Chapter 15 #2
It didn’t take long for me to bake the tarts and make the cheesecake in the Fernside kitchen.
It was better equipped and had a larger oven than the garden apartment, and with Constance keenly watching, making suggestions and sampling anything I left unattended, it was an enjoyable way to spend some of the day and kept my mind from straying too often back to James and our time together in Cambridge.
Not that time spent thinking about him was a problem, but it did make me hanker to feel his lips on mine and enjoy the seductive sensation far sooner than they were likely to.
‘Just a couple more lanterns, I think,’ Constance said, a short while before everyone was due to arrive. ‘Then we’ll be all set.’
I didn’t say anything. I was too taken aback by how beautiful it all looked. Nothing matched in the area we’d set up to eat and relax in and none of it looked put together, or styled and agonised over, because it hadn’t been.
It had been wonderful to watch how Constance effortlessly and casually set everything down with such artistic and bohemian flair.
There had seemed to be no effort on her part and that, I then realised, was because Constance herself was unconventional.
It made me want to see more of the house and I hoped any future supper parties might happen indoors as well as out.
If this was how she could make an impromptu party look, the house she’d lived her entire life in was doubtless going to be a glorious discovery.
I hoped again that I might be able to invite James to Fernside. He had the same sort of laid-back, posh but not, demeanour as Constance… but then it wasn’t the moment to start mooning over him again because our guests were almost due.
‘Right, come on,’ Constance said as she clapped her hands and pulled my thoughts properly back to the gathering at hand.
‘Let’s go and dress. I’ve aired my favourite kaftan for tonight.
We can carry the rest of the lanterns and candles down with us once everyone’s arrived.
And don’t forget your little speaker thingy for the music, too.
Have you decided what you’re going to wear? ’
‘I have,’ I told her. ‘I picked up a patterned floaty top hemmed with tiny gold bells in Sudbury, and I thought I’d wear that with some cotton shorts and my leather sandals.’
‘Oh,’ she smiled. ‘I like the sound of that.’
As it had been such a hot day, everyone turned up with their swimming gear on under their clothes, and once hellos had been said and the food and drink put in the kitchen, they raced down to the river and stripped off.
Kaya and Rick noisily jumped straight in, while Melody sat with her feet dangling and energetically splashed them if they got too close or her sister threatened to pull her in.
‘No chance of seeing the kingfishers now,’ Carter, who had held back to walk Constance down the lawn, commented, while I followed on behind with the extra lighting and my speaker which was already quietly playing my James Quinn playlist courtesy of Spotify.
The tiny gold bells on my top tinkled melodiously and added a magical sound to the already enchanting scene.
‘You’re quite right, my dear,’ Constance agreed, as she slipped her arm through his. She looked fabulous in the purple, jade and teal kaftan and with strings of jet necklaces of different lengths draped around her neck. ‘But that will give you an excuse to come back another day, won’t it?’
She turned and smiled at me and I hoped she hadn’t jumped to the same conclusion as Rick and even Melody – that Carter and I might make a romantic match.
Given that she knew all about my thrilling meet-cute, she couldn’t think I needed another man on my radar.
But then I hadn’t told her anything had come of my lay-by encounter, so she might.
‘I’d like that,’ Carter smiled. ‘And maybe an otter will even grace us with its presence. The birds and wildlife are my favourite things about this stretch of the river and seeing your view of it, Constance, it looks even lovelier.’
‘Thank you,’ Constance said graciously.
‘An otter sighting would be amazing,’ I agreed. ‘And there’s a water vole that’s often about, too.’
‘You’re not trying to play cupid, are you Connie?’ Rick shouted in a sing-song tone, as he climbed out of the river and looked at the three of us.
Constance shook her head and tutted, but it wasn’t the matchmaking suggestion she was initially objecting to.
‘My name is Constance, dear. No one has ever called me Connie in my life.’
‘Sorry, Constance, dear.’ Rick grinned and flicked river water over Melody, who yelped. ‘But you do all know that Tilly is already spoken for, don’t you?’
I could have floored him.
‘I didn’t know,’ Melody said, grabbing Rick’s leg, but he shook her off. ‘But that’s probably because she didn’t want me, or anyone else to.’
‘Is she now?’ Kaya commented, as she joined Rick on the jetty and ignored her sister’s subtle suggestion that the subject wasn’t up for discussion.
