The meal started with spiced pear and parsnip soup, sourced from the kitchen garden, and homemade sourdough bread. Nory had once harbored a fancy that she might be the sort of person who made sourdough bread after work; she often fantasized about being a domestic goddess. Anthony Jr. had given her a sourdough starter in a glass jam jar with instructions. If she was honest, it frightened her a bit, bubbling and growing on the worktop. She’d seen Little Shop of Horrors, she knew how these things could escalate. But she needn’t have worried; within a week she had managed to kill her starter without ever having made a single loaf. Nory decided to leave sourdough to the professionals and went back to buying it from Pepe’s.

Conversation around the table was lively, and of course much of it inevitably reverted to “back in the day” stories. These shared histories were like comfort blankets, drawing them together, safe against the tide of time and the outside world. Nory was pleased to see Dev and Camille enjoying the tales as much as those who remembered them by heart.

As the main course was served, the talk moved on to relations with the local kids who went to the comprehensive school. Nory reflected that her own brother had been one of them, seething with mockery and disdain for his counterparts up in “toff towers.” At the mention of the many and varied altercations between the two schools, there was some general chest puffing on the part of the men around the table. Nory wondered if the red meat was having an effect.

“You seem to be remembering this like you were the T-Birds and they were the Scorpions.” Pippa laughed.

Jenna joined her. “The reality was somewhat less cool,” she added.

“It’s hard to look threatening in a maroon blazer and boater.” Ameerah giggled.

“I think they were definitely threatened by us,” said Jeremy. “We were the toffs on the hill and generally feared and loathed by the kids from the village.”

“I don’t think any of you were feared, Jez,” Nory butted in. “I know you fellas liked to think you were a cut above, but most of the kids I knew thought you were a bunch of preppy weaklings.”

Jenna laughed and clapped her hands. Charles in particular looked peeved.

“You’ve got to remember most of them were farm kids, they’d been working almost since they could walk. They were driving tractors and lifting hay bales before and after school. You were playing lacrosse and croquet!”

“And rugger!” added Guy defensively. “You can’t be a weakling if you play rugby.”

“Well, Nory’s implying we were sissies for playing lacrosse and croquet,” Charles griped.

“Actually, I think Nory is implying that you were mollycoddled by privilege and burdened with an inflated sense of power,” said Dev, and all eyes swung in the handsome model’s direction.