by Mona Marple
“Eliza doesn’t know about it, you mean?” Connie asked. Grace pursed her lips. “I’m not going to tell her, don’t worry.”
Grace took a deep breath and nodded, a silent thank you. A truce perhaps, Connie wondered. She had the distinct feeling that Taylor’s relatives operated like jungle creatures, focused on their own survival only.
“Here,” Grace passed the casserole dish to Connie. “You say you can cook? I need you to slice and dice some veggies in here. Can you mix flavours?”
“Sure,” Connie said, pleased to have something to do.
The kitchen door opened and Zeb poked his head in. “So this is where you women come to escape the madness, huh?”
“We’re busy,” Grace said. “Get out of here. Tell everyone that dinner will be ready in an hour.”
“Pork?” Zeb approached and inspected the dishes. “Hope it’s better than your Thanksgiving turkey.”
“That was eight years ago!” Grace snapped as she chopped another potato in half. “Maybe if some of you offered to help occasionally it would be appreciated!”
Zeb frowned. “What do you want me to do? I’ll help.”
Grace waved him away. “You’ll only make more work for me. Get out of here.”
Zeb glanced at Connie and shrugged. “I’ll grab a beer since I’m passing. Hey, Connie, it’s great to have some new blood here. Hopefully mom will go easy on the rest of us and focus on you!”
Connie gave a nervous laugh. “Should I be worried?”
“Nah,” Zeb said. “Just choose your role in the family carefully. As you can see, Grace has the domestic martyr locked down. And my wife keeps herself out of it all.”
“And Lottie?” Connie asked.
Zeb grinned. “She’s the rebel.” He grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and nodded on his way back out.
“He seems nice,” Connie said.
“Oh yeah, everyone loves Zeb,” Grace said with a huff as she fetched another baking tray from the cupboard. She reached into the fridge and pulled out a ready-rolled pack of pastry, some halloumi and asparagus.
“Another main?” Connie queried. She’d finished the casserole dish of vegetables and awaited her next job.
“For Rose,” Grace said. Her voice went up a notch with pleasure to get the subject back to her part of the family.
“Vegetarian?”
Grace nodded. Her eyes shone. “She has very strong principles. Even as a girl, she was like a little warrior. Daisy’s much more delicate. It’s so fun getting to see them become their own people!”
“Daisy seems pretty strong herself,” Connie said. “She’s managing Luke’s career, isn’t she?”
“Oh, yes,” Grace gushed. “And she’s a full-time mother as well. Just like I was. Children need their mothers devoted to them.”
“She must be very busy,” Connie said. She didn’t mention the fact that Roo was old enough to be out at school for at least six hours a day, or that millions of Americans had to raise children and work just to pay the bills. She imagined that Luke Holland’s career had brought in plenty enough money to hire a nanny or a manager. “And you must be very proud.”
“I am,” Grace said. She inspected the vegetables and pulled a face. “Now you go on out there and see your husband. Oh, your… go and see Taylor! I’ll finish up in here.”
**
“She actually let you touch the food?” Taylor asked. Connie had found him in the library, all alone, slouched on a leather Chesterfield.
“She was arguing with Zeb about nobody helping her prepare meals,” Connie said.
“Ah, yes, the whole point of doing it alone is so she can moan about doing it alone,” Taylor said. “Grace likes everyone to know what she’s done.”
“So she can prove she’s the perfect housewife?”
“The perfect wife,” Taylor said. “She’s always competing.”
“Against the others? Against Lottie and Dottie? It doesn’t seem like either of those two have entered the competition!”
“No, not against those,” he said. “She’s competing against Hannah.”
“Hannah?”
“Bobby’s first wife,” Taylor said. He opened his eyes wide as if he was still shocked by the news himself. “It was all a pretty big scandal. Hannah was his childhood sweetheart. They married at eighteen, clearly against our parents’ wishes.”
“What happened?”
