Restoring Grace by Katie Fforde

Author:Katie Fforde [Fforde, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 0312358776
Publisher: Arrow (UK)
Published: 2004-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

‘OK, we've got to do it now,' said Ellie as she and Grace sat together in the kitchen a fortnight later. They had been enjoying a late, leisurely breakfast after Grace had delivered Demi to the bus that went all the way to her college.

Getting Hermia to agree to Grace driving Demi to a bus stop, and not all the way to college, had taken a little firmness on Grace's part, but when Hermia realised that Grace was not going to be bullied into driving Demi all the way and back now an alternative had been found, she had accepted defeat on the matter.

‘It does save time, not having to take Demi to the door,' said Grace, putting the last square of toast and marmalade into her mouth.

‘Yes, and to be honest we need the time. The food is as ready as it can be at this stage, you've got the wine, the glasses, the marking forms, and enough people are coming. But there's still the drawing room to be decorated, and if we tackle it now we've got time to make it really beautiful.'

‘It's already beautiful,' said Grace, trying not to mind that Flynn hadn't responded to her invitation, in fact hadn't spoken to her at all since his return, although she'd driven to his house to feed his cat every day for a fort- night. She wouldn't have known he was back if she hadn't seen his car in the drive yesterday morning. She hadn't gone in to say hello and felt she'd been a bit of a coward. In a minimalist sort of way, it is,' agreed Ellie, so as not to hurt Grace's feelings. 'But in a way quite inappropriate for the house. Apart from anything else, we need a table.’

Grace sighed and accepted that the room would have to be faced. Now the day was upon them, she found herself annoyingly edgy. 'OK. Let's go into the stables and find the ping-pong table. It may not have all its legs.'

‘It's only half-past eleven. We've got time to mend them. Come to that, we've got time to buy a whole new ping-pong table, if necessary.' Ellie had her own nerves to contend with. Not only had she had to devise six courses for ten people, she had to think of a way to get Ran on his own, in the dining room, without the others noticing. It was with this in mind that she had persuaded Grace into inviting so many – it would be easier to winkle one out from the crowd.

Chairs scraped on the stone floor as they got up. 'It's such a shame that Graham and his magazine friend couldn't come,' said Grace. 'Even when we changed the date for this Friday night. All this work would seem more worthwhile if they were going to be there.'

‘This is a dummy run,' Ellie reminded her, not for the first time, aware that if Ran agreed that the panels were valuable, Grace's financial problems would be over.

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