blackened like a panda's. Virginia was about to tell her kindly that she'd inadvertently got her dress tucked up into her knickers, and then realized that she was wearing a puffball skirt. Wishing that Edmund were with her so that they could share the joke together, she did a quick turn to spin the creases out of her skirt, put her comb back in her bag, and went out of the room.
Edmund was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. He took her hand. 'All right?'
'I've got something lovely and funny to tell you. Did you get the car parked?'
'Hughie found a place for me. Come on, let's go and see what's going on.'
She had seen it all before, the morning that she had delivered her flower vases, when the marquee stood empty and unfinished, and there had been workmen everywhere. Now all was transformed, and Verena's months of planning, agonizing, and sheer hard labour had paid off. Corriehill, Virginia decided, might have been especially designed for just this occasion. From the library, the lead-out to the tent took in the stone garden steps. The urns that stood at the top and the bottom of these contained great masses of greenery and white chrysanthemums, and the lamps illuminating them swayed in the thin draught that blew beneath the enclosed awning.
At the top of the steps, a natural vantage spot, they paused to regard in some wonder and admiration the scene before them.
The tall tent-poles had been transformed into veritable trees of barley sheaves, beech branches, and rowan bright with scarlet berries. High overhead hung four sparkling chandeliers. At the far end, a platform had been erected and strung with silver helium balloons, and on this sat Tom Drystone and his band, thumping out an eightsome reel, 'The Soldiers' Dance.' Tom with the accordion sat, as leader, in the middle, and around him were grouped the others. A pianist, two fiddlers, and a young boy with a drum set. In white jackets and tartan trews, they presented a fine sight, and Tom caught Virginia's eye and sent her a wink and a crack of his head. His long tumbler of beer stood brimming on the floor beside him.
The sets of dancers, some in eightsome, some in sixteensome, circled and swung, linking arms, changing partners, clapping hands and stamping feet in time to the hypnotic pulse of the music. In the middle of one set was a huge young man making a fine exhibition of himself. He looked strong enough to be a shot-putter or caber-tosser, but this evening was putting all his energy into his dancing. Kilt flying, arms held high over his massive shoulders, shirt bursting from his scarlet waistcoat, he was giving it his all, and his muscled legs flailed as he leaped, uttering manic cries, high off the floor.
'If he doesn't watch out,' remarked Edmund, 'he's going to do himself an injury.'
'More likely kill off one of the girls.'
But the girls loved him, they screamed with glee, were lifted off their feet, or spun like tops. Virginia half- expected to see one of them tossed, like a doll, high up into the roof of the tent.
Edmund nudged her. 'Look at Noel.'
Virginia followed his pointing finger, saw Noel, and dissolved into laughter. He stood, with a bemused expression on his handsome face, in the centre of one of the sets, having clearly lost his bearings and any idea of what he was meant to do next. Alexa, quite undeterred, and in a state of giggles, was trying to point him in the direction of his next partner, while she, in her turn, was being deliberately non-co-operative and wore a look of mock boredom.
They searched for the others. Found Vi, Conrad and Pandora, and Jeff and Lucilla, all dancing in a big sixteensome together. Vi's partner was a retired Law Lord from Edinburgh, about half her size and perhaps the only person in the room older than she was. Vi, so large and so stout, moved, when she danced, lightly as a feather-, gracefully swinging from man to man and never a step out of beat. As they watched, she took her place in the ring again, and two other ladies moved to dance together in the centre. Vi looked up, over their heads, and caught sight of Edmund and Virginia, standing hand in hand at the head of the stone steps.
For an instant, her cheerful, flushed face clouded. She raised her brows in fearful question. In answer, Edmund held their clasped hands up, as if in triumph. She got the message. A smile lit her homely features. The tempo of the catchy music quickened, she and the old Judge linked arms to swing again, and Violet gave him such an almighty spin that he was nearly sent flying off his spindly legs.
At last the Grand Chain, a final turn, a long chord from the band, and the eightsome reel was over. Applause for the musicians instantly broke out, clapping, cheering, and stamping. The dancers, hot, breathless, sweating, wanted more. There were noisy demands for an encore, another round.
But Violet had had enough. Excusing herself, she had abandoned her partner and was already on her way across the dance floor to where Edmund and Virginia waited. They went down the stone steps to meet her, and Violet embraced her daughter-in-law.
'You're here at last. I've been so worried. Is everything all right?'
'Everything, Vi.'
'Henry?'
'Safe and well.'
Violet fixed her son with a beady stare.
'Edmund. You're not going to send him back?'
'With that look in your eye, I don't think I'd dare. No, we're going to keep him at home for a little while longer.'
'Oh, thank heavens for that. You've come to your senses. And in more ways than one, if I'm not mistaken. 1 can tell, just by the look of the pair of you.' She opened her bag, took out her handkerchief, mopped her beaded forehead. 'I,' she announced, 'have now had enough. I shall take myself home.'
'But, Vi,' Edmund protested, '1 haven't danced with you.'
'Then you must be disappointed, because I'm on my way. I've had a splendid evening, a splendid dinner, and I've danced an eightsome reel. Done the hat trick. I'm enjoying myself thoroughly, and this is the moment to call it a day.'
She was obdurate. 'If you like,' Edmund offered, 'I'll fetch your car and bring it to the door.'
'That would be kind. I'll go upstairs and rescue my coat.' She kissed Virginia again. 'We have so much to talk about, but this is neither the time nor the place. But I am so happy for you both. Good night, my dear. Enjoy yourselves.'
'Good night, Vi.'
Edmund, after some searching, finally ran Pandora to earth in the drawing-room, where a long bar had been set up down one side of the room, and sofas and chairs disposed in convenient conversational groups. Here, it was comparatively quiet, although impossible to escape totally from the pervasive beat of music from both marquee and disco. Standing in the door, he saw that a number of Verena's guests had chosen to sit out a dance or two, take a breather and have a drink. Very young girls sat on the floor… a good position for gazing up into the eyes of attendant young men. One of them had already caught Edmund's attention, for she wore the smallest black sequin dress he had ever seen in his life, its minimal skirt barely concealing her crotch. Inquiring as to her identity, he had been told she was an old school friend of Katy's, which was hard to believe. The provocative sequins and the endless black silk legs didn't seem to go with hockey sticks.
He spied Pandora at last, tucked into the corner of the sofa near the fire, and deep in conversation with some man. Edmund picked his way across the floor towards them, and she sensed his coming and turned her head at his approach.
'Edmund.'
'Come and dance.'
'Oh, darling, I'm exhausted. I've been leaping up and down like a yo-yo.'
'The disco, then. They're playing 'Lady in Red.' '
'Heavenly tune. Edmund, you know Robert Bramwell, don't you? Yes, of course you do, because he's one of the guns in your syndicate. Silly me.'
'Sorry, Robert. You don't mind if I steal her away?'
'No, of course not…'He had some difficulty in heaving himself out of the sofa, being both well-built and portly. '… Anyway, it's time I went in search of my wife. Said I'd do something called Hamilton House with her. Don't know how the hell to do it, but suppose I'd better report for duty…'
'Such a lovely drink…' Pandora thanked him vaguely.
'A pleasure.'
They watched him go. Across the crowded room, out through the door. Then Edmund, shamelessly, took his
