“Shouldn’t we save some for Sophie?” said Charlie, looking down the table at the dwindling feast.

“Sophie?” Lulu wrinkled her brow in pretend puzzlement at the mention of her younger sister. “Who’s Sophie?”

“The one who always arrives last,” Emma reminded her. “Sort of loud, sort of blond, sort of all over the place, really.”

“Oh, that Sophie,” said Lulu. She flung her arms wide and beamed around the company. “‘Hi, Mom, hi, guys, sorry I’m late, you’ll never guess what happened on my way over here, I’m an actress, I’m absolutely lovely, and I love you all.’ That one?”

“You’ll need a blond wig,” said Emma. “And the arms sort of go up a bit instead of straight out. But otherwise you’ll do.”

“You mean I’ve got the part?” Lulu clasped her hands to her breast ecstatically. “I love you!”

“It’s very kind of you to think of her, Charlie,” said Fee. “But she knows we were starting at twelve, and it’s now nearly two. If she can’t be here in time to eat with the rest of us, she can take what we leave over.” But she rose anyway to start a fresh pot of coffee.

As she did so, the heavy front door slammed open and then shut, bringing with it a brief gust of wet wind and Sophie herself, taller than either of her sisters and slim as a greyhound, with butter-yellow hair cut in a pixie bob around delicate features and huge, expressive blue eyes that currently were blazing with indignant fury. She marched into the room, not troubling herself with a greeting, and dropped into a chair.

“You’ll never guess what’s happened!” she announced.

Emma and Lulu exchanged glances, tried, and, at last, failed to repress their laughter.

“What?” said Sophie, staring at them. “Hi, Charlie, like the sweater. What’s up with the two ugly sisters there?”

“They’re being very silly,” said Fee, coming to kiss her youngest, and sending a warning frown at the others over the top of her head. “What’s up, baby girl? Did something bad happen?”

“Bad!” said Sophie. “It’s terrible! Tragic. Disastrous. You’ll never believe it! Get this.” She sat up and swept a miserable gaze around the table. “Ruby is getting married,” she said.

There was a silence.

“If we knew who Ruby was,” said Lulu at last, “we might be able to raise just a little more interest here.”

“Ruby is Esme’s sister,” said Sophie. “Her elder sister, and, honestly, she’s horrible. She has one of those long sour lemony faces and she doesn’t like anyone and she doesn’t approve of anyone, and she’s vegan and she goes on at us when we even eat eggs, never mind meat, and she’s big into recycling and she goes on that we don’t recycle enough, although I’m actually quite good at it if you want to know, and if you try to make a joke she looks disgusted, and if you go out for a meal with her, which God knows I try not to, she’ll count up what her food cost and not pay a penny more even when everyone else is splitting the bill, and she’s just generally so horrible that even I don’t like her, and I do like most people, don’t I, Mom? Is that fresh coffee? Thanks, Mom, I’m starving, what have you left me to eat?”