The Surprise Party. Sue Welfare

along the way – all alone, a wealthy woman with a chain of restaurants and enough money to do more or less anything she wanted. If only she could decide exactly what that was.

      Forty years. Fleur sniffed back a fresh crop of tears. Where had all the time gone? And here were Rose and Jack, still up there in the spotlight with their perfect bloody marriage.

      And now, just when she thought it was over, Fleur had finally met someone, Frank. Not that she had told Jack or Rose – or anyone else come to that. The trouble with relationships was all that love nonsense didn’t get any easier as you got older.

      They’d been seeing each other for months now but she still couldn’t work out how he felt. What if he didn’t care after all? When she’d mentioned the idea that he might come with her to England he’d said he couldn’t get away.

      ‘Well okay, that’s fine,’ she had snapped. ‘Maybe that’s a good thing. It wasn’t going anywhere anyway, was it?’

      And with that Fleur had left Frank sitting in the restaurant with his coffee, her dessert and the bill, and not so much as a backward glance.

      She stubbed out her cigarette in an ornamental urn. God, there were times when she wished she had learnt how to keep her mouth shut.

      *

      Back at Jack and Rose’s house, Suzie was heading for the car.

      ‘Where the hell are you going now?’ shouted Sam, hurrying to catch up with her.

      ‘I’m going home to get changed and so are you. If anyone wants anything, just tell them to talk to Lady Bloody Bountiful upstairs.’

      Sam stalled and came to a halt. ‘So now what’s happened?’ he said.

      ‘What do you mean “So now what’s happened”? You make it sound like I’m about three. I just want to nip home and get changed out of my jeans and put something nice on and Liz is upstairs being her usual self. When I asked her to come down and help she told me to go. Apparently you can manage without me.’

      ‘I can?’ said Sam, looking confused.

      ‘Not just you – everyone. I’m not indispensable, you know.’

      ‘Is that what she said? Oh come on, Suzie, you’re over-reacting.’

      ‘Oh right, so take her side why don’t you? I’m over-reacting? Oh, so it’s my fault that Liz is a lazy, selfish, spoilt, self-centred . . .’ Suzie ran out of air and words. ‘You know what she’s like. She thinks the whole world revolves around her. She drives me mad.’

      Sam raised his eyebrows and, for the first time in weeks, laughed. ‘You don’t say.’

      ‘It’s not funny. She said that everything would be just fine here without me, without us.’

      ‘She’s probably right – come on, let’s go.’

      Suzie stared at him. ‘But we can’t do that, you know she won’t do a thing. She’ll be upstairs painting her face and doing her hair and not taking a blind bit of notice of what’s going on out here. After all the planning and arranging and trying to keep it all secret that we’ve been through I want everything to be perfect—’

      ‘And it will be. I’ll go and pin a notice up on the marquee to say Liz is in charge and inside, and let everyone else know that if they’ve got any queries they just ask Liz. Oh and I’ll fetch Megan while I’m at it and leave a message with Matt just in case Hannah shows up. It’ll be fine.’

      ‘How will it be fine?’ Suzie protested.

      ‘Because when it comes down to it, these things always are. Why don’t you go and get the car. I’ll only be a couple of minutes.’

      Suzie watched him go. He was right of course. They’d hired good people, and had already done most of the donkeywork themselves – the whole thing wouldn’t crumble and fail if they took half an hour out. Would it?

      The trouble was that Suzie couldn’t help thinking that if they were going home, there really ought to be someone in charge. She had wanted to hand the baton over, not have it thrown back in her face. Liz always had a knack of getting out of things, as well as getting under her skin. Although Suzie had no doubt at all that when it came to handing out medals for who did the most on the day, Liz would be right up there, elbowing her way to the front to take the applause.

      By the time Suzie had unlocked the car and moved a pile of boxes and bags off the seats, Sam was hurrying back across the grass.

      ‘Okay, let’s hit the road. I’ve told everyone that if they want anything Liz is in the house, and Megan said she wants to stay and get the rest of the tables done. I said we’d bring her dress and shoes back with us. Okay?’

      Suzie was about to protest and then nodded. ‘Okay.’

      Sam looked at her, eyebrows raised in surprise. ‘Okay? Really? You’re not going to say it can’t be done, and that we can’t go and that we should hang around until Madam decides to put in an appearance?’

      ‘I’m not really like that, am I? Liz said that I was a control freak.’

      Sam tipped his head to one side. ‘If the cap fits. You know as well as I do that someone’s got to take charge of things and you’re just naturally good at it. If that’s control freakery – who cares?’

      Suzie glared at him and then gave in and sighed, ‘Actually you’re right and to be perfectly honest I’m way too knackered to argue. I just want to get home, grab a shower, have a cup of tea and put my frock on. Although at this rate I’m going to be too tired to enjoy the party.’

      ‘You’ll be fine,’ Sam said, which Suzie realised was pretty much his answer to everything.

      *

      ‘Just how much longer do you think Fleur’s going to be?’ said Rose, peering off into the middle distance beyond the topiary arches and the rose beds and the great borders of perennials and expertly trimmed shrubs. ‘She’s been gone ages. I want to have a shower and get changed before we go out to dinner. What time did she say Liz had booked the table for?’

      Jack glanced at his watch. ‘Seven, I think. I’m sure Fleur won’t be much longer. I mean how long does it take to look around a ruin? Maybe we should go and look for her?’

      Chapter Seven

      ‘My parents don’t really like people smoking,’ said Hannah apologetically as Sadie, Tucker and Simon arrived at the back gate of her grandparents’ cottage.

      Sadie pulled a face and then peered down at the cigarette she was holding between her fingers as if it had appeared by magic. ‘They are just so bloody straight, aren’t they, your parents?’ she grumbled, bending down to tap it out on the sole of her shoe. ‘I mean, you know, it’s not like I’m asking them to smoke it for me or anything.’

      ‘Yeah, like it’s a free country,’ said Tucker, making a meal of putting his out.

      Hannah hesitated, hand on the gate. Taking the three of them in with her would be a recipe for potential disaster. She could almost hear her mum now, putting down whatever she was doing, putting on her cheery face and waving them over, while giving Hannah one of those sideways looks that she did. The one that said, ‘I’m not going to make a fuss now but we’ll talk about this later.’ And then Suzie would smile and say, ‘Come on in,’ to Sadie and Tucker and Simon. ‘Would you like some juice? I think we’ve got some Pepsi here somewhere. If you want to hang around that would be great, there’ll be food later on. Oh and maybe while you’re here you could give Hannah a hand? I know her dad needs some help with the fairy lights – you look nice and tall, Simon.’ And then Suzie would laugh and smile and be nice to Sadie even though she didn’t like her, and find them all a glass or a can and some crisps or something.

      Hannah cringed; just how bad would that be? Sadie would never let her forget it. Sadie had told her how much she hated all that