around his mouth. ‘You’ve got all that… stuff… on your lips. I don’t want it to rub off.’
‘OK,’ I said, sinking my nails into my palm to stop my eyes from blurring. Don’t cry, Florence. Can’t cry. You’ve got too much eye make-up on. You’ll look like a sad stilt man.
We walked along a short stretch of carpet – also black – and into the marquee. I tried to keep up with him but every step on my shoes felt like it could be my last and I lagged behind. While queuing to hand my coat and bag into the cloakroom, I counted the heads in front of us. Heads of silver, slicked-back hair. Heads of bouffant curls that smelled of Elnett if you got too close. Bald heads that shone like lightbulbs.
You could smell the money in that marquee. It was full of real-life Vogue mannequins and men in black tie. Eyes followed me as we pushed from the cloakroom deeper into the heart of the party. Rory stayed silent, his hand still gripping my elbow as he led me to a small circle of people, and my spirits drooped even further when I spotted a familiar blonde head: Octavia.
‘Evening, all,’ said Rory.
They spun to look at us.
‘Lady in red!’ said Octavia, with a squawk of laughter.
I grimaced. ‘Yeah, Brainiac here didn’t realize that being called the Black and White Ball meant you actually had to wear black and white.’
‘I think you look marvellous,’ said a tubby man whose shirt was buckling at every button. I wanted to fling my arms around him in gratitude but I worried it might cause a button to ricochet free and blind a partygoer on the other side of the marquee.
‘Thank you,’ I replied, smiling at him. I could still sense embarrassment wafting off Rory as he snatched two glasses of champagne from a waitress and handed one to me.
I’ll get drunk, I decided. That would help. Ninety-three glasses of champagne would definitely help.
Rory introduced me to the others in the circle. I knew Octavia and Noddy. ‘And you remember Lord and Lady Belmarsh?’ he said, as I looked at an older couple – haughty as a pair of owls – and realized they were Octavia’s parents who I’d met in Norfolk. ‘And this is my boss, Clive, and Marigold, his wife,’ he said, of the man with the alarming buttons and a rotund woman standing beside him.
‘At least you haven’t come as the Scottish widow like the rest of us,’ said Marigold, which quite made me want to hug her, too.
We drank and made small talk about the cold weather and Clive and Marigold’s new puppy, a Dalmatian called Stripey. I reached for another champagne and ignored a tray of unappealing canapés that looked like baby’s thumbs.
My feet started to ache and I shifted my weight from foot to foot as if I was standing on hot sand. The marquee was vast, held up by several large poles like a big top, with purple lights swirling across the canopy roof. At the other end, dozens of tables were decorated with cascading white flower arrangements, and there was a chequered dance floor with a stage behind it. I changed leg again as a man waddled on to it and announced dinner.
‘We’re on table seven, over there,’ said Clive, pointing to the right of the dance floor. He led us and I caught half-sentences as we went. ‘Oh helair!’ people said to one another. ‘Helair! I haven’t seen you in yonks!’
Among them were faces I thought I recognized. There was whatshername, the Education Secretary. And wasn’t that the footballer who won I’m A Celebrity last year? And in the distance, standing next to table one, I could just see the top of the Prime Minister’s head, surrounded by a gaggle of disciples. That explained the men with necks as thick as elephant legs positioned around the edge of the marquee. Security.
‘Florence, white or red?’ asked Noddy, holding a bottle of wine in the air.
‘Red, quite obviously,’ said Octavia.
I did my fake laugh again. I was getting quite good at it. ‘Red, please,’ I replied, swallowing a huge swig as soon as it splashed into my glass.
Dinner was also black and white. A small mound of risotto with flaked black truffle to start, followed by monkfish and blackcurrant pavlova for pudding. I managed four glasses of wine, which perked me up. Sitting next to Noddy, I realized, was just like sitting next to Hugo; you