested.
‘It’s a thought,’ I agreed. I made another cup of coffee and he joined me, this time.
‘I wonder where we’re to get the Christmas tree?’ pondered Henry.
‘Another thing we’ll have to ask Mrs Powys about.’ I put that on my to-do list.
‘Well,’ said Henry, ‘I think I’ll just bake a few cheese straws for afternoon tea … and perhaps a few little savoury tarts for tonight’s starter.’
I looked at the clock. ‘Good idea, and I’ll make a proper start on my menu plans, now I know what we have in stock and what to order – and, most importantly, what Mrs Powys would most like to eat!’
A little while later, perhaps attracted by the smell of baking, the baize door suddenly swung open and a small, furry shape somersaulted backwards into the kitchen.
‘Plum has his own way of getting through that swinging door – I saw him do it earlier,’ Henry said, looking up. ‘He sits against it and then slowly leans backwards till it opens.’
‘The somersault is fairly spectacular,’ I said, leaning down to give him a tiny piece of the cheese straw I’d sneaked off the cooking rack. ‘Who’s a little Christmas pudding, then?’
‘He is, and Xan says he’s not to have too many treats because he’s getting too fat.’
‘It’s nearly time for tea, so he might have got out of the study when Xan went to join Mrs Powys in the sitting room?’ I suggested. ‘I’d better get it ready.’
‘You do that, but if he isn’t joining them for tea, I can take his into the study on my way back,’ Henry agreed. ‘He won’t want to miss out on my warm cheese straws!’
Dinner was a simple but delicious dish of chicken in white wine, served with baked potatoes and caramelized carrots – nothing could be easier. It was followed by baked apples, stuffed with dried fruit, sugar and treacle.
‘I’ve lit the dining-room fire,’ Henry said, returning after taking the starter through, ‘and switched the hotplate on in there, so it’s all set for dinner. Xan was in the sitting room and he’d put more wood on the fire, but if he gets too generous with the logs, I’ll tell him to go and chop some!’
‘You can’t tell the guests to chop wood,’ I said. ‘You’re only a minion and don’t you forget it!’
He grinned. ‘I know my place, and if I didn’t I expect Mrs Powys would be perfectly capable of putting me in it!’
But it seemed that she was prepared to blur the lines a little where Henry was concerned, for much later that evening, after she and Lucy had gone up to bed, he went off to play billiards with Xan. Royal permission had been granted …
