Page 96 of The House of Hopes and Dreams
I’d make a few changes to the original design, though: my train of thought since I’d won the Brisbane competition had run on the idea of dual worlds, both under and above the sea, and eventually, I might have triple worlds, with the stars and moon and clouds.
For the moment, however, two were enough and Noah’s Ark would be followed underwater by all manner of paired sea creatures.
It had been sheer coincidence that Julian and I had been working on our different Noah’s Ark designs last year, but in very different forms – he for his last commission and me for the competition.
I’d never be able to listen to Benjamin Britten’sNoye’s Fluddeagain, though. The associations would drag me right down into the depths of the past, where the light never penetrated.
I remembered a story, told to me by Honoria soon after I arrived, of a splendid jewel of great value that Queen Elizabeth had bestowed on the then Revell heir when he briefly caught her fancy. There was indeed a portrait in the Long Gallery of a handsome young man wearing it, and a huge and unwieldy ornament it looked to be! But all mention of this bauble had ceased at about the time of the Civil War …
While I was working I often looked up at the cartoon of the window and began to wonder if what I had thought to be a spiky sun shining down could instead be the Jewel? Or was my imagination overly stirred by the romantic histories I had learned and I was reading into it what I wanted to see?
33
Queen of Hearts
The morning before Valentine’s Day, preparations for the party were well underway. I baked some jam tarts with the last of the previous year’s bramble jelly that Molly and I had made together, making little heart-shaped pieces of pastry for the top using an old metal petit four cutter I found in a drawer.
Carey had already discovered a huge punch bowl, of the type with small cups hanging from it all around the rim and, inspired, had gone out to buy the ingredients he needed. There would be an alternative non-alcoholic version too, though in a less swish large glass mixing bowl.
My tarts looked pretty and so did a batch of fairy cakes in their heart-patterned paper cases – there was a bit of a theme going on there, but then, it was almost Valentine’s Day and the shops were full of heart-shaped everything.
Even Carey had impulse-bought several strings of heart-shaped fairy lights while he was out, and he went down to the workshop to fix those up, as well as covering the long glazing tables with plastic cloths to keep them safe from spills and accidents.
Molly was making a special cake. It was her gift, so I had no idea what form it would take. I was going over to fetch it next morning, along with a lot more party food …
Nick and the gang were arriving around lunchtime and intended to film the party, or at least the start of it. Carey said they’d help him fix up some music, too, and I was just thinking that everything was organized when it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps I should give Careya present of some kind. Not quite a Valentine’s present, but something in general appreciation of everything he’d done for me.
I made a card with a little cartoon doodle of Fang, wearing his boots and looking smug, then shrugged into my lovely new coat of many colours and dashed in the car up to Cam’s Hidden Hoards gallery in the village, where I lavished a considerable chunk of what little remained of my savings on the picture Carey had admired so much. Cam wasn’t there, but the extremely ancient gentleman behind the counter, his great-grandfather Jonah, proceeded to make a pretty parcel of it in silver tissue paper.
When I’d paid, I impulsively invited him to the party, too. ‘And do bring anyone you like with you,’ I added.
‘Izzy mentioned it to our Tom – he keeps the Lady Spring now, like I used to,’ he said. ‘He can drive me down. I’d like to see this haunted wing that’s going to be in the trail.’
‘Carey could probably take you up for a quick look during the party,’ I suggested. ‘It’s not far from the workshop.’
‘I’ve seen the outside of it, right enough. Time was, the Revells used to join in with local festivals and such, so we’d go there carol singing every Christmas Eve. The family would gather in the porch of the new part of the house and there was hot rum punch and mince pies afterwards.’
‘Carey will be fascinated if you can tell him about old traditions like that,’ I said, then noticed the time and, tucking my parcel under my arm, dashed back to the car.
When I arrived home the Raising Crane Productions van was already parked in the courtyard and, having hidden the picture in the housekeeper’s parlour behind some of my still unpacked boxes, I found everyone in the warm and slightly steamy kitchen.
Preparations for lunch were underway. Jorge appeared to be filming Carey in the final stage of making a seafood sauce to go over the mound of spaghetti that Nelson was draining in the sink. Sukes was laying plates on the long table, Fang was attempting to trip everyone up and Nick was leaning back and comfortably observing everything.
‘So sorry we forgot to get you a director’s chair with your name on it,’ I told him, and he grinned.
‘I doubt this scene will make the director’s cut anyway,’ he said, but he got up and opened a bottle of rosé, which he said was now extremely trendy again.
‘I just thought it would be nice for the party tomorrow, being pink, so I got a few bottles,’ Carey said.
My workshop-opening party seemed to be turning even more into a Valentine’s extravaganza!
When we’d demolished the huge vat of pasta I, for one, would have loved to have slept it off for a bit. But the effect on Nick and Carey was to reactivate them to fizzing point and soon we were all trooping down to the workshop for some before-party filming.
It already looked strangely dressed and expectant, with festoons of heart-shaped fairy lights around the door and hanging from the edge of the loft storage space. The glazing benches were covered with red vinyl tablecloths and there were cellophane-wrapped packages of napkins, paper cups and plates.
‘You seem to have gone a little overboard with the hearts,’ I remarked to Carey. ‘Didn’t they have any matching plastic cutlery?’
‘They were all on special offer, because of Valentine’s Day, so they cost less than the plain ones,’ he explained. ‘But with the main lights off for the party, you won’t notice all the hearts.’