“He left her for Grace,” Taylor said. “The Grace you see now is nothing like the Grace he met. She was a wild child back in the day. He fell for her big time. Hannah was nice, but she was a small town girl. She wanted to have some kids and bake some cakes and clean her husband’s clothes. Bobby got bored. Grace came along and she’d been travelling the world, she had a lot of experience and she really set her sights on Bobby.”
“Why?” Connie asked, then clapped her hand over her mouth. “Not that Bobby wasn’t a catch, I’m sure.”
Taylor leaned in and lowered his voice. “I always got the impression she got a kick out of breaking up a marriage.”
Connie raised her eyebrows. “You mean she’d done it before?”
“I can’t prove it,” Taylor said. “But I watched the whole thing happen and it seemed to me like it wasn’t her first time.”
“And then, what? She stuck it out?”
“I guess she fell in love with him,” Taylor said. “And karma can be a witch, because I’ve never seen someone so insecure. It’s like, she knows he cheated on Hannah and she’s convinced he’ll do the same to her. Hannah’s become this mythical figure in the family, so young and innocent.”
“Grace is trying to be her!” Connie exclaimed. “All the domestic stuff and the cooking, she’s competing with the memory of an eighteen year old bride while she gets older each year! Wow, that’s got to be rough.”
Taylor’s expression darkened. “Probably more rough for Hannah, in fairness.”
Connie nodded and squeezed his hand. “Let’s make a pact. No matter how crazy this weekend gets, me and you will keep our sense of humour?”
Taylor smiled. “Deal.”
5
Everyone took up seats around the huge table in the dining hall.
Grace had devised a seating plan, which everyone groaned at. She had seated herself by Eliza’s side, with Bobby on Eliza’s other side.
“You’re here, Connie,” Grace patted the high back of a chair and Connie obediently sat down. She glanced across the table to Taylor. He flashed her a smile.
“Hey, Connie,” the thick accent she recognised from the singles rang out in her ear, and she turned to her left to see Luke take the seat one space away from her. “How ya doin’?”
“I’m good!” She said, her voice a little too high. She leaned in. “I’m a fan. I love your Runaway Tears album.”
“Aw, man,” Luke placed a broad hand over his chest and smiled, revealing a dimple in his cheek. “That means a lot. That album kinda had me beat for a while. I’ll have to hook you up with some tickets, you have a girlfriend? A sister?”
Connie’s cheeks flushed as she thought of her sister. She didn’t think it was the time to make Taylor’s family aware that she could see spirits and that her dead sister lived with her back home in Mystic Springs. “Sure, I have some friends. That would be amazing.”
“Awesome!” Luke grinned.
“Look at me, a thorn between two roses!” Zeb exclaimed as he slid into the seat between Connie and Luke. His eyes skirted across the table and found Taylor, who sat in between Lottie and Dottie. “You don’t want to sit with your lady?”
Taylor grinned. “And mess up Grace’s seating plan? I’m not a brave enough man for that!”
Zeb laughed.
“So, Connie,” Zeb’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “Are you a fan of fine whisky?”
“Not really,” Connie admitted. She couldn’t handle her drink that well. Soft drinks were safest for her. The table was all set with plates, cutlery and a glass for each person, but
there was no food in sight. Connie straightened her fork a little.
“She won’t bring the food out until everyone’s sat down,” Christopher grunted from her right. She looked up at him and smiled, then looked around the table and tried to work out who was missing.
“Who are we waiting for?” Connie asked.
“One of the Kennedys of course,” Christopher said. “She wouldn’t tolerate anyone else being late.”
At that moment, Rose burst in. She wore camouflage trousers and heavy-duty boots, and a khaki vest top. Her blond curls bounced around her as she made her way to the seat next to Bobby.
“Well, we’re all here! Let’s get started,” Grace called out. She disappeared into the kitchen and returned a moment later with the pork and potatoes, then made separate trips for the vegetables that Connie had prepared. Finally, she brought the individual tart out and placed it on Rose’s plate.
“Drinks?” Lottie asked with a smirk.
