Page 94 of One More Christmas at the Castle
Henry helped her up and she thanked him agitatedly, before thrusting the holly at him.
‘From my friend Daphne’s garden. Her holly bushes have lots of berries, and I wasn’t sure whether ours did, or not.’
‘How splendid!’ cried Henry, receiving this prickly bouquet with every evidence of delight. ‘Youangel!’
She blushed hotly, but declined when he offered to make her some tea, saying she’d had tea with Daphne. Then she made off up the stairs to her room, still twittering gently like a slightly flustered canary.
‘I think you’ve made her day, Henry,’ Xan said.
Soon after we’d arrived, I’d drawn up my rolling seven-day menu plans, with built-in flexibility for any off-piste ideas I might have, which made catering so much easier.
Of course, since I’ve been doing this so long, I have a core list of tried-and-tested recipes, but this time I’d adapted it to include all of the favourite dishes Mrs Powys had mentioned, as well as a few she hadn’t, but which I was sure she would love.
For tonight’s dinner, I was making proper Anglo-Indian-stylekedgeree, to be served in individual bowls, topped with a sliced soft-boiled egg.
There would be baked apples to follow, their sides slit around and bursting with dried fruit, brown sugar and treacle, served with custard.
When Henry returned from energetically beating the gong to announce dinner was ready, I helped him carry the trays of individual dishes into the dining room and when I put one down before Nancy, she exclaimed in delight.
‘How delicious that smells! I can see already, Dido, that your food will be so scrumptious, I’ll have to buy my clothes a size larger by the time I leave.’
‘Nonsense,’ Mrs Powys said, though she smiled. ‘You burn the calories off by never being still, so you won’t put on an ounce!’
‘I’ve already beenHectoredinto eating too much,’ Xan said wickedly, winking at me, and I heard Henry give a muffled snort of laughter behind me.
‘Whatcanyou mean?’ demanded Mrs Powys. ‘No one is forcing you to eat more than you want to.’
‘No, but as Nancy said, Dido’s such a wonderful cook, I can’t resist it.’
I gave Xan a quelling look as I went out, which he met with bland innocence. I’d pay him back for that one later – perhaps by hiding the last of the gingerbread pigs before he joined us in the staff sitting room to watch a film …
The parcel from Liberty arrived next morning while everyone was still eating breakfast.
I was checking the lidded dishes on the hotplate when Henry informed Mrs Powys of this and she told him to bring the parcel to the library after she’d recorded her session with Xan.
‘I’ll ring, as usual, when I’m ready – but, Nancy, you’ll haveto make yourself scarce, because there is something in there for you and it would spoil the surprise if you saw it,’ she said. ‘Come along, Xan, let’s take our coffee through with us and get on with it.’
Once they’d gone, Lucy wandered out of the room, too, murmuring something indistinguishable, though I thought I caught the name ‘Daphne’ in there somewhere.
Nancy insisted on helping us clear the table and then went off with Henry to do the rooms, so I soon had the kitchen in good order again, and could turn my attention to the Christmas cake.
I’d been looking forward to this stage.
I fetched it from the larder, where it had been reposing under a giant glass dome that was almost big enough to use to force rhubarb, and put it on to the silver-foil-covered cake board I had ready on the kitchen table.
Humming happily, I warmed some apricot jam and brushed it over the cake, ready for the marzipan to go on.
Henry came back while I was unwrapping the big, almond-scented block and turning it out on to a board dusted with icing sugar.
‘Nancy issoenergetic, I can barely keep up with her!’ he said, then saw what I was doing and added, ‘If you keep any leftover bits of marzipan for me, I’ll turn them intopetits fourslater.’
‘OK, good idea.’
The library bell jangled vigorously on its metal spring. ‘No rest for the wicked,’ Henry said. ‘That’s Mrs Powys waiting to look at the box of presents from Liberty, so she can decide who gets what.’
He picked up the box from the top of the dresser and went out. A few minutes later, while I was sprinkling more icing sugar over the board and the rolling pin, the banished Nancy wandered in and sat down at the table to watch me.
‘If you don’t mind having an audience,’ she said.
