Flora's Lot by Katie Fforde (13 inch ebook reader TXT) 📕

'Oh yes! I must think whatto wear for that. But the dinner party comes first.’

Floranodded vaguely. Either she or Annabelle seemed to belosing the plot a bit, and she had a horrid suspicion it was her.

*

The nextfortnight flew by. The kittens seemed to grow daily and would be killing theirown prey and dragging it back to the lair any day now. AndFlora'd been for drinks with Henry twice after work. The more shesaw of him the more she liked him, although in spite of his obvious attractions- and he was a very attractive man - Flora wasn't convinced there wassufficient spark between them for it ever to be much more than abit of fun. And she was pretty sure he felt the same. Hewas always wildly flirtatious and certainly quitepersistent, flatteringly persistent in fact, but she thoughtit more than likely that he was like that with a lot ofwomen, which was a relief, in a way. But she'd played itsafe by always keeping things low-key: she'd refused allhis dinner invitations, sticking to casual drinks andsuppers in the pub where she could pay for herself and itdidn't feel too much like a date. The last thing sheneeded was him misreading her signals. Plus, if she wasreally honest with herself, the degree to which her appearing todate Henry annoyed Charles was part of the pleasure ofseeing him.

Charles,unfortunately, had still not forgiven Flora. The littleglimpses of a nicer, more human Charles she'd seen atthe auction and at the valuation had completely disappeared.Or they disappeared the moment Flora walked into the room, anyway. He onlyspoke to her when absolutely forced to either by extremenecessity or politeness - he was always icily, meticulouslypolite - and so Flora, inexperienced as she was, wasreduced to trying to organise the roadshow pretty muchsingle-handed. If they'd actually been on speaking terms she might havebeen able to persuade herself that his leaving her to itwas a gesture of faith, but as things were it was quite clearthat he wanted her - expected her - to fail. Worst ofall, Flora was feeling horribly guilty about everythingshe'd said in their row. How could she have thrown thefact of her owning more shares at him? It was aterrible, childish thing to have said and Flora felt desperately ashamed of herself.

And nowthe dinner party loomed. The date was set, although Emma was still not definitelycoming.

Flora waswriting Emma another begging email from the officecomputer when Annabelle who, self-involved as she was,had remained blissfully unaware of the tensionbetween her fiancé and his cousin, came into the room.

‘You typeawfully fast! No one told me you could do that.'

‘NoI don't! I'm not typing! I'm just exercising my fingers. It's good for the nails.' Flora checked her nails tosee if in fact they'd survived her flurry on the keyboard.

‘Oh, Flora!You're so vain!' said Annabelle, pleasingly gullible.'I just came toremind you to write the advert for the paper about the roadshow. Theyhave to have it in by today, or it won't make this week's paper.Charles and I decided that Wednesday the week after nextwould be good. Almost two weeks' notice should beenough, don't you think? Do you think we'll need the bighall? Or just the small one at the back, where theplaygroup is? If so,we need to tell them.'

‘Don't they meet on Wednesdays then?'

‘Ohyes, every day, unless there's a sale on. This would count as a sale. It's in their lease that theycan't use that room if we need it.’

Florathought of all the mothers and children who would beinconvenienced if they couldn't go to playgroup andsaid, more grandly than she felt, 'Oh, we'll definitely need the big hall. No oneuses that on a Wednesday, do they?'

‘Notduring the day, no. But that shouldn't make any difference. We own the hall. We should use the space we need.'

‘Youseem quite keen on the idea, anyway,' said Flora, pleased that her idea had proved popular even ifit was unacknowledged as hers.

‘Quitekeen' wasn't part of Annabelle's vocabulary when connected to the auction house but she shrugged. 'Well, you never know. Doesn't hurt to try. Don'tsuppose many people will come.'

‘I'dbetter get on to it,' said Flora. She turned away from Annabelle and laboriously started a newdocument. When she was alone againshe thought guiltily about the advertisement she had already written anddispatched to every local newspaper in thecounty. She had also made posterswhich she had gone round thetown begging shops todisplay. She was determined to fill that hall with people desperateto sell their family heirlooms.

Her phonerang as she drove back home. She knew it wasEmma without even looking, and pulled into a convenientlay-by to answer it. The reception was better there,anyway. Emma was initially full of reasons why it was outof the question for her to come and stay the weekendafter next, but eventually she said, 'Sounds quite fun,anyway. Dave won't like it when I tell him he's not invited.'

‘It'lldo him good for you to do something on your own for a change,' suggestedFlora hopefully.

‘Mm,' said Emma.'I wonder what I should wear.’

‘I wonder what I shouldcook!'

‘Oh, don'tworry about that yet. It's a fortnight away. But clothes - they take thinking about.’

Itoccurred to Flora, as she made the rest of the journey home, thatcountry life had already changed her. Not long ago she'dhave shared Emma's priorities. But not long ago she hadshared Emma's access to wonderful little shops that soldfood it was easy to pass off as home-made. Down here,'entertaining-lite' was not an option. Here it would have to be hard-core cooking.

When shegot home, she rang Henry. He'd left two messageson her phone and she wanted to ask him to the dinnerparty. He'd be jolly, open the wine, see everyone was happy and if Charlesdidn't like it, well, too bad.

‘Hello, you,' he said when he heard hervoice.

‘Hello, you,too,' she said, smiling. He had a nice voice and was soothinglynon-confrontational.

‘Do you fancy coming out for a drink?'

‘I'dlove a drink. I need some cheerful company. It's been so hectic at worklately.'

‘Well, why not make it dinner, then?'

‘Oh,I'm glad you mentioned dinner,' Flora replied, gaily side-stepping the invitation. 'I want to