Melody’s words were confirmation that she’d taken the hint that I wasn’t romantically interested in Carter and that would have been a relief had Rick not now annoyed me.
‘She had a hot date yesterday, didn’t you Tills?’ he blundered on. I threw him the fiercest look I could muster and his smile faltered.
‘You’re a nuisance, Rick,’ I said crossly. ‘Do you know that?’
‘I wondered where you were when I got home and you weren’t here,’ Constance commented and I felt my face flush at the thought of my time with James becoming the hot supper party topic.
‘But as you didn’t mention it earlier, I decided not to ask.
Rick needs to take the hint and also mind his own business. ’
‘Hear, hear!’ Carter agreed with Constance.
She didn’t appear to have a matchmaking agenda and I was thankful for that, but still cross with Rick for sabotaging the start of the party by mentioning my date.
‘Quite right,’ Melody chimed in and threw Kaya a look. ‘And you should know better.’
‘Sorry.’ Kaya looked suitably embarrassed.
‘And I’m sorry, too,’ Rick spoke up, looking equally chastened by Constance’s telling off.
‘No, I’m not having that. I’m cross with you Rick,’ Constance said fiercely.
For the sake of the party, I would have accepted his apology, but she was really rattled.
‘You take things too far. Now go up to the apartment and change. You can come back when you’ve given some proper thought to people’s boundaries and privacy. ’
Rick flushed red and scooped up his clothes. I might have expected him to laugh the scolding off, but Constance’s crossness had hit its mark. He was in real trouble, and I knew I wouldn’t have wanted to find myself on the sharp edge of her tongue. Not that he didn’t deserve it.
‘I’ll come with you,’ Kaya said, as she picked up her abandoned dress. ‘You won’t tell everyone about your date while we’re gone, will you?’ she added tactlessly.
‘For pity’s sake,’ Melody muttered. ‘Sense the tone, Sis.’
‘The only thing I have any intention of talking about is what I’ve got planned for the woods now Constance has confirmed that she’s happy with the idea,’ I told her, and Rick’s mouth dropped open.
‘Finally!’ Melody clapped, while Kaya and Rick shot off up the lawn.
‘In fact,’ I shouted after them, ‘I think I’ll start now, so if you don’t want to miss out, you’d better hurry up.’
‘She means it!’ Carter bellowed. ‘She’s telling us right now!’
Laughing, Kaya tripped Rick up and quickly overtook him.
‘If I’d been a little sprightlier, I would have tripped him up myself,’ Constance commented mischievously, and Melody, Carter and I laughed.
‘Now, my good fellow, see me settled and then the three of you can go up to the kitchen and start carrying down this fabulous feast you’ve all played a part in preparing. ’
There were tealights in jewel-coloured holders running down the length of the table, so the food looked as good at it tasted and the mismatched crockery and different coloured glasses added to the aesthetic.
It took far less time to devour the dishes than it had to put them together and every mouthful was delicious.
There was something magical about sharing a meal out of doors as the heat of the day slipped away, the sun set and the natural light gradually dimmed.
Being in the company of my new friends made it even better, and as I went around and lit more candles and offered blankets to warm up cooling shoulders, I again felt like my luck had landed in the biggest possible dose.
Rick might have wound me up on more than one occasion, but even he was lovely, really.
He just got a bit carried away sometimes.
‘So,’ said Constance softly, who was sitting in a chair on the lawn and feeding the blackbird who had come to visit now the noise had quietened thanks to full bellies and hearts, ‘if Tilly does now tell us what her plans are for the woods, can we trust you Rick to keep them a secret or are you going to go blabbing all over the village?’
‘Yes,’ I challenged, as I looked over at where he was stretched out on one of the blankets, ‘because if you’re going to be even the slightest bit tempted, you should leave now because I’m not ready to go public yet.’
‘Scout’s honour, I’ll keep it to myself,’ he promised as he sat up.
‘Me, too,’ Kaya, who was sitting cross-legged next to him, said quietly.
‘I bet you were never in the Scouts, Rick,’ Carter chuckled, and the blackbird cocked its head at him, but didn’t fly off.
‘But the sentiment is sincere,’ Rick said, holding up two, three, then four fingers in an attempt at the salute, which made Carter shake his head. ‘I truly am sorry for before, Tilly.’
‘I’m not sure you should risk it,’ Carter said to me. ‘That’s nothing like the salute. An abomination really.’