‘Ladies! Enjoy your champers.’ He placed the two glasses in front of them with a flourish. ‘Your steak is in the pan, and the salad is in preparation.’ He bowed towards Colette.
‘You’ve very accomplished, aren’t you?’ she drawled.
‘Very!’ he smirked and winked at Hilary before going back inside.
Colette’s eyes narrowed but she said nothing. She had taken an instant dislike to Jonathan and he was doing nothing to reverse that. His faux chumminess merely served to increase her antipathy.
‘How’s Niall, where is he?’ she asked casually. She was disappointed he wasn’t here. She would have enjoyed boasting to him about Des’s last bonus.
‘He’s in Moscow.’
‘Why didn’t you go?’ Colette looked at her, astonished.
‘Because I’ve two children in school and a business to run,’ Hilary said drily.
‘What a pain having to stay behind. I love going abroad with Des. He gets to do all the hard work and I get to swan around shopping and enjoying myself!’ Colette said smugly.
‘You have a housekeeper and a nanny and you don’t work full days outside the home,’ Hilary pointed out. You don’t work in the home either, she thought nastily and then felt like a heel. She was being mean to her friend for no reason at all.
‘True! My part time consultancy hours mean I can suit myself. Can’t you get someone else to run your dad’s shop?’ Colette always called it the shop, never the showrooms or the business.
‘Aah, I wouldn’t do that to him and besides we’re very, very busy – business is starting to boom with all this Celtic Tiger stuff. We’re supplying a lot of hotels now. There are so many opening, I don’t know where they’re going to get the people to stay in them.’
‘I know! London’s buzzing! Des is making a mint in bonuses even if he is working practically 24/7. When you think of that terrible recession we grew up in in the eighties it’s hard to believe. Dickon and Austen’s have had to take on four new staff to cope with the demand for fine art.’
Hilary raised her glass. ‘Here’s to progress and good times!’ she toasted, just as Jonathan emerged onto the patio with Colette’s meal.
‘I’ll drink to that,’ he declared, placing the steak in front of her. ‘Here’s a herb butter sauce as an accompaniment. I raided your herb garden, Hilary,’ he said, pointing to the large fragrant herb-filled planter on the patio. ‘I’ll be back in a sec with the salad and more champers.’
‘It smells divine.’ Hilary inhaled the aromas wafting across the table.
‘It tastes delicious,’ Colette admitted grudgingly, chewing on a piece of the succulent tender steak, which was cooked just the way she liked it.
‘I’ll just raise my glass to good times and then I’ll leave you in peace. I’m sure you have lots to catch up on,’ Jonathan said diplomatically, placing Colette’s artistically arranged side salad beside her plate and refilling their glasses.
‘Aw, just sit down for another little while. Colette’s interest is in fine arts. She’s a consultant in a prestigious gallery in London, and she’s always seeing famous people,’ Hilary said, knowing that her friend loved name-dropping all the famous people who had been clients or who she’d met at viewings and launches.
Colette rose to the bait, as Hilary knew she would. ‘Oh well last week, would you believe, I saw Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter having dinner in San Lorenzo. I was dining with a client. Des and I eat there regularly—’
‘Do you ever see Princess Di there?’ Jonathan asked eagerly. He loved Princess Diana and followed her progress in Hello! which he always bought when she was on the cover.
‘Often,’ Colette shrugged. ‘And I’ve seen her shopping on the High Street. Always immaculate and so stylish, even in her casual clothes.’
‘Wow!’ Jonathan sat down and sipped his champagne.
‘And I was at a gallery exhibition recently and Helen Mirren was there. And I’ve seen Elton John too.’ Colette speared a piece of cucumber and lettuce. Whatever Jonathan had drizzled over it, it was a crisp and very tasty salad.
‘Helen Mirren, she is DIVINE!’ Jonathan enthused and Hilary smiled to herself as Colette relaxed and continued to regale Jonathan with anecdotes about her well-to-do life in London.
Just as well Niall isn’t here. He would have been bored out of his tree, she thought, having watched her husband’s eyes glaze over often enough when Colette and Des set out to impress.
‘I really must go,’ Jonathan said a couple of hours later. Dusk had changed to darkness and the candles and lanterns that Hilary had lit illuminated the patio and garden in a flickering wave of light casting dancing shadows around them. Down at the end of the garden, Hilary’s Buddha sat in Zen-like serenity under the benign gaze of a full moon. It was hard to believe they were in a city, it was so peaceful and private.
‘Don’t forget you have to bring your friend a burger,’ Hilary reminded him, standing up to see him out. ‘Will I call a cab for you?’
‘Not at all, I’ll get one over on the Howth Road, no problem at this hour of the night,’ he assured her. ‘Now where did I drop my bag?’
‘By the kitchen counter, I think.’ Hilary had a vague memory of him sitting on one of the stools with his bag at his feet.
‘Very nice to meet you,’ Jonathan said politely to Colette.
‘Likewise,’ she returned, equally polite.
Hilary linked his arm as they walked through the house. ‘I’m going to have the mother and father of a hangover tomorrow and it will be all your fault, but I had a lovely day and thanks for staying, even though it turned into a bit of a monologue with herself,’ she grinned.
‘Umm, she’s an interesting lady,’ Jonathan said diplomatically, retrieving his bag, and Hilary laughed.
‘Ring
