Page 54 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
At dinner, Jeremy was his own sweet self and quickly engaged Isaac in a conversation about organic gardening and the use of one type of insect to naturally control the damage caused by another. Nory was glad that Pippa had shifted the table settings, so that Isaac was protected on either side by Ameerah and Pippa and sat opposite herself and Jeremy. Guy was thankfully at the other end of the table near Charles and opposite Camille. Camille had been quiet all evening and had a wan look about her, despite her exquisite dress and carefully pinned hair. Nory made a mental note to catch her after dinner and engage her in conversation, to try and gauge how she was. She felt protective of her and wanted Camille to know that she had allies here.
They all raised a glass to Nory’s excellent vegetable slaying when the side dishes were brought to the table. The meattonight was pork; the pheasants shot today would need to hang for twenty-four hours to be eaten at their best. Nory could only imagine the levels of testosterone at tomorrow night’s dinner when Charles and Guy were presented with food they’d actually killed.
Dev had seemed delighted to have another new person in the group, and Nory could understand why. It was probably a relief to have the focus on someone else. With Isaac at the table, the space that had been left for Tristan was filled, and though nobody said it, Nory sensed that everybody felt it. But it would have been filled soon anyway, when Katie arrived, and Tristan was too much of a part of their shared history to be forgotten simply because his place was occupied.
“It must be nice taking over the role that your father had before you,” Jenna said to Isaac when the plates from the main meal were being taken away.
“It is. I never expected to ever be working here, but now that I am, I’m glad.”
“It’s not something that happens so much these days, I suppose,” said Dev. “Not like it used to be, where you’d follow your father down into the mines, or the factory, or the bank.”
“Although my brother has gone into the family business,” Nory put in.
“I think Jezzer’s family were hoping he’d step up and take over the running of the family pile, but he prefers the creepy-crawlies to the landed gentry,” said Charles.
“No, you’re wrong there, Charles,” said Jeremy amiably. “My sister always wanted to do it, and she’s far better suited to estate management than me. I’m not equipped to take on that kind of responsibility.”
“But surely you must have been your parents’ first choice,” Guy persisted. “Or one of your brothers?”
“Why?” Camille asked, and Nory realized it was the first time she had heard her speak all through dinner. “Why must they have preferred for one of their sons to take over?”
“Oh, don’t get on your feminist soapbox, darling.”
“But why?” Camille pushed. “Do you expect Theo to take over my business when I retire?”
“Oh, don’t be daft. You do interior design.”
The disdain with which Guy said the wordsinterior designwas enough to draw gasps from every person at the table.
“Guy!” Jenna declared.
“Interior design is far from a female-only space,” Pippa chimed in. “If you won’t take it from your wife, then take it from me. Having a good eye for design has nothing to do with whether you have a vagina or a penis.”
“You can always count on Pippa to bring genitals into any conversation.” Charles laughed.
“I work with an equal split of male and female designers and photographers,” said Dev. “I think pigeonholing genders into particular fields of work is an outdated construct.”
Ameerah raised her glass to Dev, who raised his own and clinked it against Ameerah’s.
“Cheers to that!” Ameerah beamed.
“All right, all right,” Guy conceded. “I admit defeat.” He turned to Camille. “I’m sorry, darling, as usual I let my mouth speak without engaging my brain. Of course, I’d be happy for Theo, Emily, or Randall to take over your business.” He looked sincerely into his wife’s eyes and kissed her softly.
Camille smiled, and even from where she was sitting, Norycould see the love in her eyes. She wondered if love alone would be enough to sustain her, with Guy for a husband.
“It takes all sorts, I suppose,” Jeremy said quietly into Nory’s ear, as though he had overheard her thoughts, and Nory nodded.
“Didn’t your grandfather work here as well?” Pippa asked, steering the conversation neatly back to Isaac.
“He did, he was also head gardener. And his father was a gardener too. He moved to England with my great-great-grandmother, as part of the staff when the De-Veer family came back to England after living in India for some years.”
“The De-Veers,” Charles said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.
“Oh, Charles darling, you big snob, you don’t know every wealthy family in England,” Jenna chided him playfully.
“No, but that name rings a bell.”
“They owned Heron House in Surrey,” said Isaac.