Grace’s mouth twitched as she stormed back into the kitchen. She returned with a bottle of white and a bottle of red, then made to pull her seat out a little.
“Erm, anyone else fancy a water?” Connie asked.
The room fell silent until Grace’s chair screamed across the floor. She practically ran into the kitchen before returning with a jug filled with water. Raspberries and mint leaves floated their way down to the bottom.
“Do I have to do everything around here?” Grace exclaimed as she filled Connie’s glass.
“Sit down, Grace,’ Connie urged. “I can do that.”
“Just sit down. I’ll do it all like always.”
Connie stilled when she realised that Eliza’s eyes were fixed on her. “She likes the sound of her own voice, that one does.”
Grace humphed her way around the table and, eventually, sat down.
“This looks great!” Taylor said, although he made no effort to dish out the food.
“Bobby?” Grace prompted. Her husband coughed then rose from his chair and began the show of slicing the pork. It was perfectly cooked and Connie realised that she was starving.
“Where are my potatoes, mom?” Rose asked.
Grace stiffened. She’d cooked the potatoes around the joint, because there was little in life that was better than vegetables cooked in meat juices. “You have pastry, dear.”
“The vegan gets forgotten, again,” Rose mumbled.
Dottie rolled her eyes and pulled her phone from her handbag.
“No phones at this dinner table, Mrs High and Mighty,” Eliza called. She sat opposite Dottie with a direct line to see whatever the woman did.
Dottie glared across the table at her mother-in-law. “Eliza, I can’t simply switch off because you want me to. I have patients.”
“They should respect your family time,” Eliza said. “In my day, nobody had a phone at the dinner table and the world didn’t stop turning. You modern women think you’re so important but you’re really not. Ivan never took a call over dinner!”
“Oh, here we go,” Zeb whispered. “It’s the St Ivan the Wonderful part of the evening. Ahead of schedule!”
“Dad didn’t come home for dinner at all,” Christopher grumbled.
“Can’t blame him,” Zeb quipped.
“I hope this meat isn’t tough,” Eliza addressed Grace. “Your meat’s always tough.”
“What’s in this?” Rose asked, as if she’d found a live beetle inside her pastry parcel.
“Oh,” Grace flushed. “Halloumi, asparagus, herbs to season.”
“Halloumi? Why not just serve me the blood of the pig that died for your pork?” Rose asked through gritted teeth.
“Rose?” Grace asked with a nervous laugh.
“Halloumi! Mother, honestly! As if it’s not bad enough to have to sit here with the stench of death from the pork, you then serve me halloumi? I don’t eat animal produce!”
“But, darling, it’s cheese,” Grace said.
“It’s animal derived and I, for one, don’t need cheese in my diet badly enough to justify an animal’s suffering!” Rose’s knife and fork clattered to the table and she stood.
“You spoilt little madam!” Eliza barked. “You can sit back down now! You’ll eat what you’ve been given.”
“I’ll do no such thing!” Rose shouted.
The argument had given Dottie chance to check her phone after all and she swiped away on the screen. Connie was tempted to do the same but too nervous that Eliza might catch her.
“Give her some pork,” Eliza ordered.
Grace froze.
“Do it,” Eliza said.
“Mom,” Grace said.
“I’m not your mother,” Eliza snapped. “Now give the girl some meat.”
“Just do it,” Bobby muttered.
Grace reached for her daughter’s plate and slid a thin slice of pink meat on it. She grimaced as she set the plate back down.
“Oh, you’ve reached new lows tonight!” Rose shouted but it wasn’t clear who she was addressing. Her grandmother? Her mother? The whole meat-eating world? Connie glanced at Taylor and instead saw that Lottie was gazing in her general direction. Lottie spotted her and her cheeks flushed.
“Rose Thompson, sit down and finish your meal,” Eliza said, taking time to pronounce each word as clearly as she could in her warbled voice. “It’s about time you ate like a normal person.”
“Vegans are normal people, you’re just so out of touch you don’t realise it!”
