Page 29 of The Christmas Retreat
‘Oh, yes, because I’ve got millions of photos, drawings and paintings of her to work from.’
‘You might find another Mrs Snowboots, but I suppose that wouldn’t really be the same.’
‘Well, I’ve never seen another cat with four perfect white feet like that, and you’re right, it wouldn’t be the same. I think I’d like a kitten, but I need to find a new home for it to live in first.’
‘Then that’s our after-dinner entertainment sorted over Christmas,’ Evie said, slightly sardonically. ‘We can all hunt the internet for your next isolated hovel and a new cat, darling.’
‘Where exactly doyoulive, Toby?’ asked Opal beadily, and he began to look hounded again.
Rhys said quietly, so only I could hear, ‘You know, you don’t resemble your mother at all. If you hadn’t told us, I’d never have guessed.’
‘I’m not like her in any way, especially in the brains department,’ I confessed. ‘The women on my mother’s side of the family are all tall and fair, with aquiline noses, like Evie.’
‘I confess I’m glad you aren’t like her,’ he said, and I looked at him in surprise. ‘I don’t think this party could take another clever, assertive and imposing woman, do you?’
He nodded to my right, where Evie and Kate now appeared to be having a verbal sparring match, with Timon as the reluctant referee.
Cariad, who had been behaving impeccably, now said, looking fixedly at Kate, ‘Uncle Noel, what do Gorgons eat?’
I saw Rhys cast her a frowning look, but Noel said, innocently, ‘Gorgons, dear child?’
‘Those women you told me about, who turned people into stone with one look. I wishIcould do that.’
‘Well, I’m not saying some people don’t deserve it,’ he said in his slightly high, sweet voice, ‘so long as you could turn them back again, if you regret it.’
‘Uncle Noel knows some great stories,’ Cariad informed the table at large. ‘I was telling Mel about that one about an orgy in a stables this morning, when I had to help her muck her pony out.’
Into the sudden silence Rhys said, sounding amused, ‘I think perhaps you meant theAugeanstables, Cariad.’
‘That’s what I said, Daddy. They kept mucking it out, but it never got clean. And it’s just the same at the Prynnes’ stables, because they need mucking out all the time!’
‘Is that what you have been doing today? Little girls do seem to enjoy messing about with ponies,’ said Verity, and Cariad scowled at her.
‘I’m not a little girl, and it’sMelwho’s pony mad, not me. Idon’t mind riding, but all the mucking out, cleaning tack and brushing horses is a pain. I only did it because Mel said if I did, she’d carry on helping me with my excavation.’
‘What are you excavating?’ Toby asked, fascinated.
‘The Victorian rubbish pit at the end of the vegetable garden. But it was a swizz, because by lunchtime the ground was frozen too hard so I’ve covered it over till it thaws again.’
Evie looked at her with more interest than she usually accorded to children. ‘You’re digging up a rubbish pit?’
‘It’s a proper archaeological dig. I’m writing down everything I find and taking photos,’ said Cariad seriously. ‘Uncle Noel told me how to do it properly. So far I’ve found three broken clay pipes, a pot lid with a castle on it and all the pieces of a broken Spode serving dish.’
‘Treasure trove indeed!’ my mother said. ‘I find your views on life refreshing and your ambition to be an archaeologist laudable. Clearly you are destined to be a woman of great good sense, like me.’
Cariad looked at her critically. ‘Wasyournose that size when you were my age?’
‘Yes, and I grew into it, just as you will grow into yours.’
‘Good,’ said Cariad. ‘Then what Bronwen told me must be true.’
She turned back to Uncle Noel, and said, reverting to her original question, ‘So, whatdoGorgons eat, Uncle Noel?’
He’d obviously had time to think because he said immediately: ‘Gorgonzola!’
I choked on the sip of wine I was taking and Toby broke into a sudden and delightful laugh.
‘What’s Gorgonzola?’ asked Cariad, intrigued.
