‘I wouldn’t eat their nose anyway,’ Jake said, ‘in case it was full of snot.’
‘Jake, stop talking about snot and eat your dinner,’ Conor snapped. ‘Sam, what’s wrong?’
No one had noticed that Sam had gone very quiet and was looking morosely down at his plate. ‘I don’t want my dinner,’ he wailed, his face crumpling.
‘What’s wrong with it?’ Conor asked.
‘It’s all got a face!’ Sam sobbed, as his smiley-face potato waffles and fish nuggets with fishy faces beamed up at him. He had been going through a phase of only eating beige novelty food.
‘If Brian’s not eating his fish,’ Jake piped up, ‘can I not eat my vegetables?’
‘No,’ Helen said firmly. ‘You have to eat your vegetables.’
‘It’s not fair!’ Jake said. ‘Why is Brian allowed be picky and I’m not?’
‘Because guests can be as fussy as they like and you just have to put up with it,’ Helen answered tetchily.
‘You’re lucky,’ Jake told Brian. ‘We’re not allowed be finickyabout food, are we, Sam?’ His younger brother shook his head glumly.
As everyone passed dishes around and Jack poured wine, Kate heard her mother still trying to persuade Brian to try the fish. ‘Go on,’ she was saying. ‘We won’t report you to the Vegetarian Society.’
‘No, really. I’ll just have the salad and vegetables,’ Brian said politely. ‘It looks great.’
Soon everyone was tucking in hungrily, complimenting Helen extravagantly on the food.
‘These vegetables are wonderful,’ Brian enthused, aware that he was responsible for all the disruption. ‘Are they organic?’
‘Yes,’ Helen admitted resentfully, suddenly wishing they’d come out of a can.
‘This is a great house,’ he said to Grace.
‘Yes, isn’t it? I suppose it’s very decadent of us to have two such beautiful homes when some people haven’t even one,’ she said.
‘“All property is theft” and all that,’ Brian said jauntily.
Jack bristled visibly. ‘Not this property, son,’ he said, glowering owlishly at Brian from the far end of the table. ‘I’ll dig out the deeds later and show them to you.’
‘Oh no, I didn’t mean?—’
‘Dad built this house himself,’ Rachel said to Brian reprovingly.
‘You know that’s not what he meant,’ Kate said crossly. ‘It’s just an expression.’
She looked at Will, who was opposite her. ‘Thanks for giving me a plug at the wedding, by the way.’
‘Oh, no problem. Did you get any work out of it?’
‘Yes – a couple of dinner parties and the charity bash I catered last night.’
‘Brilliant! So, you’re pretty busy, then?’ Will said cheerfully, hoping she’d be unable to accept the job in Tuscany.
‘Well, nothing long-term, but at least I won’t have to bonk the landlord.’
Hearing this, Brian said, ‘The Haven has an opening for a cook over the summer – it’d be three months’ steady work.’ The Haven was the centre where Kate had met Brian.
‘They don’t pay much, though,’ she said. ‘I can’t afford to work there.’
‘But you’d get your accommodation and meals thrown in,’ Brian pointed out, ‘and a free workshop.’
