‘We’ll see, we’ll see,’ Howard said, already looking over our shoulders at the gathering people. ‘Christ, the whole place has come out for the evening.’
‘Lottie, you OK?’ Luke asked me. ‘You’re in one of your dazes again. Who are you wishing bad things on?’
I had the decency to flush. ‘No one. Let’s find our table.’
Arjun dived behind me as I went to move away.
‘Argh, wait, shield me,’ he whispered. ‘That’s Cindy. She always corners me to talk about politics in Asia and I haven’t the heart to tell her I was born in Lincoln. She treats me like the Voice of the Common Indian and I find myself discussing caste issues and making up facts about the economy.’
A woman nearby with a sharp grey bowl haircut was scouting the vicinity. Her eyes lit up as she clocked someone in the opposite direction.
‘I’d never even heard of the two main parties and I had to google them when I got home last time,’ Arjun was saying.
‘She’s moving away,’ I said out of the corner of my mouth.
‘Right,’ he whispered. ‘I’m making a run for it.’
Giggling, I watched Arjun slink away along the wall, just missing Grandad and Geoffrey, who appeared next to me.
‘You’re here, excellent,’ Grandad said, hugging me.
‘And you’re on a good table,’ Geoffrey added.
Grandad nodded. ‘That Margaret is a gem. And Paula is . . . ’ He tailed away as if he’d forgotten what he was saying.
‘Paula is . . . ’ Luke prompted.
‘Well!’ Grandad clapped his hands together. ‘It should be a great evening. You two better find your table. I’m playing with Geoffrey tonight so we are bound to lose.’
‘Hey,’ Geoffrey said, ‘I heard that.’
‘Did you turn your hearing aid on?’ Grandad looked surprised.
Geoffrey folded his arms. ‘Do not divert things. I am good at whist,’ he said, bottom lip sticking out.
‘You’re satisfactory.’
‘Good.’
‘Fair.’
Geoffrey glowered and Luke clearly thought it was a good time to move on. Placing a gentle hand on my back he moved me through the clusters of people. Near the small stage at the other end of the hall Howard was perched chatting to a glamorous-looking woman in a silver grey dress.
One of the ladies was already sat at our table, iron grey hair pinned back with two hair clips just above her ears and a shy smile as we took our seats.
‘I’m Luke. You must be one of the opposition,’ he said, deliberately narrowing his eyes at her with a laugh. I felt immediately grateful for Luke and his ability to make strangers feel comfortable.
‘I am,’ the woman said. ‘Margaret.’ She pointed to the name on her chest before fiddling with a silver necklace at her throat.
‘I’m Lottie,’ I said, reaching across to shake her hand.
‘So, are you a bit of a whist expert?’ Luke asked, pulling out his chair.
‘Oh, no, I don’t know about that. I do enjoy it but there is so much luck involved in the cards, you see.’ Her voice was soft and she couldn’t quite maintain eye contact with either of us. She reminded me of a fragile bird that might fly away at the first fright.
‘Well, Lottie and I will no doubt be completely out of our dep—’
A loud voice interrupted him. ‘If you’re partnering each other, you need to sit opposite each other . . . although’ – a large woman with a cloud of hair-sprayed, dyed blonde hair looked down at Luke – ‘I don’t mind you partnering me.’ She lifted a thickly pencilled eyebrow at Luke.
I swallowed a laugh at Luke’s terrified expression. He opened his mouth, then shut it again.
‘All right, Mags,’ the hair-sprayed woman continued, pulling out an e-cigarette from a shiny scarlet handbag.
‘Hi, Paula,’ the other woman whispered.
‘Soooo, you’re Luke and Lottie.’ Paula pulled out her chair. ‘Hadn’t heard of you. No wonder, you’re about eighty years too young for this place.’ She took a long suck on her e-cigarette, hot pink lipstick puckered round the end.
‘I’m Teddy’s granddaughter, Lottie,’ I said, unused to seeing Luke so completely lost for words.
Everyone had settled at their tables and there was a low hubbub of noise, the gentle shuffle of cards, coughing, laughter as people started to play. Paula had made us all get up and swap seats so I was now sitting opposite Luke, feeling him nudging me with a foot as we made eye contact.
Paula leaned forward conspiratorially, her breasts resting on the table. ‘Want to make this all a little more interesting, if you know what I mean.’ She wagged her eyebrows. ‘A little bid whist?’
‘Oh I’m not sure, Paula—’ Margaret started to say before Paula gave her a look full of daggers and she fell silent.
Luke came to her rescue. ‘We don’t know any whist, I’m afraid, not even regular whist,’ he said. ‘We’re whist virgins, so to speak. Never whisted before ever. I don’t even drive,’ he added.
Paula sat back in her chair and raised her e-cigarette to her lips again. ‘You what now?’
‘Come on, Paula, let’s just play,’ Margaret said, fiddling with the necklace again.
Paula leaned forward again. ‘Oh, come on, you lot. How about we make this worth our while? Dennis banned it a while back but he’s such a stick-in-the-mud. You only live once – am I right, Liam?’ She turned to Luke, eyes rounded.
‘It’s Luke, actually.’
‘Nah, you look more like a Liam,’ she said with a wave of her e-cigarette, ‘like that One Direction one who used to be with Cheryl. You should change it.’
‘Change my name?’
‘Why not?’ Paula took a drag, narrowing her eyes as if she was blowing out real smoke. ‘Luke’s a bit . . . a bit androgynous. I had a husband called Lester – that was the same problem. He played a ukulele.’ She circled a long nail around the rim of her glass. ‘That’s not even a proper guitar.’
‘Right, well, I’ll, um, I’ll think about it.’
‘So you’re Teddy’s granddaughter, are you?’ Paula said, turning back to me as if we’d never been interrupted. ‘That Teddy, he’s a gent.’
I smiled, about to agree, when Paula continued.
‘. . . and he’s still got a good body. I always see him doing his lengths when I’m in my aqua aerobics and I try to time my sauna session for when he gets out.’
‘That’s, well, that’s good to know,’ I said, grateful to see wine on the table and reaching for a glass.
Margaret had picked up the cards. ‘I’ll deal,’ she said, shuffling the pack like an expert. ‘We can explain the rules as we go along.’ She doled out thirteen cards to each of us.
I sagged with relief, my grandad’s swimmer’s body safely tucked away in a place in my brain to which I would never venture.
‘Fine,’ Paula said, sitting back. ‘I suppose they’re learners so we’ll have to humour them.’
‘Thanks,’ Luke said, picking up his cards. ‘So, how do you play?’