“I’ve got a good mind to cut you out of the Will if you don’t start behaving like a granddaughter of mine should,” Eliza said. Her jowls wobbled as she grew more irate.
“Ooh!” Zeb whispered. “We’re already at cutting people out of the Will! We really are making good progress tonight!”
“She threatens this often?” Connie asked.
“We’ve all been disinherited a few times in her head,” Zeb said.
“What for?”
“Dottie kept her maiden name,” Zeb said. “That really annoyed mom. She’s threatened to cut me out unless I got Dottie to become a proper Thompson.”
“She’s serious?”
“Nah,” Zeb said with a wink. “If she’d actually done it, she’d tell us. She’d want to see us suffer.”
Across the table, Rose had sat back down, her arms crossed protectively across her body.
“Bobby, make an appointment for me with William Williams,” Eliza barked.
“Mother?”
“Did I stutter?” Eliza asked.
“No, mother,” Bobby said. “I’ll do it as soon as we’re back to work.”
“And don’t forget,” Eliza snapped. She looked around the table and shook her head. “What are you all looking at? Is Grace’s food too awful to eat?”
Knives and forks were picked up from around the table and the moment passed. Rose stared sullenly down at her plate without eating a single bite. Not even a vegetable made it into her mouth. Dottie ate sparrow-like mouthfuls then excused herself to go and make calls. Luke and Daisy seemed to be the only two happy. They sat and whispered in that newlywed way through the whole meal.
“Young love, eh,” Zeb noticed her watching them.
Connie’s cheeks flushed. “And how about you, Zeb? The baby of the family, I bet you were doted on growing up!”
“By these hulks?” He asked with a laugh, then spotted a movement from across the table and reached for his napkin. He wiped his mouth and pushed his chair back. “Excuse me.”
Connie watched him leave the room and then looked across at Taylor. Both of his table neighbours had left and he took a steady sip of red wine, then felt her eyes on him and winked.
“You survived,” he mouthed.
6
“So, Connie is it? I’m Daisy,” the woman sat down in Zeb’s seat at the table. He hadn’t returned. In fact, none of the people who had left the table had come back.
“I was hoping we’d get chance to talk,” Connie said, although no such thing was true. Sh
e’d read about that line being a good way to break the ice at gatherings and had used it infrequently since.
Daisy licked her lips and assessed Connie. “You’ll be good for Taylor. He needs a woman around.”
“Well…” Connie didn’t like the suggestion that a woman, any woman, would do just fine. She was acceptable because she was female!
“This is your first time meeting Eliza?”
Connie nodded.
“You’re doing well. Keep out of her attention and you’ll be fine. I mean, you’re pretty plain so I guess you’re used to being in the background?”
Connie raised an eyebrow.
“You know the trouble with this family?” Daisy asked. She did a sweeping gesture of the table to make it clear who she meant, as if Connie would be unsure.
“What would that be?”
“They all want to be in charge,” Daisy said with a shrug, as if it wasn’t her fault that the answer was so simple and yet nobody else had worked it out. “Take my gran, for instance. She’s sick now, ever since her stroke she’s weaker, and that’s just made her more annoyed with the whole world. She could be stepping down from being the head of the family, but she won’t.”
“You make it sound like a mafia family or something,” Connie quipped. Daisy didn’t laugh.
“You ever had any experience of the high life?” Daisy asked. “Luke and I, we see all kinds of things. People spending more money in a night than people like you will ever earn in your life. It gives perspective is what I’m saying.”
Connie nodded. She wasn’t sure what the point of that little story was, other than to put Connie in her place. “You must be very proud of his success.”
“I am!” Daisy exclaimed. “And when people try to suggest it’s down to me - you know, because I’m his manager? That’s what people say, that it’s all me. I tell them, no, I play a part. That’s all. Honestly, when I got him in the Super Bowl, he was out of his mind! He couldn’t believe I’d done that, but I said, baby, you played a part too. Team work.”
