job,’ he said.
Janet’s stock had soared with the Ladies’ Section.
‘Good to meet the boyfriend that our Bella said she didn’t have,’ said the witch-faced Social Secretary, making certain that she was the first to shake Richard’s hand when they reached the clubhouse. Her husband’s new knighthood, as she had pointed out in the Ladies’ Cloakroom, gave her precedence.
‘It is a great treat to be here with her,’ said Richard, retrieving his hand and flexing it out of sight. The Lady Social Secretary’s Botox did not seem to have frozen her iron grip. ‘Such a privilege to meet family friends.’
Janet sent him a look of utter devotion and he smiled back at her.
‘Hope you’ll be here for the Spring Dance,’ said the Captain of the Ladies’ Section. She had changed out of her golfing clothes into a snazzy cocktail number, and was giving it lots of cleavage and flashing eyes.
‘It sounds delightful,’ Richard assured her, avoiding the cleavage like a professional.
‘Do you play darts?’ said Janet, with an indignant look at the Mercedes-driving houri, and swept him off to the Ladies’ Bar, where he had a very jolly time allowing himself to lose by not too much in matches against the Junior Mums until Janet relented and took them home for dinner.
She had wanted to invite her usual complement of guests but Bella had begged her not to.
‘Let it just be us, Ma, just this once? Ask Neill and Val, if you like. But nobody else.’
Janet was disappointed. ‘But I was going to hire a butler.’
‘No-o-o-o.’
It was a cry of anguish.
‘But it must be what he’s used to?’
Bella sat her down in the kitchen and took both her hands. ‘Ma. This is me. Forget him. Me. If he were anyone else, would you hire a butler? Did you hire a butler when Neill brought Val home?’
‘No,’ said Janet, struck.
‘Well, then. Just treat him like you treated Val. Please. I just want us to be normal for once.’
‘You’re a funny girl,’ said Janet, succumbing to her desperate tone. ‘But if that’s what you want, darling, of course.’
So supper was for the six of them. Neill and Val had driven over from Dorset, but after a good meal and plenty of wine they would not be driving back again. Which made redundant the nice problem of whether Janet should allow Richard and Bella to sleep together under her roof. The Brays had two fully appointed guest rooms, with en suite showers. Neill and Val would have one. Bella the other. There was also a box room which doubled as Janet’s sewing room and was fully of spooky dressmaker’s dummies and rolls of fabric. And there was Kevin’s study.
Kevin, who had given silent thanks to be relieved of the burden of a butler, was enough of a traditionalist to suggest that you couldn’t put the Prince of Wales on a couch in the study.
‘Bella could go on the couch?’ mused Janet doubtfully.
‘Don’t think he’d like that. Not very chivalrous.’
So Janet had given in and Richard was to share Bella’s room and en suite shower room.
‘Thanks,’ she muttered to Kevin, as she passed him in the hallway. ‘We owe you.’
It turned into a fun party. In the end Neill pushed a coffee table into the middle of the floor and taught them all how to row to Viking rhythm. Kevin threw himself into the part, roaring out what he swore were Anglo-Saxon incantations. Even Val joined in, looking happier and more at home than Bella had ever seen her.
And when they all said good night, Richard kissed Janet’s cheek with genuine affection.
‘I like your mother,’ he told Bella, sitting on the end of the bed to take his socks off. ‘She’s scared but she’s still in there, punching her weight.’
Bella was sliding out of the dress her mother had bought her last month, but paused on hearing that. Janet had been so pleased to see her in it that Bella completely forgot the thing made her look like a middle-aged golf wife.
‘What do you mean, she’s scared? What has she got to be scared of? Kevin takes care of everything.’
‘No, he doesn’t,’ said Richard. ‘He can’t take care of her getting things wrong, being ignored, becoming a laughing stock.’
Bella dismissed that, half angry at the idea. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
But hadn’t her mother said, ‘I wish I were competent like you’?
‘I told you, love. This is my job. I meet people who are scared of doing or saying the wrong thing all the time. And, believe