You Must Be Sisters by Deborah Moggach

Author:Deborah Moggach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House

twenty

‘THEY’LL NEVER EAT all this,’ said Laura.

‘But it’s nice to have little nibbly things,’ said her mother. She laid out the specially small and specially dainty sausage rolls on a plate. ‘And it’s so much more welcoming, don’t you think?’ Her mother always made these most obvious statements with great emphasis, as if she were the first person ever to think of such things. ‘It’s so tiresome when the car breaks down,’ she’d been known to say, as if everyone else in the world found it first-rate entertainment. Sometimes the family found this pleasingly naïve and sometimes they found it annoying, depending on mood.

Laura arranged slivers of gherkin on slivers of egg. ‘How many people are coming?’

‘About fifty.’

‘Heavens.’

‘Some of them haven’t seen you since you were so small.’

‘Um. They’ll have a shock. I say, this isn’t real caviare is it?’

In half an hour the guests were due. Together Laura and her mother took the trays of food into the drawing-room. It was full of flowers, large red tulips and large yellow daffodils. On the tables bowls of nuts and ashtrays were placed. The french windows were open and a carpet led out into the garden. For those who wished to sit, chairs faced each other in confidential circles. And in the midst of it all stood her father polishing glasses.

Laura gazed round. ‘Wow, it’s all so organized!’

‘Compared to your parties, I bet it is,’ said her father. He was in a good mood. ‘It’s not just a crate of beer and an open door here, you know.’

‘Yeah, I can see that.’

‘I do like to make an effort,’ said her mother. There was a tiny apology in her voice; very occasionally this appeared, but Laura chose to ignore it.

‘The thing is,’ said her father, ‘all you lot – you young lot – you’re afraid for things to look as though you’ve taken any trouble. You think you’d look silly.’

Laura opened her mouth to argue then shut it again. She shut it because the room really did look rather nice – glittering and expectant. Beer-puddled Bristol kitchens … she remembered her lost feeling at that party. Somehow such parties didn’t make one feel exactly cherished. This room did. She could almost forgive things like that hideous cocktail cabinet.

Her mother spoke. ‘If only that man would come and fix the verandah light, everything would be perfect. It’s a beastly curse; he promised he’d come before five and it’s nearly six now.’

Just then Claire, who had been upstairs changing, came into the room. She wore a soft red dress, very simple. Dan smiled.

‘You look very nice,’ he said. ‘Er, what are you going to wear, Laura?’

‘This, of course.’

A silence.

‘But Laura,’ said her mother. ‘I mean, it’s covered with repairs. I can see the stitches.’

‘It’s beautiful,’ said Laura. ‘It’s tremendously old.’

‘Yes, I can see that.’

‘It suits her,’ said Claire quickly. ‘Jolly evocative. She looks like somebody out of “The Great Gatsby”.’

Dan said: ‘Actually, that was before our time.’

Rosemary looked at Laura. ‘Oh dear, I wish you could have made an effort.

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