Page 16 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
“Is he attractive?” asked Ameerah. “Nory won’t go for just any old soon-to-be-divorced cousin, you know.”
“Of course he’s attractive!” said Jenna. “That goes without saying. My family have very good genes.”
“This is excellent news!” Pippa clapped. “Bring on Operation Get Nory Laid.”
“Oh my god!” Nory laughed. “Really?”
“Darling, you’ve had so little action lately, the love police have sent out a search party to find your sex life,” Pippa teased.
They laughed, clinking their cocktail glasses together, and the years fell away like no time had passed at all.
Six
The bell rang for dinner, and the group made their way through a door disguised as a bookcase into an opulent dining room with a table that could easily seat twenty. Flowers ran down the center of the table, punctuated by glittering candelabras set at just the right points so that no one’s view of the person opposite was blocked. There were place cards beside each setting, and as Nory began to look for hers, Pippa leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I’ve got you covered,” before gliding off to take her own seat. Noryfound her place—at the other end of the table from Guy and his wife. She leaned forward and mouthedthank youto Pippa, seated opposite, who winked in return. To her right was Dev and to her left, with a place made up, was an empty space and a place card that readTristan. Next to the space, at the head of the table, sat Jenna. She caught Nory’s eye and gave her a wistful smile.
Pippa stood and clinked her soup spoon to her glass. The table quieted.
“When I started planning the seating arrangements, you can imagine how horrified I was to discover that we were an odd number.”
Everyone laughed.
“Ever the control freak!” heckled Charles.
Pippa nodded her agreement. “But then I realized we weren’t really an odd number at all. Because one of us isn’t here, one of us who should be here.”
All eyes fell upon the empty place beside Nory.
“But he is here in our hearts. And we will never forget him.” Pippa raised her glass, and the rest of the table stood and raised their glasses with her. “To Tristan, wherever you are, know that you are loved and that we miss you.”
“To Tristan!” came the chorus.
Everyone resumed their seats. Nory looked at Jenna, who was doing her best to smile, but her eyes were glassy with tears. Nory reached out and laid her hand palm up on Tristan’s place setting, and Jenna laid her own palm on top of Nory’s and squeezed.
The meal started with spiced pear and parsnip soup, sourced from the kitchen garden, and homemade sourdough bread. Nory had once harbored a fancy that she might be the sort of person who made sourdough bread after work; she often fantasized about being a domestic goddess. Anthony Jr. had given her a sourdough starter in a glass jam jar with instructions. If she was honest, it frightened her a bit, bubbling and growing on the worktop. She’d seenLittle Shop of Horrors, she knew how these things could escalate. But she needn’t have worried; within a week she had managed to kill her starter without ever having made a single loaf. Nory decided to leave sourdough to the professionals and went back to buying it from Pepe’s.
Conversation around the table was lively, and of course much of it inevitably reverted to “back in the day” stories. These shared histories were like comfort blankets, drawing them together, safe against the tide of time and the outside world. Nory was pleasedto see Dev and Camille enjoying the tales as much as those who remembered them by heart.
As the main course was served, the talk moved on to relations with the local kids who went to the comprehensive school. Nory reflected that her own brother had been one of them, seething with mockery and disdain for his counterparts up in “toff towers.” At the mention of the many and varied altercations between the two schools, there was some general chest puffing on the part of the men around the table. Nory wondered if the red meat was having an effect.
“You seem to be remembering this like you were the T-Birds and they were the Scorpions.” Pippa laughed.
Jenna joined her. “The reality was somewhat less cool,” she added.
“It’s hard to look threatening in a maroon blazer and boater.” Ameerah giggled.
“I think they were definitely threatened by us,” said Jeremy. “We were the toffs on the hill and generally feared and loathed by the kids from the village.”
“I don’t think any of you werefeared,Jez,” Nory butted in. “I know you fellas liked to think you were a cut above, but most of the kidsIknew thought you were a bunch of preppy weaklings.”
Jenna laughed and clapped her hands. Charles in particular looked peeved.
“You’ve got to remember most of them were farm kids, they’d been working almost since they could walk. They were driving tractors and lifting hay bales before and after school. You were playing lacrosse and croquet!”
“And rugger!” added Guy defensively. “You can’t be a weakling if you play rugby.”
“Well, Nory’s implying we were sissies for playing lacrosse and croquet,” Charles griped.
“Actually, I think Nory is implying that you were mollycoddled by privilege and burdened with an inflated sense of power,” said Dev, and all eyes swung in the handsome model’s direction.
