“Yes,” said Fee, a little surprised.

“Oh,” said Liam. “Sorry. Yes, please, that’d be marvelous.”

Before he sat down, he shook hands with the other guests.

“Liam Fitzcharles,” he said.

“I believe I’ve met your sister,” said Aunt Amy. “Most charming girl, and very attractive. I thought she had a look of the Kennedys.”

“There’s a family rumor we might be related,” he said.

Lulu kicked him, not gently, on the shin.

The front door opened and closed, and Emma, wearing a smile that was slightly frozen, ushered in Matthew’s mother, Caroline.

“Is this the difficult one?” Liam muttered to Sophie.

“You don’t know the half,” she told him.

“Shift over,” he said. “I’m good at this. They breed ’em tough in the Napa Valley.”

Standing to shake hands, he nudged her down a seat and took his place next to Caroline.

Sophie, displaced to the chair next to Lulu, dug her in the side.

“Keep him,” she whispered. “Nail his foot to the floor if you have to. He’s gold.”

“How was the journey?” Matthew asked Emma when they were seated. “I was starting to wonder where you were.”

“It was okay,” said Emma. “Except the taxi driver insisted on taking Marylebone Road.”

“Oh, God.” Lulu shook her head in sympathy.

“I hate Marylebone Road,” said Sophie. “I want to kill myself by Madame Tussauds. I always make them go above the park, it’s much quicker.”

“Now, that depends on the time of day,” said Matthew.

Liam turned to Caroline, smiled, and rolled his eyes.

“Londoners,” he commented quietly. “They’re as bad as New Yorkers, assume everyone’s as interested in their city as they are. My father travels the world for his work, and he always says that the people from big cities are far more insular than the people from the smaller places they call provincial. You’re from Bath, aren’t you? This is a terrible confession, but I’ve never been there, although I hear it’s an amazing place. Is it?”

Caroline looked at him for a moment, and then allowed him a thin smile.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “The most beautiful city I know. I grew up there, but then I lived away from it for far too long. I didn’t know how much I’d missed it till I moved back.”

“Then I must make a trip,” he said. “Now that I’m in England for a while. What should I see there?”

Watching from across the table, Emma saw Caroline’s face soften as she began to talk.

“So how’s life, Lulu?” said Andrew. “I like the hair, by the way, it suits you.”

“Thank you,” said Lulu. “And I’ve got some news, actually, which is that I’ve decided to go to cooking school this autumn. I’ve been cooking as a hobby for ages, and I think I’d enjoy it professionally.”

“What an interesting idea,” said Andrew. “Yes, I can see you doing that. How do you go about training for it?”

Starting to tell him about the cooking schools she had begun to research, Lulu thought fleetingly how extraordinarily pleasant it was to have some good news at last to contribute to a conversation.