‘I’m okay, Edie, stop worrying,’ said Gracie. ‘Didn’t you hear me, a letter from the Queen!’
Gracie broke free from Edie’s clasp on her shoulders and jumped up and down some more.
Edie said, ‘Well, there’s certainly nothing wrong with you health-wise.’
‘It’s a letter from the Queen,’ Edie said to Paul and he laughed, ‘Yes, it is apparently.’
‘Look, look, it’s come in the afternoon post.’ Gracie flapped the letter again and the north wind tried to tug it away so she scrunched it tight and stood puffing in front of them.
Jack Puce said, ‘Oh, this is exciting, we all need a bit of good news. It’s got to be good news, hasn’t it, if it’s from the Queen?’ and Daphne Puce said, ‘My aunt got a letter from royalty once,’ but no one heard her.
Beth, who had arrived puffed and had been bent over and holding onto her knees, said, ‘Go on, Gracie, open it up.’
‘How do you know it’s from the Queen?’ asked Daphne Puce.
‘It’s got the royal insignia on the envelope, see, a red crown stamped on and everything,’ said Gracie. But she was holding the envelope so tightly no one could see anything.
‘For goodness sake come in out of the hot sun; come inside and then you can read it to us,’ said Paul, ‘if you can smooth the crinkles out of it. Come on, everyone, into the dining room. Laidlaw,’ Paul said, ‘come on, you know your way in, lead on.’
‘Everyone?’ asked Edie.
‘Why not?’ said Paul.
‘Why not indeed.’ Maybe he was right, maybe this was just what they all needed in the middle of the war — a letter from the Queen.
Everyone else thought this was the best news anyone had had in many a month — they were going to get to go inside the famous Cottingham house and all because of a young girl and her letter. So Jack and Daphne Puce acted as if they had been inside the Cottingham home so often it was no fuss to them. But others, some from Soldiers Hill, some from Newington, and a few miners from East Ballarat and their families who were all out for the free entertainment the lake offered, were now getting so much more. They poured past the boarded-up door they had heard about and into the Cottingham dining room to see Gracie’s letter.
Edie looked at all the people squashed into the dining room. People were taking off their hats and enjoying the coolness of the Cottingham’s big home. Her gaze lingered on the mining families and their waifs, the mothers without husbands and the children without fathers who had gone to war. She was standing next to Paul who was talking quietly to Laidlaw. Laidlaw was telling Paul he had signed up but hadn’t yet told his wife. Edie thought it was awfully unfair how men felt free to make decisions by themselves but women felt they had to ask permission. Gracie was standing next to her, ready to read her letter. She saw the expectation in people’s faces, that the letter contained something bigger than their lives.
‘We should all have tea first,’ she said to Paul. Following her gaze to the children’s hungry faces he said, ‘You know what, I think we might all go downstairs where it’s even cooler and then we can really take the time to enjoy this special letter.’
No one could believe their luck. They were going to see the famed underground house. Now it was Laidlaw’s turn to be cocky. ‘I built it with my own hands,’ he told everyone many times.
Edie wasn’t sure how they were going to make afternoon tea for so many people.
‘I need our Lord Jesus,’ she whispered in Paul’s ear, ‘to turn a single loaf of bread into many.’
‘I’ll help,’ said Beth.
‘See — he heard your prayer,’ Paul said.
Edie didn’t know how she was going to do it but she pulled out all the china, the good and the everyday, and Daphne and her boys ran next door and got her everyday china and her three aluminium teapots, her milk and a loaf of bread and a pot of jam. Beth put on the kettle and filled three saucepans with water for the six teapots Edie had managed to find in the cabinets.
‘Don’t put out the sugar,’ said Beth, ‘no one will expect it with the rations.’
‘Sensible,’ said Edie.
She found cups for the adults and glasses for the children and even with Daphne’s contribution they were still short but it worked out because some of the people who had been picnicking around the lake had their own cups.
Then Edie, Beth, Dottie and Daphne carried trays with the tea, milk, glasses and teacups downstairs and it took them three trips each and on the final trip Edie saw that sandwiches, cake and biscuits had appeared on the downstairs dining room table and she looked at Paul.
‘Oh yes, people have opened up their picnic baskets,’ said Paul.
‘Isn’t it lovely,’ said Gracie, beaming.
‘Well, this is much more fun than the lake,’ Laidlaw said to Dottie.
When the food was gone and the tea was drunk Edie nodded at Gracie. ‘I think it’s time for this letter then.’
‘At last,’ she said, as though the wait had been more than she could bear and people laughed as she slowly peeled the envelope open.
‘Wait,’ said Paul and he got off his chair and moved it over for Gracie to stand on so everyone could see and hear her.
‘It’s not every day you
